The Preacher
Playing Approaches
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Playing Approaches
Approach #1 — Call and Response with “Call” phrases starting on the Tonic, Third, and Fifth
“The Preacher” has a melody based on a call and response pattern heard frequently in sanctified Afro-American song.
“John the Revelator” is a good example:
Tell me who’s that ridin’? — John, the revelator
Tell me who’s that ridin’? — John, the revelator
Tell me who’ that riding? — John, the revelator
Wrote the book of the 7 seals…
Blind Willie Johnson’s version is great:
“The Preacher” does a similar thing. The 16-bar melody neatly falls into 4 4-bar sections. In the first 3 sections, bars 1 and 2 repeat the same phrase and the remaining bars “answer” with different melodies. The final 4 bar phrase does not follow the call and response internal pattern. Instead, it functions as an “answer” to the prior three phrases. This is very similar to the “John the Revelator” pattern except that in this case phrases in bars 1 and 2 and phrases in bars 3 and 4 of each of the first 3 four bar sections are identical.
This first approach use call and response as an improvisational guideline. The first two bars of each of the first three four bar phrases is identical in each chorus. The latter two bars of each phrase are improvised with some reference to the original melody. In the three choruses, the repeated phrases start on the tonic, third, and fifth respectively.
Approach #2 — Guide Tone Line
I found a guide tone line that is nice to embroider. Because the first 3 four bar sections start with the same note, it reflects the call and response approach discussed in Approach #1.
| 3 | b7 3| 4 #4| 5 |
| 3 | 3 | # 4 | 4 |
| 3 | b7 | 6 4 | #5 3 |
|4 #4 |5 b2 | 4 7 | 1 |
in F:
| A | Eb A | Bb B | C |
| A | A | Bb | A |
| A | Eb | D Bb | C# A |
|Bb B | C F# | Bb E | F |
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