The Steel Guitar Forum

Part 3 of a medley of songs on one recording. Today's tab is for Night Life. To follow will be Crazy Arms, Home In San Antone, A Way To Survive. The rhythm track includes bass, drums and rhythm guitar. Night Life starts at 2:33 on the sound tracks.

I will be making multiple posts on a lot of days to catch up with all the tab I intend to post by 3/21/07, so watch for them!

Song, backing track and Adobe file included!


Click here to see/print the Adobe .pdf file.

Click here to hear the solo.

Click here to hear/download the rhythm track.







Greg

I'm gonna make myself learn "Nightlife"
I've kicked it around but never knocked
it out.

Rick

www.rickjohnsoncabs.com

Rick,

There's so much you can do with that song as far as adding chords and even making blues solos out of it. I just like the simple melody line of it. I was going to slice and dice the rhythm track in to 6 pieces for each song so maybe that would make this easier to learn and more fun to play with a looped track.

Greg

Greg
Nice arrangement, but one correction, if you please.

The chords you refer to as "Aaug7" are more correctly named Eb7#11, for a couple reasons.

The presence of the 9th string Eb note is not contained in an Aaug7. Though the Eb is the #11 of A, having that scale tone in the bass is a very weak voicing of an A chord.

Rather, the bass should be playing an Eb note (as per the Price recording), which resolves back to D. The bII7 (in this case Eb7#11) chord is there for two reasons; it's a common substitution for a V7 (called the "flat-five substitution," the dominant chord based on the bV note of the "regular" dominant chord A in this case), and secondly, it's part of the Circle of Fourths that makes up the F-Bb-Eb part of the progression.

This turnaround is known by my jazz buddies as the "Tadd Dameron turnaround," and can be found in several bebop tunes of old.

Herb,

It took me a while but I finally got it straight. The Eb note on the bass does sound awesome played against the Eb7#11. No wonder, it's the root note of the Eb7#11 !!!!!

On the standard guitar, the Aaug7 chord sounds great but as you pointed out that is not what is being played on the steel. I have also heard this chord called an A7b5 but that would not fit the circle of 4ths.

If anyone is still tuned in I have mapped this out below for clarity (10th fret pedals 6 and 7 engaged):

- Viewed as Key of A
4- A - Root
5- F - aug 5
6- C#- 3
7- A# - ????
8- G - 7
9- Eb - b5

- Viewed as Key of Eb
4- A - #11
5- F - 9
6- C# - 7
7- A# - 5
8- G - 3
9- Eb - R



I guess the only point of confusion left for me is that a #11 is the same as a b5 so is it OK to call this chord an Eb7b5 ?


Greg

No Greg, it's a #11 chord.

If it were an "Eb flat five" the original triad would have the A note in it. But the 7th string, part of the original triad, is a Bb. The A note is correctly called a #11 (raised 4th tone, not a flatted 5th), and it's voiced higher than the home triad.

This type of chord is known as an "altered" chord, since the #11 is not a scale tone in Eb. Whereas an Eb11 chord would be considered an "extended" chord, since the 11th (the 4th) tone is in the Eb scale.

Quote from earlier post:

"I was going to slice and dice the rhythm track in to 6 pieces for each song so maybe that would make this easier to learn and more fun to play with a looped track."

That would be great Greg! I'd really look forward to that. I appreciate all of the great stuff that you have posted!

Bruce

Herb and Greg, please keep this stuff up. It's great. I've always been interested in substitutions even when I played 6 string more. Thanks, Larry

I am new to C6, so please excuse my basic question. Why is the first chord called a D? The notes as far as i can tell on fret 9:
S3: A
S5: E
S8: F#
Is it a case of "2 outta 3 ain't bad", thinking the bass player will play the D?
If so, what does the E do here??? Seems to suggest a ninth, so if one played strings 3, 4, 5, and 6 would have A, F#, E, C# which could suggest a DMaj9. (again assuming our good bass player will add the D)

What am i missing? Sure would appreciate all thoughts. I feel infinitely more comfortable knowing why i am playing something. Thanks bob

Bob,

In tab, the keys listed on the top line are the keys that the band would be playing in. The tab itself may represent chords or it could represent a lead part or just backup fill. So don't read the tab sheet chord and expect to see that chord tabbed out below.

It so happens this song is in the key of D and the solo listed starts in the key of D.

If you are familar with the Dmaj7 > Emin7 > F#min7 progression as used in the key of D, you will notice that the notes below the D chord represent an F#min7 with the 5th note, a C# missing. Some players use four picks and will pick all 4 notes including the C# on the 6th string making it a more complete F#min7 chord.

Most people would tell the band to play the chords listed at the top of the tab while the steel plays the solo indicated by the notes listed on the 10 string grid.

Greg

What happened to the bridge?? All I hear is the first 8 meas & then it's repeated. Plus the intro/turn around. As written, I believe the tune fits the old tin pan alley AABA 32 bar pattern, doesn't it?
The best 1st chord strings 8, 6, 5 & 3 = D, A, C# & F# a Dmaj7
with the bar on the 9th fret. (I'm sorry but I'm not able to do tab)
Need to set up the C6th guitar to do this I guess......can't do it in this old head! Can any of you pros do that chord voicing without 4 picks?? I can't but if I could get 5 & 6 with a swipe of a finger at the same time I picked 8 & 3......?? would that work??

Doug,

Your shoulder is healing way too quick, you're already typing up a storm! As you know I used to use 4 picks all the time and I just don't think anyone listening misses the 4th pick. If the strings are all adjacent, the thumb can cover most of them. On the E9th tuning I can see definite advantages to using 4 picks for chords as most of those are not adjacent notes. It's just too much work to do up all those songs the whole way through and anyway it would make for a 15 minute medley.

Greg

Greg Cutshaw wrote:Bob,

In tab, the keys listed on the top line are the keys that the band would be playing in. The tab itself may represent chords or it could represent a lead part or just backup fill. So don't read the tab sheet chord and expect to see that chord tabbed out below.

Greg

Greg,
My embarrassment for having not understood something as basic as how to read tab, is more than made up for by the new knowledge of how to do so.

Thanks for you help and more importantly, all the tabs you generously supply. ... bob

Bob,

Enjoy and I hope you can find some more useful things here!

I had to Google "John Deere B" to see what that was! Seems to be a bit bigger machine than my JD LT160.

Greg