Music Lesson: Diminished Chords and Variations

So, yeah, again, at the end of the chorus, he sort of announces that something's going to happen with that diminished chord.

I think sometimes he maybe plays it with an F instead of an E. So, it's almost, it's got that dominant seventh sound in it as opposed to the full diminished.

Key Concepts

• Turnaround: This does have a little turnaround at the end, which I think is really cool.
• Old-Fashioned Style: It kind of harks back to an older fashioned kind of piano part, which again is this diminished chord.

Resolution

This is essentially resolving to the G7.

• Mess Around: Now stop.
• He's got a slight variation here in that he places it just a little bit later.
• You know, I think maybe that's just what he played on the day. It's not necessarily like a real fundamental part of the tune; it's just a little thing that happened in the studio on that day.

Repeating the Process

• Do the Mess Around and then we go back into.
• Oh, sorry. So it's that idea but just down the octave, that's what I'm talking about.

A New Chord Variation

Then he does something different here, which is kind of going from a slightly diminished sounding chord, but with the F. And you can just slide off those.

Then, we're back into another chorus of vamping, where this time he's talking to a specific individual.

• Special Mention: He's talking to the girl with the red dress on.
• "Hey, little girl. Yeah, you with the red dress on."

This, I guess, is like a whole nother dynamic of the dance that's happening.

• Rather than a big group of everyone dancing, he's sort of singling someone out to come up.
• It just adds a new dynamic to the dance. Maybe he had an eye on that particular girl; who knows? Maybe there's a story in there somewhere.

Musical Commentary

And this time he wants her to shake that thing. He has this little,

• Which is nice because he says that just after he said "shake that thing," so it's almost like a little musical comment on that phrase:
  • "I want you to shake that thing."

Then he uses that idea again, exactly the same thing he'd used before the previous break.

Preparing for Transitions

• There isn't much time to get ready for that, so you know, kind of be thinking ahead as you're playing because you've got to get from there to that hand position.
• Almost be thinking ahead to where your hands need to be.

Variation on C7

Now stop.

• It's slightly different; he's got a slightly different way of going down the C7.
• But to be honest, you know, you could extend that. You could do your own thing with it. Why not?

Exploring Variations

• Now shake that thing: You could do all kinds of things here.
• You know, you could do that kind of thing, which I guess would be much more of a sort of professor long hair thing to do.
• Very much influenced from more sort of Cuban piano playing.

These breaks, you know, are things that Pinetop would improvise. Maybe he'd do different things each night, but all kind of built around that C7, sort of broken chord.

So, yeah, feel free to kind of try your own things with those breaks.