Cherokee by Ray Noble.

A BeBop staple and Cowboy love song?… who knew?  “Sweet Indian Maiden, since I first met you, I can’t forget you, Cherokee sweetheart…”

The bridge is a finger and brain buster for sure, and can trip up even advanced players.  It’s no help that most BeBop players strive to play this one at like, 400 beats per minute as well!  This kind of descending progression shows up in other songs from the era too.  Let’s investigate for your educational pleasure…

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Cherokee by Ray Noble.

A BeBop staple and Cowboy love song?… who knew?  “Sweet Indian Maiden, since I first met you, I can’t forget you, Cherokee sweetheart…”

The bridge is a finger and brain buster for sure, and can trip up even advanced players.  It’s no help that most BeBop players strive to play this one at like, 400 beats per minute as well!  This kind of descending progression shows up in other songs from the era too.  Let’s investigate for your educational pleasure…

Educational Note: If this material seems over your head currently, you’ll first need to have a basic knowledge of the music number system.  Check out these lessons as an primer to understanding the content below:

The Note Number System and The Chord Number System

C#m F#7 / B / Bm7 E7 / A / Am7 D7 / G / Gm7 C7 / Cm7 F7 // Bb

To prepare for this kind of progression:

Study 1)

C#m7 F#7 / B / Bm7 E7 / A / Am7 D7 / G / Gm7 C7 / F / Fm7 Bb7 / Eb / Ebm7 Ab7 / Db //

Study 2)

Dm7 G7 C / Cm7 F7 Bb / Bbm7 Eb7 Ab / G#m7 C#7 F# / F#m7 B7 E / Em7 A7 D //

These two studies cover all 12 keys!

Renegade tuning!  Bb is not super comfortable on the violin.  C is better, and actually the key that tenor sax and trumpet players are thinking in when playing this tune, due to the crazy way horns are oriented to pitch historically (weird, I know).  I’ve done other lessons on this subject, but the short story is: Many wind instruments (not all), when they play what they’ve learned as a “C” note, it comes out as our Bb!  I will not question that crazy fact here, but this is why so many of the BeBop and American Standard songs of the 1930’s through the early 1950’s are in those not-so-fiddle-friendly flat oriented keys… it was just easier for them! So…

Why not just make it easier for US string players and play it in the key of C?!  Some argue that this is Jazz heresy and does not honor the tradition.  I think that’s nonsense, but we can talk about that in other lessons.

If you want to try it, there are two ways to go about this: 1) tune your instrument down a whole step, which I personally love to do! (my fiddle seems to love it too), and learn the song a whole step up (in the key of C) to compensate, and let the band play it in the Bb key they are used to…  Or, 2) force your band mates to play the song in C.

Note: Doing this does make the A sections more string friendly for sure, but it makes the bridge chords even more un-string friendly over the first 4 bars, so it’s a trade off that only you can choose.  Here’s the bridge changes in the key of C:

Ebm7 Ab7 / Db / C#m7 F#7 / B / Bm7 E7 / A / Am7 D7 / Dm7 G7 // C

As you can see, the first 4 in Db are not so string friendly.  the next 4 in B are only slightly better, before it heads into the string friendly sharp world starting with Bm7.  It’s your choice.  This is how horn players are thinking in  our Bb key.

Comparatively, the A section has these chords (in the key of C): C / (Gm7-)C7 / F / Bb7 / C / D7 / Dm7-G7 / C.  Looks much more string friendly doesn’t it?

Side note: The Jazz Standard “Real Book” is available in a Bb version.  If you really want to commit to this idea, consider tuning down a whole step all the time and reading from this book instead of the real Book in C!  Who’s bold enough to do that out there?!  In my opinion, if you plan on playing primarily in a horn based Jazz Standard world, it might be more efficient to bend their (horn) way than force all the rest to bend to YOU’RE wishes (Keys).  Tuning down could give you a unique tonal edge that could stand out from other violinists too.  Let me know what you think.

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