Could the Beach Boys read music?

[NHC]

I'm thinking that when Dennis said he "wrote every note" of a particular song he didn't mean he actually had written it down on music notation paper as a score, but that he had created it as a musical work on his own. "Writing" could be sitting at the piano, working out the chords on guitar, playing the idea on a horn, singing it, etc.  Regardless of who could "read" music, they sure "wrote" some good music. (and while I can do the former, I sure can't do the latter)

[SMiLE-addict]

My next question might be, if Brian was writing down chord sheets, what kind of chord sheets was he writing? My knowledge of chord sheets extends to ones for piano, which look like a bunch of piano keys, and guitar ones, which look like frets (I read those myself all the time) .. but since Brian wrote stuff on piano, how would he write chord sheets for, say, the sax player? Or a flute, or violin player? Obviously if you stick a piano chord sheet in front of a violin player the reaction of the violinist, I would think, would be, "Huh???" But maybe there's some other kind of generic "chord sheet" I'm unaware of.

Seems to me it would make more sense if he took blank pages of sheet music, wrote a time signature and key on it, divided up the bars, and wrote the chord over each bar (or part of a bar). Heck even *I* might be able to do something like that.

[Stephen W. Desper]

My next question might be, if Brian was writing down chord sheets, what kind of chord sheets was he writing?

COMMENT:
Chord sheets = a paper with the names of chords listed in playing order or symbols for chord names listed in order of playing.

Reference for chord names can be found in the tables at >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_names_and_symbols_(popular_music)

Chord names and Intervals apply to vocals, piano, guitar, etc.

Here's a popular song with chord names . . .

GOD ONLY KNOWS  (example)

Intro:

G  D, G  D
G  D/F#  Em7

Verse 1:

C/G        Am6
 I may not always love you,
Em    Em7
  But long as there,
Em6/G
 Are stars above you;
D          Bbdim
 You never need to doubt it,
D                 G#m7b5
 I'll make you so sure about it.

Chorus 1:

G         D/F#
 God only knows,
                 Em7      D
What I'd be with-out yo

Verse 2:

C/G            Am6
 If you should ever leave me;
Em      Em7
 Though life would,
      Em6/G
Still go on, believe me.
D
 The world could,
     A#dim
Show nothing to me,
D                   G#m7b5
 So what good would living do me?

Chorus 2:

G         D/F#
 God only knows,
                 Em7      D
What I'd be with-out you.

Instrumental Break:

F/C  Dm6  Am/E,
Am7  D7/C
G/D  Ebdim,
G/D  C#m7b5

Chorus 3:

G         D/F#
 God only knows,
                 Em7      D
What I'd be with-out you.

Verse 3:

C/G            Am6
 If you should ever leave me;
Em      Em7
 Though life would,
      Em6/G
Still go on, believe me.
D
 The world could,
     A#dim
Show nothing to me,
D                   G#m7b5
 So what good would living do me?

Coda:

G         D/F#
 God only knows,
                 Em7     D/F#
What I'd be with-out you.

G         D/F#
 God only knows,
                 Em7     D/F#
What I'd be with-out you.

(Repeat to Fade)

So Brian may hand over a "chord sheet" with the notations show above or play a "chord sheet" given to him.

For purposes of introducing a song to the group or a studio full of seasoned side-man-musicians, this was usually all that was needed. Of course when you copyright the song it must be written out note-by-note, but this is the job of a professional copyrighter and not Brian or any other group member. See previous post on this topic. For complex music sessions, one of the hired musicians may arrive early at the session and write out the music note-by-note on staff paper to make it easier for the musicians to follow, speeding the learning curve up and keeping session costs down.

~SWD

PS:: It has been some time since I worked in the studio with the guys. With the passing years, undoubtedly everyone has learned more about music scoring and noteation, I know I have. So perhaps today, Brian's writing ability is as good as Bruce's. Maybe someone else has more up-to-date information.  ~swd

[Ron]

About Brian singing to the boys their lines:


You can see in modern videos Brian showing members of his band how to sing vocal lines, he sings them to them, then they repeat it.  Lots of people have claimed most of those videos are staged, though.

However!  If you listen to the studio tapes of the boys recording "And your dreams come true"... there's a couple cool things.  You can clearly hear Brian apparently singing every vocal line really quickly to the other guys as they stand around the microphone, and somebody keeps telling Brian to get the key (play it on a piano to make sure they're all on key)... Brian keeps saying "I got it, I got it" and they keep insisting he 'get the key'... so finally after a few seconds, you hear him walk over to the piano, hit a few notes (which are dead on what he was singing)... and Mike or somebody goes... "Ouch" 

So if you listen to that studio tape (it was released, can't remember what compilation it's on) you can clearly hear Brian singing the other guys their parts. 

[Pablo.]

It's known that Jan Berry wrote very specific parts for his players - but he was something of an exception to the rule, as was Frank Zappa who notated everything for his musicians.

Actually, lots of Zappa's "rock" music was created by him working his bands through rehearsals (an average of 40 hours per week). Of course, he brought a lots of parts written out (and his orchestral works or the more complex instrumentals a la The Black Page were completely written out) , but he was also composing through his musicians' strengths and abilities.