Introductions-- very important.
If you are going to put together an arrangement of a song--
an orchestration of a song, if you will--
you're putting together the whole package.
And that includes introductions and endings.
Think about a painting.
And if you go to a museum and you see a painting, very seldom would
you see a painting without some type of picture frame.
The picture frame is there to help support what's going on in the picture.
And it also has to be relevant to what's going on in the painting.
So for example-- if you looked at a 17th century painting
in a 21st century picture frame, that wouldn't make much sense.
And likewise, in reverse.
Occasionally, you run into a painting that has no picture frame,
but that's not the norm.
Usually, you've got something that helps support
what's going on in the portrait.
Same thing with a piece of music.
You can have a piece of music that starts at the beginning
and ends at the end and that's it, but then, you've
got the painting without a picture frame.
So the introduction helps support the beginning of the song,
sets up what's going to happen in the song.
And the ending, ultimately, also brings it to a close, as well.
But let's focus on the introductions for right now.
Introductions usually come from some part of the song
or set up the beginning of the song in such a way
that it makes logical sense from introduction into the tune.
The most common introduction that you can have
is simply playing 5-7 into the introduction-- simple as that.
But there are other ways that you can enhance the sound of an introduction.
It can be something that's just very glorious that
sets up a really beautiful passage that's
about to come across into the song.
It can be something that you actually take part of the melody or the harmony.
Or maybe a rhythmic aspect of the song and incorporate that
into the introduction so that it's setting up and letting you know what's
going to come up into the song itself.
I've put together a list of some iconic introductions and some of these are
so beautiful and distinctive that they are not necessarily--
as I was just saying--
from the body of the song itself, but they set up the song so beautifully.
And once you've heard one of these iconic introductions,
it's tough to hear the song and not hear this introduction
being part of the song.
So let's look at a few of them.
The first one we have here is "Take the A Train," by Duke Ellington.
And this is-- oddly enough--
not composed by Ellington, but composed by the man who many
consider to be his alter ego of a composer, Billy Strayhorn.
So "Take the A Train" has this little train sounding introduction here.
Listen to this.
This is usually done on piano so to make this happen on guitar,
it takes a little bit of effort
[MUSIC, "TAKE THE A TRAIN"]
[SINGING RHYTHM]
Cute little intro.
I tried to find a Sinatra song--
Sinatra being one of the great vocalists of all time.
Many, many albums.
Hundreds, hundreds, if not thousands of songs--
all of them with wonderful arrangements because he
could afford to get the best orchestrators that were around.
Well, he worked quite a bit with Nelson Riddle,
who was a wonderful arranger at that time period.
And did a lot of his music and this is, "I've Got The World on a String,"
arranged by Nelson Riddle and sets up a beautiful Sinatra tune.
This is full orchestra so what we're doing here
is taking the full orchestra introduction
and trying to condense it into the guitar, which means you can't, but you
try and come as close as you can.
[MUSIC, "I'VE GOT THE WORLD ON A STRING"]
(SINGING)
I've got the world on a string.
"At Last" is a song that was written in the 1940s,
but it became most well-known when Etta James did it
late 1950s, early 1960s, and that's really the iconic version of this song.
And this intro just, it goes with this song.
Let's see if we can do this.
Again, this is an orchestral version.
We're going to try and condense it into the guitar.
Or get as close as we can.
[MUSIC, "AT LAST"]
(SINGING)
At last.
Chuck Berry-- my opinion--
the King of rock and roll.
"Johnny B. Goode," his most well-known song.
So well-known that in the 1970s, when NASA sent out the Voyager
spacecraft into deep space with the idea that hopefully, someday
an alien life form would find the spacecraft,
they put a gold record with a record player on there.
Yes, record-- goes back to the '70s.
And on that record, they put Beethoven.
They put Bach.
They put Indian chant.
They put African chant.
I believe they put Brahms.
And they put "Johnny B. Goode."
[MUSIC, "JOHNNY B. GOODE"]
You get the idea.
And there are so many different ways that you can play that.
You can go listen to many versions of this.
Some of the favorites that I like, Hendrix playing.
Hendrix in the West is the album that it came from.
He does a wonderful version of "Johnny B, Goode."
Johnny Winter-- Johnny Winter Live And is the name of the album.
It's a great album, and they do a wonderful version of "Johnny B. Goode."
Chuck Berry's, of course, the original.
And you can do this in many keys.
And also, remember, Back to the Future the movie?
That's one of the iconic scenes from that.
"Purple Haze," Jimi Hendrix.
I wanted to play the guitar because of Jimi Hendrix.
I wanted to play the guitar because of "Purple
Haze," Jimi Hendrix-- the first song on the Are You Experienced album.
I got so into "Purple Haze" that I bought purple clothes.
I painted my bedroom purple.
I had purple drapes.
Yes, I was into purple.
Now, you can't play "Purple Haze" on an archtop guitar, but I'll come close.
[MUSIC, "PURPLE HAZE"]
And thus, the Hendrix chord--
E7 sharp 9.
And you might as well have two Hendrix.
This is one of the greatest intros in rock history--
"Little Wing" by Hendrix.
This is just such a beautiful intro.
And it's based on the chord changes that are in the actual song itself.
It's just a wonderful introduction.
And the way he plays it is just gorgeous.
And if you listen to the many different versions that exist of "Little Wing,"
you find that he changes it subtly every time that he plays it.
So I'm going to paraphrase a little bit as I'm playing it, as well.
[MUSIC, "LITTLE WING"]
"25 or 6 to 4," by Chicago--
this introduction leads into the song and this is played
throughout most of the song here.
So even though it's an introduction, it's
actually taken from the body of the song.
[MUSIC, "25 OR 6 TO 4"]
You can't go into a guitar store without hearing this next one--
no introduction necessary.
[GUITAR PLAYING]
How about some R&B intro?
Temptations.
[GUITAR PLAYING]
If you hear that, everybody knows that song.
It's just so much ingrained as part of the song.
This last one, "It Had to Be You," by Harry Connick Jr,
I'm not even going to attempt to play.
It's not doable on the guitar.
What's important about this is that you get this very simple song.
[MUSIC, "IT HAD TO BE YOU"]
(SINGING)
It had to be you.
With a two-feel at the beginning.
And the introduction that precedes it, is particular to this Harry Connick
arrangement.
I don't want to tell you anything more about that.
I want you to listen to it and hear how the introduction relates
to the actual song itself.
I think you'll enjoy it.