Genre: Jazz Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs) Key: G#/Ab Tuning: Drop C (gCGBD) Difficulty: Expert
Posted by 5-String, updated: 12/5/2017
Download: TABLEDIT
Notes: This is my arrangement of my favorite Christmas tune, "The Christmas Song" by Mel Torme. The key is A flat (Ab hereafter), but it's not as bad as one might think. I discovered that if you drop the low D string down to a C, it sort of opens up the fretboard to the key of Ab. The low C note is the 3rd of Ab, and can be used as a drone. There are 2 G strings, which are the major 7th of Ab, and easily add a jazzy voicing to the Ab chord making it "Ab maj7". Also, the high G is a scale tone, so "melodic/Keith" style lines can still easily be played. The trickier part is in the 2nd section, where you have to play the melody and the bass line at the same time. The arrangement is meant to be played in a sort of ad lib style. This kind of timing was difficult to reproduce in TablEdit. It is reasonably close, but you can watch my video here on the Hangout to maybe get a little more realistic sense of the intended feel.
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