WHERE did the Shads rehearse etc?

[cockroach]

Jim

I think there's also a diminished chord in the bridge of 'The Boys'? Right after the D9 which starts the bridge following the main theme?

[Martin Page]

Jim

I think there's also a diminished chord in the bridge of 'The Boys'? Right after the D9 which starts the bridge following the main theme?

Correct!

[JimN]

Jim

I think there's also a diminished chord in the bridge of 'The Boys'? Right after the D9 which starts the bridge following the main theme?

Absolutely.

But of course, that was later than Blue Star!

JN

[cockroach]

Jim

So in other words, after he was shown how to play one by Norrie to be able to play Blue Star, every time he could slip one in, Bruce used diminished chords?

I've always loved using diminished and augmented chords...they really help to make a chord progression flow musically and make the tune interesting to the ears!

Years ago, after hearing good reports about it, I bought Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar tutor book- fascinating -and eye and ear opening in opening up a new world of chords and how to use them creatively.

[JimN]

Jim

So in other words, after he was shown how to play one by Norrie to be able to play Blue Star, every time he could slip one in, Bruce used diminished chords?

Not really.

Bruce played a diminished chord on Chinchilla, recorded April 1959, so its having been shown to him by Norrie (not known as a guitarist by the way, so probably unable to explain how to play them on a guitar anyway) for use on Blue Star (recorded much later) seems unlikely.

Diminished and augmented chords are in frequent use in popular music and always have been. Much of the output of Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Johnny Mercer, Ray Noble and other contributors to "The Great American Songbook" (OK, Noble was British) is inconceivable without the use of the diminished chord, and the augmented to a lesser extent. For that reason, guitar tutor books, right back to the 1926 Len Fillis Method I once had, have always pictured the shapes for those chords, as well as 9ths, 13ths, 6ths, etc. Why wouldn't Bruce have been exposed to them (if only in passing at the age of 17)?

JN

[cockroach]

JIm

All those posh hard to play 'modern' chords in the tutor books were for dance band guitarists...not what most young rock'n'roll guitarists wanted to be in 1958 or so! (I also have Ivor Maraints' book- full of those complex chords, plus examples for using all the substitution chords for the old standards- but all you needed for rock'n'roll was about five or six chords in the easy keys..C7, G, F, Amin etc...who needed Eb maj 7+5 etc!!!!?? You'd skip those after a few tries, and anyway, with A, D and E you could cover most of Buddy Holly's hits!)

[bassboogie]

Whew, so pleased to be only playing bass, but next time someone says the chord is A7 I'll play Bb on the bass, that will certainly cause a few arguments here in Cornwall !

Regards, Luigi

[ecca]

Great when you're writing a song.
Short of a chord ?
Stick a diminished in.