Birdsong

This page is a guide to learning Birdsong on a tapping instrument such as the Chapman Stick or the acoustic Dragonfly DFA.

There is a score/tablature, fretboard diagrams, and youtube video instructions, that will help you along the way. This song lives in a range that should be easily adapted to other tapping instrument tunings.

You don't need to know how to read music. In fact, you can get 90% of the way there just by watching the videos and referring to the Fretboard diagrams, and playing the song on the Musecore web page. The videos to go along with this piece are at this youtube playlist Birdsong tappetizer playlist

Background

This song is by the famous jazz drummer Paul Motian. Who has written a lot of great songs. Many , like this one, are small jewels of musicality.
This song is in the mode Ab Lydian, (the 4th mode of the Eb Major scale) which Mr. Motian had an affinity for. you can also think of Ab lydian as the Ab Major scale with the D fourth raised a half step To my mind, this particular song has a lot of similarities to Erik Satie's Gymnopédies with it's slow dreamy 3/4 rythmn and impressionistic melody
Take a listen to a few versions of this piece.
- An ensemble version with clarinetist Mirco Mariotinni
- Solo guitar version by Carl Michel
- Another version is a quirky , but enjoyable solo guitar version by Haşmet Asilkan
- There is also a great version by the composer himself along with Jason Moran and Chris Potter on the Album Lost in a Dream on ECM Records

Musescore score + tabs

The Score (and tabs) to go along with the diagrams below is available Here Look for the ones with names that start with the Birdsong. This is the authoritative one which is for twelve string Matched reciprocal tuning

Elemental Structure

As mentioned before, this piece is very much like one of Satie's Gymnopédies. It's in a slow 3/4 time signture where The bass side is a sequence of Ab pedal notes held through each bar with a second note overlaid on top of it on the second beat of the bar. I like around 70 bpm for the tempo on this song.

Each section of the piece is typically played twice, so the basic song structure is ike this:

A A B B C C

After which the whole piece then repeats a number of times and optionally improvised on ( to taste ).

This page explains Ab Lydian a little bit and can be useful when you are thinking of ways to improvise within the song. I also suggest you listen to Jason Moran and Chris Potter playing this song on the Lost In a Dream album I mentioned above.

Backing Chords

You'll note in the score that there are accompanying chord symbols on the bass staff. The musescore for this spong uses a Bass Flute ensemble voice with these chords which I quite like. If you have programmable midi foot controller like a Softstep, you can use it (along with a midi sythesizer) to replicate the backing chords as heard in the musescore score to nicely fill out a solo performance.

Section A: AbMaj7 Cm7b9 Bb6 Section B: Ab6 Section C: Abm Cmb9
(If your buttons are limited on your foot controller, you can omit the Cm chords)

Fretboard Diagrams and Instruction Videos

Note:

Each of these diagrams is in 12 string matched reciprocal tuning. It will have link to a .fbjson file that you can download and then use in conjunction with the Fretboard diagammer web app
You can read the file into it and change the tuning in the tuning configuration drop down and it will make a (simple minded) try at converting it.
You can click on any diagram to get an enlarged version.

Heat Map

This is the general area where you will be to be playing. Along with a video discussing this

Exercise:
On the bass side: Play the song's three bass dyads (two note chords) in the descending sequence:

Ab+G(7th), Ab+F(6th), Ab+Eb(5th)

as pedals in 3/4 time.

tap and hold the first note of the dyad on the first beat
tap and hold the second note of the dyad on the second beat
hold both notes through the third beat

Notice that the upper notes descend downward in intervals 7th, 6th, 5th with respect to constant root Ab.

On the melody side: Play the Ab Lydian (Eb Major) scale in the melody area in a 3/4 time signature to get your fingers used to playing there.

.fbjson file