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I'm Your Palby Chuck BianchiThis project began as a homework assignment while I was studying at Berklee College of Music. It was in a chord lab for 5 and 6 string electric bass. The assignment was simple: take a jazz melody and arrange it as a chord solo using the concepts we were discussing in class. Wanting to avoid the "standards", I chose something a bit more obscure than a tune like Autumn Leaves. I did this for a couple of different reasons. First of all, I figured it would be a song other students were unlikely to choose, so I would be judged for what I did and not against someone else. But more importantly, I wanted to arrange something that I never heard before so that I would have no preconceived idea of what it should sound like. It was almost like composing an original piece, something that I was much more comfortable doing.  The lead sheet shows the melody and chords that I had to work with. I made only a few small changed to the melody and used the chord inversions that are indicated in the music to construct the "bass line." From there I just filled in the chords trying to avoid notes that were already present in the melody and bass. I also avoided the 5th of the chords because unless it is augmented or diminished, the 5th is implied. This is because major, minor and dominant chords share the same 5th. The 3rd and 7th chord tones, or guide tones, give the chords their distinctive sound. I play the entire piece using a guitar-like fingerstyle technique. My thumb plays the notes on the B and E strings. The A string is played with my index finger, the D with my middle finger and the G is played with my ring finger. The only exception is the harmonic in measure one. That is played by placing the thumb over the node at the 24th fret and plucking the string with the index finger. Enjoy! Chuck Bianchi |
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