Jaane kahan gaye woh din (finger picking on guitar with chords)
- 10 years ago
This is one of the very best compositions of Shankar Jaikishan from the movie Mera Naam Joker (1970). It is also one of the sad songs written by Hasrat Jaipuri that is well suited to the voice of Mukesh. I can normally sing this song well, except that I have this cold that I can not get rid off for the past month affecting my singing voice.
There is a lot of discussion about this song as the composition is based on the Shivranjani raag that uses a pentatonic scale consisting of notes C, D, Eb, G and A. If we use these notes to play the song’s melody notes it would usually sound very good. Reducing seven notes to five notes in a scale is considered as a limitation in most songs which has been overcome in this song by spreading these notes over almost two octaves.
My arrangement of this song for guitar is based exactly on these 5 notes. As these notes do not correspond with the major or minor pentatonic scale common to most western popular music, a melodic analysis is given below.
A pattern of melody is usually based on the interval between notes rather than actual notes and by moving the entire melody pattern by 1-2 semitones up or down is unlikely to make much difference to the auditory perception of a song.
If we subtract one semitone from the notes C, D, Eb, G and A, we get B, C#, E, F# and G#. These five notes belong to the key of A. Therefore, if we place a capo on 1st fret and use the key of A, we will be able cover these five notes or alternatively this analysis confirms that the notes C, D, Eb, G and A are all present in the key of Bb major except the notes Bb and F.
Further analysis shows that the notes C, Eb and G make the chord C minor (Cm). Therefore the song can be played in the key of Cm or Bb. When the melody moves around G or A notes, additional chords beyond Cm may be used.
My video presentation of this song is based on the key of Bb major using ¾ or 6/8 time signature. For the finger picking section of the song I use only 3 chords (Cm, Dm and Gm) to play intro, chorus, bridge and verse 1. As I am using a capo on 3rd fret, these 3 chords are transposed into Am, Bm and Em. For the rhythm section of the song, I use strumming with all available chords from Bb key to play bridge, verse 2 and chorus. As I am using the capo on 3rd fret, I am using the chords from the transposed key of G major (G, Am, Bm, C, D and Em).
I hope to show how to play all the melody notes of this song on the guitar some time soon.
There is a lot of discussion about this song as the composition is based on the Shivranjani raag that uses a pentatonic scale consisting of notes C, D, Eb, G and A. If we use these notes to play the song’s melody notes it would usually sound very good. Reducing seven notes to five notes in a scale is considered as a limitation in most songs which has been overcome in this song by spreading these notes over almost two octaves.
My arrangement of this song for guitar is based exactly on these 5 notes. As these notes do not correspond with the major or minor pentatonic scale common to most western popular music, a melodic analysis is given below.
A pattern of melody is usually based on the interval between notes rather than actual notes and by moving the entire melody pattern by 1-2 semitones up or down is unlikely to make much difference to the auditory perception of a song.
If we subtract one semitone from the notes C, D, Eb, G and A, we get B, C#, E, F# and G#. These five notes belong to the key of A. Therefore, if we place a capo on 1st fret and use the key of A, we will be able cover these five notes or alternatively this analysis confirms that the notes C, D, Eb, G and A are all present in the key of Bb major except the notes Bb and F.
Further analysis shows that the notes C, Eb and G make the chord C minor (Cm). Therefore the song can be played in the key of Cm or Bb. When the melody moves around G or A notes, additional chords beyond Cm may be used.
My video presentation of this song is based on the key of Bb major using ¾ or 6/8 time signature. For the finger picking section of the song I use only 3 chords (Cm, Dm and Gm) to play intro, chorus, bridge and verse 1. As I am using a capo on 3rd fret, these 3 chords are transposed into Am, Bm and Em. For the rhythm section of the song, I use strumming with all available chords from Bb key to play bridge, verse 2 and chorus. As I am using the capo on 3rd fret, I am using the chords from the transposed key of G major (G, Am, Bm, C, D and Em).
I hope to show how to play all the melody notes of this song on the guitar some time soon.