MartinJ Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 Steely Dan's Chain Lightning I was listening to this song the other day, and I really liked the bassline. It sounded simple yet interesting. I figured I could get out my bass, listen and try a few things, and ultimately figure out the key and chord progressions. At first I was sure it was in E. I was messing around with some E, A, B7, and F#m sharp chords. I couldn't quite get it. I listened more and more, and decided it was in the key of A; I tried some A, Bm, D & E7 chords in places. I couldn't really figure out much of the progression, and I'm still not sure what the (heck) the key is! So I have several questions: What key IS this in? What ARE the chords & progression(s)? How could I think that the key of E and A sound similar? Am I hopelessly tone deaf? Thanks! C.V.: Snowboarder (1983-), Bass Owner (1996-), Chemistry Teacher (1997-) & Serious Bass Student (2003-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinJ Posted August 15, 2003 Author Share Posted August 15, 2003 Sorry for the double post on this. I attempted to edit the original post, and only made things worse. Can an administrator please delete one of these? Thanks. C.V.: Snowboarder (1983-), Bass Owner (1996-), Chemistry Teacher (1997-) & Serious Bass Student (2003-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
... Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 Originally posted by MartinJ: What ARE the chords & progression(s)? How could I think that the key of E and A sound similar? Am I hopelessly tone deaf? - A - see below - uhhh... I dunno? maybe you're tone deaf? The intro is basically just an A13 chord for all 8 bars, then the rest of the song just repeats this over and over. Groovezilla, baby. http://www.briantimpe.com/downloads/Chainlightning.JPG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinJ Posted August 15, 2003 Author Share Posted August 15, 2003 Thanks, BumpCity! By the way, is there some specific software you use to produce that chord sheet graphic above? If so, what is it? How can I obtain it? Thanks again! C.V.: Snowboarder (1983-), Bass Owner (1996-), Chemistry Teacher (1997-) & Serious Bass Student (2003-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
... Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 I use Finale for pretty much everything. It's available at most music stores. If you're a student or educator, you can get it at a significantly reduced price. Finale has a fairly steep learning curve, but it can do friggin' anything (including wash your car). To get it posted in the forum: - create file in Finale - take a screen shot (Ctrl + PrtScn) - open MS Paint and paste screen shot - edit out all the porn... err... other stuff that's open on my desktop - save as .jpg file and upload it to my website - post the .jpg file like you would any image on the forum, as a link to another host Unfortunately, Finale doesn't allow you to save as any format but Finale and Finale Notepad to view the actual music (like html, pdf, picture formats, etc). Most people don't want to download a program just to look at a music example (Notepad is free), so I just do it as a picture file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinJ Posted August 15, 2003 Author Share Posted August 15, 2003 So if I'm listening and trying to figure out the key & chords in a particular song, but I get stuck...is there a reliable site on the web that I can check for this sort of information? C.V.: Snowboarder (1983-), Bass Owner (1996-), Chemistry Teacher (1997-) & Serious Bass Student (2003-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy c Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 No. Free download of my cd!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan South Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 I've always thought of Chain Lightning as a twelve-bar blues with some substitution chords. I must admit that I never learned the bass line, though. I'll have to take a stab at it next week. The Black Knight always triumphs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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