God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen & a little James Bond

Dale Rottacker · Post by **Dale Rottacker** » 20 Dec 2024 8:04 am

Not my favorite Christmas song, but once I warmed up to it, had a lot of fun making this.

https://youtu.be/t1UuEV8sfw0

Jim Mckay · Post by **Jim Mckay** » 20 Dec 2024 10:57 am

Find some nice substitute chords, a bit of swing and the most boring of songs sound pretty.

Very nice Dale. I always look forward to your renditions.

Dale Rottacker · Post by **Dale Rottacker** » 21 Dec 2024 6:27 am

Jim Mckay wrote:Find some nice substitute chords, a bit of swing and the most boring of songs sound pretty.
Very nice Dale. I always look forward to your renditions.

Thanks so much Jim ... I had trouble connecting to parts of this song, and then heard a Beegie Adair version of this with the James Bond theme underlying the first section and just thought it was very cool. I tried using the Chords she used for the rest of it but couldn't get BIAB play them with the same feel she had, so after the James Bond section just went back to how I'd been doing the rest of the song, before hearing Beegie.

Larry Dering · Post by **Larry Dering** » 21 Dec 2024 11:39 am

Dale you're killing me. Every time you post I wanna sit at my steel and try it. Unfortunately the thumb is out of commission so at best I can only cheer you on. I truly love how you did this.You're making Christmas music fun again.

Jim Mckay · Post by **Jim Mckay** » 21 Dec 2024 11:48 am

Dale Rottacker wrote: I tried using the Chords she used for the rest of it but couldn't get BIAB play them with the same feel she had

I often have the same problem with BIAB finding the right sounding chords, as my music theory is very limited,
Sometimes I use the internet to find chord formulars, to try to get the sound I'm after. Some work a lot don't, making the backing track time consuming and frustrating.
As an example, sometimes where a minor 7th is used for one bar, I'll use the minor 7th for the first two beats then maybe the related 9th for the second to beats. That's just one combination from others of course. This can often change the bass line and or rhythm that I'm after.
I mostly use at least two or more backing tracks for recording, with just bass on one track, rhythm on the others etc. and try to trick BIAB to voice what I'm looking for.

Regardless Dale, your backing tracks sound great to me as the rest of your mixing. Keep them coming.

Dale Rottacker · Post by **Dale Rottacker** » 22 Dec 2024 3:27 pm

Jim Mckay wrote:
Dale Rottacker wrote: I tried using the Chords she used for the rest of it but couldn't get BIAB play them with the same feel she had
I often have the same problem with BIAB finding the right sounding chords, as my music theory is very limited,
Sometimes I use the internet to find chord formulars, to try to get the sound I'm after. Some work a lot don't, making the backing track time consuming and frustrating.
As an example, sometimes where a minor 7th is used for one bar, I'll use the minor 7th for the first two beats then maybe the related 9th for the second to beats. That's just one combination from others of course. This can often change the bass line and or rhythm that I'm after.
I mostly use at least two or more backing tracks for recording, with just bass on one track, rhythm on the others etc. and try to trick BIAB to voice what I'm looking for.

Regardless Dale, your backing tracks sound great to me as the rest of your mixing. Keep them coming.

If your theory knowledge is as limited as mine I feel sorry for you

... I understand chord structure but get really thrown when a certain set of notes can have more than one name, i.e., C6th and Am as an example, and then "it depends what the bass is playing". I've got a headache just typing that out LOL.

I might try that m7-m9 thing to change the bass note ... I've tried using the "Micro" thing in BIAB, but with me its pretty much ALL trial and error.

Jim Mckay · Post by **Jim Mckay** » 22 Dec 2024 6:27 pm

[/quote]I might try that m7-m9 thing to change the bass note ... [/quote]

Hi Dale.
I wasn't very clear with my description.

My Bad. $:\$
I meant to say the minor chord (not m7) to the 9th chord as in my Pictures below of BIAB "Till There Was You" Beatles The Music Man. EG: In bars 8 & 16 (Fm To Bb9th)

A link to my version "Till There Was You". Please excuse my level of playing. I'm light years behind you Dale, but maybe you can hear my rhythm track at least.
Played on my Fender T-8.
https://soundcloud.com/jimjam1952/till-there-was-you

Dale Rottacker · Post by **Dale Rottacker** » 23 Dec 2024 5:34 am

Jim Mckay wrote:

I might try that m7-m9 thing to change the bass note ... [/quote]

A link to my version "Till There Was You". Please excuse my level of playing. I'm light years behind you Dale, but maybe you can hear my rhythm track at least.
Played on my Fender T-8.
https://soundcloud.com/jimjam1952/till-there-was-you[/quote]

Jim that was really nice and played really well. I've dabbled with this song off and on for a few years and then get sidetracked so never get it where I want it. I do it on E9th with those opening 3-4 chords done on one fret, thanks to how I have my 9th string setup.