Outside Jazz notes in Wondeful Land by the Shadows? Surely not?

deano

I'm transcribing Wonderful Land by The Shadows. A lovely little tune that many will know.

It's in C Major, but contains two notes that are not in C Major, they are F#/Gb and G#, G being the 5th note of the A major scale of course, so there is a sharp fifth and either a sharpened 4 or flattened fifth.

But I'm not sure what these notes are classed as and why they work. There is no lingering on them and the tune quickly moves to other notes which are in the key.

Would someone be able to explain why these notes work? Why don't they sound "clashy"? If I replace them with an adjacent note in the key why does that sound wrong? Is it because they are wrong, but because it is a tune we've heard a million times it has just become the norm? It is confusing me. Surely people who don't stick to diatonic notes are long-haired, drug-addled jazz fiends, not upright, clean-living pillars of society like Hank Marvin? The world's gone mad!

tone1

Can you send me the tab when you’re done transcribing please? 

viz

This song was number 1 for 8 weeks - the longest-running number 1 in 1962! Not bad for a 2-minute guitar instrumental!

https://youtu.be/S1dmBUBu9P4

It’s quite an ambiguous little piece whose home note shifts between G and C a few times throughout. Understanding these transitions and getting to grips with the underlying harmonic backdrop of both keys will help us understand these odd notes, the F# and G# (actually that’s an Ab). So for reference here are is the harmony with the chords in question in bold. 

Intro: G F G F G F G F 

Section 1: G D F C / C F Bb G

Section 2: C Em C F Dm C G Dm Fm Em Em Em 

(Repeat Section 1)

Section 3: C Em F G C Em F G / C G F G Em Em Em

(Repeat section 1)
(Repeat section 3)
(Repeat intro fade out)


The F#:

On hearing the intro for the first time and not knowing what’s to come, you’d be forgiven for concluding the song were in G, as G is clearly the home-note for the first quarter of a minute. There’s a further nuance, because the intro has the chords G - F - G - F etc, where F is the bVII of G. This means it’s in G Mixolydian.

Now, Mixolydian is the only major mode with a minor v chord, which allows that bVII note (the F) to come out. In other words Mixolydian lacks a proper Dominant (V) chord and the D chord ‘ought’ to be a D minor. 

What is often done however, to strengthen the dominant feeling, is to majorise the v to a V, and therefore allow an F#, just while the D chord is playing.

So in Wonderful Land section 1 is:

G -   D(major) -      F      -     C
I  -        V        -     bVII    -    IV

Hence the F#. 



After that the whole tonal centre changes, and they decide that the IV chord is now the I, and we’re in C major! They do this by repeating the C and playing C - F - Bb - G, which would have been IV - bVII - bIII - I, but it becomes evident this is actually I - IV - bVII - V in the new key of C. In terms of traditional harmony this is rather an abrupt and unconventional transition, but that’s why The Shadows were seen as fresh and groundbreaking. 

By the way that Bb chord is also interesting though it doesn’t make itself felt in the melody which is why you haven’t asked about it; it ‘ought’ to have been a vii(dim) - a B diminished - in fact it’s a bVII. I call this the cowboy flat-7th chord. It’s really common in western films, to herald the V chord. 


The Ab:

Ok so now the tonal centre of G is forgotten and we’re properly in C major. 


The chords of section 2 are:

C Em C F Dm C G Dm   Fm          Em Em Em
I   iii    I  IV  ii    I  V  ii     iv (minor)  iii    iii    iii

Everything pootles along quite nicely till we hit that minor iv chord, F minor, which instead of an A has an Ab. Although this is a real stand-out moment in the song it’s actually very common, but it always has a startling effect. It’s normally preceeded by a major IV chord (like in the chorus of Oasis’s Don’t Look Back in Anger) but here it comes straight after a Dm. It’s very effective because it brings a minor 6th to an otherwise C major scale and makes it more pensive. Rachmaninov used it A LOT. I think it’s the single feature that makes this song stand out - it’s rather unexpected and gives the whole song a totally new perspective and without it the song would be half what it is. 

edit - it occurs to me that understanding and describing melody is much easier once the harmonies and chord functions are clear. It becomes instinctive over time but is a really important area to develop as you play. 

deano

Wow! Thanks for that Viz, that's brilliant.

I must admit, I haven't worked out the harmony, just the melody notes, but as you say understanding the underlying chords does help with understanding the underlying melody.

There is a lot to take in there and I need to work through it all slowly but it does highlight one thing to me immediately; that music is timeless. There is a common musical thread linking Rachmaninov, Hank Marvin, and the Gallagher brothers!

viz

deano said:

Wow! Thanks for that Viz, that's brilliant.

I must admit, I haven't worked out the harmony, just the melody notes, but as you say understanding the underlying chords does help with understanding the underlying melody.

There is a lot to take in there and I need to work through it all slowly but it does highlight one thing to me immediately; that music is timeless. There is a common musical thread linking Rachmaninov, Hank Marvin, and the Gallagher brothers!

Cool isn’t it

deano

viz said:

deano said:

Wow! Thanks for that Viz, that's brilliant.

I must admit, I haven't worked out the harmony, just the melody notes, but as you say understanding the underlying chords does help with understanding the underlying melody.

There is a lot to take in there and I need to work through it all slowly but it does highlight one thing to me immediately; that music is timeless. There is a common musical thread linking Rachmaninov, Hank Marvin, and the Gallagher brothers!

Cool isn’t it

Very!

Your post has highlighted that I need to work on transcribing harmonies. I am not bad at working out single note melody lines, but I am really weak when it comes to working out the underlying chords, so I shall work on that more.

But who would have thought that a seemingly straightforward tune like Wonderful Land by a band as middle-of-the-road as The Shadows contained moments of cleverness like you have described above. But that is why, as you said, they were seen then as fresh and original. Nowadays we have become jaded and see them as bland and old-fashioned, but they were using little bits of cleverness in their music decades before Oasis used them.

Those old guys knew a thing or two didn't they?

viz

Yes, I can’t say it’s quite my cup of tea and I don’t know much about their influences but yep, I guess their music is ok-ish!

guitartango

@deano Jerry Lordan wrote the music, Hank just made it into the hit it was.