Janet Jangle - The High Llamas
--------------------------------
From the album "Snowbug"
Transcribed by Howard Wright
hakwright (at) gmail (dot) com
Notes:
-------
This delight of a song uses the same basic chord progression
throughout with a few variations thrown in as the song progresses.
The chord shapes I've written out (at the end of the transcription)
mainly use the same voicings as used in the keyboard part, but the
shapes fit very comfortably on the guitar.
All the chord shapes use just four notes (bass note with triad on
top), which gives a particular "clean" sound. This means you'll need
to mute some strings on the guitar when you play them, but if you
prefer, or if you find the string muting tricky, you could try using
alternative shapes.
I've written out the main melody in tab, as well as the counter
melody that appears later on in the song. Chord names are always
written above the corresponding sections of guitar tab.
This song just goes to show how much fun you can have with only
10 chords!
Main melody and chord progression:
-----------------------------------
The song starts with the main them on 12-string guitar (doubled
on the marimba), with the keyboard playing the chords:
E7sus4 E7 Amaj7
E------------------------------------
B----------5---------5--5---7--5-----
G---7--7------6-7--------------------
D--------------------------------7---
A------------------------------------
E------------------------------------
E7sus4 E7 Amaj7
E------------------------------------
B----------5---------5--5---7--5-----
G---7--7------6-7--------------------
D--------------------------------7---
A------------------------------------
E------------------------------------
Bbmaj7 C/Bb Am7 C/D
E--------------------5--5---6--5-----
B---6--6---8--5-6--------------------
G--------------------------------5---
D------------------------------------
A------------------------------------
E------------------------------------
Bbmaj7 C/Bb Am7 C/D
E--------------------5--5---6--5-----
B---6--6---8--5-6--------------------
G--------------------------------5---
D------------------------------------
A------------------------------------
E------------------------------------
After a few bars of shaker the keyboard repeats the first half of
the progression:
E7sus4 E7 Amaj7
E7sus4 E7 Amaj7
The drums enter, and the main melody is played again over the complete
chord progression:
E7sus4 E7 Amaj7
E7sus4 E7 Amaj7
Bbmaj7 C/Bb Am7 C/D
Bbmaj7 C/Bb Am7 C/D
The main melody's repeated again over the main progression, but the
first chord variations come in towards the end of the sequence:
E7sus4 E7 Amaj7
E7sus4 E7 Amaj7
Bbmaj7 C/Bb Am7 C/D
Gm7 C7b9 Am7 D7b9
Now a repeat of the previous section, including the 7b9 chord variations,
with rippling, echoed guitar chords adding some interesting texture.
The counter-melody (in the guitar tab) comes in half way through the
main sequence:
E7sus4 E7 Amaj7
E7sus4 E7 Amaj7
Bbmaj7 C/Bb Am7 C/D
E------------------------------------
B--6--------------5------------------
G------7--------------5----------6---
D------------------------------------
A------------------------------------
E------------------------------------
Gm7 C7b9 Am7 D7b9
E------------------------------------
B----------------5-------------------
G--7-----------------5---------------
D------------------------------------
A------8-----------------------------
E------------------------------------
The main melody and counter melody continue over what's almost a
repeat of the second half of the chord sequence, but note the Gm7
variation (instead of C/Bb):
Bbmaj7 Gm7 Am7 C/D
Gm7 C7b9 Am7 D7b9
Now the vocals enter (main melody continues):
E7sus4 E7 Amaj7
E7sus4 E7 Amaj7
Bbmaj7 C/Bb Am7 C/D
Gm7 C7b9 Am7 D7b9
After a few bars of shaker, the keyboard plays the first half of the
main progression. The second half of the main melody and the counter
melody come in on the Bbmaj7 (along with other instruments):
E7sus4 E7 Amaj7
E7sus4 E7 Amaj7
Bbmaj7 C/Bb Am7 C/D
Gm7 C7b9 Am7 D7b9
Followed by the slight variation on the Bbmaj7 sequence:
Bbmaj7 Gm7 Am7 C/D
Gm7 C7b9 Am7 D7b9
The song ends with multiple repeats of the last two Bbmaj7 sequences:
Bbmaj7 C/Bb Am7 C/D
Gm7 C7b9 Am7 D7b9
Bbmaj7 Gm7 Am7 C/D
Gm7 C7b9 Am7 D7b9
Chord shapes
-------------
EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE
0x775x 0x675x 5x665x 6x776x
E7sus4 E7 Amaj7 Bbmaj7
EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE
6x555x 5x555x x5555x 3x333x
C/Bb Am7 C/D Gm7
EADGBE EADGBE
x3232x x5454x
C7b9 D7b9
All these guitar shapes use the same chord voicings as the original
keyboard part apart from one: the keyboard uses a slightly different
voicing for the Bbmaj7 chord (x1323x), but this makes for a slightly
awkward change to the C/Bb shape on the guitar so I find the 6x776x
shape works better.
I also prefer these shapes which are mostly played around the 3rd and
5th frets, but if you prefer you can play the same voicings for some
chords lower down the neck, such as:
EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE
0xx230 0xx130 x0x120
E7sus4 E7 Amaj7
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Last updated: February 2013
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