I Didn’t Know What Time It Was

Playing Approaches
Form
Harmony

Playing Approaches

Playing Approach #1 Bars A:1-4: Paraphrase with Melodic Minor

Paraphrase the melody and add in the sharp 4 (C# in G major ) and sharp 5 (D# in G major ). These function as the major 6 and the major 7 of the relative minor (E) and suggest usage of the melodic minor scale of the relative minor ( E,F#,G,A,B,C#,D#,E). Positioning of the sharp 5 (D#) and sharp 4 are important (C#). For starters paraphrase the melody adding the chromatic descent sharp 5, 5, sharp 4(D#-D-C#) as a tag starting on the second half of bars 1 and moving into bars 2. Paraphprase the melody in bars 3 and 4 just tagging with a sharp 4 (C#) at the end.

Playing Approach #2 Bars A:1-4: Paraphrase with Melodic Minor

This is a good place to just explore the melodic minor scale (E,F#,G,A,B,C#,D#,E) with particular emphasis on the sharp 4 (C#) and the sharp 5 (D#). Target the sharp 4 ( C# ) at the tail end of bar 4.

Playing Approach #2 Bars A:1-4: Paraphrase with Blues Scale

The blues scale based on the relative minor sounds really cool here when mixed in with melodic paraphrase or just played on its own. E is the relative minor of G.

Playing Approach #3 Bars A:5-8: A Run of the Changes … perhaps?

Start with the 4 (C) if you ended up on the sharp 4 (C#) in bar 4 and then move into a paraphrase of the melody. Then jump up to the 6 (E) in bar 6 and arpeggiate down from the root of all those descending chords in bars 6 thru 8. Start by not doing full arpeggio on each chord step. But try to sustain whatever option chosen on the 6 minor ( E minor ) chord.

Form

36 bars
A1-A2-B-A3
First 3 sections are 8 bars long. A3 is 12 bars long.
Typical Key: G major/Eminor

Harmony

Mostly stays in relative minor with a few brief modulations to tonic major and ends on tonic major. Uses some unconventional cadences in the A sections and bridge involving descending diatonic or chromatic chord progressions.

A1 and A2

Bars 1-4: Relative minor vamp
Bar 5: Cadence to I Major
Bars 6-8: Surprise! Goes right to relative minor and then starts descending diatonic chord sequence. Also known as a back door progression
Last half of bar 8 on A1: Instead of ending on I major this sequence ends on I minor functioning as a cadence to VII half-diminished, which starts the minor vamp at the beginning of the A section.
Last half of bar 8 on A2: Cadence to the I that starts the bridge section

Bridge

Bar 1: :Starts on I major
Bar 2-3: vamping to relative minor
Bar 4: starts on relative minor goes to IV through chromatic descending ii-v’s w/tritone subs
Bar 5: lands on IV major
Bar 6: jumps to I major
Bar 7: goes to V
Bar 8: goes to VII half-dim. through diatonic descent from IIm to Im

A3

Bars 1-7: same as A1 and A2
Bar 8: goes to bIII
Bar 9: goes to II
Bars 10: Goes to I
Bars 11-12: Lands on I


Playlists (on Spotify)

Singers
Instrumentals

17. March 2013 by sigmonky
Categories: Tune Shed, Tunes - I | Comments Off

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