Stevie Wonder

I wrote before that I found Tim Hughes' Ph.D. dissertation on Stevie Wonder; here's the link. There are two paragraphs which I want to write about here.

In the discussion of "Living in the city", Tim writes (page 29):

This motion in and out of phase by the right hand part occurs simultaneously in two other areas: harmony and register. When the two parts are metrically in phase, the right hand plays F# major triads. As the two parts move into metric opposition, the right hand moves up through a G# minor triad to an A major triad, higher and further away. The A major triad above the F# bass creates an F# min7 chord, blurring the harmony somewhat. As the two parts move back into metrical phase, the right hand moves back down through G# minor towards an F# major triad.

Although this made some sense to me, I didn't fully understand until I heard the part to which he is referring. It seems fairly clear to me that Hughes doesn't play the guitar, for otherwise he would have easily recognised what Wonder was playing. I don't think that Stevie Wonder plays the guitar, either, which is also surprising, considering. Guitarists, try the following exercise: play an E major chord in root position (022100); now slide the fingers up two frets and change the fingering on the G string (044200) - this is F#min7. Now move the fingers up another fret, again changing the fingering on the G string (055400) - this is G6 (or Em7). Play this in the correct rhythm and you have the vamp to "Living in the city".

I discovered this (or learnt it) sometime around May 1972, which coincidentally was about the time that Wonder was recording "Living in the city". My route to this vamp was interest in the differing sounds one could make by moving the E shape up the neck of the guitar without barring - ie just the three fingers - and moving between major and minor chords. This started from learning Simon Nicol's guitar part to Sandy Denny's "Who knows where the time goes", which is slightly different to the LITC vamp, being E/F#m7/G#m7 (or EMaj7)/F#m7.

This vamp forms the basis of my song, "Sunday rain", which was written at that time. I did a rollicking MIDI arrangement of this some years ago which maybe I ought to exhume.

The second discussion to which I want to refer is about "Higher ground":

The drums, bass and vocals sound much the same as they do on "Superstition", but the clavinet sound is quite different. First of all, there appear to be three different parts. Each seems to have been recorded similarly (perhaps in consecutive passes with a single setup, as on "I wish") but they are dispersed in the stereo mix: one to the left, one to the right and one in the center. As with the vocals at the end of "Living in the city", this dispersal seems to surround the listener, creating the effect of immersion in a polyrhythmic swirl of clavinet parts.

This caused a smile of recognition to appear on my face, as this is something which I've been trying to do in my own arrangements, although normally it's a split between two instruments panned left and right. Sometimes one echoes the first (maybe in a different octave), and sometimes they're playing split arpeggios. Wonder does something more complicated: he has three parts playing, each complementing each other and keeping a strong rhythm going. I've found someone's MIDI version of this song which displays the three clavinet parts, and it will be interesting to examine them and see what's going on.

Hughes has to write about Stevie Wonder's music from a musicologist's point of view, which can make it seem more complex than it need be. I think that quite a few players would have difficulty reading what he wrote but could assimilate the music quite easily. Also, I found the discussion about the structure of the songs (verse/chorus, etc) to be something which comes naturally, as a musician and songwriter. With these caveats in mind, I think that most people with an interest in music could learn from what Hughes writes.