My Funny Valentine

[bloke]

I mentioned this song in another thread (the typical thing where someone requests a song, right after the band just finished playing it ), and a couple of people have sent me emails - asking if I have a lead sheet for it.

We weren’t using any lead sheets on the gig and I’m sure that the chord changes can be found online, but - though the song sort-of sounds as though it has complex chord changes, they are really quite simple:

It is usually in C minor, and there are two sections where it just stays in C Minor - with the bass line walking down chromatically (starting on C) each bar by another half step. In the middle, it goes to the relative major, E-flat - with little more than several I -- II - V - I patterns.

Find a simpler (less arranged) recording of it on youtube, and and - keeping in mind everything stated above – play along, until it all makes sense. It’s always better to just ~know~ a song, than having to read it off a piece of paper.

[BopEuph]

And when learning any tune, my favorite method is to study Ella first, because the chords are usually the most "right," then Miles, because he's usually the "standard" way of playing the tune...though I'm sure that's not the case in this particular tune.

The other thing is that it's always best to learn a standard from a singer first to understand the lyrics and story of the tune. I'm usually singing the words in my head if I'm playing the head...which is rare as the bassist.

[bloke]

With this particular song, the chord inversions define themselves...
...again: on the surface this song sounds as if it’s more complex than most but – in reality – much simpler than most.
——-
I mentioned “inversions” in response to your comment about listening to (or aurally imagining) the melody, while playing a bass line.

Composing and arranging rules and customs (regardless of which western music genre - at least, those that involve more than two or three chords) have not changed much since the time of Bach.
If a bass player only pays attention to the chord symbols (or only what they are hearing in the piano player’s right hand) and not the melody, inevitably, they are going to play many incorrect inversions.
Ella Fitzgerald recordings are a great source material for learning “standards”, in the same way that (as so much musicianship and clarity is so consistently found in them) San Francisco Symphony recordings are great source material when learning orchestral excerpts.

[LargeTuba]

I have the arrangement for two clarinets and a tuba if anyone's interested.