Little Help Please - Marshmallow World

[WonderMonkey]

I'm joining in with a few other people to play some Christmas songs at work. One we are doing is Dean Martin's version of "Marshmallow World". I've linked the song below.

A sax player is being the voice, a fingerstyle guy is going to do whatever her wants, and a beginning banjo player is just going to strum about the best he can.

What I want to do is mimic the first 7-8 seconds of the song and then carry the rhythm from there. The first 7-8 seconds is repeated here and there through the song, how intros commonly do, so it will sound nice. In fact the first 7-8 seconds is actually TWO of the sequences so really I'm looking for the first 4 seconds, and I'll repeat that twice for the intro, and two MORE times until it changes up. According to my little book that will be the first seven bars.

I think I can get the strum pattern but I'm struggling with the chords. In my little book it has C, Cmaj7, C, Cmaj7 but that's not right. That's what they are suggesting for the easy pattern to play the song solo. In this arrangement, I'm the rhythm guy and I'd like a tasty (as I can accomplish) version of it.

Any thoughts? Have I confused the issue enough?

https://youtu.be/0ujM9wreqGQ

[Wyllys]

Link fail.

[WonderMonkey]

Originally Posted by Wyllys

Link fail.

Fixed, sortof. The tag didn't work so I made it a straight link.

[stanron]

It would help to know which key you will play it in.

The recording is in B. Not the most guitar friendly key. The phrase you want is four descending notes of the major scale.

In C you could play;

   C				G7
E╓─────0───────0───┬─────0───────1───┐
B╟─────1───────1───┼─────1───────0───┤
G╟─────0───────0───┼─────0───────0───┤
D╟─────────────────┼─────────────────┤
A╟─3───────2───────┼─0───────────────┤
E╙─────────────────┴─────────3───────┘

. .1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + . 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by WonderMonkey

In my little book it has C, Cmaj7, C, Cmaj7 but that's not right.

Transposed to C, it's:

C - Em/G (G6) - Dm - G7

Stanron's descending bass line works, but is not quite the same as the recording. You could have an A bass on the Dm - to complete the descending line - but its D bass on the recording. Meanwhile that string line (the long notes) runs C-B-A-B.

The little rising line on the G7 (if you, or one of you, wants to fit it in) is:

----------------
--------0--------
-0-1-2----------
----------------
----------------
----------------

So if you're just being the lead player (trusting the others to carry chords), you could play:

 C      Em     Dm     G7
|------|------|------|--------|
|1-----|0-----|------|0-----0-|
|------|------|2-----|0-1-2---|
|------|------|------|--------|
|------|------|------|--------|
|------|------|------|--------|

If you play it in C, that puts the sax player in their D (if they're tenor or soprano), or A (alto or baritone). They might prefer you to play it in Bb (their C or G), but D or A are not difficult on sax. The original key of B, though is at least as hard on sax as on guitar, so don't try tuning down (or capoing) to play in the original key.

[WonderMonkey]

On the song I'm the one who carrying the rhythm, meaning chords to me. That first four seconds I want to turn that into a one person piece. I had envisioned a strum pattern over chord changes to pull that off.

I'm not quite understanding what you two are telling me. It's not you, it's me. I'll go back and read this at lunch and see if I can match what I'm looking for to what you are saying.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by WonderMonkey

On the song I'm the one who carrying the rhythm, meaning chords to me. That first four seconds I want to turn that into a one person piece. I had envisioned a strum pattern over chord changes to pull that off.

I'm not quite understanding what you two are telling me. It's not you, it's me. I'll go back and read this at lunch and see if I can match what I'm looking for to what you are saying.

OK, if it's chords you want, then it's C, Em/G, Dm, G7, two beats each

Standard shapes for C, Dm and G7, and this shape for Em/G: 3-2-2-0-0-0 (so you get the G bass note in the original).

If you can mute the top string, that will help the descending line come out (which is 1-0 on the B string and 2-0 on the G string).

In fact the descending works in the bass too (strings 5-6), as in stanron's tab (but with these chords):
C = x-3-2-0-1-x
Em/B = x-2-2-0-0--x
Dm/A = x-0-0-2-3-(1)
G7 = 3-2-0-0-0-1

[TBman]

Get the descending bass line in, the chords will follow it.

[WonderMonkey]

I was laid up with illness yesterday but I'll be trying this out today.

[WonderMonkey]

Originally Posted by JonPR

OK, if it's chords you want, then it's C, Em/G, Dm, G7, two beats each

Standard shapes for C, Dm and G7, and this shape for Em/G: 3-2-2-0-0-0 (so you get the G bass note in the original).

If you can mute the top string, that will help the descending line come out (which is 1-0 on the B string and 2-0 on the G string).

In fact the descending works in the bass too (strings 5-6), as in stanron's tab (but with these chords):
C = x-3-2-0-1-x
Em/B = x-2-2-0-0--x
Dm/A = x-0-0-2-3-(1)
G7 = 3-2-0-0-0-1

I did what you suggested and gave it a nice (for me) and it sounded really nice! I appreciate the help on this.