Out Go The Lights - Transference - Spoon from Sean on Vimeo.

Arranged for one acoustic guitar in standard tuning.

Cheers all and thanks for reading.

As promised, here’s the show to check out! Let’s keep expectations in check here, as this is recorded using the Voice Memo app on my iPhone 3G[S], but DAMN not bad. I am just glad to have a memento of The Dodos side by side playing with what must have been 30 people in the Magik Magik Orchestra.

Please email me info@ill-legible.com if you would like a zip file of the tracks. Enjoy!

1. Untitled

2. Fools

3. Elves (with Ashley Intro)

4. Red and Purple

5. Troll Nacht

6. Two Medicines

7. Men

8. Ashley

9. God?

10. Beards

11. Undeclared

Watch the full concert at baeblemusic.com

I just saw the The Dodos play at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco as part of the inauguration of the always epic 2010 Noise Pop Festival. This show was mind blowing for all the usual reasons to see them, but also because they were backed up by Magik Magik Orchestra, a 30 person classical music assault vehicle. I was able to bootleg the show on my iPhone, but since we were in the front row right in front of a monitor it actually came out pretty decent!

I will post it after I process the sound a lil bit, so come on back or sign up for email subscription so you know when it’s up!

Enjoy! Sean

Grab my interpretation of the song for acoustic guitar here.

“Laundry Room” by The Avett Brothers from Sean on Vimeo.

*Because I am capoed on the 4th fret, we are actually playing in the Key of B major. Let’s talk about it as if it is in the key of G, since that is the notation I used.*

Lowercase roman numerals denote minor, uppercase major:

Intervals  I     ii    iii    IV    V     vi     vii*

Notes      G   A     B     C    D    E       F#

Chords   G  Am  Bm   C    D    Em    F#*

This song is largely diving back and forth between the I and IV chords, G and C. The Avett Brothers know this and to spice it up, the riffs below are used to create movement within each chord (Riff 1), and to build from one chord to next (Riff 2 & 3). I found that the subtle changes in the chords guided my voice to the melody the first few times I sang it. The E/G6 adds a middle E (second-fret 4th-string) to the G, while the C6 emphasizes the 2nd-fret 3rd-string A note, and the Cmaj7 adds a high B on the open-2nd string.

The Em-D-G-E/G6 breakdown at the end is a vi-V-I-iv, as E/G6 is like a fancy way of saying “inverted C major chord”. Or maybe that is more fancy, I don’t know.

Here’s one I had fun with in roughing out some wallpaper for my dual monitors at work, it deals with using the Average command in Illustrator, custom art brushes and multiple strokes on one object to get a hand drawn effect on type or any shape:

Without further ado, here is my first featured lesson with video, Radiohead’s “Airbag” distilled down to one acoustic guitar.

Download my interpretation of the song as a PDF and follow along.

Explanation

Riff 1

This clever snippet shifts between:

1) A (A-C#-E) with a suspended 2nd (B) to a

2) Dm (D-F-A) with a suspended 2nd (E) added 6th (B).

The high fret 10 and fret 12 on the B-string complicate the chord voicings and add a lil flavor in my mind. The tension here is between the shifting dissonance in the melody from F (Dm) to E (A major). The omnipresent high drone E note (on the open high E string) hammers this dissonance home, while the B (sus2 in the A/6th in the D) over both chords reacts harshly but beautifully to the F. These two notes are tritones, a intervallic relationship that is considered to the most dissonant in music theory.

Dm6         Dm6(2)     Asus2      Asus2(2)

—0——-0——-0———-0——–

—0——12——-0———10——–

–10——10——-9———-9——–

–12——12——11———11——–

—0——-0——-0———-0——–

—————————————-

Riff 2

Keep the 4 highest strings ringing via fingerpicking while moving the bass notes above it by fretting with your ring finger and picking with your thumb. This takes some time but is so rewarding; one of my favorite riffs ever.

Asus2

—0———————————————

—0———————————————

—6———————————————

—7———————————————

—0-7-8———0–7-8——–0—————-

———–8-7-9———-8-7——–9———-

Riff 3

This nice descending figure goes chromatically (notes that are adjacent to each other, one half step apart) from E-Eb-D-C#. The Asus2 has the E, the A (flatted fifth) has the Eb which is technically not found in the A major scale and is derived from flatting the 5th scale degree, E. The D obviously has the D in the root and takes a dissonant turn into Dm which is irregular in the key of A major as well. The closest “legal” note in traditional A major is the 6th, F#. By flatting the 6th scale tone (also known as sharping the 5th) the high drone E clashes with the sharped fifth (F) creating a very interesting Dm. The B (D’s 6th) makes it an unusual Dm6(2).

Asus2   A(b5) D6 Dm6 Dm6(2)

–0——–0—–0—-0——-7————————-

–0——–0—–0—-6——-6————————-

–6——–8—–7—-7——-7————————-

–7——–7—–7—-7——-7————————-

–0——–X—–0—-0——-0————————-

———–7——————————————–

Chorus

This clever change may have been inspired or is at least reminiscent of The Beatles’ “You Won’t See Me” in it’s slow meandering largely chromatic march down from E-Eb-D-C#-B-A. Once again, Eb is a flatted 5th in the key of A and it is the major 3rd of B7, which is made up of B-Eb-A-F#. In this voicing, the F# is absent but it can be added to taste by fretting the 2nd fret of the highest string, replacing the open E note below. Note that it is optional as the E and Eb together in one chord together create desired dissonance and the first two steps of the chromatic (read: adjacent notes with no respect to scale) progression. Landing on the Dominant 5th (the E following Esus4) with it’s Major 3rd (a G#) at the end of the chorus launches the song with great momentum back into the tonic (read “home”) note of the song, A. Anytime you play the note immediately adjacent and below the tonic note of a song you are creating a great urge to resolve to the key you are in, in this case A major.

B7     D   Dmaj7 D   Dmaj7 Esus4    E

–0—0—0—0—0—–0—-0————————————-

–0—3—2—3—2—–0—-0————————————-

–2—2—2—2—2—–2—-1————————————-

–1—0—0—0—0—–2—-2————————————-

–2—0—4—0—4—–2—-2————————————

–x—x—x—x—x——0—-0————————————

Solo

Keep the highest three strings ringing with your index middle and ring fingers on the picking hand, while the moveable octave shape slides from note to note. The open high B and E strings provide needed dissonance and duplicate fretted consonance, and make it seem like much more is going on than you are actually playing. See if you can hear the implied A major and Dm6 chords below the wave of notes as the A major scale (A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A) gives way to the A minor scale over Dm6 (A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A) and then washed back over when it descends from E to D (present in both scales) to C# (present only in major scale).

A   G# F#  G#   F      A      B     C

—0—-0—0—-0—-0—–0—–0—-0———

—0—-0—0—-0—-0—–0—–0—-0———

–14–13–11–13—10—14—16—17————-

—x—-x—x—-x—–x—–x—–x—-x———

–12–11—9—11—-8—12—-14–15————

————————————————–

B    A    E  D C# E  D  C#

–0—-0—0–0–0–0–0—0———————

–0—-0—0–0–0–0–0—0———————

-16–14—9–7–6–9–7—6———————-

–x—-x—-x–x–x–x–x—x———————

-14–12—7–5–4–7–5—4———————-

————————————————–

Placing the Ring, originally uploaded by ill-legible.

Decided to bring my old Canon Rebel DSLR to Irvine for some good peeps, eats, drinks, and shots (camera shots) for one of my best friends’ wedding… Had some fun with lens filters in post processing afterwards and tried to really punch out the focal points with some “wet” edges.

I think I have finally taken 18-55mm kit lens as far as it can get me, but I know it so well. I think it is time for a super low aperture wide angle so I can further explore…

I was honored to work closely with Alma Desnuda in creating the flyer for this event (below). Let me know your thoughts and I will see you there, should be a great time!