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What to Play on Pick Up The Pieces With No Guitar Player


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What would you play on 'Pick Up The Pieces' if there was no guitar player in the band. I have to play this and Schoolboy Crush on Saturday with a band of sax, keys, bass and drums. I'm thinking either some kind of clav part or maybe a funky organ thing. I know there's organ at least on the intro. The twist is it will be Steve Ferrone himself on drums, so I don't want to half ass it!

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native

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The twist is it will be Steve Ferrone himself on drums, so I don't want to half ass it!

 

Oh damn. I would maybe switch back and forth between clav on the A and organ on the B section? The guitar opens up there so you could hold a big fat handful of growly Hammond?

 

Waiting to see what Rob says! :snax:

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Play a funky clav jam! I used to do this song 10-15 years ago and I'd do a repetitive phased clav during the verses and a big Hammond thing on the choruses. I might possibly be able to find an OLD YouTube or recording of it. That was a fun song! You'll do way better on it than I did! We also did Schoolboy Crush and I used similar sounds.
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I saw AWB about 20 years ago in Wilmington De. at an outdoor venue. They opened with PUP and the organ player dominated the opening with an organ with heavy chorus, slow leslie. Sounded kind of cool and worked for them.

57 Hammond B3; 69 Hammond L100P; 68 Leslie 122; Kurzweil Forte7 & PC3; M-Audio Code 61; Voce V5+; Neo Vent; EV ELX112P; GSI Gemini & Burn

Delaware Dave

Exit93band

 

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I'd do it all on organ, pretend it's an organ song. Use strong percussion to pick up the guitar's chickin' pickin (answers to the horn line) while you hold down the chords with the left hand.

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Rod

Here for the gear.

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Lucky you - of all the AWB tunes to have to play without a guitar, you get two songs that both have not one, but two prominent guitar parts. I'm afraid I'm not going to offer up any easy solutions here!

 

On Pieces, I use a split with a sampled strat plucking sound on the left and organ on the right. Onnie plays the strummed part and I do the single-note line. I don't know what's in your sound arsenal, but I think a clav part for the single-note guitar line could work. That line is of course one of the hooks of this tune so it does need to be heard in some fashion, I think. However, I would feel free to not do an exact note-for-note copy it if it didn't translate to the clav - being comfortable to play and sitting in the pocket is more important. Organ is prominent in the intro for sure, along with the rhythm guitar strum â but to be honest, capturing what the guitar does there on keys seems problematic â it's such a guitar-feel thing. I'm drawing a blank. Maybe better to just lay on the organ and have the bass play a little busier in that longish C7#9 intro.

 

Schoolboy without guitars? Wow, crazy. That tune has never had any kind of keyboards in it - just those two guitar parts. Like Pieces, a chunky strumming part and a single-note part. I could see doing this with just organ, playing the single-note guitar part very staccato, with percussion on. TBH I never thought about how a keyboard might play on this; I play bass on this song. Alan Gorrie switches to guitar so we have two real guitar players. If I think of anything I'll be back here to perhaps confuse things more!

 

Good luck and give Steve my regards!

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First rule- make it your own. Meaning if there are key (no pun) phrases that define the tune, try to include them. But don't get overwhelmed trying to cover all the parts from the original. Personally with the instrumentation you mentioned, I would be inclined to agree with those above that suggested a combination or clav and organ, with emphasis on organ. And I might even suggest that the bass player cover the little riff between the sax melody line. Sounds like fun. Wish I was doing the gig. Wish I was doing any gig. ;)

 

Here is a cool version of Pick Up The Pieces. Not related to your question but fun just the same.

[video:youtube]

Wm. David McMahan

I Play, Therefore I Am

 

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We cover this with 6 people, including bass, 2 guitarists, and 2 saxes.

This song is all about the back line - the sax part is an accessory. (I am allowed to say this - I am one of the band's sax players).

You need to re-create the energy that the back line created in the original.

 

You only have 4 people, 2 excluding the drummer and sax. Your keys and bass player need to cover these 3 parts:

 

(a) The rhythm guitar part in the original (the chords) is really important, and contributes a lot to the energy.

You hear it most clearly in the intro, but it continues throughout the song.

You want this part to include the rhythmic syncopation of the original.

 

(b) the "lead guitar" part, which is single note plucking, and also continues throughout the song.

 

© the bass part.

 

Remember, this song is all about the back line.

Thus my recommendation is based on the need to cover (a) (b) and ©.

Part (b) is more complicated than ©.

 

So I would put what you hear as the bass part © in the original in the keys player's left hand,

have part (b) be covered by your bass player,

and have part (a) be covered by the right hand of the keys player.

 

I am not sure if the keys right hand should use an organ patch or something else.

But whatever patch is used, the sound needs to cut through, and needs to allow spaces to be heard between the notes,

so that the rhythm will be heard clearly (and FELT) by the audience.

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The bass player is James East - Nathan's brother. I'm not telling him what to play. He'll do his thing and he'll sound delicious.

 

Maybe I'll see about covering the iconic guitar line as well as parts of the chordal guitar part. Maybe combining them into 1. The question is organ or clav.

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native

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Get the master tapes from Reeze, sample all the important tracks. At the gig, hit the button, walk away.

 

 

Seriously, for the parts where clav has been suggested, consider using a rhodes/wurli type sound with just a skosh of crunch. If you can run that patch through a Vent, cool, and just jam through the whole song with that sound (rather than trying to emulate the precise guitar part sounds). One of the greatest songs ever.

Some music I've recorded and played over the years with a few different bands

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The bass player is James East - Nathan's brother. I'm not telling him what to play. He'll do his thing and he'll sound delicious.

 

Maybe I'll see about covering the iconic guitar line as well as parts of the chordal guitar part. Maybe combining them into 1. The question is organ or clav.

 

Lotsa chefs in this kitchen! I have no more advice for you except to say that imo an organ can do what a clav does better than the other way around. Now that I think of it I would probably use organ only and yes, combine or make a new "hybrid" part. Good luck, have fun, share a video if you can â and stay safe too!

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The bass player is James East - Nathan's brother. I'm not telling him what to play. He'll do his thing and he'll sound delicious.

 

Maybe I'll see about covering the iconic guitar line as well as parts of the chordal guitar part. Maybe combining them into 1. The question is organ or clav.

 

Sorry. Didn't mean to make such a stupid, uninformed suggestion. :wall:

Wm. David McMahan

I Play, Therefore I Am

 

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The bass player is James East - Nathan's brother. I'm not telling him what to play. He'll do his thing and he'll sound delicious.

 

Maybe I'll see about covering the iconic guitar line as well as parts of the chordal guitar part. Maybe combining them into 1. The question is organ or clav.

 

Sorry. Didn't mean to make such a stupid, uninformed suggestion. :wall:

 

Haha no it's a good suggestion! If I was playing with a group of my peers I would try that exact thing. It's just that in THIS CASE I'm not playing with my peers on this one and have no business throwing any weight around telling cats what to play.

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native

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Reezekeys is obviously the man on this topic. I feel compelled to join any AWB thread even if I have nothing important to add. I've played PUP countless times with cover bands, always with one guitar that was doing a funk riff. I added the single note line because I can't imagine the song without it. Often there was no horn so I did the horn signature part on organ, switching between that and the guitar single note line. So basically I was playing no original keyboard parts for most of the song. You're not a tribute band, so relying mainly on organ is well within your artistic license. The one keys thing audiences would notice most if it was missing is the swirly held organ chord at the start and the break, but that's the easiest part to cover.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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As Adan says, there's really nothing to add once Reezekeys has weighed in on this, but I just wanted to plus-one the idea of using only organ, playing a nice perc-ed up version of that single-note line in the valleys, and comping groovily with James during the horn statements. It's just me, but I'd find clav too "on the nose," particularly if you're not going to try to play some facsimile of the original parts. But if they wanted a facsimile, they'd have hired a guitar player too. So I think you have license to grab the iconic parts and do the rest as you hear it in real time.

 

Sounds like a great gig. Who else is on it?

Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material.
www.joshweinstein.com

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As Adan says, there's really nothing to add once Reezekeys has weighed in on this, but I just wanted to plus-one the idea of using only organ, playing a nice perc-ed up version of that single-note line in the valleys, and comping groovily with James during the horn statements. It's just me, but I'd find clav too "on the nose," particularly if you're not going to try to play some facsimile of the original parts. But if they wanted a facsimile, they'd have hired a guitar player too. So I think you have license to grab the iconic parts and do the rest as you hear it in real time.

 

Sounds like a great gig. Who else is on it?

 

Exactly. As I was trying to say earlier, this is a made-in-heaven organ trio tune if I've ever heard one. That's the approach.

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Rod

Here for the gear.

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Exactly. As I was trying to say earlier, this is a made-in-heaven organ trio tune if I've ever heard one. That's the approach.

Wow, indeed you said exactly that. Maybe I should consider reading all the responses sometimes. Crazy idea.

 

Next you"re going to tell me someone already invented my best idea: a phone you can use for surfing the internet and playing games.

Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material.
www.joshweinstein.com

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Josh it's just me, James, Steve and a sax player - Mike Bedard. They don't want guitar because they want to keep the volume down and we are all using in ears. He is demoing an electronic kit. I know dude, I know.

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native

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Lucky you - of all the AWB tunes to have to play without a guitar, you get two songs that both have not one, but two prominent guitar parts. I'm afraid I'm not going to offer up any easy solutions here!

 

On Pieces, I use a split with a sampled strat plucking sound on the left and organ on the right. Onnie plays the strummed part and I do the single-note line. I don't know what's in your sound arsenal, but I think a clav part for the single-note guitar line could work. That line is of course one of the hooks of this tune so it does need to be heard in some fashion, I think. However, I would feel free to not do an exact note-for-note copy it if it didn't translate to the clav - being comfortable to play and sitting in the pocket is more important. Organ is prominent in the intro for sure, along with the rhythm guitar strum â but to be honest, capturing what the guitar does there on keys seems problematic â it's such a guitar-feel thing. I'm drawing a blank. Maybe better to just lay on the organ and have the bass play a little busier in that longish C7#9 intro.

 

Schoolboy without guitars? Wow, crazy. That tune has never had any kind of keyboards in it - just those two guitar parts. Like Pieces, a chunky strumming part and a single-note part. I could see doing this with just organ, playing the single-note guitar part very staccato, with percussion on. TBH I never thought about how a keyboard might play on this; I play bass on this song. Alan Gorrie switches to guitar so we have two real guitar players. If I think of anything I'll be back here to perhaps confuse things more!

 

Good luck and give Steve my regards!

 

All awesome stuff; thanks for weighing in!

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native

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This is where a decent MIDI controller is essential. I'll allocate three split zones. To emulate the up/down picking strokes of the guitar part, the top two zones are assigned to the sound for the sweeping 9th chords. These two zones play the same MIDI note range. I'll play RH in top zone LH in middle zone, bingo up/down picking is accomplished much easier on the wrists and doesn't cause RSI. The lower zone is the chicken picking part, MIDI notes programmed close to the middle zone. That way it isn't a long stretch with LH to reach the chicken picking notes after sweeping with the LH. Play it on your lap and you'll get it, start with RH.

 

You could do something similar with a dual manual Hammond if you configure them an octave apart using the drawbars.

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...it's just me...They don't want guitar...

Brotha Bobby, you're already a bad mofo. This just gives you license to drive. You'll figure out what to play or not. All we really need to know is what you're wearing to this party i.e. KB rig. :laugh::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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All we really need to know is what you're wearing to this party i.e. KB rig. :laugh::cool:

 

Trying to figure that out as we speak!

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native

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If I'm reading this right, you're playing with Steve Ferrone too! Please tell Steve I said hello (remind him he, Dave Santos and I did a record together at Blackbird in Nashville several years ago and had some fun). I retract my "Hooky" comment. :laugh:
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