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Topic: "Block chord" style |
Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 26 Feb 2011 5:27 am |
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With the recent passing of George Shearing, a pianist who developed his own style of playing with "block chords" or "locked hands" on the piano, I think it would be a nice tribute to talk about this style of playing on the steel guitar. So many players have played in this style, I'm sure we can come up with countless examples. Curley Chalker is one player who always comes to my mind first. Joaquin Murphey later became a big proponent of this style and I think it is my favorite of all of his playing when he did--at least I like it as much. Tom Morrell was another master. Even Jules Ah See and Billy Hew Len approached some of the H awaiian melodies from this perspective. One of my 2 favorite guitarists, John Scofield, is a big influence on me and many others in this respect. He has such an unusual approach to playing chord melodies and he does it with fairly small voicings like you might find in a pianists right hand. Speaking of pianists, Milt Buckner (on organ, too), Red Garland and many others have perfected this approach.
C6 (and its variations), A6 and even E13 tunings are great for this style. You are basically playing chords under the melody notes, and the bar, being what it is, is an automatic locked hand.
I started posting some block chord arrangements on my blog and plan to a few more at some point and, if you're interested, you can have a look at some the arrangements and listen to some clips in the following links.
First: Giant Steps
Second: A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square, then with some reharmonization: A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square reharmonized
Third: On The Sunny Side Of The Street , revised, and with some block chord improvisation: improv.
Fourth: All The Things You Are
Do you have any of your own examples or observations?
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links
Last edited by Mike Neer on 2 Apr 2011 5:17 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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James Williamson
From:
California & Hawaii
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Posted 26 Feb 2011 8:50 am Block chords
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| Awesome again Mike! You are providing a wealth of information for the non-pedal community (especially me)..thanks so much for your time and efforts, alot of this stuff is really fun! |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 26 Feb 2011 7:27 pm
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For a while I was working up little arrangements every day, but I didn't write most of them down and poof, they were gone. But the one I enjoyed doing the most was All The Things You Are, which really came alive with a lot of substitutions.
This is fairly easy stuff to do if you have a pretty decent grasp on harmony (knowledge of ii-V7s and turnarounds). I always admired hearing players play like this and thought I could never pull it off, but once you get rolling it's not as difficult as it seems. It's just difficult to keep coming up with new ideas, because you don't every chorus to sound the same. I like to keep it as straight as possible (the bar  ) initially and then introduce some things like string pulls and slants, but they are necessary at all.
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Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Billy Tonnesen
From:
R.I.P., Buena Park, California
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Posted 26 Feb 2011 9:21 pm
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| IMHO, one of the Masters of playing Block Chords was Noel Boggs back in the 40's. He did not use a lot of differen't chords, but his phrasing and placement of them was quite unique. |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 27 Feb 2011 12:49 pm
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Billy, of course I agree with Noel Boggs as a great player in this style. He's definitely a big influence for me. Coquette was one of my favorites from the first time I heard it.
One of things I do when making an arrangement like this is envision the steel playing like an organ. Milt Buckner or Bill Doggett come to mind.
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Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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basilh
From:
United Kingdom
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Posted 27 Feb 2011 6:26 pm
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| Mike Neer wrote: |
But the one I enjoyed doing the most was All The Things You Are, which really came alive with a lot of substitutions.
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Great tune, MIKE, Please say you included the (oft omitted) verse.
The transition from the key of G in the verse to Ab for the main refrain is simply inspirational..
and goodness me, how many different tonal centres occur in the tune, in the verse G and Em, and THEN in the main part, firstly Ab, then C, then Eb, then G , then E and finally back to Ab.. all related but all independent tonal centres. I know of no other "Standard" that has so many..
(Well, Sleigh Ride and Cherokee come close, but they're predictable changes) |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 27 Feb 2011 6:47 pm
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Basil, I do like that verse, and it is a striking transition into the chorus, but I opt for Charlie Parker's intro, which is what most everyone plays around here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTORd2Y_X6U
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Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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basilh
From:
United Kingdom
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Jerome Hawkes
From:
Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 28 Feb 2011 5:51 am
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love that version of Nightengale -
i think it would be a great learning tool (for us here in non-pedal land) to pick a tune a month and have an "assignment" to see just how each player approaches it - sort of along the lines of Andy and Mike's arrangements.
I've found i do the most effective learning by attempting something like arranging from a basic head out of the fake book and comparing it against other arrangements i find to see where i can expand my harmonic palette. easy to do on guitar, but where are you going to find steel arrangements to compare?
if i dont have an "assignment" or reason to transcribe, i'll just noodle around with it and lose the benefit of the process - not many people around here with deep jazz standard repertoires so they often get minimal attention in favor of stuff i know people might play.
_________________
'65 Sho-Bud D-10 Permanent • '54 Fender Dual-8 • Clinesmith T-8 • '38 Ric Bakelite • '92 Emmons D-10 Legrande II |
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Bill Wynne
From:
New Jersey, USA
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Posted 28 Feb 2011 7:50 am Re: "Block chord" style
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| Mike Neer wrote: |
| Do you have any of your own examples or observations? |
Great topic, Mike. I, too, mourn Shearing's passing. In the weeks just before his death, I had been listening to Shearing's trio work (by which I mean the piano-bass-guitar trio à la Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Nat King Cole, Ahmad Jamal, and Lennie Tristano, among others). And without a doubt, you can tell George immediately from the block chords.
Jeff Au Hoy and I were just discussing that style for the steel guitar. It is the style I attempt to emulate most - because I am both lazy and arthritic, so single-string playing does not come easy to me. Besides Jules and Billy, there were a few others who approached Hawaiian steel this way:
- Lovey Lui Conn (with Pauline Kekahuna and Her Hau'oli Girls)
- Joe Custino (with Honey Kalima)
- Barney Isaacs (all the time!)
- Peter Dillingham (with Bill Akamuhou)
- Ernie Tavares (filling in for Lani McIntrye in the last version of the Harmony Hawaiians)
- Vince Akina (with NYC-based Na Hanai or on the Hukilau Hulas CD)
- Freddie Tavares (especially when playing pedal steel, such as on the mainland-released William Kealoha albums)
- Jake Keli'ikoa (with Hawaii Calls)
- Bernie Ka'ai Lewis (with Danny Kua'ana)
And then there are two guys who play Hawaiian style but who are not natives of Hawai'i.
- Akira Ozawa (who emulates Jules Ah See in E13)
- Nobuo Mitsuhashi (who sounds like the love child of Jules and Barney)
Time permitting, I will put together a sampler for this forum and insert the link here (as Basil would say) for educational purposes only.
~ Bill |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 28 Feb 2011 9:12 am
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Bill, that would be great if you cobble a sampler together. 
I have just posted my first chorus arrangement of All The Things You Are on my blog. In my humble opinion, it is pretty damn happening, but very challenging to play. It uses one of my own variations on C6/A7. Here is the link:
http://www.mikeneer.com/lapsteelin/2011/02/28/block-chord-solo-all-the-things-you-are/
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Anthony Locke
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 7 Mar 2011 8:37 am
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| Great job Mike! I really like those voicings you get. |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 2 Apr 2011 5:21 pm
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Hey Bill, if you can find the time to put together a few samples of Hawaiian players playing in this style. it would be much appreciated.
I always find that going back to this style of playing gives me the most satisfaction. It would be so nice to play this way in a trio context--I'm thinking of doing it, but in the meantime I'm going to start doing some duet steel recordings (me and myself on steel, with I on bass). Today I just worked up a nice version of The Nearness of You.
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Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Jim Hankins
From:
Yuba City, California, USA
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Posted 3 Apr 2011 6:45 am
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| Thank you Mike, particularly for the recent block chord arrangement tabs. If you could continue to be so prolific, The Nearness Of You tab would be be great, or for that matter... It Might As Well Be Spring, Stardust, or Just The Way You Look Tonight? I am also getting alot out of your bebop lap steel course, great value, Jim |
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Brian Hunter
From:
Indianapolis
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Posted 3 Apr 2011 5:14 pm
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Thanks for posting this, Mike. Big help.
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Brian |
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