Dolphin Dance of Death...

[mattymel]

hey. had kind of a breakthrough lately with this beast of a tune. well...once a beast. not tamed yet, but pretty much house broken. i have come to the conclusion that this one requires (at least for me) a different approach as to the changes that most people talk about.

mainly im referring to the "pedal" sections...

in many books the "g pedal" is starting on GMa7 G7sus G7#11 G7sus...i have started using more of a slash chord approach, first (and most importantly) in how i think of the chords, then also in how i play over them. instead now i am think GMa7 F/G A/G F/G. as soon as i used this...whoot THERE IT IS.

moving on, the next section (sometimes an "F pedal", sometimes not) are usually written C-7 F13b9 Cmi7 E-7 A7...instead, try Eb/F D/F Eb/F E-7 A7...

lastly, and my favorite, the Eb pedal at the end of the tune. ive seen so many different weird ways to play this over the years...ive finally started using Db/Eb C/Eb Db/Eb D-7b5 G7b9...

briefly, as to how ive been soloing...the triad stuff is HUGE...mainly because i am finally hearing all the "right" notes to emphasize that were once scattered randomly through a bunch of seemingly random scales. now the voice leading is so smooth and 10 times easier to remember.

this tune has been kind of a revelation to me as ive been applying my approach on it to other songs as well. mainly thinking in terms of finding superimposed triads (and hexatonics...two triads as well) as a way to navigate through any progression. the beauty of it is that ive heard people doing this all along and never really GOT it because i was still thinking too much in terms of silly scales/modes.

i also find the use of triads off of the 6th(13...for example C/Eb) for getting a Dom13b9 sound especially helpful. makes the Dominant Diminished scale seem no so daunting as it once was. anyhow...id be interested in hearing anybody else's approach to this tune. herbie...you triad lover you...

[JohnW400]

That's great. The part that I am not sure about is the at the end before the turn around. I usually play :

Bbmi7| G/Bb| Abma7#5/Bb| Dmi7b5 G7|

But I'm not sure that's correct. I saw the changes on the AAJ site posted by Ed Byrne But I'm not sold on those. I think Jeff Brent even posted a thread about what he thought they were after sitting down with the recording.

What do you play for that section?

[JakeAcci]

I haven't played on this tune in a while, but +1 on the triad approach instead of a chord scale approach. Looking at triads to use over this type of progression certainly makes the improvised melodies capable of being much stronger yet still reflecting the change well.

But honestly whenever I see G7sus4 I pretty much immediately go to F major triad or Fmaj7 in my head. It's not always a triad, but for any chord type that is a mouthful I tend to have a simpler substitute chord to go to.

I generally don't like the sound of 7 note chord scales over this type of progression.

Also, I liked something Reg had to say about the tune, regarding the 'correct' changes. I might be incorrectly paraphrasing, but I think he pointed out the fact that if you're playing this tune on a gig with folks, if it's at a high level then people are going to pulling from different harmonic areas all the time rather than staying strict to a transcription, so it makes sense to listen and be flexible.

Similarly, it's interesting to think about the benefits of knowing the real changes as they are played on the album vs. knowing the changes that people will actually play when they call the tune on the gig.

[JohnW400]

I found this , which looks pretty interesting. I've probably been playing the last section incorrectly though.

An Analysis of “Dolphin Dance” | From the Woodshed