"Above the Clouds"

I haven't posted anything for the last few months, but I've been listening to the albums regularly and figuring out parts here and there (just none that overlap, so any recordings I would make wouldn't be very interesting).  I recently figured out and notated the bass part for "Above the Clouds," so I thought I would post that so that there's some activity here.  There's a section at the very beginning of the song that's just strings and a vocal; my notation starts after that.  As always, there's the disclaimer that I might have something wrong:

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Speeches

Re-Establishment

About two years ago, I started a project in which the goal was to learn every part to every song by Electric Light Orchestra.  I don't think I ever thought I would actually achieve this (and I still don't), but I thought it a worthy objective all the same.

I started this project on tumblr, but recently I've started to feel dissatisfied with it.  I felt I should have a cleaner, more professional-looking platform.  (I found some aspects of tumblr's interface less than ideal too.)  Initially, I went with tumblr only because I could directly post audio files of my own recordings of the songs, as a way to demonstrate that I had in fact learned the parts I said I had.  But I can achieve the same thing just with embedded YouTube videos.

So essentially, I'm jumping ship.  I'm going to continue doing everything I would normally do for this project, just on Blogger rather than on tumblr.  I'll be going back and copying my old posts over to this blog, so I'll have the complete archive, but it'll take a while to transfer everything.

"Waterfall"

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All month, I've been learning some parts for "Waterfall."  This is only the first two minutes or so, but I know the bass part for the whole song (I'm in the midst of writing it down so I'll have some record if I forget it).  I also have the piano at the beginning (which I'll admit I had to record on two separate tracks because I can't play the chords and the bass register in the right rhythm at the same time) and almost all of the slide guitar parts (although I don't play them that well).  I'm still missing the slide guitar part during the middle, but my recording doesn't get that far.

"Xanadu"

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I listened to All over the World: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra last week, and the guitar parts at the end of "Xanadu" sounded easy to figure out, so I did that this morning.

It's not much, but it's a start.

"Julie Don't Live Here"

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I just figured out the chords for "Julie Don't Live Here."  It's a bonus track on the re-issue of Time, but according to the liner notes, it was a B-side to the 12" U.K. single of "Twilight."

Recording only the chords would be boring (both to record and listen to), so I'm just making a note here that I learned them.  I wrote them down for future reference, and hopefully I'll learn some more parts to the song to make it worth recording.

"The Way Life's Meant to Be"

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[link to original on tumblr]

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I finally scanned my notation for the bass part for "The Way Life's Meant to Be" (with the guitar chords written in too).  I went over this a couple times, but since a majority of the song is just three chords, I might have inadvertently doubled or left out a measure.  There's the usual disclaimer that I might be wrong about the notes themselves too.

"Waterfall"

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Over the last couple days, I wrote out notation for the bass part in "The Way Life's Meant to Be."  Last night, I put the Electric Light Orchestra section of my music collection in reverse alphabetical order so that "The Way Life's Meant to Be" was near the top and easier to find.  After notating a page, I took a break and tried figuring out a different bass part.  I got some of the bass part in "Waterfall" (which was close alphabetically), and I noticed something interesting.

At about 1:00, there's this phrase:

I was immediately reminded of the bass part in the second movement of Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068 because it does this same sort of thing:

(notation found here)

There's a diatonic descent (with almost every note doubled), and after every pair of notes, there's a change in the octave.  While the note values are different, the phrase in "Waterfall" is even in D major, the same key as Bach's!

Despite the similarities, I'm not sure that this phrase in "Waterfall" is meant to be a quotation of Bach.  I've found this same sort of phrase in a few other pieces (it's in Grieg's Holberg Suite, Op. 40, which seems significant because ELO covered his "In the Hall of the Mountain King" on On the Third Day), but I do think its appearance in that Bach piece is the most famous (that movement is probably more well-known as Air on the G String).  Between that and the fact that the phrases are in the same key, I think that if it was intended as a quotation, it's a quotation of Bach's work.

"The Way Life's Meant to Be"

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[link to original on tumblr]

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I've been going back to write down some things I recorded earlier.  Yester-day, when I wrote down the chords for "The Way Life's Meant to Be," I noticed the electric guitar part, which I'm surprised I didn't figure out when I first got the chords last October.  They're double-stops, but they're based on the same notes as the chords they're played above.

I also discovered that I had a couple notes in the bass part in the wrong octave.

Like last time, I double-tracked my acoustic six-string to get something of the feeling of an acoustic twelve-string (which I think is used on the track).  I didn't start my two tracks at precisely the same time though, so the very beginning (just the first second or two) sounds a bit off-kilter.

I feel I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention that to-day's Jeff Lynne's birthday.

"Summer and Lightning"

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A couple days ago, I figured out the chords for "Summer and Lightning" (up until about 2:42, when things change).  This morning I figured out the bass part, too, which makes listening to this a bit more interesting.

This is just the first section.  I'm almost certain I don't have the guitar strumming rhythm right, but that's not a priority right now.  I think it's twelve-string acoustic guitar on the record, but since the only twelve-string I have is electric, I just doubled-tracked my six-string acoustic guitar to get something of the same effect.

"The Diary of Horace Wimp"

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I wrote out the notation for the bass part in "The Diary of Horace Wimp," and I figured I might as well post it here.  I have a few other projects with this same format (just for different bands), and I've been doing the same thing for some of those.

The part at the very beginning (alternating between Bb and Eb notes before the descending whole notes) might not be entirely accurate as far as when it starts (the bass starts out quietly, and I might have just extrapolated that from when that same section is repeated later).

"The Diary of Horace Wimp"

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Last night I learned the bass part to "The Diary of Horace Wimp."  There are really only two different sections: one for the verses and one for the chorus.  Rather than play just the bass part for the whole song (which would be boring), I played the verse for Sunday (so I could also include the tubular bell part I learned back in April) and the chorus right after it.

While notating the chorus (I've been on a notating spree recently; plus, it just makes it easier to record since I don't have to keep everything in my head), I noticed that (starting at what the "voice from above" says) the note values become progressively shorter:

"You can do it" is in the backing vocals, and between that and the increasing frequency of the notes, there's a sense that Horace Wimp is gaining confidence in himself.