Eric Clapton's After Midnight - need some big ears!

[musicbysterling]

I'm learning After Midnight for an upcoming gig and need some assistance. The song consists of 4 chords and I've discovered that what keyboard player is doing is simply not just playing triads. The track is buried just enough that I'm having trouble picking out what he's doing. I've experimented with open fifths and inverted fifths and am not satisfied with what I'm trying to come up with. The organ track is also sort of playing around with these chords and to my ears is adding up to a complimentary track to the piano. I hear octaves on the G chords and of course, the downward glissandos(sp?) are easy to emulate. What am I missing here? Shell voicings? Drop 3s? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

   

 

[Jwave]

You could download a PDF of “Eric Clapton - Rock Score 2” from Scribd which has a free 30 day trial. The transcriptions for After Midnight organ and piano look pretty decent to me at first glance. For the main C organ riff it shows a high G-C fourth interval on beat 2, followed by F-A, Eb-G and C-E major thirds.

[D. Gauss]

Why not make some music and just play it the way YOU play it?   

[Shamanzarek]

Listen to live versions. There are some of Eric playing with  J.J. Cale, Steve Winwood, and others. Clapton often did his songs quite different from the recording in concert.

[MathOfInsects]

I know these comments aren't answering the question you're asking, and now I'm going to make it worse, but: if you, a keyboard player who really wants to hear the parts, can't quite tell what's happening back there, then imagine how unfamiliar the rest of the world will be with them, even other keyboard players. Just play, it'll be fine. 

 

[Thethirdapple]

@musicbysterling After years of high school pizza delivery this song is etched into my brain…

 

Hold my beer…

 

You’re right that the piano track is buried and panned way to the right, so it’s really hard to pick out. What I’m hearing are octaves as you said, following the basic C F G chords with the rest of the band. Something that comes through later from the piano player is a little bit of a blues riff during the C chord. The piano sounds like it’s doing a fast C F C7 combo. Something like C-E-G, C-F-A, C-G-Bb and back down, repeated a few times during that C chord. 
 

 

PEACE

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[Baldwin Funster]

Ask yourself what would Leon Russell 

do? A basic 1345 barrelhouse thing. Master that and RnR piano is all the same.

[drawback]

Further to some of the “just play it” comments above, I’m firmly in the camp that this music is supposed to be played with a lot of latitude. Over-thinking just sucks the joy right out of it. The piano is buried and panned for a reason. Let the guitars & vocals do their thing, lay back and do what you can to support it. 

[Delaware Dave]

3 hours ago, D. Gauss said:

Why not make some music and just play it the way YOU play it?   

This.  The fact that as a k/b player you cant figure out what the keys are doing because the keys are buried in the mix,  why are you overthinking this? Who's going to challenge you?

[jazzpiano88]

Agree with everyone.  It doesn't matter what you play.   You can turn off the piano and pretend to play and it will sound almost exactly the same.   I can guarantee you that you won’t get any complaints from the rest of the band if you were to do this, so I would play whatever sounds good to you.   Me, I’d comp on the organ. 

[Steve Nathan]

I agree with all the "just play" comments. If it sill bugs you, just be sure to hit the 1 chord (w/root on top) on beat 2 😉

[Docbop]

7 hours ago, D. Gauss said:

Why not make some music and just play it the way YOU play it?   

 

DITTO        Why do people think they have to be a Xerox copy of records,  do what you do for the style song.  The only thing you need to get like the record are the hooks.  That will also help you develop your piano sound.   That was  the great thing about coming up playing in the days of Top 40 bands and playing lot tunes by lots of artists, with whatever gear you had,  you learned the audience mainly just wants the beat and  the lyrics it was great training ground.   

[AROIOS]

12 hours ago, musicbysterling said:

...What am I missing here? Shell voicings? Drop 3s? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Here's the isolated piano track. It's just some common Blues/Gospel licks around C-Eb-F-G. The missing flavor you're looking for might be the b3 and b7 Blues notes and the I - IV/I Gospel lick. You can even throw in a VIIb/I after the IV/I to spice things up a bit further.
 

 

 

[niacin]

I play in a Clapton tribute.  If I ask the BL what he wants me to play - cause I'm the only keys player and there's usually 2 on the record - his response is invariably "Whatever you want."  There's little if anything in the keys parts that any song depends on.  Signature licks are all on guitar.  I do have to play the single note machine-gun piano at the beginning of Pretending, cover the choir on White Room, and play part 2 of Layla pretty much rote, but that's really about it. 

 

However, I do go and listen to various live recordings, particularly if it's a song that he did with Dick Sims or Greg Philliganes, or on the tour with Dave Sancious and Billy Preston, cause there's always something I can learn from those cats.

[Baldwin Funster]

23 minutes ago, niacin said:

I play in a Clapton tribute.  If I ask the BL what he wants me to play - cause I'm the only keys player and there's usually 2 on the record - his response is invariably "Whatever you want."  There's little if anything in the keys parts that any song depends on.  Signature licks are all on guitar.  I do have to play the single note machine-gun piano at the beginning of Pretending, and cover the choir on White Room, but that's really about it. 

 

However, I do go and listen to various live recordings, particularly if it's a song that he did with Dick Sims or Greg Philliganes, or on the tour with Dave Sancious and Billy Preston, cause there's always something I can learn from those cats.

Most non keyboardist know so little about keys that they don't know or want to know about keys parts and just want you to make the sound better so as long as you fill out the sound so it has some extra production value you can really do anything  you want. Of course there's always the BL that thinks he knows all about everything and will say no that #11 should be a b13 so you just play the same thing and he says yeah that it....

[J.F.N.]

Here are them big ears you're looking for buddy!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2w_kSZyqXw

[Delaware Dave]

7 hours ago, niacin said:

I play in a Clapton tribute

 

I played in one a decade ago, it was fun..

 

 

[Bobby Simons]

I likewise did a Clapton tribute a dozen or so years ago. Clapton Chronicles . The band was solid, but seemed to appeal more to musicians than your average club goer. And we though Clapton would be a sure thing, lol. I think if you're doing tribute thing it still has to be Fleetwood Mac or the Eagles. I'm glad those days are far in my rear view.

[niacin]

13 hours ago, Bobby Simons said:

I likewise did a Clapton tribute a dozen or so years ago. Clapton Chronicles . The band was solid, but seemed to appeal more to musicians than your average club goer. And we though Clapton would be a sure thing, lol. I think if you're doing tribute thing it still has to be Fleetwood Mac or the Eagles. I'm glad those days are far in my rear view.

yeh the thing with Clapton is there’s not much to work with on the entertainment front.  ABBA you can dress up and go Swedish Chef on the accent, Pink Floyd you do a light show, Elvis you get your dance moves on, Santana hire some dancing girls, but Clapton?  He sings and plays guitar, extremely well obviously, but that is the extent of it, so I can see why it would appeal more to musicians than the wider public.

[Baldwin Funster]

I'd LOVE to do a Derek and the Dominoes tribute on guitar or organ.

There's lots of peripheral stuff to add like some Delaney and early Ringo Starr, George H, You name it. 

But yeah, some attention to lights and razzmatazz would be necessary to bring some ladies out and not just dudes in pot leaf Tshirts.

[analogika]

On 3/31/2024 at 12:43 AM, Delaware Dave said:

This.  The fact that as a k/b player you cant figure out what the keys are doing because the keys are buried in the mix,  why are you overthinking this? Who's going to challenge you?

Am I alone in wanting to figure out what the original is? If the original is greater than the sum of its parts, and one part is that really cool keyboard track that I can’t quite make out but is obviously adding something that none of the other parts are doing, it’s my fucking JOB to figure out what it’s doing and why it’s important. 
 

I absolutely HATE it when cover players opt for the „eh, it works!“ path that gets drunk-crowd-recognition but misses what made the song special. 
 

That's how you get the bar-guitarist Everything’s-a-Four-Chord-Song versions. 
 

I mean, sure, by all means, go for it if that’s the balance between effort and payout for you! Seriously! 
 

But I quit a cover band over exactly these kinds of compromises. I’d really rather be playing the song than a vague echo of what the singer remembers as the hook and a chorus. 
 

Taking a song, checking out what is going on, and then doing something completely different to make it your own is a different matter, mind. 
 

To clarify: I’m talking about the attitude towards playing somebody else’s song/part. Having listened to the extracted keyboard part here, I’d say, yeah, go gospel piano mode and wing it from there. It’s more about style than specific voice leading. 

[harmonizer]

I definitely like hearing what is on the original when learning to cover a song. I won't always be bound by the original, but sometimes there is something there that is valuable in figuring our how your keys part can contribute to the whole thing your band delivers. The posts by AROIOS and J.F.N. provided a lot of help for this, and after listening to those clips, I would have used those as a a starting point for trying to figure out what I would want to play if our band were going to cover this song. This a song where the guitar parts are more visible and important, but that just means I would need to find the best way to fit my keys stuff in without getting in the way. Whatever the keys player did on the original might be a better idea than anything I would think of on my own.

[Delaware Dave]

3 hours ago, analogika said:

Am I alone in wanting to figure out what the original is? If the original is greater than the sum of its parts, and one part is that really cool keyboard track that I can’t quite make out but is obviously adding something that none of the other parts are doing, it’s my fucking JOB to figure out what it’s doing and why it’s important. 
 

I absolutely HATE it when cover players opt for the „eh, it works!“ path that gets drunk-crowd-recognition but misses what made the song special. 
 

That's how you get the bar-guitarist Everything’s-a-Four-Chord-Song versions. 
 

I mean, sure, by all means, go for it if that’s the balance between effort and payout for you! Seriously! 
 

But I quit a cover band over exactly these kinds of compromises. I’d really rather be playing the song than a vague echo of what the singer remembers as the hook and a chorus. 
 

Taking a song, checking out what is going on, and then doing something completely different to make it your own is a different matter, mind. 
 

To clarify: I’m talking about the attitude towards playing somebody else’s song/part. Having listened to the extracted keyboard part here, I’d say, yeah, go gospel piano mode and wing it from there. It’s more about style than specific voice leading. 

 

I love this response (sarcasm)..  After you chastise  all of us for not seeking out what the original k/b part is, your recommendation is go gospel piano AND WING IT FROM THERE.......   

[Bill H.]

I played this track for years live. I sang lead, so kept my part pretty simple - mostly on EP because it seemed to fit better than piano with all the guitar clatter going on. 

 

On the original you've got a super busy guitar riff, 16th tambourines, 16th HH, 16th hand drums, a bass that gets into the range of a guitar... this song can get really cluttered really fast if you try to do all that live. Cover it verbatim if that's what your band is about, but this is one you might want to consider stripping down a bit. 

 

[Delaware Dave]

5 hours ago, Bill H. said:

On the original you've got a super busy guitar riff, 16th tambourines, 16th HH, 16th hand drums, a bass that gets into the range of a guitar... this song can get really cluttered really fast if you try to do all that live. Cover it verbatim if that's what your band is about, but this is one you might want to consider stripping down a bit. 

 

I think everyone is missing the point of his post which is because of the aformentioned clutter he cant make out the k/b part when he listens to the song in order to cover it verbatim.  My earlier response, which got shxt on by Analogika, is that after listening to the song if you cant even make out the k/b parts because of the other instrumentation clutter I dont think anyone is going to notice if he makes up his own part that fits into the song. If the k/b player cant make out the k/b part i dont think that even a critical (discerning) listener will notice either. Sometimes the climb is not worth the view.

[Bill H.]

^ Well yeah. The reason you can't hear those piano parts ( and I never did until now with that iso track) is that everything was already so busy that they didn't survive mixdown. 

 

It's weird when you come back to a track you haven't heard in years. The instruments are so hyped and busy that it sounds like everyone was high on coke. Then when Clapton laid down his vocal track, it's so laid back that it sounds like he'd just smoked a bowl of weed. And maybe that's what happened way back when. 

[analogika]

3 hours ago, Delaware Dave said:

 

I love this response (sarcasm)..  After you chastise  all of us for not seeking out what the original k/b part is, your recommendation is go gospel piano AND WING IT FROM THERE.......   

 

You misread me entirely. 
 

I was responding to the “it doesn’t matter, so don’t overthink it” attitude.
 

Giving it a careful listen and then deciding that what makes it work is a particular style of phrasing, rather than the exact voicings at exact moments is the OPPOSITE of “not seeking out what the original k/b part is” in my world. 
 

Maybe I am the one who misread the recommendations as just that, and they were actually intended as “it’s a particular style; use that and don’t overthink the voicings”. 
If so, I apologise for the tone. 
 

I certainly didn’t mean to “chastise” anyone — like I said, your balance of effort vs. payout is yours to strike, so do it. I mean that from the heart. 
 

It’s just not for me. 

[CEB]

My favorite cover. Better groove and less spastic.   … and it uses what sounds like the Shakuhachi patch on the D-50.    This is the version I did when this version was current.  
 

 

 

[Steve Nathan]

1 hour ago, Bill H. said:

The reason you can't hear those piano parts ( and I never did until now with that iso track) is that everything was already so busy that they didn't survive mixdown. 

It seems hard for some to grasp that sometimes, the keyboard part is just not  important to the original recording.  Sometimes you're a feature, or one of a number of important elements, but sometimes you're just along for the ride,  there to fill out the track without getting in the way.  Not unlike how I made a lot of money creating synth sounds that listeners  never notice, but if you mute the sound, the track falls apart.  And I would submit that learning how to respond, to play spontaneously, with heart and soul is much more likely to make you a better musician than clinically analyzing every note of someone else's performance.

[Baldwin Funster]

Funny how that classic rock has become classical music. If you were to improvise during a beethoven piece you would be out of place. Now everybody wants to cover rock tunes note for note, sound for sound. If I have to hear sterile perfect versions of zep or skynrd tunes I'd rather stay home and listen to oldies 105.5 fm.