Kite Guitar translations by Kite Giedraitis: Difference between revisions

TallKite (talk | contribs)
TallKite (talk | contribs)
Triadic Songs: added "Getting In Tune"
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=== Getting In Tune (The Who) ===
Hah, with a title like that, who can resist translating it? I'm using absolute notation (notes) rather than relative notation (roman numerals) because of the many modulations.
<tt>
  verse:  |  Fv      /      Bb2      /    |  Fv      /        Bb2      /    |\
          |  Fv      /      Bb2      /    |  Fv      /        C4      Cv    | \
          |                                  |                                  |  (2x)
chorus:  |  Fv      Eb^9    ^Gv7      ^Abv6  |  /      Bbv      Fv      /    | /
          |                                  |                                  |/
bridge:  | vG^m7    /      EbvM7    /    |  Bbv      /       
          |  Cv      C4      Cv        C4    |  Cv      C4      Cv      C4    | (2x)
          |                                  |                                  |
  verse:  |  Gv      /      C2        /    |  Gv      /        C2      /    |
          |  Gv      /      C2        /    |  Gv      /        D4      Dv    |
          |                                  |                                  |
chorus:  |  Gv      F^9    ^Av7      ^Bbv6  |  /      Cv      Gv      /    | (2x)
          |                                  |                                  |
bridge:  | vA^m7    /      FvM7      /    |  Cv      /       
          |  Dv      D4      Dv        D4    |  Dv      D4      Dv      D4    | (many times)
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The 2nd half of the song is the same as the first half, just a major 2nd higher. Translating the verse ("I'm singing this note...") is extremely straightforward. (Note that the vocal melody uses only chord roots, 5ths and sus 2nds, so it actually *is* right in tune even in 12edo!)
In the chorus ("Right in on you..."), the vocal melody stays on the F. Thus F must relate well to all the chords. F is a M9 from Eb, a m7 from G, a M6 from Ab and a 5th from Bb. Let's add in the ups and downs. The Eb chord's root must be a plain Eb, because an ^Eb or vEb chord would have a 5th of ^Bb or vBb, which would make an offperfect 5th with the vocal's F. The G chord plus the vocal's F note must be either ^Gv7 or vG^7, or possibly Gv,7. The Ab chord must be ^Abv to get a consonant vM6 from the root to F. (vAb^ would be too dissonant, especially with the vocal adding a 6th to make vAb^6, and especially with this chord being held extra long.) The Bb chord is of course Bbv.
The Eb chord and the G chord have common tones. Thus our choice of a G chord helps determine our Eb chord. To avoid a pitch shift, we can rule out Gv,7. vG^7 implies Ebv, and ^Gv7 implies Eb^ (or more likely Eb^7, because adding the 7th makes it more consonant). Thus one of the chords will be harmonic and the other subharmonic. In this situation, I usually put the more dissonant subharmonic chord in the less prominent place. If the chords change on every bar, this means putting it on a "backbar", i.e. the 2nd or 4th bar of a 4-bar section, or the 2nd, 4th, 6th or 8th bar of an 8-bar section. (By analogy with downbeat/backbeat, the odd-numbered bars are "downbars".) In this case, with the chords changing every half-bar, I put the subharmonic chord on the "back half" of the bar, to get Fv - Eb^9 - ^Gv7 - ^Abv6. The root movement from ^Gv7 to ^Abv6 is a plain m2, whereas using vG^7 would create an odd-sounding ~2 movement from vG to ^Ab.
Of course, one could avoid subharmonic chords entirely and have Ebv and ^Gv7. This creates a fairly obvious one-fret pitch shift from vG to ^G. While this can work in an original piece, that's too blatantly microtonal for a 12edo translation. I prefer the IMO relatively mild harmonic/vertical dissonance of a subharmonic chord over the IMO more extreme melodic/horizontal dissonance of a large pitchshift.
The bridge is straightforward. We want plain Bb and C roots, to keep the sense of key. To avoid an offperfect root move, Eb must be plain as well. Again, the G chord and the Eb chord have common tones, so we want a vG root.