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Thread: Sweet Georgia Brown

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    Default Sweet Georgia Brown

    What a great tune! I have loosely played it over the years but am now trying to firm it up a bit in my repertoire. I am trying to decide what key to settle into. I have listened to several versions in G (starts on an E or E7 chord) and F (starts on a D or D7 chord). I have also heard some versions in A flat which could be pushed down a 1/2 step for learning in G (sorry I am not feeling so ambitious as to tackle A flat). Being fluent in playing Georgia Brown in numerous keys would be ideal but what key do you think I should settle on?

    Thanks... Gary S

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    Registered User Bren's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sweet Georgia Brown

    I've encountered it most commonly in G and F , as you have, so why not learn those two?

    Starting with G which I've found to be a bit more common on this side of the Atlantic anyway.

    Although F is perhaps kinder to beginners with more open strings.

    decisions, decisions...
    Bren

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    harvester of clams Bill McCall's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sweet Georgia Brown

    F is quite common, but players from the bluegrass side seem to prefer G. Open strings are a choice.
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    Default Re: Sweet Georgia Brown

    Hi Gary,
    the great thing about playing the mandolin(greatest instrument in the world) is that by virtue of being tuned in fifths, the layout of the fretboard, scale, mode and chord patterns are entirely symmetrical. Learn a tune and in a sense you have already learned it in all keys. We don't need no capo is how the comedians say it.
    Sure, you need to adapt patterns in those keys where open strings are involved(or vice versa), and you may make a familiar chord pattern work in a higher key by barring with your first finger "capo" then making the chord shape with fingers 2,3,and4, but clearly we rely on those consistent patterns and the fact that they are more readily found on the mandolin than they are on any other instrument.
    The fact that you explained the commonly used keys for SGB so well shows that you can already play it in any key! Because you understand the pattern of the progression (G, first chord E7, F, first chord D7,etc..) the only chore left is locating those tonalities on the fretboard, which you also understand. Where's that D7? oh yeah it's an E7 played two frets lower(for example)
    Another thing that speeds this along is numbering the progressions. SGB for example, let's keep it in F for a sec, first change is D7. D is the 6th degree of the F scale so we have a VI7 chord (upper case Roman indicates major, 7 indicates dominant)This part of the tune runs the circle of fifths progression, D7 is a fifth away from G7, our next chord,the II7. Then comes the "five" (V7), it's C7, which resolves to the root, tonic, home, or I, good old F. In this section of the tune we have sort of a I-VI7-II7-V7-I progression. I say sort of because in SGB it starts on that VI7. So now a singer comes in saying "I need that in F#(a/k/a Gb)" All you need to do is jot out that scale, then put your numbers to work: F#-G#A#-B-C#D#-E#(F natural)-F#, so bam your VI-II-V-I is D#7-G#7-C#7-F#...
    The other tonality that occurs is a visit to the relative minor. Let's get back in F, the relative minor is Dm, and in SGB it is preceded by it's dominant chord A7. In F Dm is vi(lower case roman indicates minor)and A7 is III7. there's also a cool chromatic walkdown lick as we head back to F from Dm, it goes F7-E7-Eb7-D7..G7-C7-F.
    Returning to your original question, which key to learn it in, you're right, it is most frequently played in F or Ab, most likely due to the popularity of the tune being established by horn playing musicians. In the main, horns play in flat keys, us string guys gravitate toward sharp keys. But that was in the old days, now we know a mandolin can play in any key1 (Ha!, just funnin', sorta..)
    SGB in G was probably suggested by a five string banjo player and therefore just wrong. (Ha! another joke!) Actually string musicians of all stripes adjust keys to their own ax--Stephane Grappelli is said to have played "everything in G". Jethro Burns played Jitterbug Waltz in D natural rather than Eb, Stella by Starlight in G rather than Bb. Earl Scruggs played Bugle Call Rag in G, Farewell Blues in C. Did Doc Watson play SGB in C or F? I can't remember. Beaumont Rag in C capoed to D rather than F where Bob Wills played it?
    So, again you ask, which one for Sweet Georgia, damnit Don anyways? Well, all of them, yes, but I would prioritize F and Ab. Funny coincidence-this is true for Back Home Again in Indiana as well. I leave now with the entire SGB progression in F with an insert I like, turning the Dm section into a full correct minor cadence. I hope you enjoy:

    D7-D7-D7-D7 G7-G7-G7-G7 C7-C7-C7-C7 F-F-F-A7
    D7-D7-D7-D7 G7-G7-G7-G7 Dm-Em7b5/A7b9--Dm-Em7b5-/A7b9
    F7/E7-Eb7/D7 G7/C7 -F
    it's also fun to play F6 instead of plain boring F, and fun to play color tones (6, 9)or tensions(b5,#5,b9,#9)on the dominant chords. See what you like...

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    Default Re: Sweet Georgia Brown

    Quote Originally Posted by Don Stiernberg View Post
    ... there's also a cool chromatic walkdown lick as we head back to F from Dm, it goes F7-E7-Eb7-D7..G7-C7-F ...
    My most recent band played it that way (although in the key of G). I had not encountered that before. The band I had been in some 33 odd years (some very odd) previously had done it something like this:

    Bb B° F D7 G7 C7 F.

    (Funny to see it that way, as I've always thought of those first two chords as "4 4#°." I am not going to say Bb#° except here and now, in a jocular manner. )

    The walkdown is easier, and cool, and also the way the Harlem Globetrotters' version goes, IIRC. The pattern I posted is pretty standard issue for the genre and time period. I think of it as "the Daydream riff," as that is the B part of "Daydream" - the first four chords, that is - and that is the first song in which I'd heard that progression. Well ... It's actually written as - in the key of C - F D7 C A7, which in F would be Bb G7 F D7. Well ... The second chord in that progression must be played without the root to fit the "4 4#°" model. Well ... Enough already! Though the sheet music for "Daydream" is printed that way, in C. But I digress ...
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    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sweet Georgia Brown

    I've played it mostly in F, but some jazz bands I played in used Ab. Somewhat more rarely I've played it in G with Gypsy jazz bands.

    I like F best.

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    Default Re: Sweet Georgia Brown

    Wow, thanks for the replies. This is a lot of helpful info for me to absorb. Here is a version of SGB that is blowing me away.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnWcpQqI8k8

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    Oval holes are cool David Lewis's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sweet Georgia Brown

    Thanks Don for the chord progression! I've been playing the melody (as a private tribute to Jethro) in all keys, but never quite got the chord progression to my satisfaction. Now I do!
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    Default Re: Sweet Georgia Brown

    The way it ended up in G is because Django played it there.

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    Default Re: Sweet Georgia Brown

    I dunno. I think G is just a really reasonable key. FWIW, the Harlem Globetrotter's theme music version is in Ab. And even though Don is technically correct about patterns being easily transferrable up and down the neck, Ab/G# is the worst. It's my least favorite key - the one with the most accidentals. It's easy enough to move a song's voicing a half-step either way, to G or A, both much more comfortable keys. IMO. FWIW. YMMV.
    But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller

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    harvester of clams Bill McCall's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sweet Georgia Brown

    Quote Originally Posted by journeybear View Post
    ......FWIW, the Harlem Globetrotter's theme music version is in Ab. And even though Don is technically correct about patterns being easily transferrable up and down the neck, Ab/G# is the worst.
    Db is even worse, for me anyway. Btw, the George Barnes Quartet version of SGB just smokes.
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    Default Re: Sweet Georgia Brown

    Thank you for this extremely thoughtful and informative reply. When you are writing out the chord progression do the backslash and hyphen indicate the same thing?

    Thanks... Gary

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    Default Re: Sweet Georgia Brown

    Hi Gary,
    the hyphen seperates measures, each having four beats. The backslash cuts one measure in half, each chord getting two beats. These are not correct universally accepted notational devices, just lazy/sloppy hastily-delivered symbols dropped into the sketch..
    SO! D7-D7-D7-D7 = four bars of D7, 4 beats each bar
    Em7b5/A7b9 = one measure, two beats of Em7b5, two of A7b9
    by the way Em7b5 is often symbolized as E with a circle with a slash mark through it and often called E half-diminished
    A7b9 turns out to be a diminished chord. Those can be named by any of the four notes in the chord, so C#dim or Gdim orEdim or Bbdim(Bb is the b9 note in A7b9). This chord sound is proper and correct when headed toward a minor chord, as in our case it resolves to Dmin. It's also used as a substitution of sorts by the jazz cats, notably Django Reinhardt, in major cadences as well--say Lady Be Good, the D7 headed to G? Make it a D7b9, which is an Eb dim, then you get to play all your diminished licks there and that brings tension and chromaticism, interest and heat into your line and solo.

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  18. #14
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    Default Re: Sweet Georgia Brown

    Different approaches here. BTW, tune a guitar's B and E strings up a semitone each to C and F, and it is also a symmetrical instrument.


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