Any thoughts on the song In Color by Jamey Johnson

[kwadams88yahoocom]

I had a thread going on another topic that lead primarily to this song in particular. I really like this song and the finger picking/arpeggio within it... I was trying to gain more knowledge of how to play it and someone recommended starting a thread about it, here it is... LOL All feedback is welcome but please try to stay positive with your comments.

Thanks!

[sbutler]

Well I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to this stuff, but I'll give it a go.

Looks like he's capo'd at the 3rd fret, and he's playing what looks and sounds like the key of C. I think he has a 5-4 , 1 progression. So that would be G --F (and it looks like a little F) then he plays a C. Sometimes I think he does a pulloff on the High E string F, and does a hammer on the 5th string C when he goes to that chord. Not sure yet what he does on the chorus.

Scott

[willem]

sbutler wrote:

Well I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to this stuff, but I'll give it a go.

Looks like he's capo'd at the 3rd fret, and he's playing what looks and sounds like the key of C. I think he has a 5-4 , 1 progression. So that would be G --F (and it looks like a little F) then he plays a C. Sometimes I think he does a pulloff on the High E string F, and does a hammer on the 5th string C when he goes to that chord. Not sure yet what he does on the chorus.

Scott

This confuses me already,,,capo on the 3rd fret and thinkin in the key of C,,,looking at your chords Scott it must be.. I must confess that I have a musicsheet and tells me its the key G..but that sheet tells me also the chord F,,, and the chord F is not a chord in the key of G,,,F#minor is right? or a dim chord,,so who is wrong the sheet or......???

As to your high string embellisment I think most of the time you hear the note G (third fret on the first string)also on the F chord you hear that note,,so we could call the F chord Fsus2

This till now...oh the song is in 4/4 time..

Willem

[wiley]

Willem, that's the problem with a lot of 'tab' sheets - they are all over the place.

There are several videos of this song played live. I've never noticed Jamey moving away from capoing the third, which means if we say he use the 'shapes' of C, G, and E (which is played like an F) it would be the key of "C" and the major chords would be (using IV and V) F and G.

Now remember, we are talking 'relative' key here, not absolute.

Now, at the bridge, the tone changes -------

We could just forget about the 'key' and use the "Nashville Numbering System" - it would be a IV - V - I progression, like Scott has stated.

[willem]

wiley wrote:

Willem, that's the problem with a lot of 'tab' sheets - they are all over the place.

There are several videos of this song played live. I've never noticed Jamey moving away from capoing the third, which means if we say he use the 'shapes' of C, G, and E (which is played like an F) it would be the key of "C" and the major chords would be (using IV and V) F and G.

Now remember, we are talking 'relative' key here, not absolute.

Now, at the bridge, the tone changes -------

We could just forget about the 'key' and use the "Nashville Numbering System" - it would be a IV - V - I progression, like Scott has stated.

deleted,,it sets confusing,,,sorry

[wiley]

Willem - I have no clue how to go about doing this without causing even further confusion. Honestly, I have no clue if I'm 'absolutely' correct in the following statement but, oh well, what the he......

First thing I learned a while back trying to 'transpose' from piano sheet music is this. Sheet music for Piano is written one octave LOWER?? than a guitar. I've only done this once and it was a short piece. I'm the type of person who quickly forgets something I don't often need or use. At my age, that's starting to be a lot of things!

IOW - the guitar sheet music has no "Bass" (or C) clef, it contains only one five line staff - the piano uses both an 'upper' clef and a 'lower' one to write out stuff. Now I'm talking about normally here, I'd be way out of line saying this is ALWAYS the case. It's not, far from it.

So, a 'middle C' (?C3?) which is written for piano is played on the fifth string, first fret on guitar. Transcribing that to guitar sheet music, that is the third open "frame" from the bottom on a staff.


Like this ( I hope)

Piano;

-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
--0--

Guitar;
________________________________________
________________________________________
___________________0_______________
________________________________________
________________________________________

Guitar TAB
----------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------1-------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------

So, to get the same 'tone' from piano and guitar, we use the two different types (layouts perhaps is a better word?) of sheet music side by side.

[willem]

Sorry Wiley,,,I think the original song is in the key of Eb(not Bb,,never trust a sheet on the net eh),,,I looked to my pianosheet and see the three chords in this order Bb-Ab-Eb that is V-VI-I in the key of Eb,,if we transpose the chords Bb-Ab-Eb three steps down we get G-F-C(the chords played in the song ''in color'')


The signs in front of my pianosheet were totally wrong i geuss (two bb)

Thats all

Willem

[wiley]

As for the 'absolute' key - I can only refer back to several discussions about relative keys and absolute keys we have discussed before.

True enough, when we 'capo up' we do so to change the 'key' of a particular piece in reality we are changing the 'tone' (or pitch may be a better word here) of the guitar, the capo makes the fretboard shorter (more or less - in theory (it's actually called "scale length")). But we still think about the key, on guitar, in the same way we would as if we did not have the capo. This makes the 'thinking' part easier as we would use the same 'shapes' as we would if the capo was not there.

To find the 'absolute' key, the one we would tell all the other instruments we are 'really' playing in, we count up. So, key of C in 'open' position, we count up the number of frets we move the capo to.

open 1st fret 2nd fret 3rd fret 4th fret 5th fret 6th fret
C - C#/Db - D - D#/Eb - E/Fb - F - F3/Gb and so on and so on.......

as a further example;

G - G#/Ab - A - A3/Bb - B/Cb - C - C#/Db and so on and so on........

EDIT: That didn't turn out like planned, I'll try to get around to posting something a bit clearer.

Willem - two flats is B flat.

[willem]

wiley wrote:

As for the 'absolute' key - I can only refer back to several discussions about relative keys and absolute keys we have discussed before.

True enough, when we 'capo up' we do so to change the 'key' of a particular piece in reality we are changing the 'tone' (or pitch may be a better word here) of the guitar, the capo makes the fretboard shorter (more or less - in theory (it's actually called "scale length")). But we still think about the key, on guitar, in the same way we would as if we did not have the capo. This makes the 'thinking' part easier as we would use the same 'shapes' as we would if the capo was not there.

To find the 'absolute' key, the one we would tell all the other instruments we are 'really' playing in, we count up. So, key of C in 'open' position, we count up the number of frets we move the capo to.

open 1st fret 2nd fret 3rd fret 4th fret 5th fret 6th fret
C - C#/Db - D - D#/Eb - E/Fb - F - F3/Gb and so on and so on.......

as a further example;

G - G#/Ab - A - A3/Bb - B/Cb - C - C#/Db and so on and so on........

EDIT: That didn't turn out like planned, I'll try to get around to posting something a bit clearer.

Willem - two flats is B flat.

Yes Wiley,,,D# or Eb,,,I was so confused 'cos the sheet told me Bb(totally wrong) an other sheet told me G and capo up three frets,,can you understand how confused I was when I read what Scott was saying with the chords and I at my thoughts 'cos I could''nt place the F chord,,now I can,,

Lets say the song was written in C and then capod up three frets so it becomes Eb..

Willem

[TGNesh]

No Willem, the sheets aren't totally wrong.....the song ís in the key of G (the presence of an F-chord doesn't change that) relative to the capo. Absolute key is Bb, that's why the sheets said two bb (2 mollen). But please FORGET about the latter! :S

I mean, are we playing the piano or the guitar? Stick to the guitar, think in chordshapes and for now nót in absolute keys, this gets wáy too confusing. Once you got it all figured out for the guitar and you gotta tell another musician, bassplayer, pianist, only thén it'll be handy to know what the absolute key is by going up (in this case) three half steps, since you're capoed at the third fret. Again, in the guitarworld, think in chordshapes and relative to the capo.....I thought we had that cleared up... :S

Also I don't think the original poster (Kwadam) is looking for keys, just the chords and the picking.

My two cents....




willem wrote:

wiley wrote:

As for the 'absolute' key - I can only refer back to several discussions about relative keys and absolute keys we have discussed before.

True enough, when we 'capo up' we do so to change the 'key' of a particular piece in reality we are changing the 'tone' (or pitch may be a better word here) of the guitar, the capo makes the fretboard shorter (more or less - in theory (it's actually called "scale length")). But we still think about the key, on guitar, in the same way we would as if we did not have the capo. This makes the 'thinking' part easier as we would use the same 'shapes' as we would if the capo was not there.

To find the 'absolute' key, the one we would tell all the other instruments we are 'really' playing in, we count up. So, key of C in 'open' position, we count up the number of frets we move the capo to.

open 1st fret 2nd fret 3rd fret 4th fret 5th fret 6th fret
C - C#/Db - D - D#/Eb - E/Fb - F - F3/Gb and so on and so on.......

as a further example;

G - G#/Ab - A - A3/Bb - B/Cb - C - C#/Db and so on and so on........

EDIT: That didn't turn out like planned, I'll try to get around to posting something a bit clearer.

Willem - two flats is B flat.

Yes Wiley,,,D# or Eb,,,I was so confused 'cos the sheet told me Bb(totally wrong) an other sheet told me G and capo up three frets,,can you understand how confused I was when I read what Scott was saying with the chords and I at my thoughts 'cos I could''nt place the F chord,,now I can,,

Lets say the song was written in C and then capod up three frets so it becomes Eb..

Willem