Charlie Metcalf
04-22-2011, 02:41 PM
I'm working on Rodgers & Hart's "Manhattan". I'm playing it from a 1979 issue of "Sheet Music Magazine". They published it in F.
After studying Jelani Eddington's book about theater organ arranging I saw how strongly he recommend key modulations. I repeated the first five notes of the melody to chromatically walk up a step. Then I walked down the bass to E and raised the leading tone to G# to have an E7, so I was ready to go around again, but this time in the key of A. I wrote out the melody with just the chords and left it on my own to work out the left hand and bass while playing.
Much to my surprise in the key of A I saw all kinds of new opportunities to enhance the song. Alternate ways of chord inversions and chromatic bass lines that I hadn't considered in F were suddenly obvious in A.
This has been a way cool exercise. I'm sure my wife is getting tired of hearing me play it though.
After studying Jelani Eddington's book about theater organ arranging I saw how strongly he recommend key modulations. I repeated the first five notes of the melody to chromatically walk up a step. Then I walked down the bass to E and raised the leading tone to G# to have an E7, so I was ready to go around again, but this time in the key of A. I wrote out the melody with just the chords and left it on my own to work out the left hand and bass while playing.
Much to my surprise in the key of A I saw all kinds of new opportunities to enhance the song. Alternate ways of chord inversions and chromatic bass lines that I hadn't considered in F were suddenly obvious in A.
This has been a way cool exercise. I'm sure my wife is getting tired of hearing me play it though.