Black Friday

[Joe P]

Hi Folks,

My band will be covering the Dan's Black Friday. I understand there are two keyboard parts, but what I was working out just uses the G minor third "sliding" up to the G# minor third, while trying to work in a left hand E octave thing that sort of mimicks the intro, but doesn't quite get there.

 

Does anybody play Black Friday? If so, what do you do with it?

 

Regards,

Joe

[Chris Link]

This is from a really great site from a real SD fanatic. It looks like you'll have to pick out the individual parts from guitar tabs unforetunately. Hope this is of help.

 

http://www.jmdl.com/howard/music/tab/black_friday.txt

[Joe P]

Mister Dregs,

Thanks for the link. I'd come across that in my initial search, but the second read was helpful. I was missing the F#/G triads. I'll give it try tonight (hopefully).

Regards,

Joe

[Chris Link]

Personally, I hate translating guitar tabs, but from what I've looked at, this guy's material is pretty good. Some of the tunes also have the chord structure to work off of. I want to get my guys to learn "Chain Lightning", another interesting blues number from SD.

[Jon May]

Originally posted by Joe P:

...

 

Does anybody play Black Friday? If so, what do you do with it?

 

Regards,

Joe

Wurlie patch. I learned it in Em. I don't remember if that is the orig key...

 

Intro - left hand 'oscillates' triplets on an E 0ctave. Right hand plays Ebm7 to Em7 triad (D, G, B stack) INSIDE the octave formed by the left hand. Kind of a cross-hands thing. I've since heard DF trill that Em to an E maj ('cept he was playing in Gm) on a laid back version played on Marion McPartland's radio show (and maybe it's also on the original).

 

'chorus' - A, G, Gb, G, Ebm7 (Db, Gb, Bb right hand), A/D (C#, E, A rh), B on the stop.

 

Bat that's just me

[Jon May]

Originally posted by Joe P:

...

 

Does anybody play Black Friday? If so, what do you do with it?

 

Regards,

Joe

Wurlie patch. I learned it in Em. I don't remember if that is the orig key...

 

Intro - left hand 'oscillates' triplets on an E 0ctave. Right hand plays Ebm7 to Em7 triad (D, G, B stack) INSIDE the octave formed by the left hand. Kind of a cross-hands thing. I've since heard DF trill that Em to an E maj ('cept he was playing in Gm) on a laid back version played on Marion McPartland's radio show (and maybe it's also on the original).

 

'chorus' - A, G, Gb, G, Ebm7 (Db, Gb, Bb right hand), A/D (C#, E, A rh), B on the stop.

 

But that's just me

[Jon May]

Originally posted by Joe P:

...

 

Does anybody play Black Friday? If so, what do you do with it?

 

Regards,

Joe

Wurlie patch. I learned it in Em. I don't remember if that is the orig key...

 

Intro - left hand 'oscillates' triplets on an E 0ctave. Right hand plays Ebm7 to Em7 triad (D, G, B stack) INSIDE the octave formed by the left hand. Kind of a cross-hands thing. I've since heard DF trill that Em to an E maj ('cept he was playing in Gm) on a laid back version played on Marion McPartland's radio show (and maybe it's also on the original).

 

'chorus' - A, G, Gb, G, Ebm7 (Db, Gb, Bb right hand), A/D (C#, E, A rh), B on the stop.

 

But that's just me

[Jon May]

GOLDURNED SLOW INTERNET CONNECTION! ( poked the 'post' button too many times)

[Joe P]

Mr. May,

Thanks, I'll give that a try. Last night I worked on the F# to G triad idea with the root on the bottom. Tonight, I'll try your "cross handed" thing. It must be tricky, not only with the D G B stack but with the C# F# A# stack that, presumably, precedes it.

Regards,

Joe

[JeffLearman]

Hmm. I play it in E, usually pedalling the E bass (or not depending on whether there's a bass player and how it sounds together).

 

For the chords, I play F# major triad and slide up to G (which makes an Em7) and then F#m E, playing the minor 3rd on the E (G) as a grace note leading into the major 3rd (G#). It's a pretty easy 4-finger thing.

 

You can play an A instead of the F#m.

 

Sitting here without keyboard, I can't tell you what the turnaround does, but later I'll post what the "Steely Dan Complete To Aja" says. Note, however, that I don't find most of the transcriptions there authoratative -- I often adjust them to make them sound more like the originals, or to suit my style better. For example, they often chart the Mu Major chords as simple major chords (!)

 

If I had a copy of the song I could tell you for sure, but I haven't heard it in ages, and somehow or other all my Steely Dan CDs have wandered off. Dammit. But I did play about 25 SD songs last time I counted, and I think I get them pretty close to the originals. DF doesn't know it, but he taught me to play piano!

[Jon May]

Hi Joe

 

The trickyness on the intro may have resulted from me hearing two piano parts as one. But it's doable if a little awkward. And you surmise correctly about the chromatic approach chord Ebm -> Em

 

Regards

Jon

[David Loving]

Just use all 4 hands

[David Loving]

Just use all 4 hands

[Trill]

Just another suggestion

 

Verse

 

Lefthand pedals E octave

 

Right hand works between Ebm7 and Em7 up and down

 

[C#-F#-A#]to [D-G-B] to [C#-F#-A] to [b-E-G]

 

Chorus Lh/[Rh]

 

[E-A-F#]- G/[E-G-B]- ,F#/[C#-F#-A#],-F#/(E-F#-A#], G/[E-G-B],- D#/[F#-A#-C#] to A/D to A/B (chord)

[JeffLearman]

No, Trill, you're missing an important harmonic aspect. Did you try what I said above? I'll spell it later, gotta go!

 

Also, in the middle of the song they go to 9ths or 11ths (forget which, need a piano).

 

Maybe I'm misreading you Trill, gotta check it later. But he definitely ends on EM. The interplay between minor and major is important.

 

Maybe I'm imagining things again.

 

Wow -- did you see that? There it goes again!

[Trill]

No you didn't misread it Jeff, I put a sharp by mistake in the third chord in the verse. I edited out the sharp A

[JeffLearman]

OK, here's the spelling.

 

First, pedal E3 and E4 (I use thumb of left hand and pinky of right hand.) You can keep this up or let the pinky come & go as it works or not. They're pedaled in quarter note triplets. (If I have that right: 3 notes for every quarter note.)

 

Meanwhile, these chords, just above that left thumb on E3 (E below middle C).

 

[F# A# C#] [G B D] [A C#]* [G# B]**

 

* You can play the F here too, but I feel that it just muddies the water and provides no benefit.

 

** Here, you play a grace note G and flam into the G#, so to speak. Also, every other time, this is a G-G# trill. You alternate with the guitar who does the trill each time. When done right, at least in the beginning, the guitarist and keyboard are taking turns on who is up front with all these chords. Not only is this what SD are doing, but it makes it a much more cooperative and fun part, and helps balance the two instruments (rather than stomping on each other).

 

There's a very steady, um can I call it a backbeat, on every other note of the quarter note triplets. This goes on throughout the song in one way or another. At the start, it's the pinky doing it, but later on Donald will do it with his left thumb (I assume) on E, or with right hand stab chords or intervals (more often just two notes), and for emphasis going to all the notes of the triple here and there.

 

- ! - ! - ! - ! - ! ! ! or

- ! - ! ! ! - ! - ! - !

 

and stuff like that, if you catch the drift.

 

Finally, in the second stanzas of the second and third verse, the part written above simplifies to something like this:

 

[A# C# F G#] [G D F# A] (repeat)

 

The guitar emphasizes this more than the keyboards, where DF is varying the part a bit more and keeping the rhythmic thing going. But that 2nd chord (Em11) is emphasized, giving the song a bit of a lift and avoiding redundancy.

 

While the written music in "Steely Dan Complete to Aja" is on the whole abominable, they get the chorus part right:

 

A G F# G F#/D# A/D A/B

 

though, on the first 4 chords I keep playing the high E with my pinky. It's a note in the vocal harmony too, an octave higher.

 

Hope this helps. It's a hot song and a lot of fun to play if you can get the groove going. And remember that a Wurlitzer keyboard doesn't go down to the low E.

[JeffLearman]

BTW, disclosure: I've never played that pinky E thing. I worked this song out years ago when I didn't have the tune to listen to. I listened to it carefully just now, and added that part as a result. And I'm having trouble with that pinky E thing, but it is cool. If it slows you down (which is likely unless you're pretty good with your hands), just leave that out for now!

 

What I did before was alternate E2-E4 in the triplets (dropping a lot of notes just to simplify). But that's not what DF is doing.

[Jon May]

<>

 

When SD played Black Friday in Dallas last week (and I presume at all other shows) Jeff Young played the pedalled E octave throughout on his Nord Stage 'Wurlie' whle DF handled the rest.

 

When there's only one keyboard player, my 'cross-hands' solution (see above) works well for the intro.

[Bob Stiffler]

Joe:

I am not a rock musician, most of my music is rated "PG-55". However I found the attached midi file, and played it and then printed it out with Finale. You might find it helpful.

 

Bob Stiffler http://www.saturn-soft.net/Music/Music1/MIDI/PopRock/Menu.htm

[JeffLearman]

Right, that is two parts, the pedalling and the chords. But you can get the important part of the pedaling just using your left thumb and right pinky -- and a bit of practice.

 

BTW, folks keep saying it's in Em, but it's really both dominant and minor. If you're not going to trill the G-G# on the last E, play the G#, not the G. (Better yet, play the G grace note to the G#.) But end on the G maj (dominant, only you're not playing the 7th). It's really a blues harmony; the melody is definitely E minor. But if you stress that Em it becomes too much of a dirge. Think of it as being Emaj blues.

[Joe P]

Thanks for all the help, folks. Looks like I've got a little work to do!

 

Regards,

Joe

[Tone Taster]

Originally posted by misterdregs:

Personally, I hate translating guitar tabs,

Can't you just get the Finale program - type in the TAB and then click/drag into a music staff?

 

That's a huge pain, but I have trouble translating keyboard parts to the guitar because of note arrangement limitations

 

It seems like any voicing on guitar can be played by a keyboard but not vice/versa

[JeffLearman]

It seems like any voicing on guitar can be played by a keyboard but not vice/versa

... especially the ones with more than 6 notes!

Or whole tone & half-tone intervals side-by-side.

 

I learned a lot of keyboard chord voicings by copying guitar voicings, most notably jazz chords.

 

But at least it makes sense reading staff notes to play guitar; trying to read keyboard parts based on physical note placement on a guitar neck is really obtuse. Even though I play guitar, I find that hard to do. (I don't read tab for guitar, though; I rarely have any trouble working out the parts myself. And so much of the stuff on the web is terrible anyway!)