The tune of the month of March, 2021, is "All of Me". If you are not an old dinosaur like me, you are probably saying "Oh yeah, that golden oldie tune by Willie Nelson." Well in fact, yes Willie Nelson did do the tune and he probably made more money, by far, than anybody else ever did from it. But old folks remember it from Frank Sinatra doing it. And he was far from the first. "All of Me" is considered to be one of the bedrock standard jazz tunes, kind of like "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" if you play five string banjo or "Scotland the Brave" if you play the pipes. If you play jazz, you have to have this tune in your repertoire. The tune was composed by a pair of songwriters in Detroit, Michigan (USA), Seymour Simons and Gerald Marks, in 1931; it was first recorded by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra, with Mildred Bailey singing. Louis Armstrong also recorded it soon thereafter. Both were #1 hits. It then disappeared until the 1940's when it was recorded by Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, and many more. Sinatra actually recorded it four different times. It was given a "Towering Song Award" by the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2000. The Song A Week thread for "All of Me" (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/gr...gmessage17674) includes some really nice versions. I continue to be in awe of what those folks put together in a week or less. Unfortunately many of the video links are broken. But among those that do are some good ones. Here are a couple I found on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJVJCfXMxtw I think this one may be one of the broken links on the SAW thread. The date is about right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8mf...=RDD8mf_twUYLA And what is not to like about Mike Marshall? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qilxjlvXgjM This is not really about "All of Me". But it uses "All of Me" to illustrate how to approach a jazz tune for improvisation ideas. I found it to be very interesting. I am going to bookmark Magnus's youtube channel. I confess that I do not really "get" jazz. Magnus's videos appear to be a way for me to approach jazz and get more out of the genre. This is going to be an interesting tune of the month for me. And I have no idea yet how I am going to approach it. Mandozine.com has two versions of the tune and I found an abc file for it that you can cut and paste into your favorite abc editor: X: 1 T: All Of Me C: Seymour Simons & Gerald Marks M: 4/4 K: Cmaj L: 1/4 P:A "C6" c> G E2- | E2 (3 c d c | "E7" B> ^G E2- | E4 | w: All of me, | * why not take | all of me.* "A7" A> G E2- | E ^D (3 E _B A | "Dm7" G2 F2- | F4 || P:B w: Can't you see | I'm no good with-| out you?* "E7" E> _E D2- | D2 (3 E ^G B | "Am7" d2 c2- | c4 | w: Take my lips | * I want to | lose them.* "D7" B>_B A2- | A2 (3 A D B | "Dm" A4 | "G7" G4 || P:A w: Take my arms | * I'll ne-ver | lose | them. "C6" c> G E2- | E2 (3 c d c | "E7" B> ^G E2 | w: Your good-bye | * left me with | eyes that cry "A7" A> G E2- | E ^D (3 D _B A | "Dm7" G2 F2 || P:C w: How can I | * go on dear with- | out you? "F6" c2 c B | "Fm6" d3 c | "Em7" B2 E G | "A7" B3 A | w: You took the | part that | once was my | heart, so "Dm7" c2 A c | "G7" e2 e2 | "C6" c4 | "Dm7 G7" z4 |] w: Why not take | all of | me
1. I made corrections to a couple of typos in the abc text. Changed "hear" to "heart" and changed a whole note to a half note. 2. I just looked more closely to the tef file from mandozine - the one from Django Rheinhardt - and discovered that the second module (backup mando) has all the chords spelled out note for note - a great help if you don't know all those jazz chords (or if you are like me and don't know just about any chords). This version, the first verse, anyway, seems to cry out for a multitrack rendition. Probably not me, but ... just sayin' .
How do jazz chords differ from "regular " chords?
Please forgive me for my never ending replies to my own topic. But I just found another resource for this tune. Kevin Dollar, playing what looks like a Big Muddy (or Mighty Mo) flattop, has an instructional channel on youtube. He has a series of videos on All of Me. I notice that he uses (mostly) slightly easier chords. Mandolin - All of Me Playalong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csBfU7Gzyg4 Mandolin - All of Me Melody https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axTrfR2SZ34 Mandolin - All of Me Chord Walkthrough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGsjDGJCxAE Mandolin - All of Me Improvisation Ideas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA9aC52XT6U Mandolin - All of Me Chord Walkthrough at tempo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYGTVAZoTwY Check out his youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzg...kZHhuo8cEtcykQ for other lessons (more of them are for guitar than for mandolin).
Jazz chords, to me are all those weird ones. And weird, again to me, means anything not a plain old major or minor triad.
Sherry, this one is for you- it’s all sevenths!
I'm working on it!
Is anyone working on this? I am, but can't for the life of me understand why. So many chord changes! Maybe there's a backing track and I can focus on the melody???
I was thinking about posting my feeble efforts... I picked up chords and vocals in a day or two but cheated and used open chords I already knew and just copied Willie. I’m having a bit more trouble making the picking part interesting since I just sounded out the melody and haven’t really added any enhancements. I’ve been meaning to try throwing the harp rack on and seeing how that sounds with it.
Please tell me enhancements aren't required!
I'm taking a pass on this one. Not smart enough to understand or really appreciate jazz.
Louise, I'm just dumb enough to try it!
There are lots of backing tracks on Youtube but most of them are too ... well, jazzy for the purpose. Here are the two least embellished that I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MxzLBBBKRo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUxVxBl92zY - this is just Band in a Box, but it's nice. Unfortunately, no intro so you have to dive right in. I play this on guitar & piano but in G. But if folks want, I could woodshed a little and put a much simpler, more bluegrassy backing track together. (Note: I'm not a bluegrass player, but I think I can fake it.) Before diving into this one it might have been nice to try a transitional tune, like five Foot Two, which has a very regular structure but full of the II-V-I transitions that are at the heart of jazz (it's I III VI II V I.) It's also a great tune for learning the fretboard on a new instrument, thanks to the regularity. It helped me a lot just recently on ukulele, and will probably be my first tune on my mando when I complete it. But I guess that ship has sailed! BTW, I might sound a jazz dude above, but I'm not. I love jazz but when I try to play it, it doesn't quite sound like jazz.
Wow! Thanks for those tracks, Jeff. I believe I'll try to work with one of those.
All right, Newbies. I can’t believe no one has posted their version of this so I can only assume you all felt as unworthy as me to post your efforts. Well if I can do it anyone can. I’m still not happy with it but the month is almost over and I’m out of time since I’m traveling to meet the new grandbaby. So here it is, warts and all:
Very nice, NDO. Your mandolin sounds pretty good in melody mode as well as chord mode. Well done!
Thanks Hank! I need a lot more practice making clean single notes, but I’m really glad you picked this song and got me to try it. It’s definitely helping my practice. Now let’s see some more videos! No way I’m the only one that worked on this.
Good for you, Don! I may have something later this week - melody only on my part. Wish I had chords down like you do.
Great job, NDO! You found your way into it really well. Congratulations on the grandbaby. Is he/she brand new, or is this your first chance to visit because Covid? In any case, safe travels, and play the mandolin for the baby.
Brand new granddaughter and a two year old grandson I haven’t seen in almost a year!
How wonderful! You must be wicked excited! I'm supposed to see my daughter in May. It's been two years.
A round of applause for NDO! It's early evening of April 2nd, and only one of us posted the tune-of-the-month. NDO gets the gold medal and trophy for the month.
Well for what it’s worth, it sounds way better now than when I recorded it
Wanna prove it? BTW, I still plan to post a video, but need some improvement.
Good work NDO - love the vocals. Sorry I am late this month but I have to admit to a complete lack of ability when it comes to improvisation, either jazz or bluegrass. Still I had a go although the improvised part is really only a lot of feeble variations on the melody.
I don't think any of that is feeble - it sounds appropriate for the mood of the tune, in my opinion. Good job on the chord backup, too.
At last I can post "All of Me!" One of my teachers agreed to accompany me, then suggested we (i.e., he) do some editing. So we took 2 videos and here's the edited result. When I received the end product from him, I was disappointed to see he had cut most of himself out of the final product. My greatest struggle is with changing chords, but wanting Gerald to have a solo, I was determined to do the best I could manage.
Hey! Nice job, Sherry. I liked the sound of mandolin lead over guitar better than vice versa for this tune. I think your lessons have put some extra confidence into your picking. Congratulations to both of you.
It's sounding good, Sherry! The melody part was great, and I see the chord part were three finger chords, which I have heard are not your favorite , so bravo!
Way to go Sherry! That’s cool that your teacher is pushing you out of your comfort zone!
Thanks, everyone. And, yes, Sue, those are 3 finger chords! Lots of changes, too.
Nice job on this one, Sherry!
Thanks, Louise!
Nice Sherry, and in particular, great recovery. One of the hardest things for many of us to learn (especially those like me who started out playing alone most of the time) is how to get back in after missing or being late on a chord. You're having problems that are completely normal at your stage, handling unfamiliar chord changes. (Frankly, the only way I know to handle that is to practice them enough that they're no longer unfamiliar!) But your recover is way better than typical. Frankly, that's a more important skill than nailing all the changes, whenever you're playing with others.