Welcome back to our series on "How to Play the Real Book" Today
we're gonna dive into our level two arrangement of "Some Day My Prince Will Come". But before we do
so, go ahead and, take a quick listen to all four levels back to back. And to find out how
to get access to these arrangements, stick around to the end of the video
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library of music resources..." All right. So, let's dive into level two. You're gonna see us implement a lot
of the same things, we just talked about in level one, and just sort of (like) build on them, or expand.
We're gonna be playing the chords (uh), and the melody, pretty much as is. We have a lot of closed
voicings on the left hand, with some inversions and some rootless voicings and, we're starting
with (uh), we're considering the seven chords, as sort of like our default setting. That is to say:
if we do add a tension, it's in addition to our our (our) default setting of: we're using primarily
seven chords. And one more thing, you're going to see us an increase
in the grid complexity. Let's just go ahead and play the first phrase, and we'll start with that.
All right. So, right off the bat, you can hear one of the biggest departures from level one,
and that's the increase in that rhythmic grid complexity, to more of a quarter-note half-note,
or just straight quarter-note (uh) pulse. constantly there. And we've achieved that, by way of just kind
of breaking the chords on the left hand. So, this not only fills in the gaps a lot of the time,
where the melody was just not playing on two, and gives us some more (like) continuous pulse,
it also gives us a way -- a more clearly defined baseline as well -- as a consequence of that.
Next thing (we should probably talk about) is what's going on in measures 4
5 and 6, and our implementation of rootless voicings. I say rootless in "air quotes" here, because
in measure 4, we've omitted the root on the left-hand voicing. If you remember in version one,
we actually had the G involved in the left-hand voicing. Here it is absent from the left-hand
voicing, but it's present in the melody. So while the voicing on the left hand, technically is
rootless -- it doesn't have the G present -- it's still going to land to the ear, as if, you know...
this (this) G is there. Whether your perspective of this being a rootless voicing, or not,
(uh) is yay or nay, ultimately that is (you know), sort of irrelevant. What matters here, is the idea that
the root doesn't always have to be there. And if it's considered by the right hand,
then maybe you want to (like) reinterpret how you voice the chord on your left. There's no
sense in really doubling the G again, reinforcing that idea that we talked about in level one, that
the real sheet provides you with the basics, but a lot of the context is either
missing or implied, and you can see this further in the next two measures -- 5 and 6.
All right. So, here we have, (uh) I guess, a more literal interpretation of what a rootless
voicing is. In this Cm7 -- in measure 5 -- we've replaced the root with the 9th.
So introducing a tension there, and then in this G7#5 -- in measure 6 -- we've completely
gotten rid of the root, there as well. All right. Let's jump into our next eight measure phrase...
All right. So, one of the most obvious things, that's going on there is: we're kind of omitting
(uh) the left hand on the downbeat of each measure. We're letting (sort of) the right hand (uh), take
control over, illustrating where the beat is -- as it relates to the grid -- And again, this speaks to us,
kind of making the rhythmic grid more defined, and there's (there's) more than one way to do that. And
here we're achieving that, by (you know) just resting on the (uh), on the downbeat with the left hand.
Having the left hand fill in the blanks (if you will), that the right hand is not playing
rhythmically. And then, what you have here, is a clearly defined 1 2 3 - 1 2 3 - 1
2 3 - grid. Like we talked about. All right, let's listen to the end of that phrase one more
time, so we can talk about what the right hand is doing in measures 16 through 18...
So, what's going on here, on the right hand, is: we're introducing, for the first time, well... there's a few
things. One of the things is: we're introducing for the first time the right hand, as an idea,
filling in the spaces of our rhythmic grid. You can see that quite clearly, here in measure 16, where
there's nothing on 2 and 3 as written. And we're using the right hand to sort of fill in that hole,
if you will. And in measure 17, we're doing the same thing. Again, we're implementing harmony into the
right hand, but this time, in a more (uh) layered sort of approach, we have the (the) melody note -- which is
also a chord-tone -- landing on 1, and then on 2: the rest of the notes in the chord (or more notes
in the chord) landing there. So, you have this, again, this layered effect, by implementing this harmony
in this way. And then -- in measure 18 -- another use of harmony, with the C on the third beat,
harmonizing the melody with (with) a chord-tone. So, here you have three very distinctly different ways,
of having the right hand take on another role --other than just playing the melody. All
right. Let's continue on. We'll listen to this next section again, to talk about rhythmic displacement...
So, right there (uh), you will notice the different ways we implemented rhythmic displacement on the
melody. The first place that happens is (is): here -- measure 19. There's that dotted rhythm, we used
in level one, again, displacing this G, that was on 3, onto the end of 2, and sort of anticipating
that (that) note, or that (that that) melody note. When you fast forward to measures 22 and 23, you see
more implementation of this rhythmic displacement. The E (the Eb) that was on 1, in our original
arrangement, is now on 2, displaced over to 2. Same thing with this C over here,
in measure 23 -- that was on 3 -- now, is displaced over to the end of 2.
A couple of other things that you might have noticed -- that are going on, in measure 23,
is our use of the grace notes here. And this B, is not originally in the melody. What we're doing here
is: introducing this B, as a chromatic approach to the C, that follows it in the next measure.
All right. So there we have it. A nice, (uh) tasteful evolution of our melody. Now let's
dive into our last section here. Because there's (there's) a lot of stuff going on
here, that we can talk about. (uh) First, let's listen to it. I'll just let it play some more...
All right. So let's start with measures 25 and 26.
What's simply going on here is, some broken chords -- again, to reinforce that idea of a more complicated
rhythmic grid. So Fm7 broken up, boom boom boom, 1 2 3. Sort of the same thing going
on here -- on this Bb7. Only the broken chord -- I want you to see it like this -- the broken chord
is on beats 2 and 3. What we've added, is an extra layer of bass, on the downbeat.
So, we have this Bb, and then our broken chord. You also may have noticed, in measure 27,
a slight departure from the melody. And not by way of displacement, or anything like that. Just,
this time, just clear omission, and just (like) left out this C melody note. So let's go instead of
going back and forth, between C Bb and C, we're just climbing up from Bb here...
In these last few measures here, you see us really leaning into that
formerly mentioned idea, of using the right hand to flesh out the harmony, or harmonizing, the melody,
with two or more notes, or even sometimes, maybe, in one note (if you want to) from the
chord represented in that measure. That's exactly what you see here going o --n in measure 28 29 30
and 31. The melody's on top, and underneath it, we're harmonizing and still using the right hand,
using other notes in the chord. This is a really effective way to harmonize your melody. Sometimes
those notes can even just be static, and like we said, it can be one note from the chord. Here we're
using two. But feel free to (like) explore this idea moving forward, when you're looking at lead sheets,
harmonizing the melody, using your right hand. And of course, at the end here, in this last measure,
you see the implementation of tension 9 used on this maj7 chord -- like you saw with our rootless
voicings. And again, we have a whole course on rootless voicings, how to use them. So check that
out. But using tension 9 on maj7 chords, is a really effective (uh) way to introduce a tension
to a voicing, even if it's not explicitly said so in the chart. All right, so now that we've talked
about all of the elements in the piece, let's go back to the beginning and listen through it
straight through. Be on the lookout for all of the techniques that we talked about...
Thanks again for watching. Join us next time when we dive into level 3. If you want access to all
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or the link down below. Also check out this video here for more awesome
music theory related content. Thanks again for watching, and we'll catch you next time.