Topic: Good Time Boogie - Willie Trice

[Slack]

I can't help but notice that someone is often requesting Willie Trice's 'Good Time Boogie' (Gary is that you?) -- which is an infectious little ditty that I really like alot too.  One of those pieces where you could just sit for a hour and play it.

Last time I heard it I picked up my guitar and figured out the frist E part and the up/down the neck part which was easy  - but the 2nd E part, the boogie, would need some careful listening a bit more time.

If there are others interested in figuring this out - I'd be happy to post enough of the song in an attached mp3 in order to figure out all three parts ....

cheers,
slack

[a2tom]

Sure, I'd love to have a go at it. 

tom

[boots]

Slack, I'll own up to a few requests. It is contageous.

Boots

[Slack]

Great Tom, I'll post this evening.

Boots, alrighty - we'll figure it out -- just in case you ever dig that guitar out of the closet.

[NotRevGDavis]

I can't help but notice that someone is often requesting Willie Trice's 'Good Time Boogie' (Gary is that you?) -- which is an infectious little ditty that I really like alot too.

Why yes it is thank you.

I'd really like to learn "Good Time Boogie" but I haven't advanced far enough to transcribe songs myself yet.

I picked up the CD right after you put Willie on the Juke and it is in heavy rotation in the truck with Lil' Son Jackson, Frank Hovington, Big Joe Williams and the JSP "Texas Blues" collection. All artists I "discovered" here at Weenie Campbell.

Willie Trice has that sound kinda like Scott Dunbar they might be playin' the blues but they sound like they are just having way too much fun doin' it...

Gary

[Slack]

I'd really like to learn "Good Time Boogie" but I haven't advanced far enough to transcribe songs myself yet.

I think we can do this one pretty easily (famous last words) - 3 parts, in E - a great exercise in pinching.

I picked up the CD right after you put Willie on the Juke and it is in heavy rotation in the truck with Lil' Son Jackson, Frank Hovington, Big Joe Williams and the JSP "Texas Blues" collection. All artists I "discovered" here at Weenie Campbell.

Yea man, great rotation!

cheers,

[Slack]

Sure, I'd love to have a go at it. 

tom

OK, here you go....  I trimmed it down a bit form 5:40 to 4:20 to get under the 800K limit - but I think the splice was very good!

[attachment deleted by admin]

[NotRevGDavis]

Can't seem to get it to download.

[Slack]

Gary, I thought you picked up the CD somewhere?

Since it is only 3 parts and they are repetitive patterns - I thought I might try my hand at tabbing it out... if I can stop playing it long enough.  Tom, what Tab program do you use?

[NotRevGDavis]

I have the CD I thought it might be something you were playing. At least now I can try to figure out why I can't download.
Thanks

[a2tom]

I suspect you may have it done before I get to even pick up a guitar with it!  There are really only about three phrases in the whole song it would seem, and I may not get to do anything until the weekend at this point (work and family coming into town).

My tab program, such as it is, is Microsoft Word.  I just set up a little template with dashes and then just type numbers over the dashese where needed.  I find that a lot easier than any tab editor I've tried (but I must say, I haven't tried much since I don't actually create tab too often...).  I you wanted I could upload the Word template file, but you could recreate it in a lick.

tom

[Slack]

I have the CD I thought it might be something you were playing. At least now I can try to figure out why I can't download.
Thanks

No, it is Willy Trice - with about a minute and a half trimmed.  Strange - can you donwload other files on the iste?

I suspect you may have it done before I get to even pick up a guitar with it!  There are really only about three phrases in the whole song it would seem, and I may not get to do anything until the weekend at this point (work and family coming into town).

Don't count on it!  I've got a ton of stuff piled up too.  It may be this weekend for me to.  Yes, it is 3 simple phrases - so I thought it would be a quicky -- once you can sit right down to it that is.

Your template looks so neat, I thought it was a commercial program. I can certainly copy and paste it.   Probably be much easier just to sit down with a recorder and go through the parts - so I may end up doing that... ha!

Cheers,
slack

[Slack]

Easier to tab than to record.  I'm not sure I've ever tabbed anything, so someone keep me honest (and this is the kind of tabbing project to have!  )  The parts are in opposite order of play.




Good Time Boogie

Main Lick
E
   chord   line                                          
  |       |       |       |       |       |           
|-------------------------------|---------
|---------0-----0---------------|--------
|---------------------2--h1?-(1)|-----
|------------2--------2-------2-|--------
|-2---4-------------------------|---------
|---------0-------0-------0-----|--------
  |       |       |       |       |       |     

Alternate Lick
E
   chord   line                                          
  |       |       |       |       |       |     
|---------0-----0---------0-----|--------
|-0---2--------(0)----2---------|-------
|-----------(1)-------------(1)-|--------
|-----2------2--------2------2--|-------
|-------------------------------|---------
|-0-------0-------0-------0-----|-------
  |       |       |       |       |       |     



Break
   chord   line                                          
  |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |     
|s4--------------s7-------------|-9-------12------9-------7-----|s4--s4--s4--s4---0------
|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|
|s4----------4---s7----------7--|-9-------12------9-------7-----|s4--s4--s4--s4-----(1)----|
|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|--------------------2----------|
|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|
|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|-----------------0-------------|
  |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |     



My kinda song - almost immediate gratification. What helps propells the song is his talking to the 'dancers' while playing -  and creating a little tension by yelling yaw!  ...love it...  didn't send anytime on the "break" part - he does it a little differently in different parts of the song, throwing in some bass.

Cheers,

[a2tom]

See, told you you'd have it well before I could even get to try to play it!  I got to it today - my family left early since we are expecting SNOW.  Argh.

Anway, you've basically got it there, Slack, not surprisingly .  I have attached a RTF and PDF (same thing, different file format) of what I hope will be a more "complete" tab.  It really is a great little boogie, and great to learn on - it seemed worth the time to write it out in enough detail to give an idea how to play the whole tune, even for a beginner.  The ending is in there too. 

My tab is basically the same as yours Slack, but with a couple of little changes - check em out, tell me I'm a fool.  A couple of those are to try to give a more complete sense of how to actually play it.  There are some really interesting shifting tones that are going on behind the picked notes that are really important to the feel.  They also give an idea of how to finger it.  I have a bunch of comments  I put in there (for myself as much as anyone) - take a read if you are interested - the A chord feel is the most important issue.  May be obvious to some, wasn't to me!

When I get a chance I'll try record my tab so you can judge whether it is correct - don't expect me to play it as relentlesly fast as Trice, though!

tom

[Slack]

Hi Tom, thanks for taking the time to do this - you certainly have alot more patience than I!

Having only read through your notes - and not sure I agree with them all - I'll find some time to sit down and listen again.  Maybe I'll do a little recording too and we could contrast the slackerly minimalist style with the very thorough style. 

Fun tune, Uh?  -- I must remember to keep working on it - and talking to the dancers on top.

Cheers,
slack

[NotRevGDavis]

Thanks for all the work guys. Lookin' forward to learning this tune.
Gary

{edit}
Tom that's not just tab that is a comprehensive lesson.

[a2tom]

you certainly have alot more patience than I!

how's the song go?  everyone's a wee-eenie, in his own way...   I can't keep track of the artists and tracks and recordings and re-issues the way you folks can, but give me an audio spectrum...

and not sure I agree with them all

I expected as much!  I still need to check out uncle bud's corrections on the Bad Luck Blues.  But in both I can say there are definitely things you can pick up using Transcribe with the headphones on that you may not catch on straight listening.  I expect you might not like the open 3rd string pulloff G or the open 5th string A, but listen close....  Then tell me I'm crazy and I'll go back and listen some more!

and talking to the dancers on top.

honestly, as fun as the riff is, its his voice over that makes the tune such a riot.  In addition to the words, he has this great half singing along thing hes always doing.  The mic picked up a lot, some is realy quiet humming I could only hear with the headphones on.   He was just having a blast...

tom

[a2tom]

Not much to do today since we just got a bunch of snow, so... 

Here is evidence for the A bass.  These two spectra are from the beat before the hammer, and the beat of the hammer.  You can see that the bass goes from A before the hammer (under the high A) to B on the hammer (under the G#).   In contrast, the E between the bass and treble is constant on the E (ring finger on the 2nd fret of the 4th string). 

Of course, one ought to be able to hear this too!  I've attached a slowed down MP3 of just the two-bar phrase.  On the 4th and 5th beats of the clip (corresponding to the spectra) you'll hear the A to B bass clearly.

tom

[attachment deleted by admin]

[a2tom]

Here is the evidence for the G during the walk up.  The first spectrum is during one of the straight E chord phrases just to show the E -G# - B that you'd expect.  The second is on the second note of the walkup, with the C# in the bass and the droning G (open 3rd string) above it.

Listen on the last two beats of the slowed down clip and you'll hear that transition down to the droning G during the bass walkup.

tom

[Slack]

Wow Tom, great work! - spectral imaging!  (What program is this?)

Nothing like Transcribe and a little spectral imaging to pull out the subtleties, eh?

I think you are absolutely right on both of those sublteties - and also right about the difference in tone and 'feel' the full hammer on and the open G make.  On the hammer-on it sounds to me like he may be pinching the 5th and 3th strings... ?  (I need to re-work my tab effort)

Also the ringing G on the walk up - how do you imagine he is doing the walk up?  I've tried using my pinky - which is quite a stretch for me, even on a short scale box, I've also tried a 2 finger E - whcih makes the stretch easier - but makes difficult the full E hammer, and have settled on moving the whole form up.  But I have a feeling Trice may be doing soemthing else... ?

Cheers,

[a2tom]

The spectral imaging is just part of Transcribe.  Highly recommended to any geeks out there.  A very well written program.

The pinch on the hammer is ambiguous to me.  Yes, I thought about putting that and even one or two others on the 5th string, and maybe that's what he did.  I ended up putting it on the 6th string because (a) it makes sense to get the low tonic, and (b) the very low bass tones really get squelched badly in the transition from player to recording device to 78 to digital capture to MP3 file creation to Transcribe.  I definitely hear that bass mostly on the 5th string, but I think he just as likely was getting drive through from the 6th to the 5th string.  User preference I think.

I don't know how he did the walkup, but my overriding thought is that nothing he did involved changing out of the basic E form - that way the whole thing could be played over and over and over again without tripping.  It bet some people can do it with their pinky (Chris Smither does this...), not me.  I also move the whole E form up and back down (with the index lifted, of course). 

tom

[Slack]

The spectral imaging is just part of Transcribe.  Highly recommended to any geeks out there.  A very well written program.

Indeed, we need to give you the 'Weenie of the Week' award or something.   

The pinch on the hammer is ambiguous to me.  Yes, I thought about putting that and even one or two others on the 5th string, and maybe that's what he did.  I ended up putting it on the 6th string because (a) it makes sense to get the low tonic, and (b) the very low bass tones really get squelched badly in the transition from player to recording device to 78 to digital capture to MP3 file creation to Transcribe.  I definitely hear that bass mostly on the 5th string, but I think he just as likely was getting drive through from the 6th to the 5th string.  User preference I think.

Yeah, I hear it mostly on the 5th string also.  Agree, user preference (which it all is anyway )

I don't know how he did the walkup, but my overriding thought is that nothing he did involved changing out of the basic E form - that way the whole thing could be played over and over and over again without tripping.  It bet some people can do it with their pinky (Chris Smither does this...), not me.  I also move the whole E form up and back down (with the index lifted, of course). 

I went back and fooled with it some - and I think you are right, he kept the form - I'm now lifting both the index and ring finger which makes it even easier to move (and even less string squeak, whcih I don;t hear on the Trice recording - but he is playing his guitar pretty darn hard).

Fun little project Tom - thanks for indulging me.

Cheers,
slack

[a2tom]

Checked out the bass a bit more last night.  There are definitely places where he is pinching to the low E on beat before and on the hammer, and getting drive through to the 5th string.  The pattern for the thumb thus goes (indicating the string)

6 4 6 6  6 4 5 5  (last two are the walkup )

He may do that every time, maybe he catches it on the 5th instead of 6th string sometimes.  The lick doesn't have a strict sameness, so I wouldn't doubt he was drifting around - can't always hear it.

In listenting to the bass, I was futher a bit surprising that the bass note he plays under the 4th fret slides in the intro/break is not an E as I wrote it, but actually an A, open 5th string, giving an A feel before resolving to the E.

tom