Re: [Harp-L] Chaka Khan I Feel for You

I down loaded the song just now and played along on my chromatic.

The intro hook is very playable in F#. You hold the button in the whole time. The solo section has some tricky intervals and would require some shed time.

Winslow is right. The figures give away that the tape was slowed down. The button trills just don't working F# the way he played them.

I refuse to believe he doesn't have the chops to solo masterfully in F#. I agree with the idea that he could get the licks he wanted by slowing down the tape. Especially those trills.

The licks are not that fast so I don't buy the idea that he may have needed more time.

I'd be curious to know if he played it live at some point. If he did, he may have changed up the licks.


Gary Popenoe

On May 9, 2008, at 5:30 PM, Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In the case of For Once in My Life, Stevie didn't play piano (at least not onstage, and there are several video clips floating around on YouTube). He sang the tune in F, then, when the solo came, the key was notched up a semitone to F#. It sounds to me like this was done purely for reasons of musical arrangement - to keep listeners interested by changing keys, and not for reasons to do with the harmonica, the piano, or blindness. This raise-the-key-a-semitone- after-a-few-verses was a standard arranging ploy of Stevie's; some tunes end with several of them in quick succession during a fade.

In the case of I Feel for You, the key wasn't his call; it was probably Chaka Khan's as she was the singer. He chose to deal with it by slowing down the tape (he could probably have come up with something great in F# but perhaps just didn't feel like it).

Winslow



--- On Fri, 5/9/08, G. E. Popenoe <gpopenoe@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: G. E. Popenoe <gpopenoe@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Chaka Khan I Feel for You
To: "Rob Paparozzi" <Chromboy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Joe and Cass Leone" <leone@xxxxxxxx>, "<winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>, "harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx " <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Friday, May 9, 2008, 4:52 PM
One thing that may shed some light on this. I am given to
understand
that blind piano players tend to favor the black keys.
Maybe there us
a connection.

Gary Popenoe

On May 9, 2008, at 12:30 PM, "Rob Paparozzi"
<Chromboy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Smo-Joe,

This is an interesting Thread...Us Chrom players often
wonder such
questions ???

But what about his Classic Solo's in E
"Isn't she Lovely" and F#
"For Once in my Life"...to my ears these
sound like the original
keys??

My Fav solo is his Creepin' in Ebm starting on
that funky bent down 
"A" note..
we'll have to hear from the transcription
mavens!!! Winslow and
Hunter,-)

Another one I've often wondered about was
Toots' solo on Ralph
MacDonalds "Smoke Rings and Wine" on his THE
PATH LP...I always
forget to ask Toots about this when I see him on
occassion....The
song is in E and what a smooth Jazzy solo which leads
me to be he
used another key 270 at the time.......

all the best,

Rob P
www.myspace.com/hudsonriverrats



----- Original Message ----- From: "Joe and Cass
Leone" <leone@xxxxxxxx 

To: <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 2:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Chaka Khan I Feel for You



On May 9, 2008, at 2:01 PM, Winslow Yerxa wrote:

It's definitely a chromatic harmonica
(Stevie Wonder), with a
little sound processing.

Yes, it is definitely 'Millionized' (for
lack of a better term)

By the way, there's an extended version of
this record that came
out on a 12" single with a longer harp
solo.

While the tune comes out in F#, Stevie
didn't play it in F#.

This is correct. While everyone seems to feel that
Stevie is this
super human player who can play in any odd key and
STILL sound
marvelous, the truth is that he picks normal keys
just like
everyone else and the recordings or HIS tracks
are either sped up
or slowed down to give the impression that he is
in F#, Gb, B, E,
and other not so easy keys. I always suspected
that is was to
disssuade other players from trying to copy him.
AND I don't think
it's coming from HIM. I have to admit though
that it is less
common these days. I have had recordings which
were BETWEEN the
keys. I thought it was my player, but after
checking several other
players, I wound up with the same deal.

The tape was either sped up or slowed down and
he played it in
either F or G (I'm not where I can check
which it was).

Because of the 'Chipmunks' timbre to the
edges of the notes (which
he is VERY good at to begin with), I believe the
track is a sped
up F. Something about the combinations of notes
and the way they
are 'chipped', leads me to believe he is
in a DRAW key. G isn't as
fluid as F.

p.s. just my opinion smokey-joe 


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