Wappy has a quick CYHMK tease, then a short Jumpin’ Jack Flash jam. Pretty nice. Also, I have always liked Breaker.
Great IDM placement, too.
The listening guide thing is really cool, a few thoughts though:
I feel like the first few mins of Wappy up until the rock riff drops is a “vamp” - similarly almost the entire end section of Mulches IMO is a “vamp” up until they play the final descending riff.
Why are some solos half “vamp” / half “original” and others marked entirely “vamp?”
Anyway, that’s just my 2 cents.
I liked the BB troll before WBG.
Those are all good things to point out and honestly some of this comes down to how I choose to define the categories while working on this. Another thing is that I don’t mark anything that occurs for less than 10sec (because it’s too insignificant in the final product), so if there’s a short vamp fill at the end of a phrase it will go unmarked unless it spread across a couple bars after.
I mark “Original” when it’s played more or less the same every time. The opening minutes of Wappy, while not note for note the same every time, have a ton of the same fills and hit the same beats. It’s mostly an indirect vamping as nobody is taking lead or straying too far from the normal queues. While yes it qualifies as “improvisation over the backing song structure” the improvisation isn’t new and doesn’t differentiate it from the other renditions of the song. I should say another reason I made this was to analyze an entire year’s worth of data and see how songs compare over time, and those minor variations didn’t seem worth noting in the grand scheme. Like if I’m comparing this Wappy to every other wappy that will occur in 2020 I don’t think those differences are worth noting, especially considering there could be instances where horns are sitting in and truly vamping over that section. It’s a similar story with Mulche ending, there’s minor variations as the song builds but the actual extended vamping isn’t that much.
As for the half vamp/half original sections that’s truly what they are. These are instances in songs (like you see above in Billy) where one of two things are happening: either 1) the phrasing is such that there’s a bar of original following by a bar of vamp, followed by a bar of original, and this back and forth is repeated, and/or 2) in the middle of a vamp the solo-er repeatedly returns to the core song melody or another element that’s essential to that songs “original” sections.
Also in the slight chance I’m misinterpreting that question and you’re asking “why are some solos entirely vamp, some entirely original, and some a mix?” the answer is simply: it was played as per the recording (more or less), it was largely different from the recording, or it was a mix of both. This goes for covers as well.
Thanks for chiming in, glad to know someone has given these more than a cursory glance. And obviously if you disagree with my interpretations and/or definitions the template is available to all. I’d love to see someone else’s transcriptions because as I’ve said in the past I’m far newer to live Umph than the majority of people here, so my breadth of knowledge to draw from is much smaller.
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Yeah, thanks for the explanation. I obv agree with not noting solos or fills that are ten seconds or less.
I think with Wappy the opening has to be a “vamp” because it does vary from version to version in length and in some if the key changes. Maybe more half vamp / original?
Anyway I downloaded the template and am working on one of these so I’ll upload it when I’m finished…