Easy Guitar CM for Giant Steps

[JonnyPac]

This is a super easy CM version I whipped up for Coltrane's Giant Steps. It needs a bass player to walk under it in order to fully realize it. Perhaps one of you CM wizards can doctor up a guitar bass part. I played it with my trio and it sounded nice.

It only uses small classic guitar chord shapes, so it is easy to play at super high speeds. I chose to use a lot of diatonic sub 4th partial voicings in place of the maj7 and some dom7 chords. You can use alternatives if you like. It's just a skeletal version with lots of room to personalize to taste.

There is one voicing per melody note here. Have fun!




-14--------7-------6---7---5---------------
-14---15---7---8---6---5---5----------------
-13---14---7---7---5---5---5----------------
-13---14---5---6---5---5---4----------------
---------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------

-10--------3-------2---3-------6---7---5---
-10---11---3---4---2---1---6---6---5---5---
-9----10---3---3---1---1---5---5---5---5---
-9----10---1---2---1---1---6---5---5---4---
---------------------------5----------------
---------------------------------------------

-10---11---9---14---15---15---18---11---11---
-10---9----9---14---13---13---18---9----9---
-9----9----9---13---13---13---17---9----9---
-9----9----8---13---13---12---17---9----8---
---------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------

[FatJeff]

I'll try this out in the fall semester when I have to learn this tune. Right now I've got my hands full with Confirmation, 26-2, Invitation, etc.

[dyross]

Cool CM arrangement! I like the chords a lot.

One quick tip:

If you are having trouble getting the formatting to look right, try the CODE tags and it makes the text fixed width. So something like this:

-14--------7-------6---7---5---------------
-14---15---7---8---6---5---5---------------
-13---14---7---7---5---5---5---------------
-13---14---5---6---5---5---4---------------
-------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------
 

[JakeAcci]

Changed the font





-14--------7-------6---7---5---------------
-14---15---7---8---6---5---5----------------
-13---14---7---7---5---5---5----------------
-13---14---5---6---5---5---4----------------
---------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------

-10--------3-------2---3-------6---7---5---
-10---11---3---4---2---1---6---6---5---5---
-9----10---3---3---1---1---5---5---5---5---
-9----10---1---2---1---1---6---5---5---4---
---------------------------5----------------
---------------------------------------------

-10---11---9---14---15---15---18---11---11---
-10---9----9---14---13---13---18---9----9---
-9----9----9---13---13---13---17---9----9---
-9----9----8---13---13---12---17---9----8---
---------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------

[JonnyPac]

Looks good, thanks man.

[benguitar]

I like it!!

[oilywrag]

Try this one.You might like it..

Enjoy Tom

[Silence]

This is great. I had a lot of fun learning this. Thanks, Pac.

[JonnyPac]

You're more than welcome! Thanks!

[Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D]

Very fun indeed! It is vary wide ranging melody. It goes from the 1st position all the way to the 18th fret! Now to try soloing...

[JonnyPac]

Bump for those who want to play around with this.

[brwnhornet59]

Originally Posted by dyross

Cool CM arrangement! I like the chords a lot.

One quick tip:

If you are having trouble getting the formatting to look right, try the CODE tags and it makes the text fixed width. So something like this:

-14--------7-------6---7---5---------------
-14---15---7---8---6---5---5---------------
-13---14---7---7---5---5---5---------------
-13---14---5---6---5---5---4---------------
-------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------
 

Great tip!!! Thanx.

[FatJeff]

Just checked it out. Nice voicings. That 18th fret is a little out of bounds for me on my JZ4 (Florentine cutaway), though, and there's no way I could hit it on my Godin 5th Ave (no cutaway). I'll see if I can knock the whole thing down an octave - hopefully the voicings still work.

[FatJeff]

OK, here's my try at knocking it down an octave. Some of the 4ths voicings sound like mud in the lower registers, so I changed them up a little bit for more traditional voicings (triadic). And especially when things get real low (like the melody diving down to that D# in the 6th measure), I dropped some of the accompanying notes - in that D# example, it almost sounds better all by itself.

Also Johnny, I think in your example, your last two melody notes are incorrect (you've got Ds when I think they should be F#s)...so I corrected that in this version.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

-------------------------------------------------
-7-----------------------------------------------
-6---7---4-------3-------4---2-------------------
-6---7---4---5---5-------2---4-------------------
-6---7---5---5---6-------3---3-------------------
-------------6-----------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------
-3-----------------------------------------------
-2----3---------------------------3------4---2---
-2----3----5-------4------5---3---3------2---4---
-2----3----5---6---4------6---5---3------3---3---
-----------6--(6)--6-----(4)-(4)-(3)-------------

----------------------------------------------------
-3-------4---2---7-------8----6----11------7----7---
-2-------4---3---6-------8----7----10------9----9---
-2-------2---2---6-------6----6----10------9----8---
-2------(4)------6------(8)--------10----------(9)--
------------(2)--------------(6)----------(9)-------

[JonnyPac]

Originally Posted by FatJeff

Just checked it out. Nice voicings. That 18th fret is a little out of bounds for me on my JZ4 (Florentine cutaway), though, and there's no way I could hit it on my Godin 5th Ave (no cutaway). I'll see if I can knock the whole thing down an octave - hopefully the voicings still work.

When I play it; I use the voicings as indicated. On my acoustic w/o cutaway I move some voicings so that a harmony note is in place of the melody (octave lower) here and there; but using upper partials as you tabbed usually sounds kinda muddy, IMO. Upper structures gotta be upper!

Thanks for checking it out.