Help Me Joni Mitchell
Subject: Annotated CRD: Joni Mitchell's - "Help Me"<br/> <br/> "Help Me" from _Court and Spark_<br/> <br/> This is one of my favorites. Larry Carleton is the guitarist on this <br/> song, and he plays some really intersting chordal/arpeggiated stuff (which <br/> I'm still trying to pick out, since they're pretty low in the mix). <br/> This song has a bunch of really subtle changes in it, so I advise anyone who <br/> wants to play it to listen _very_ carefully. I have notated the difficult <br/> bits with an asterisk (*) and indicated why each part is tricky. I <br/> sincerely doubt Carleton had any trouble with it, but for us lesser mortals.... <br/> In any event, you need to listen to the song closely to pick up the vocal, <br/> which has lots of jazz rhythms to it. If you can play this with a female <br/> vocalist, I envy you greatly! <br/> <br/> <br/> So anyway, here goes:<br/> <br/> Chords you will use:<br/> <br/> A sus2 open: x-0-2-2-0-0<br/> <br/> A major: x-0-2-2-2-0<br/> <br/> e minor 7: 0-2-2-0-3-0<br/> <br/> G major: 3-2-0-0-3-3<br/> <br/> G major 7: 3-x-5-4-3-2 (this chord is kind of hard if you don't use your <br/> thumb, so you might want to omit the low g on 6, or use another fingering <br/> like 3-x-4-4-3-x, 3-x-0-0-0-2, or x-10-12-11-12-x)<br/> F major 7: x-x-3-2-1-0 (I like this so that I can embellish easily using open <br/> strings, and because it's an easy slide down from G major 7, but you may <br/> want to use 1x221x if you're using a different G major 7)<br/> F major 7 variant 2: x-8-10-9-10-x (use this one in another part, notated <br/> F major 7 barre)<br/> <br/> C major 7: x-3-2-0-0-x (this chord will cause no shortage of headaches <br/> since it is used as a transition and you often are on it for no more <br/> than a beat. I don't recommend refingering it for that reason.)<br/> <br/> Bb major 7: x-1-3-2-3-x<br/> <br/> D major 7: x-5-7-6-7-x<br/> <br/> Intro:<br/> <br/> |A sus 2| A sus 2| straight into:<br/> <br/> Verse:<br/> <br/> A maj e min 7<br/> Help me, I think I'm falling <br/> <br/> G maj 7<br/> In love again.<br/> <br/> <br/> When I get that crazy feeling, <br/> <br/> F maj 7<br/> I know I'm in trouble again, <br/> <br/> <br/> I'm in trouble, <br/> <br/> <br/> 'Cause you're a ramblin' and a gamblin' and a sweet-talking ladies man,<br/> <br/> C maj 7 G maj 7<br/> And you love your lovin', <br/> <br/> [no lyrics while the horns play one of the song's signature licks]<br/> <br/> C maj 7-A maj-C maj 7 <br/> Not like you love your freedom.<br/> *note that the time signature changes here from 4 to 3 for a measure and <br/> then changes back. The best advice I can give you is to listen to the <br/> recording carefully here, and maybe to skip the last C maj 7, since A feeds <br/> quite nicely into the next chord as well<br/> <br/> [No vocals here: transition between verses where Larry C. does his stuff] <br/> <br/> |D maj 7|Bb maj 7|F maj 7 barre|F maj 7 barre|G maj|A maj *|G maj|A maj *|<br/> <br/> |G maj|A maj|A maj|... back into verse 2<br/> <br/> * indicates that the horn players have a riff that is, as far as I can tell, <br/> unplayable by one guitar, so go nuts on an A major or A blues scale for a bit!<br/> I often play the G maj to A maj progression with 10th and 12th position barre<br/> chords if I want to play high stuff, but it really depends on mood.<br/> <br/> <br/> Verse 2: <br/> <br/> Help me, I think I'm falling, <br/> In love too fast.<br/> It's got me hoping for the future,<br/> And worrying about the past,<br/> 'Cause I've seen some hot, hot blazes <br/> come down in smoking ash.<br/> We love our lovin', <br/> Not like we love our freedom.<br/> <br/> [back into the Larry C. transition part and then go to the Bridge]<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> Bridge:<br/> <br/> G maj 7<br/> Didn't it feel good, just sitting there talking, <br/> <br/> <br/> Or lying there not talking, didn't it feel good?<br/> F maj 7<br/> <br/> You danced with the lady with a hole in her stocking.<br/> <br/> Didn't it feel good?<br/> <br/> Didn't it feel good?<br/> <br/> <br/> [some vocal gymnastics with call and response "Didn't it feel good"'s] <br/> <br/> <br/> D maj 7<br/> Didn't it feel good?<br/> <br/> G maj 7<br/> Didn't it feel good?<br/> <br/> D maj 7<br/> Didn't it feel good?<br/> <br/> G maj 7<br/> Didn't it feel good?<br/> <br/> |G maj|A maj *|G maj|A maj *|G maj|A maj|A maj| ... back into last verse:<br/> <br/> Help me, I think I'm falling in love with you, <br/> Are you going to make me go there by myself?<br/> That's such a lonely thing to do.<br/> Both of us flirting around, flirting, and flirting, hurting, too.<br/> Not like we love our freedom.<br/> <br/> [end verse but skip the G maj - A maj part and go straight into...] <br/> <br/> Outro to fade:<br/> <br/> [lots more Larry C. stuff] <br/> <br/> |D maj 7|F maj 7| ...<br/> <br/> <br/> Comments, questions, corrections, etc., welcome.<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> -- <br/> Jay Verkuilen jayv@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu<br/> In the warped world of Mattel talking doll conversations: <br/> Talking Barbie(TM)--"Math is tough!"<br/> Talking Ken(TM)--"Group theory is intuitively obvious."<br/> <br/> </div> </div> <div class="breadcrumbs">
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