The Gristle Report

Breaking down of the last section of “2.65”

THIS MONTH, I’D like to offer a detailed breakdown of the last section of a tune of mine called “2.65,” which I originally recorded way back in 1994 for my album Strat’s Got Your Tongue. As I’ve described in the past two columns, the guitar part was devised in such a way as to emulate the block-chording sound of a Hammond B3 organ, as I will add syncopated bass notes against shifting chord inversions, à la the funky, “fill in the gaps” approach we hear in the playing of all of our favorite B3 players.

To review, the tune’s “A” section introduces the primary theme in the key of A, followed by a modulation down one whole step, to the key of G. The next section is built on a modulation up one and one half steps, from the key of A to the key of C, and then another whole-step modulation up to the key of D. I then resolve this section with

E7# quick references to the V (five) chord, 9,

bVII and the (flat seven) chord, G9, as we circle back to the key of A.

After another rollicking ride through the elements played in the keys of A and G, I wrap up the song form by transposing the initial musical content to the key of E, and I use this opportunity to introduce a few additional twists before returning to the “top” of the form for the solos.

FIGURE 1 illustrates the four-bar form that represents this final “piece of the puzzle.” As shown in bar 1, root-note pedal tones are once again played against shifting chord voicings on higher strings, and as we have now modulated to the key of E, open low-E-string accents are syncopated against E6 and E9 voicings, followed by A/E.

Bar 2 kicks off with a nice E7 voicing that

b7, places the D, “in the bass” (as the lowest note), and this triadic form descends in half steps to Edim7 and Am6/E, resolving to

G#

E/ in bar 3.

I then apply a similar approach to this voicing, moving down in half steps through

F# bar 3 to Edim7 and D/ and finally resolving back to a lower voicing of E7. Bar 4 offers punctuation with syncopated accents

E7# on 9, setting up the return to the key of A at the top of the form.

The E6 and E9 voicings in bar 1 of FIG

C#

URE 1 can also be analyzed as m/E followed by Bm/E, as shown in FIGURE 2.

This type of “pedal tone against shifting chord voicings” approach is one I like to employ while comping (short for “complementing,” in reference to playing rhythm under a solo performed by another musician), along the lines of FIGURE 3.

I will often take the descending form shown in bar 2 of FIGURE 1 and reverse it, playing it in ascending form as shown in FIGURE 4. And lastly, I can use all of these different elements together to vamp over E, as demonstrated in FIGURE 5.