Carole King - You've Got A Friend

Exploring "You've Got A Friend" by Carole King

So, following on from What's Going On, we're going to try the same sort of effects and employ some of the same techniques.

The Famous Melody

We're going to explore a very famous melody: "You've Got A Friend" by Carole King. I thought I'd choose this because, as keyboard players, it's quite likely you've heard this or maybe played it in some context. It's a very famous melody.

If we were to play this dead straight, just to demonstrate the melody, it would go something along those lines.

"That sounds cool. You can still have some really nice phrasing on that, Jack McDuff, Jimmy Smith type thing."

A New Approach: One Hand

This time, we're going to try it fully voiced with a different tone.

• Technique Shift: We're now going to try it with one hand playing the melody.
  • On What's Going On, we tried a two-handed approach, similar to the Earl Van Dyke tune.
  • Using one hand creates a different feeling.
  • You are a bit more limited in terms of what you can do because you don't have the left hand pushing you along and helping to guide it.

So, let's have a go!

Sliding and Trilling Techniques

What we're going to do is more of that sliding, slipping, trilling stuff.

• We can get quite easily from A flat to B flat.
• But to get to C, we're going to have to slide up there.

"I'm just going to slightly give us a little bit less of that so you can hear that."

Here's a go through the main bulk of the melody.

Harmony and Rhythm

So how do we get the harmony to actually work?

• It's a bit less of an exact science compared to when we were doing What's Going On.
• This time, it's more about making things work with what you have available.

Playing Without Sustain

• On a piano, you have sustain; on an organ, you don't.
• You need to rely on techniques like slipping up.

I'm taking a big chunk each time with my thumb on the way down. It's quite nice to complement what's going on at the top with some melody down below.

• I came down there and put that Carole King classic line that she puts on the piano.

Going up slow:

• On the C leading up to the F, I've got 7, sharp 9, and then flat 9.
  • Sharp 9, flat 9, fast Leslie again.
  • I've got an 11 there in the left hand, so that's an E flat with the D flat major chord on top of it, and then just going to an E flat 7.

Breaking Free

That part of the melody is very free the way she sings it.

• So, I've broken away from the chordal structure, as you can't be that free with it.

I played quite a nice little gospel riff and then came back.

"You've Got A Friend" played very fully with one hand rather than the two-handed approach we used for What's Going On.

Conclusion: Evolving Familiar Melodies

It's really nice to pick an old melody that you're very familiar with and try to do something different with it.

• If you find a song that you've known since you were a kid, my example being You've Got A Friend,
• If you can find something similar on a record, then go for it!

Try and use one of those sounds rather than playing it straight. Evolve it into a different feel and sound, and you'll learn something about the instrument along the way.