Off Topic SRV's Riviera Paradise

[whitestrat]

A question for you good players and instructors out there.

Does anyone know what on earth or how he's playing it? The chord progression seems to shift between 3 different keys, yet his lead is only playing mainly thru an E Minor scale. He doesn't seem to be highlighting the chord changes, YET everything he does seems to fit.

I tried it, and I got the scales, but I can't help changing my key whenever the key in the progression changes. If I stick to that one EMinor scale, it sounds off after the 2nd 6-bar group. Yet SRV's lines fit!!!

And what does each 12 bar passage end on? I can't seem to get it. Is it a Maj7th chord? It's like one of those "out of the box" scales, and I don't know what modes I should be using, or even what key that ending 1 bar is in???

What am I missing?

Anyone? Robelinda?

 

[RocketRalf]

I could help you but I'm too lazy to look up the song, where can I find it?

 

[whitestrat]

I could help you but I'm too lazy to look up the song, where can I find it?

erm... on his CD? The backing track can be obtained from GuitarBTforums...

 

[mikeller]

Great song, absolutely my favorite SRV song ever. It was on the In Step disc. I know how to play it, but couldn't tell you the actual chord names -something like Gmaj7 - A6/ Fmaj7-G6 / Ebmaj7-F6....

 

[whitestrat]

Great song, absolutely my favorite SRV song ever. It was on the In Step disc. I know how to play it, but couldn't tell you the actual chord names -something like Gmaj7 - A6/ Fmaj7-G6 / Ebmaj7-F6....

Thanks. I'm not exactly looking to play it like SRV, but I do want to study it and learn what he's doing, so I can play my own lines over the progression effectively. I'm having trouble not being able to pull off what he's doing, simply because I don't know what he's doing.

 

[wolfbone07]

Jon Finn described it this way, and I have to agree with him: SRV is playing the "wrong" notes over the chord changes (kind of like you described in your opening post). What makes our ears accept the notes as "right" is SRV's sense of phrasing and commitment to what he is playing. He is literally making it work over any chords that come along. I like it, but I'm not capable of phrasing that is so overwhelming!

 

[robelinda2]

I guess thats what makes SRV so good. I do like to hear the changes being made, so I would just go for it and forget what SRV does. To me it takes the fun out of it if i'm just stuck playing E minor the whole way, especially over Eb chords, ouch!

 

[whitestrat]

Jon Finn described it this way, and I have to agree with him: SRV is playing the "wrong" notes over the chord changes (kind of like you described in your opening post). What makes our ears accept the notes as "right" is SRV's sense of phrasing and commitment to what he is playing. He is literally making it work over any chords that come along. I like it, but I'm not capable of phrasing that is so overwhelming!

Exactly!!!! I'm trying to make sense of what he's doing. Is he using a variation of modes (meaning patterns)? Or merely knowing which notes should be played when? What was he thinking when he played this? He did play the chord changes in the intro, but that's mainly because he was playing appregios... But after that? Holy ****... Even the pianist followed the chords.

What was SRV doing???

 

[whitestrat]

I guess thats what makes SRV so good. I do like to hear the changes being made, so I would just go for it and forget what SRV does. To me it takes the fun out of it if i'm just stuck playing E minor the whole way, especially over Eb chords, ouch!

But that' my question. HOW is it possible to play an Eminor scale over an Eb chord? Fun or not, I'd like to add it to my arsenal.