Wes Montgomery -- Sunny

Sunny by George Pasdirtz

I'm going to skip a bit ahead and layout an octave solo with a re-harmonized chord progression for Sunny (the first song I tried to play on jazz guitar--the background for this lesson is in earlier posts, particularly here). You can compare the octave solo and re-harmonization to the original lead sheet (you can download a MuseScore file here, but you will have to change the key to Eb/Cm). I'll explain how to play the chords in a harmonized solo and the music theory behind the reharmonization in later posts. For now, I'll just describe the octave solo and give you a challenging assignment to work on once you can play the octave solo.

The notation here is similar to the last post that showed the fingering for playing the C-minor scale in octaves (here with fingering charts here and here). To avoid clutter in the fingering above, I've just provided notation at the start of a sequence of notes that are played on the same strings. For example, we start the song playing an octave using the first finger on 5D (the fifth fret, third string up from low E) and the fourth finger on 8B, skipping the G-string in between. I don't change the fingering notation as long as we stay on the same string. When we change strings, for example in the second half of the second measure, the new fret position is annotate below (since the 1-4 fingering pattern stays the same, it is not changed). If you need help at any point with the fingering, go back to the C-minor scale in the previous post (here) where every position is identified for every note. The finger notation will eventually be reserved for difficult passages or where you want to make sure to start at a particular position on the finger board (since there are multiple places to play most notes). Right now you should be concentrating on learning where the notes are on the fingerboard.

Hopefully, while you are learning the octave solo you are also listening to the Wes Montgomery version of Sunny (here). Listen particularly to the jazz guitar approach which is hard to capture in notation (to play the stilted midi version of Sunny, hit the "Play" button in the upper left-hand corner above the score). Try to move your solo closer to Wes' approach. Also notice that the last two measures of the song are used as an introduction and as an extended vamp (or ostinato) after the first two improvisations.

Once you can play the octave solo, start listening to Wes improvise on the second and third times through the tune. Here's your assignment: does Wes continue playing in the same key or are there any key changes? If so, how many key changes and to what keys does he change? In a future post, I'll return to this issue as well as to the extend vamp after the first two improvisational choruses (HINT: Wes' entire approach to this tune can be described as a vamp or ostinato).

NOTE: If you find any errors in the pdf file, let me know.

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