I'm probably just going to do every song on SDSN, at this point.  Why not!?

I agree that this track is a major one on the road to maturity for Brian, and I think you're right in saying that it's all about the interactions and one might even say restraint.  At this point Brian knew what he was doing for the most part, but he was still dialing in his taste, and this track has a lot of taste.

I feel the struggle re: percussion VST instruments... there are a lot of sample packs out there with that type of thing, but it’s still very much a needle/haystack endeavor to get just the right thing you’re looking for. As for vibraphone, I have a set of samples for the logic EXS24 that sounds passable (depending on context) but I’d have to go digging to figure out where I got it from.

Glad to hear you plan on doing all of Summer Days! Out of curiosity, what program are you using to edit your videos?

I'll grant you that possibility.   One day when I'm not destitute I'll get some more ukes and try them out and maybe redo the track if necessary.  I still think he might have just been playing a three-note chord and revisited the top string, but I could be wrong.

Could’ve been... though I’d ask you, have you ever gone to tune one of your guitars and only checked some of the strings?

Either way, we’ll never know 100% for sure, haha. P.s. I’ve been watching all of these videos multiple times each... it’s a perfect distraction while I remain holed up in my house for another several months here in California. Much gratitude for putting them together! Cheers

Personally, I think your format is great. The recreations and breakdowns thereof always make me go back to the studio recordings and I pick up things I never had before even after numerous listens, and the history and gear talk is equally is always thorough and well thought out. This episode turned me onto the Lyle Ritz jazz ukulele album, which I had no idea existed! I think you’re doing just fine.

What specifically made you go with the baritone uke rather than a tenor?

Thanks.

I got a baritone more or less because, A) it's easier to make a larger instrument sound smaller than vice-versa, and until I can afford the whole uke family I'm gonna stick to owning just one size uke.  And B) Seeing that Barney Kessel used a baritone sort of solidified in my mind that that would have been a good all-around choice for a studio pro.

Regardless of all that, it could very well be a tenor size playing on Ronda -- I think it's pretty much impossible to tell.  It wasn't tuned reëntrantly like a traditional tenor, but that doesn't mean Billy didn't tune it in some sort of transposed Chicago tuning.

Having gone back and listened to the session tapes myself, I’d contend it IS actually a tenor with reentrant tuning... at the end of the second track on UM, Billy tunes the chord to the piano and you hear the top and bottom strings playing the same root note in the same octave

Personally, I think your format is great. The recreations and breakdowns thereof always make me go back to the studio recordings and I pick up things I never had before even after numerous listens, and the history and gear talk is equally is always thorough and well thought out. This episode turned me onto the Lyle Ritz jazz ukulele album, which I had no idea existed! I think you’re doing just fine.

What specifically made you go with the baritone uke rather than a tenor?

Dance Dance Dance is up next – is Help Me Rhonda getting an episode?

Another great one! I’ve been having fun going back to the studio recordings after your breakdowns and hearing the details I hadn’t noticed before. I assume you’re referencing Unsurpassed Masters for these?

Fabulously done. I’d be excited to see any and all production breakdowns like this. Today and Summer Days have a super special place in my heart. Now let’s get that guitar solo in there for completionism! Heh

I am a total mark for this kind of stuff, I just watched the whole thing, what a fabulous amount of meticulous research. You nailed it – only other component that might be fun to see is a transcription of the two parts, because now I want to try it for myself! Haha.

Great work, hope to see more of these. Cheers

Color me hyped

Ay, yeah, the other unsolicited piece of general advice I’ll offer is just do the stuff you want to do, because you want to do it... I wouldn’t wait around for people to express interest first (and certainly not on message boards, which are pretty anachronistic in 2020). Content creation is very much an “if you build it, they will come” kind of endeavor. P.s. I found the other thread about the YouTube channel, those videos are really fascinating, well done!

Chiming in on this forum for the first time ever, because as an individual who pretty much just transcribes music and makes charts in Sibelius all day vocationally, this thread is very much my jam – good on ya for tackling this tune! Fun project, I'm very interested.

As for feedback, I know it's a work in progress, but my advice is that if you're satisfied with your transcription, take the next step by going back in and making your engraving look really slick and readable. For example, you've got some spots in the Tenor Sax line where ties overlap and the stems for the high and low melody go the wrong way (assuming you're using Sibelius, you can just hit 'X' and it'll flip them the right way around.)

You mention the 'Beatles Complete Scores' book – while the creators of that book cut a lot of corners and left a lot of errors in, it would actually be a really great template to use for formatting your scores... If you have it to reference, you can pull out all kinds of ideas that would make your project more palatable to the average musician: lyrics included on the vocal line, rehearsal marks, guitar and bass parts in tablature with rhythm, overall harmony indicated by chord symbols at the very top, etc.

Also, re: typical covers suffering from wrong chords – this is 100% true, and maybe in addition to your full scores, it would be cool to see master rhythm charts or lead sheets for these songs. There's that 'surfer moon' site that someone made, but some of those are a bit wonky, and chords on top of lyrics just ain't the same as a nice, clean, crisp lead sheet.

I don't know! But I'm happy to lend an opinion if you need one. Cheers