"The California Sound For Guitar" Vol. 1 & 2

[Surfer Joe]

I had mentioned these two hits DVDs below:

http://www.ordermusictoday.com/Item-Details.aspx?id=%20%20%20%20903582&PN=0

http://www.ordermusictoday.com/Item-Details.aspx?id=%20%20%20%20903583&PN=0

They show how to play: "California Girls", "God Only Knows",  "I Get Around", "Surfer Girl"; "Don't Worry, Baby", "Fun, Fun, Fun", "Help Me, Rhonda", and "Wouldn't It Be Nice".

If they did a volume three, what would be your picks- i.e., interesting Beach Boys songs on guitar?

Realistically, I'd guess "Good Vibrations", "Sloop John B", "Little Deuce Coupe", and "Surfin', USA", with "In My Room", "Dance, Dance, Dance" and "Kokomo" as other guesses.  The choices I'd rather see:

"Breakaway", "Warmth Of The Sun", "Please Let Me Wonder", and "All Summer Long".

Volume 4: "Wendy", "Girl Don't Tell Me", "Caroline, No", and "Darlin'"...

Haven't given this enough thought, though- that's off the top of my head.  And some of ths choices on the first two were really good...

[Mitchell]

I can't play any Beach Boys songs on guitar, except for Wendy. Most of them have chords I have no idea how to play, so that usually stops me. I'd like to be able to play When I Grow Up, Kiss Me, Baby, Good to My Baby...

[Surfer Joe]

"Good To My Baby"- good call there.  I meant to list that one.

I'm not sure any SMiLE stuff lends itself well to being strummed....

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

I don't think there's one Beach Boys song I can't play on guitar. Thing is, you have to expect something totally different from the album, sound wise. Brian's productions are how they are to remove themselves from the stereotypical bass and guitar and drums line up.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

I'm not sure any SMiLE stuff lends itself well to being strummed....

Most of it sounds great, but like I said, it sounds great for just a guitar and the core of the song itself. "Holidays/On A Holiday" is fun to play. Reminds me of the Kinks.

[Surfer Joe]

I'm sure everybody would love it if you were able to record something and post it- I can imagine how different it sounds.  It would be an interesting way to turn the songs inside out.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

I can't play any Beach Boys songs on guitar, except for Wendy. Most of them have chords I have no idea how to play, so that usually stops me. I'd like to be able to play When I Grow Up, Kiss Me, Baby, Good to My Baby...

There's a difference between playing what Carl or Al actually played, and just playing the chords of the song through.  I think the latter would be a nightmare if you really wanted to do justice to the voicings that Brian was using.  But the former isn't too bad.

I would like to hear the right channel guitar on "This Whole World" isolated or see it notated exactly as played, that's a crazy little part.  Other than that, I think I've picked out and played everything as it was recorded.

[Surfer Joe]

I think I've picked out and played everything as it was recorded.

Define "everything". 

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Uh, any guitar or bass part on a Beach Boys record, 1963-ish through 1972-ish.

[Surfer Joe]

Whooooooa- so you've picked your way through "Cuckoo Clock" and stuff like that?  That's dedication!

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Late 63.

[Chris Brown]

I think the only BB songs I've played on guitar are Surfer Girl and Don't Worry Baby.  I'm a decent guitar player but those voicings are so dense that I'd much rather do them on piano (plus I can do cool left hand stuff that I could never pull off on guitar).

[Surfer Joe]

Sorry, read sloppily.  Still, that's dedication.  So here's a semi-intelligent question:  Brian is always noted for taking chord patterns in an unexpected direction.  This is illustrated nicely by the music teacher playing "Warmth Of The Sun" in the Don Was film.  The first time you hear a Brian song, you never know where he's going, and it's always a nice surprise. Having been through all those songs, and what an education that had to be, did you pick up on any tendencies?  Was there ever any discernible method in how he went from here to here, or was it all pure inspiration (like it sounds?)  Did you ever find a man behind the curtain, or just a wizard?

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

That's a really good question.

I wouldn't say I learned anything unusual through learning the songs on guitar or bass.  Since I just learn what's on the record, and not necessarily even the chords on guitar, it's harder to pickup patterns, since you're learning other people's manifestations of Brian's desires for the music.

But on Piano, I think you can pick some things up.  I would say there's certainly a lot of inspiration to what Brian writes, but at the same time there are patterns and tendencies.  And of course those change over the course of his life.  The key to figuring Brian out is in the bass.  That's really the element from which all of his sophistications emerge from.  At some point, somewhere in the early part of 1965, I suppose, the bass starts moving more stepwise, less in intervals outlining a chord.

One thing that I can identify, not so much as a pattern compositionally, but a "symptom" of the way Brian writes is that in his right hand at the piano, he always moved his hand from chord to chord as little as possible.  Somewhere along the line, he learned the economy of right hand chord technique by moving as few notes as possible to change chords.  That kind of thing leads to the kinds of tight voicings Brian often winds up using.

Like I said, he always did that from the Surfin USA demo up through now.  It was his left hand that changed over time, from the boogie stuff to the more stationary single note stuff.

So yeah, there was a recognizable "craft" to it that I think is identifiable and unique to Brian, but his muse gets a lot of the credit.

[Surfer Joe]

A very, very thoughtful and interesting answer, thanks.  Read it twice so far. 

I can hear the 1965 bass thing in my head without doing any further homework, especially since I just listened to the track for "Good To My Baby".  I know the bass work is what got the Beatles' attention.  Maybe the two versions of "Help Me, Rhonda" mark some kind of a signpost in his development there.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

I think part of that had to do with Carol Kaye's presence.  While Ray certainly could have played the "Rhonda" line, the "Ronda" line is much more Ray than it is Carol.  Brian has said that Carol taught him a lot about writing good basslines, and as much I love Ray, I think that Carol's personality probably lended itself to being more demonstrative when trying things for Brian.  I know she said she never came up with a part for Brian, but I have a feeling that she asserted her distinct style a little more than Ray might have.

Just a theory, but a huge change in Brian's basslines starts when Carol came on board during Today and SDSN.

[Surfer Joe]

One interesting thing about that would be that, while she is often maligned for over-claiming, (as you noted) she has distinctly never claimed credit for the amazing bass parts she played for the Beach Boys.  I 've always been struck by that. So if your theory holds, she's under-claimed as well.

By comparison, you have the string player on "Eleanor Rigby" claiming to Mark Lewisohn "We gave them all of our ideas for nothing", only to be discredited by the session tapes.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

This is why I wish so much for a full tape to emerge of Brian playing out the Pet Sounds songs for Tony Asher to take home and write words to. Imagine hearing Brian churning away at That's Not Me, in a early form, perhaps an extra section or two that was later cut for recording.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Yeah, it is odd that Carol has been so adamant about claiming her playing credits, but when it comes to Brian she makes such a fine point of that she never came up with the lines for Beach Boys songs.  And she says that Brian is the only person it was like that for.  Every other band, she would come up with the line.

I think that speaks to how impressed she really was by his writing talent.

I think she's probably about right though.  I'm sure Brian pretty much hummed and or wrote down (probably wrote down?) every note, but I think he was made aware of ways to write specifically by Carol's playing.  So, he heard her play, and then implemented some of those ideas into his own basslines.  So Carol "influenced" Brian's line but didn't really write them.  In my theory.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

This is why I wish so much for a full tape to emerge of Brian playing out the Pet Sounds songs for Tony Asher to take home and write words to. Imagine hearing Brian churning away at That's Not Me, in a early form, perhaps an extra section or two that was later cut for recording.

Well, remember that only two songs were done like that.  You Still Believe was already recorded, so Tony had to come up with lyrics by himself there, and Wouldn't it Be Nice was already sort of written.

All the other ones, they worked together until the arrangement was pretty much hashed out, and then tony would take it home and fill out the verses and proofread and adjust.

And the cool thing about Brian is, since his piano style is so consistent, you can pretty much imagine any piano version of a song.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

Would Brian have (when composing and notating) have only played his bass parts on the piano? Or would he have a bass guitar around his house?

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

He says he's never written a song using anything other than a piano.  I doubt Brian had a bass at home.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

Interesting. Though he must've had considerable amounts of practise on the bass to be able to play it live so well.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

You'd think.  They say that playing for two hours live is the same as practicing eight hours a day for a week.  I'm sure he kind of learned as he went.  I mean, three out of the five "original" beach boys hadn't played their stage instruments before they recorded their first song.  (Dennis had never played Drums, Al guitar, or Brian bass.)

[Soulful Old Man]

Guys - does anyone have a correct tab of the first two bars of 'Fun Fun Fun'? The tab by the late Andrew Rogers that's on all guitar sites is good, but the first two bars of the intro are incorrect I think.