PLAYING TIPS

[Bars 1- 40] The track star ts out in the key of C Minor, with eight bars of vamping on the chord sequence, which sets the harmonic tone for the rest of the tune before the guitar enters with the main melody at the end of bar 8. In terms of the harmony, notice that the second chord (Bbm9) introduces a Db note, which is basically an unexpected minor 2nd inter val, seen from the perspective of the tonic (at this point, C Minor). This is an essential colour, which Wes brings out repeatedly during the course of the tune. Take your time finding a clean way to execute the octaves at first; remember it ’s all about keeping unwanted notes from ringing, by way of muting with your excess fretting-hand fingers. This is especially important when per forming slides, as at the end of bar 11, for example. I recommend using your first and third fingers for six th/four th and fif th/third-string octaves; and first

and four th fingers for four th/second and third/first-string octaves. Also, make sure you play around with var ying degrees of staccato as you go along – I have noted some essential staccato additions, but would recommend taking the time to explore the possibilities of expression in that area as an exercise in itself. As you may notice, the melody is actually fairly simple from a harmonic point of view, as it is based solely on the Minor Pentatonic scale, with just a few added colours from the slides and the inclusion of the blue note (b5), as in bar 22. At bar 25, the melody is repeated with ver y few changes, before landing on a ‘home’-sounding C octave in bar 39. Straight af ter that, though, we modulate up a semitone to C# Minor in bar 40, instantly climbing up the C# Minor scale – adding a major 7th step to make a chromatic climb at the ver y end, resolving per fectly on the high C# octave.