Hi, can anyone tell me is the Misty sheet music transcription PDF of Erroll Garner of a specific Garner recording ? And if so which one is it ,would love to hear it !
Just listened to the/an original recording of his & didn’t seem to have the chord progression that appears in bar 7 & 8 (4 chords x 2 bar’s)
Also, been working on a Richard Holmes version with fast bassline so all my(rootless) chords will end up played in right hand only. Apart from 3rd’s, 7ths, what chord tones should I try to keep in ,or what’s the best lesson on pianogroove to demonstrate chord tone choice for single hand chord with L.H bassline playing? any ideas much appreciated.
Yes this is a reharmonisation that I discovered whilst playing Misty in a solo piano setting. There is no particular recording which gave inspiration for that chord sequence. Ultimately, it is just an alternate way to harmonise a 3-6-2-5 turnaround and you could also apply it to other tunes.
One of the nice things with Misty is that it is played at a slow tempo, which leaves a lot of space for that reharm.
I use a lot of sus13 chords in my playing so you will hear me doing that sus13 to altered dominant sound a lot over 25s, 251s, and in this case a full 36251 turnaround.
Great version… thanks for sharing
In terms of voicings to play over a bassline like that, I would recommend rootless left hand voicings with extensions, and also alterations if you are comfortable using them.
Check out these 2 lessons where we use Misty as an example. You could repurpose those left hand voicings into your right hand on top of a bassline:
and also:
That’s one of the great things with rootless left hand voicings… they are very versatile and the exact same voicings can be applied to a wide range of situations. In the above lessons, we are using them for a left hand stride, and the exact same voicings are equally well-suited to comping over a bassline.
Let me know what you think of them over your bassline
Regarding stride left hand chords , do you ever play only 3rds & 7ths in place(or instead of) of a full chord voicing with the left hand in a tune such as Misty? or is that generally considered to ‘thin’ or bare a sound?
Personally, I prefer the sound created when extensions and alterations are added in.
I also like to play a lot of quartal stacks which give a more modern sound.
For example, for Eb Major, we could play the root in the lower register of the piano, and then come up with out left hand to play G(3) - C(6) - F(9) … I like the sound of stacked 4ths… so that’s another option for you to experiment with.
It all comes down to personal taste so follow your ears!
Hi Hayden ,just revisiting an older question here as I try to improve stride technique for Misty.
Just wondering does the order of 3rds & 7ths matter for left hand stride playing… as in whether we put the 3rd or 7th on top or bottom? cause: 1) so far all I’ve been doing is arranging left hand notes to not sound too ‘muddy’ 2)have not been looking at it from a voice leading perspective like in the right hand.
Yes Misty is a great tune for playing the left hand stride technique.
To answer your questions:
No the 3rd and 7th can be played in any order, but as a rule of thumb, try to play the 3rd and 7th as close to middle C as possible, and you should find that you get the most pleasing sound.
To do this we will need to be comfortable with both inversions so that we can quickly find the most suitable inversion.
Yes that is exactly the right approach.
Depending on the chord, the 3rd and 7th will fall in different registers of the keyboard, but always use middle C as a reference point and aim to get your rootless voicings within this range of the piano, middle C is highligted with the red dot:
As a rough guide, we have an octave above, and an octave below. If we go below an octave it starts to sound ‘muddy’, and if we go above an octave the rootless voicings can sound a little ‘thin’.
Hope this helps Niall, and any further questions just let me know.
