The Smiley Smile Message Board

Is there any fellow fans on these message boards who love to figure out Beach Boys melodies or piano, guitar or whatever? I am a beginner in piano and I love to figure out melodies to Beach Boys songs, though Im still learning, and was wondering if anybody else does this?

I used to, it's very good at helping one think in different ways, getting those neurons firing in the skull. However, I was never good at it. Those BB melodies can be real complex, and I'm not even talking about the harmonies. Brian's sense of melody is perhaps his greatest gift.

To give you a tip....I recommend learning the bass melodies first, (the left hand in the piano). Perhaps this will allow the harmony to make more sense and the soprano melody easier to figure out. Anyway, whatever works.

I do that all the time. I don't read music, I do everything by ear.

Figuring out Brian's music is a very rewarding experience if you have a good ear (which thankfully I do)...I can't even tell you how many times I've figured a song out, sat back and just thought "damn Brian, how did you come up with that?"  It makes you appreciate his genius so much more once you can see how the songs are constructed and what makes them work so well.

agreed.....take a song like Wonderful....so many counter melodies, superb voicings, melodic basslines, choice instruments, ....it's no wonder I find myself listening to the BB's over and over while other bands come and go...

Yep Wonderful is a fun one to play...it goes all over the place to the point where you never really know what key you're in at any particular time.  Not to mention the cool bassline like you said, which is usually a given in any BB song. 

Yeh I agree. I learnt to play (via sheet music) "Let's Go Away For Awhile" and it so fun to play (one of my favourites to play) but as you said it makes you sit back and go "how the hell did you come up with that". I really like playing that song the most and its just fun to play along with the actual song. It must have been really interesting for Tony Asher to hear them on the piano like that (which is still fantastic) and then hear the final arrangements, because his arrangements are obviously quite breath-taking.