Urgent help needed with chord transposing

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rombsix

Posts: 7823
Joined: Jan. 11 2006
From: Beirut, Lebanon

Urgent help needed with chord transp...

Hey people,

This request may turn out to be the stupidest thing you might have heard of, but I was stumped when I tried to solve the following problem and I need help desperately because I need to have this done within the coming 15 hours.

Let me give you some background info: I am part of a band with a great vocalist (Arabic pop music if you're wondering!) that insists on playing guitar (along with me). He can only play some basic chords, and I take care of all the rest (on a cutaway crappy electro-classical guitar). So what happens is that every time he wants to perform a new song (covering popular songs that is), he tells me to listen to the song and come up with the chords. I do that, and then transpose the chords using a capo so that they end up being simple first positions chords (i.e. one of the following nine chords that DO NOT include barre chords: A, Am, C, D, Dm, E, Em, F (which he plays abridged, without barre), G .. those are the only chords he can play, since he cannot play barred chords). So this time, after four years of this, and doing this "transposition" to all the songs he's given me, I finally got stumped. There is this song with the following chords:
D, C#m, A, F#, E, C#, F#m, Bm, G, and B ... they are ten chords in total. So I tried to put the capo on various positions of the neck so that I can transform these same chords (i.e. for example, a C#m will have the shape of an Am but with a capo on 4, etc.), but I failed. I thought to myself that all the songs I have been playing with this vocalist in the past four years have each had only a maximum of nine chords, and thus I was able to do this capo transposition for the vocalist to be able to play using his rudimentary chords. However, since this song has ten chords, I think it is impossible to do this capo transposition, and make the above ten chords transform into basic shapes (like the nine chord shapes that the vocalist can play). Am I right, or am I missing something? As I said, this may be the dumbest thing you have ever heard, but hey, I have an endocrine physiology exam on Monday and I have four rehearsals and two concerts to play in next week (which I have to prepare for along with the exam), so my head is not working well enough. If you have a solution, please help. If this problem is impossible to solve (simply because ten chords cannot be transformed into nine chord shapes), then please tell me so that I can clear my head.

THANKS.

_____________________________

Ramzi

http://www.youtube.com/rombsix

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 5 2007 21:56:22

Adam

Posts: 1156
Joined: Dec. 6 2006
From: Hamilton, ON

RE: Urgent help needed with chord tr... (in reply to rombsix)

Hey, Ramzi, who's the artist? Amr Diab?

I love Arabic pop. Arabic music's in my family, my grandfather's played violin his whole life, he's from Egypt living in Israel...

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 6 2007 6:13:15

rombsix

Posts: 7823
Joined: Jan. 11 2006
From: Beirut, Lebanon

RE: Urgent help needed with chord tr... (in reply to Adam)

Hey ramparts,

As a matter of fact, 90% of the songs we cover are by Amr Diab since our vocalist looks and sounds EXACTLY like him (you'll be amazed). But this song that has me stumped is by another artist called Hussein Jasmy. It's quite complicated musically (unlike most other songs we have covered), and I don't know why I just can't figure out how to solve this problem. PLEASE HELP urgently if you can.

THANKS.

_____________________________

Ramzi

http://www.youtube.com/rombsix

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 6 2007 9:28:33

Adam

Posts: 1156
Joined: Dec. 6 2006
From: Hamilton, ON

RE: Urgent help needed with chord tr... (in reply to rombsix)

Ohhh. How is that job? The flamenco guitar accompanying Arabic pop seems like a very nice job - simple melodic lines and rumba strumming, and you get to play beautiful music with great vocalists.

Honestly, I'd just pick a set of 9 chords (preferably the one that allows you to use the lowest capo position possible so as not to mess with the tonality too much) and do what you usually do, then just teach him barre chords for the 10th

Otherwise, you can try chordfind.com to find him a weird open position chord shape you'd not have thought of. Good luck!

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 6 2007 12:28:54

rombsix

Posts: 7823
Joined: Jan. 11 2006
From: Beirut, Lebanon

RE: Urgent help needed with chord tr... (in reply to Adam)

Yo ramparts,

I guess your solution to the transposition problem is the only way out. Or, I'll have to play chords on my own for this song, and let him just sing.

And you said "job." Well I don't know if you meant a paying job, because it's not. It's just a couple of friends from the university and some alumni and other people we know (it's a band of 7 people - bass, guitar, vocals, keyboard, drums, percussion (dirbakkeh aka darbuka, and congas/bongos/tamborine ...)). We are all pretty good at what we do (semi-professional if you want to define it), and yes, it is not bad ... but I would obviously prefer flamenco ... but oh well, that's all I've got at the moment.

See ya later.

_____________________________

Ramzi

http://www.youtube.com/rombsix

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 6 2007 13:27:53

Ricardo

Posts: 14861
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Urgent help needed with chord tr... (in reply to rombsix)

The closest would be to put capo on 9th fret (not so comfortable unless he plays a cutaway), so you have:
F,Em,C,A, G, E, Am, Dm, Bb(knew flamenco chord, no barre), and D.

So you can teach him an easy Bb going from D minor like this:
E--1--1--
B--3--3--
G--2--3--
D--0--0--
A---------
E---------

If he can't handle that, then get a knew singing guitarist.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 6 2007 15:39:08

rombsix

Posts: 7823
Joined: Jan. 11 2006
From: Beirut, Lebanon

RE: Urgent help needed with chord tr... (in reply to Ricardo)

THANKS A MILLION RICARDO ... you are the man really ... and you're totally right about me getting a new singing guitarist if he can't learn how to play a lousy abridged Bb. I already had this figured out before even making the post, but I said to myself, maybe I was missing out on something, and maybe there was a capo position that I missed that might eliminate the Bb. Thus, I made this post, and it seems like what I came to was in fact a dead end. The only way around it is as you advised (to teach him that Dm-like Bb).

What pisses me off is that he is stubborn and has a complex - he thinks he' always right and whatever someone else says is crap. So I spent about 4 hours to come up with the EXACT chords to that song (which was really really tough as the guitar was barely heard, and so was the bass, so I had to replay over and over), and then I showed them to him today and told him that I will play it on my own since they cannot be transposed, and guess what? He showed me how he played it (with SUPER simplification that makes the song sound like crap - and as a matter of fact, think about it ... he reduces EVERY SONG IN THE WORLD to these 9 chords he knows, with different capo positions ... so eventually, any song he plays sounds 90% like the other!!!!), and thus wasted 4 hours of my precious time. I should have learned my lesson and not even bothered in the first place. Oh well...

THANKS tons though Ricardo.

_____________________________

Ramzi

http://www.youtube.com/rombsix

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 6 2007 21:14:13