Arranging Early Autumn

Lap steels, resonators, multi-neck consoles and acoustic steel guitars

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Andy Volk
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Arranging Early Autumn

Post by Andy Volk »

It's early Autumn so time again for "Early Autumn", a beautiful big band tune I've loved for years. Stan Getz made his early reputation from his solo on this tune and artists like Jo Stafford have recorded lovely vocal versions.

Stafford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMzRr9faOR0

Getz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I7P0rXX7NY

About ten years ago, began to try to arrange it for steel guitar. I took a number of shots at it in various tunings and finally settled on a Dmaj7 acoustic version. But the bridge was a musical spiderweb! After a lot of time and effort, it still wasn't coming together as I wanted so I put it aside for a long time. A few years ago, I returned to it again and arranged it for C6th electric lap steel and it came together very well (That arrangement is on my book site).

Recently, I reverse engineered the arrangement back to my original tuning of Dmaj7 - same as Open D with string #1 flatted from D to C#. Low to High: D, A, D, F#, A, C#. Here's that new arrangement for Weissenborn or other acoustic steel. The steel guitar can play any style of music but sometimes it takes a bit of creative thinking to make it practical. Hope you enjoy it. (note: the 17 in bar 26 is a typo). Hats off to Mike Neer, Bill Hatcher and Doug Beaumier for their inspiration over the years in finding new ways to engage with non-typical steel guitar arranging.

MIDI of arrangement: http://sndup.net/shmx

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Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com
Bill Hatcher
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Post by Bill Hatcher »

That is a wonderful and very challenging song. One that you don’t hear played much. Great job.
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Andy Volk
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Post by Andy Volk »

Thanks, Bill.

I sure found it challenging but I like where I ended up.

There are a few "Autumn songs" that are very evocative for me. Besides this one, Joni Mitchell's "Urge for Going" is a long-time favorite autumnal song. Here's my Dobro arrangement.

https://soundcloud.com/aev/urge-for-goi ... n-d-tuning
Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com
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Joe A. Roberts
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Post by Joe A. Roberts »

I was actually your old arrangement of this last weekend, along with your very interesting Blue Moon.
I’ll try this updated one.

I realized that if I tuned the D# string on my B11th down to D I get similar tuning, I guess Bm11th:
E C# A F# D C# A B

It’s crazy how much difference changing one string makes…
Some other songs I found fit the tuning well… I should tab some out, you make it look easy, until I sit down and try!

Ebb Tide
Gymnopedie 1
Girl from Ipanema
Manhattan Serenade
Blue Velvet

and two beautiful songs I only know from beautiful Jo Stafford records:
I Didn’t Know About You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoPFDLS ... lvdQ%3D%3D
Haunted Heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTksOsT ... FydA%3D%3D
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Andy Volk
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Post by Andy Volk »

Great idea, Joe! That's why I love Open D. You can change one string and completely change the character of the tuning. You only get better at arranging through practice. It takes a while but progress does come and you start to see more and more patterns. One’s own taste is a big factor.

Haunted Heart is one of my favorite obscure standards. The Jo Stafford recording is beautiful as is a version on YouTube by the opera singer Rene' Flemming. My favorite version is by Bill Evans:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-yLbd4O2Ls

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Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com
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