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Hi, The song of the week is Handsome Molly in the key of A. Recordings Here are 4 versions of the song to listen to. See how many differences you can notice among these in terms of form and arrangement. As you observe the differences, consider how these could lead to a great deal of confusion when playing the song for the first time at a jam in which some people are more familiar with one version, while others are more familiar with a different version. Flatt & Scruggs: key of A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ughi19PTkeY The Country Gentlemen - key of A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdyRyQAlWNA Doc Watson: key of G http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ-wq5iq7OA Stanley Brothers: key of G http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icqVstEBN6c Progression, Form, and Arrangement The form and arrangement of Handsome Molly on the Doc Watson recording is the most straightforward of the four versions of Handsome Molly given here. So, let's use Doc's version as our starting point for thinking about the chord progression. On the Doc Watson recording, the same 8 measure sequence is consistently repeated all throughout the song: 1115 5551 (In the key of G: 1=G and 5=D. In the key of A: 1=A and 5=E) Each verse is 8 measures long, with 2 verses being sung back to back between the breaks. The breaks are 16 measures long (i.e., twice through the 8 measure progression). Notice that in Doc's version there is no room for fillin licks to be played at the end of any of the lines. In all the other versions, extra measures of the '1' chord are inserted into the progression for the breaks, and in some of them, during the vocal sections as well, so as to allow room for fillin licks to be played, resulting in a more typically Bluegrass-sounding arrangement of the song. I have written these extra measures where fillins can be played in bold print in what follows. On the Flatt & Scruggs recording, each verse is 8 measures long, but Doc's second verse ("While sailing round the ocean, while sailing round the sea, etc.") functions as a chorus here. The arrangement is highly unusual for a song that has a chorus in that there is one spot in the song in which two verses are sung back to back followed by a break rather than by a chorus. The chorus, like the verses, is 8 measures long, except for the last chorus which is 9 measures long, allowing for a typical 2-measure ending lick to be played on the instruments over the '1' chord: 1115 55511 The breaks are 10 measures long: 1115 555111 On the Stanley Brothers recording, the breaks are 18 measures long: 1115 5551 1115 555111 Each verse is 9 measures long, with 2 verses being sung back to back between the breaks: 1115 55511 On The Country Gentlemen recording, the breaks are 19 measures long: 1115 5551 1115 5551111 Each verse is 9 measures long, and each chorus is 9 measures long: 1115 55511 Just like in the Flatt and Scruggs version, so also in the Country Gentlemen's version, the arrangement is highly unusual for a song that has a chorus in that there is one spot in the song in which a break intervenes between two verses without a chorus coming before the break: the arrangement being: Break Verse Chorus Break Verse Chorus Break Verse Verse Break Verse Chorus The way that I lead the song at the jam uses the form that Flatt & Scruggs used for the verses and choruses (i.e., each verse is 8 measures long, and each chorus, except for the last one, is 8 measures long; the last chorus is 9 measures long), but, instead of the breaks being 10 measures long, they are 17 measures long: 1115 5551 1115 55511 Breaks Since the last line of the chorus (or verse occurring right before a break) is played in some versions as a 5 measure line (55511), and in other versions as a 4 measure line (5551), it is necessary at a jam to play your break in a manner that makes it clear as to where exactly your break has started, so as to help your fellow jammers avoid confusion as to when to change to the 5 chord during the first line of your break. When playing Handsome Molly in accord with the form that I use when leading the song at the jam, in which the last line of the chorus before a break is 5551, this can be accomplished by confidently playing three quarter-note pickup notes immediately after the last syllable of the chorus has been sung, and then following this by hitting the first melody note of the first complete measure of the break with extra force. (For the key of A, the pickup series I tend to use is: F#, F#, F, which leads down to an E note. For the key of G, the equivalent notes are E, E, Eb, which leads down to a D note.) In the event that 2 breaks are played back to back, be careful not to start into the second break a measure too early: allow the first break to end with a complete 5 measure line: 55511. When playing Handsome Molly in a version that uses a 55511 line for the last line of a chorus or verse occurring before a break, just simply insert a 1 measure fillin lick between the last syllable of the chorus and your three pickup notes, and this will make it clear where your break has started within this form. Happy Pickin', Jason
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The chord progression for 'Take This Hammer' is V9 on the Basic Progressions chart. As I pointed out last night, this progression consists of the progression used to play Little Birdie: 1155 5511, followed immediately by the last 8 measures of the progression used to play Bury Me Beneath The Willow - V7: 1144 1511. Other songs that have been played at the various incarnations of the beginner and intermediate jams that use Prog. V9 include: Banks Of The Ohio, Love Me Darling Just Tonight (on the current additional 30 list for the beginner jam), 99 Years And One Dark Day, and the chorus of In The Sweet By And By. Goodnight Irene (on the current additional list for the beginner jam) and the chorus of Blue Ridge Mountain Blues use the closely related W9 Progression that consists of the Little Birdie progression: 11555511 followed by the Blue Ridge Cabin Home progression: 11445511. Here is a good version of Take This Hammer from the Osborne Brothers to listen to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRG0Yor_GRA Sheet music: abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/mirror/musicaviva.com/tunes/usa/take-this-hammer/0000 Handsome Molly:
The chord progression used for Handsome Molly last night was: 1115 5551 repeated twice, with some versions of the song consistently adding an extra 1 at the end of the progression, or doing so both at the end of the progression and in the middle of the progression (and not just between a break and the next verse, where one expects in many Bluegrass songs than an extra measure or more of the 1 might be added to the end of the progression before it starts over again). Here's a version that comes close to how we played Handsome Molly last night - though, unlike on this recording, the breaks we played were twice as long (16 measures + however many extra measures of the 1 might elapse between a break and the next verse, rather than just only 8 +...). What tends to throw people off about the following type of arrangement is how quickly the breaks come after the vocal ends (only one measure of the 1 chord at the end of the progression, rather than the much more typical two measures of the 1 chord for a 16 measure (4x4-type) progression that allows for a 1 measure length fillin lick to be played before the pickup measure that leads into the break. (Almost always, and Handsome Molly is no exception to this, the last syllable sung in a verse or a chorus coincides with the final change back to the 1 chord in the progression.) Notice that every progression in rows V, W, and X of the basic chord progressions handout (i.e., every single one of the 16- measure progressions on the chart) ends with two measures of the 1 chord. Playing the final line of the progression as 55511, as in some alternate versions, therefore, could make playing through the progression feel a bit more like playing through the progressions in the three top rows of the basic progressions chart, even though it would involve playing a 5-measure, rather than a 4-measure, line. Flatt & Scruggs - Handsome Molly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ughi19PTkeY |
Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2017 - 2018
Songs regularly called at the Beginner Bluegrass Jam and links from Jason's "Song of the Week" emails. (from Renee)
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