My Arrangement of The Moody Blues - Nights In White Satin

Dennis Montgomery · Post by **Dennis Montgomery** » 7 Apr 2023 8:05 am

Hi all, another Friday and time for another Pedal Steel Only arrangement! This week I present the 20th arrangement in the playlist, The Moody Blues, "Nights in White Satin". This one is unusual in that my arrangements are usually 2 tracks (one for chords/melody and a second for bass), where this one also includes tracks representing the flute solo, mellotron/string melody and backing vocals.

The playlist includes several pedal steel only arrangements of The Beatles such as: "Strawberry Fields Forever", "The Fool on the Hill", "Julia", "Across the Universe", "She's Leaving Home" and "Long, Long, Long". In addition there are also arrangements of "Time Waits For No One", "Lady Jane" & "Wild Horses" by the Rolling Stones, "Starman" by David Bowie, "Good Advices" by REM, and several Grateful Dead arrangements: "Ship of Fools", "Candyman", "Rosemary", "Mountains of the Moon", "Row Jimmy", "High Time" & "China Doll".

"Nights In White Satin" can be heard at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFvbTuj ... iA&index=1

All songs are arranged and performed on a 2019 Mullen G2 SD12 in extended D9.

Thanks for listening!

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 7 Apr 2023 8:26 am

Quite an undertaking adding all those tracks, Dennis. I certainly appreciate your covering this iconic classic. What a bear to be faithful to the melody and all those instruments.

I must say I was not aware of your other tunes on the sidebar there.

Again, I really appreciate your working "outside the box", so to speak, on these very memorable and important tunes. Good on you!

Dennis Montgomery · Post by **Dennis Montgomery** » 8 Apr 2023 8:36 am

Thanks Jerry!

I'm having lots of fun and learning a ton about Emmons E9 (well, Ext D9 in my case) doing these. I'm frequently surprised and happy by how versatile this tuning really is when you dig deep into it

Nights in White Satin was especially challenging. I finished the chords/melody and bass part and it sounded too empty. Added the flute solo and it still was empty. Added the mellotron/string part and it was better but still missing something. Finally adding the backing vocal part pulled it all together!

Thanks for listening!

Bob Shilling · Post by **Bob Shilling** » 8 Apr 2023 9:19 am

Amazing! You've really captured this classic piece. One of my favorites. And sans fingerpicks too.

Dennis Montgomery · Post by **Dennis Montgomery** » 9 Apr 2023 9:23 am

Bob Shilling wrote:Amazing! You've really captured this classic piece. One of my favorites. And sans fingerpicks too.

Thanks Bob, that's very kind of you to say! I've loved this song since I was a little kid

The style I've developed frequently requires pulling 4 string chords (with the top voice usually part of the vocal melody.) I never got the hang of 2 fingerpicks let alone 3 so decided back around 2020 to just go without them and see where it takes me