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Intro to "Does anyone body know what time it is"?


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Has anyone here ever seen the sheet music for the jazzy piano intro part to Chicago's "Does anyone know what time it is"? I've always wanted to (try to) play that piece, but that is a very difficult piece to figure out by ear, at least for me, in trying to get the exact dissident chords he used.

 

I don't know if an accurate score of that intro even exists, but, if anyone knows where I could find such a thing, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd point me in the right direction.

 

Thanks.

Samick baby grand; Yamaha S90-ES; Ensoniq E-prime; bongos; tambourine; djimbe

http://www.mindseyeviewband.com/MindsEyeView/MEV.htm

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The musicnotes.com transcription sounds very good to my ears, that is, from the place this transcriptions begins.

 

This transcription does not capture the piano-only intro that you would hear on the full-length version of this song from the album (LP, for oldtimers like myself), which precedes the point at which the horns come in.

 

But the voicings I hear on this transcription sound just right to me.

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in trying to get the exact dissident chords he used.

Intentional or not , that's hysterical! I think I've been accused of playing a lot of those type of chords! :thu:

 

I wonder what it would take to bring those chords in line. :):cool:

PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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I used to play this song in a 9-piece band with the same horn line-up as Chicago...Tenor Sax, Trumpet, Trombone. We played the intro from the radio version, where the horns come right in. The transcription shown looks very much like what I used for the song.

The sax player had a Chicago songbook, and it was in there.

 

Or you could try this Clonk Here

"In the beginning, Adam had the blues, 'cause he was lonesome.

So God helped him and created woman.

 

Now everybody's got the blues."

 

Willie Dixon

 

 

 

 

 

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I'm not going to download the Sibelius Scorch plug-in in order to see that sheet music example; it's bad enough that slo many sites are Flash-dependent now (I disable Flash as well as multi-media plug-ins in general).

 

Anyway, I have the sheet music if you need it. It's probably OK to send the first page, as it's no longer in print AFAIK (and if it is, I'd bet they dropped the intro).

 

I was in a Chicago cover band in the mid to late 80's, and learned all of the first six or seven albums. It made the biggest difference in boosting my bass guitar chops (my primary instrument) of anything I did before or after. If I had a digital piano at the time, the same might have been said of learning Robert Lamm's keyboard parts.

 

Sorry I don't have time these days to follow this forum closely or cross-refefrence many things; I am slammed to the wall with deadlines and have lost tremendous amounts of time over the ongoing saga of the disastrous Mac OS 10.4.9 update.

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I have a transcription that I wrote out for the piano intro part. I used to play in a band that covered this song. I'm not sure it's 100% accurate, but I think it comes close. I'll have to look for it and let you know in the next couple of days. I've looked/searched the internet and the public library for the actual score and couldn't find one.

 

 

BTW - when Chicago was performing this song on PBS Soundstage Robert Lamm played a simplified version for the odd-metered section. It's a pretty tricky part to play because the bass, piano and drums play off different accents. We had a hard enough time getting our drummer to "get it right".

 

edit - I clonked on Mr. Nightime's link and I see there is a score available. :cool:

 

 

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I have the sheet music - I sent you a PM.

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Thanks to everyone who responded.

 

 

is this any good ?

I don't have a recording of the song. from memory it sounds close

http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/scorch.asp?ppn=SC0021643

and you get the first page for free :)

 

Thanks for that link mlh. Unfortunately that does not have the piano intro. The part on this sheet music is the formal start of the song, as the whole band kicks in. The piano intro I'm referring to is before that part; it's just the solo piano "prelude" that stands apart from the rest of the song. It is on the "album" (CD) but rarely played on the radio. I agree that the music sounds correct from the point where it starts.

 

 

 

in trying to get the exact dissident chords he used.

Intentional or not , that's hysterical! I think I've been accused of playing a lot of those type of chords! :thu:

 

Very funny cnegrad. :) Yes, you'd think I could just find those chords by playing mistakes, and that certainly would be easy. When I was a kid, I used to think that jazz meant "playing any crazy notes and chords you want, on top of whatever is happening". I was a dope.

 

 

 

The musicnotes.com transcription sounds very good to my ears, that is, from the place this transcriptions begins.

 

This transcription does not capture the piano-only intro that you would hear on the full-length version of this song from the album (LP, for oldtimers like myself), which precedes the point at which the horns come in.

 

But the voicings I hear on this transcription sound just right to me.

 

Exactly. It's that pesky piano-only intro that I'm looking for.

 

 

 

I have a transcription that I wrote out for the piano intro part. I used to play in a band that covered this song. I'm not sure it's 100% accurate, but I think it comes close. I'll have to look for it and let you know in the next couple of days. I've looked/searched the internet and the public library for the actual score and couldn't find one.

 

 

Mojazz, are you referring to the usual radio version intro (like harmonizer said), or the piano-only prelude? If you can find it, I'd certainly be interested, either way.

 

 

 

I have the sheet music - I sent you a PM.

 

Thanks Rod S. I sent you a response. I appreciate it.

 

 

Hopefully one of these opportunities will manifest the piano-only prelude. Thanks for everyone's help.

 

Regards.

Samick baby grand; Yamaha S90-ES; Ensoniq E-prime; bongos; tambourine; djimbe

http://www.mindseyeviewband.com/MindsEyeView/MEV.htm

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Skykeys,

 

Very funny cnegrad. \:\) Yes, you'd think I could just find those chords by playing mistakes, and that certainly would be easy. When I was a kid, I used to think that jazz meant "playing any crazy notes and chords you want, on top of whatever is happening". I was a dope.

I think that you're still not getting the joke that you unknowingly made. The word that you are looking for is "dissonant", not "dissident". If you look up "dissident" in the dictionary, you'll see why what you said is so funny.

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Man I just listened to that into. I'd forgotten it was so...demented! I don't have a spare week in which to work it out. Sorry!

That first Chicago album was a teenage favourite of mine when it came out.

"I'm well acquainted with the touch of a velvet hand..."
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Man I just listened to that into. I'd forgotten it was so...demented! I don't have a spare week in which to work it out. Sorry!

That first Chicago album was a teenage favourite of mine when it came out.

 

Demented - a perfect word for it, thanks Jon. I broke down and bought the sheet music for the song - which does not include the piano-only intro. But still, the chord changes just in the beginning of the sheet music are interesting. It may even help me to establish a base from which to try to figure out that prelude intro. But it will take me more than a week. What I love about that intro is that it's so, different; so, demented. :)

 

And yes, that first album was one of my favorites growing up also. Recently, for whatever reason, I've become hooked on it again. Both of my sons (20 and 17) love "Does anybody really know. . ", and other hits on that album as well. I may have a particular affinity to that song because, well, , I have a reputation for not being an on-time airline. I gets there, when I gets there. :)

 

Regards.

Samick baby grand; Yamaha S90-ES; Ensoniq E-prime; bongos; tambourine; djimbe

http://www.mindseyeviewband.com/MindsEyeView/MEV.htm

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Mojazz, are you referring to the usual radio version intro (like harmonizer said), or the piano-only prelude? If you can find it, I'd certainly be interested, either way.

 

My transcription is the one without the piano-solo prelude. :(

However, I'll send it to your PM box. It's pretty close to the sheet music version.

 

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  • 8 years later...

Hard to believe that it was 9 years ago that I first wrote this post asking for info about that piano intro.

 

I'm sorry to say, 9 years later, and I'm no closer to playing it. I just can't figure it out by listening to the recording - which is not clear enough to discern those "dissonant" chords. (using the correct word now). :)

 

On a side note, it's interesting that this forum still remembered my ID and password.

Samick baby grand; Yamaha S90-ES; Ensoniq E-prime; bongos; tambourine; djimbe

http://www.mindseyeviewband.com/MindsEyeView/MEV.htm

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Boy, I wanted to learn how to play that piano intro since I heard it circa 1970. Talk about unrequited love.

 

I think that I even started a thread in that other keyboard forum that we all used to use a few years ago.

 

In any event, if there is a transcription of that piano into out there, please post it or PM me.

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There was a transcription book with all the parts charted

for some of the entire albums. Horn charts and all. Every measure.

If I can find it and it's in there it's going to be pretty close.

I used it for doing Chicago tunes back then.

 

I'm an ex trumpet player and I was surprised it was all in there.

I'll bet those books are still available. They were hugely popular at that

time with back to back top ten hits.

And I still think Terry Kath is one of the best guitar players. Ever.

Watching their early live stuff the whole band kicks serious ass.

 

John

 

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I did some surfing on Youtube, and could not find anything that explained how to play the first part of the piano intro, up to where the first horns come in.

 

This guy did a good job showing how to play the later portion of the piano intro, starting from where the horns join the intro:

 

 

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There was a transcription book with all the parts charted for some of the entire albums. Horn charts and all. Every measure.

Yup -- I had such a book; it seemed to be an authorized set of transcriptions, though it moved the sax parts to 2nd trumpet. I re-transcribed those to sax, and it nailed it. Executing those transcriptions taught me a lot about practical arranging.

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I was in a 9-piece band that had sax. trumpet, and trombone, and we played that song. I had the intro down then, but I cannot remember it right off the top of my head.

 

 

"In the beginning, Adam had the blues, 'cause he was lonesome.

So God helped him and created woman.

 

Now everybody's got the blues."

 

Willie Dixon

 

 

 

 

 

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Boy, I wanted to learn how to play that piano intro since I heard it circa 1970. Talk about unrequited love.

 

I think that I even started a thread in that other keyboard forum that we all used to use a few years ago.

 

In any event, if there is a transcription of that piano into out there, please post it or PM me.

 

Well, that makes at least two of us looking for it. After all these years, I've not found it yet. I tried to pick it off by ear, and I didn't get far. It will take (me at least) a very long time to try to learn it by ear. But perhaps we could collaborate on it, if you are as obsessed by it as I am. :)

Samick baby grand; Yamaha S90-ES; Ensoniq E-prime; bongos; tambourine; djimbe

http://www.mindseyeviewband.com/MindsEyeView/MEV.htm

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I spent some serious time listening to that album! And you caused me to go back and listen again! Still love it!

 

There were transcription books for the first 3 Chicago albums. Seems like you could be able to find them.

 

Yes, that album is still one of my favorites. Great stuff.

Samick baby grand; Yamaha S90-ES; Ensoniq E-prime; bongos; tambourine; djimbe

http://www.mindseyeviewband.com/MindsEyeView/MEV.htm

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