Ain’t No Sunshine, a rhythmical deconstruction
Ain’t no Sunshine was Bill Withers first single, it quickly became a well known track.
Ain’t no sunshine is a soul classic that has become a ‘standard’ among working musicians the world over. As a guitarist you might be expected to know this tune should you ever play a cover gig with no preparation.
To understand why this was a hit we shall in this blog look at cyclic rhythmical patterns, note choices and the art of repetition. But first, let's watch the video.
Finger style Pattern
The goal is to get the III and V chord to move the vocal phrasing along.
The back beat pattern does this in a very simple way. So first try playing Ain’t no sunshine with just this basic rhythm.
The bass works against the chord in a claw comping technique, use the video, the diy tab sheet of the conspiracy and the Members TAB to fully work this piece out.
Vocal melody
The rhythm is essential. The first two sixteenths start on beat 2, this immediately brings the focus of the listener to the singer because beat 2 feels more unexpected than beat 1.
The rhythm section, in this case just a guitar, plays two 8th notes over beat one, a bar earlier than the vocal, and ends on the back beat of beats 1 in bar two.
When the vocal finish its phrase on beat 1 of bar three, the guitar takes over with it’s steady 8th notes, setting us up for the next vocal phrase. This cyclic rhythmical pattern moves the track along.
As you can see in this notation, the guitar and vocal use a call and response technique where they rhythmically ‘take turns’.
I know I know I know
After 26 'I knows' we get the picture, Bill knows that there is definitely no sunshine when she’s gone.
But how do you make 26 ‘I knows’ sound interesting?
Rhythmical placement, that’s how. And when you run out of that, add a note.
The variation Bill use is a pattern of 3, the rhythmical phrase last for 3 beats before it lands on a downbeat again.
To make things even more interesting this pattern of 3 beats use 4 ‘I knows’ each.
This type of rhythm is called a cross rhythm, a very useful musical tool.
The notes move between the b7, root and the low 5th. As soon as this becomes slightly boring Bill moves up to a min 3rd to really tell us that he knows.
This cross rhythm feast is finished by a wailing Bill seemingly loosing track of time but securely landing on beat 1 with “…but ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone”, and we’re back in with the steady 8th note pattern.
Minor pentatonic with an added 9th
As the guitar conspiracy states; you have to get to know all intervals inside every scale shape in order to become a free player. As we do this we add the 9th to the minor pentatonic, like David Gilmour of Pink Floyd often does.
This trick is what Bill Whiters use for his scalic pallete in Ain’t no sunshine as well.
A great exercise would be to take the instrumental video (clip 3 in the playlist) and play the vocal melody on electric guitar, constantly reference Bill’s phrasing in all its detail.
For maximum effect, do this in all positions of the minor pentatonic.
Next blog shall take a look at Blackbird by The Beatles.
-guru
How Stairway To Heaven used modal scales to reach the top
Stairway To Heaven, a modal masterpiece.
Stairway To Heaven, the most unlikely hit of all time. No other tune has been requested more on the radio in the U.S.A. Before we dive into the modal works of this tune let’s look at all the reasons for why this shouldn’t have been a hit!
- The vocal starts at 0:50. Usually the cliché is that the chorus has to kick in at 0:55 latest or it won’t be played on the radio.
- The tune is almost 8 min long, that’s twice as long as the maximum 4 min.
- It was never released as single!
That’s three pretty strong reasons for not getting on the radio…
So how did this tune become so huge?
When Stairway was released Led Zeppelin was a very well established band with several world tours under their belt.
The tune was a collaboration between all band members utilizing all their strengths as a unit.
The recorder(s) in the intro was played by John Paul Jones, who also added the ascending bass line which ties the genius modal progression together.
The odd time signatures before the solo that seem to flow so naturally shows John Bonham's genius of taking something complicated and making it sound natural purely through the way he plays it.
The lyrics were Robert Plants and the guitar chords and original concept was Jimi Page’s. The tune took well over a year to complete and Jimmy Page said in retrospect: “I have to do a lot of hard work before I can get anywhere near those stages of consistent, total brilliance.”
There was a stage of Stairways birth were it was played on piano, but this was later adapted for the guitar.
Why is Stairway To Heaven modal?
So let’s start to look at the modal works of this master piece. Before we begin, remember, No one in Led Zeppelin had any idea about this stuff, it is only in hindsight that we can see these things. But by looking at it like this, we can learn from it. Let’s begin.
Usually people refer to Stairway as: it’s in A minor. Most likely they say this because the intro starts with Am, and the solo use Am, G & F, which are classic chords to solo over in A minor. All Along The Watchtower for example use the same progression. But actually, it’s not in A minor, it’s in A minor, A Dorian and A Melodic Minor. The majority of the tune is in A Dorian and A Melodic Minor.
Using the DIY TAB in The Guitar Conspiracy 2.0 we see how two keys are notated through out: C major (A minor/Aeolian) and G major (A Dorian).
The vocal melody however never hits the 6th interval, it completely stays away from it leaving the chords to move between these two keys giving the tune several modal interchanges and by doing this drives the track forward.
The second chord, an Am with an added 9th use the ascending bass lines G# and by doing this we are either in Harmonic minor or Melodic minor. The G# acting as a major 7th in relation to A.
The third chord, a C/G could either be in the key of G, so a IV/I or in the key of C as a I/V.
The fourth chord, a D/F# or a Bm7/F# carries on the ascending bassline and indicates that we no longer can be in Am or A harmonic minor, we have to be in the key of G here due to the F#.
The fifth chord, a Fmaj7 however tells us we can’t be in G major anymore, we have to be in C, Fmaj7 acting as the IVmaj7 chord.
These chords can therefore only be seen as modal, giving us:
Chord 1, A Dorian (or A Aeolian)
Chord 2, A Melodic Minor (A Dorian with a maj7)
Chord 3, A Dorian (or A Aeolian)
Chord 4, A Dorian
Chord 5, A Aeolian
Chord 6, A Aeolian (or A Dorian)
Chord 7, A Aeolian (or A Dorian)
The tension of this progression is paired with the very simple 8th note rhythm which makes it feel less adventurous. The vocal melody avoids hitting either the b6th to indicate Aeolian (F) or the natural 6th to indicate Dorian (F#).
The next part is the chorus (which doesn’t start until 2:15!) is in A Dorian throughout, giving it a more up-feel than Aeolian would have.
These two parts keep interchanging up until the breakdown at 5:35 where we get different odd time signatures almost every bar. The reason they don’t feel strange is because of the loose and behind the beat feel Bonham provides. If you buy the sheet music for this tune you will see how it’s notated 9/8, 4/4 etc. This is very difficult to follow so the conspiracy has written this part as a constant /8 time. Simply double the time throughout as you count and things should be much easier to understand.
The solo, as previously stated is in A Aeolian due to the Fmaj7. The opening lick (one of the two licks in this solo that Jimi Page wrote before the recording) ends on an F. This is the first time the 6th is played in the melody. Giving us a familiar release after 6 minutes of modal interchange!
The solo carries on into the final vocal section which is sung an octave up, still not utilizing the 6th.
The last vocal section is then followed by a second solo that ends on the Fmaj7 chord and Plant sings the final very drawn out line now for the first time staying in Aeolian.
Stairway To Heaven can only be compared to Queens masterpiece Bohemian Rhapsody which it ironically usually competes for the #1 spot of greatest rock tunes of all time.
So if your thinking of creating the next big thing, go modal and break all the rules that the music business have laid down as criteria’s to get on the radio, it certainly worked for Led Zeppelin!
Next blog will pick Ain’t No Sunshine apart and show how a factory worker can become world famous by singing “I know” 26 times.
-Guru