I've got a reasonably good grounding in the theory and practise of music but only recently heard about Chord Charts i.e. the basic musical annotation and structure given to session musicians in the recording studio.

It got me wondering who retains this documentation at the end of a recording session - soul or otherwise - and whether any examples have found their way into collections. I would have thought they would be like gold dust to a collector.

In Raynoma Gordy's book she said that she had studied music at college and could produce her own Chord Charts which put her in a very powerful position in the studio.

How did this work with other songwriters? Did many have this technical ability or did they have to rely on arrangers to create something that the musicians could understand.

At this point I'm feeling annoyed with myself that I have never seen - "Standing in the Shadows of Motown". I guess that film might throw some light.

Meanwhile would be interested to learn anything on this subject that you guys are willing to share.

MB

Edited March 25, 201015 yr by MBarrett

Motown studio charts would be extremely rare and hard to come by. Guitarist Dennis Coffey, who played on many Detroit sessions told me that musicians were forbidden to take the charts away.

I spoke to Dennis at some length about the recording side of things in the city for Keith's book Groovesville USA, but unfortunately a lot of it was left out due to lack of space.

Songwriters would get arrangers to produce charts for them - the majority of the songs recorded at Motown had detailed arrangements with specific parts and lines written out for individual musicians. There would often be up to four guitarists on a session so obviously it made sense for all the musicians to have a clear idea of what they would be doing.

Stuart

Motown studio charts would be extremely rare and hard to come by. Guitarist Dennis Coffey, who played on many Detroit sessions told me that musicians were forbidden to take the charts away.

I spoke to Dennis at some length about the recording side of things in the city for Keith's book Groovesville USA, but unfortunately a lot of it was left out due to lack of space.

Songwriters would get arrangers to produce charts for them - the majority of the songs recorded at Motown had detailed arrangements with specific parts and lines written out for individual musicians. There would often be up to four guitarists on a session so obviously it made sense for all the musicians to have a clear idea of what they would be doing.

Stuart

Spot on there Stuart, Motown bass lines for example, were very complex and the Corporation in no way wanted other producers & labels to copy them, or emulate their unique sound, hence keeping them 'in house' However some producers still managed to copy to some degree, for example The Sonatas - Going down the road, being a copy of 'Aint that perculiar' to name one. There are many others.

Regards Ricardo.

Motown studio charts would be extremely rare and hard to come by. Guitarist Dennis Coffey, who played on many Detroit sessions told me that musicians were forbidden to take the charts away.

Stuart

Thanks Stuart - that's kind of what I guessed.

And yet - as Ritchie says - as regards keeping arrangements secret I've known some musicians with incredible "ears". i.e. the ability to hear through the various layers of a recording and pick up subtle little nuances. So not quite on the same level as protecting a chemical formulation or what have you.

I wonder if any charts have found their way into the public domain from other studios i.e. borrowed, stolen, dumped in skips, left in abandoned buildings etc. etc. etc.

Intriguing!!

Thanks again.

MB

Edited March 25, 201015 yr by MBarrett

There's bound to be plenty slipping ut onto Ebay. We've got a great collection of Mirwood ones here at Ace from when we bought the company. Most will have been thrown away once the records failed to do much, it was diposable then and of ten they are written on big thick paper and are quite bulky.

You often get the basic music in the acetates, i've got Ben E King's 'Gettin' To Me' and Sharon Scott's 'I'm Not Afraid'

There's bound to be plenty slipping ut onto Ebay. We've got a great collection of Mirwood ones here at Ace from when we bought the company. Most will have been thrown away once the records failed to do much, it was diposable then and of ten they are written on big thick paper and are quite bulky.

You often get the basic music in the acetates, i've got Ben E King's 'Gettin' To Me' and Sharon Scott's 'I'm Not Afraid'

This is a bit of an eyebrow raiser to me. I am a muso and occasional arranger and I, like every other arranger I know, take my work back after the session.

I'm not sure what Motown hoped to acheive by keeping all the arrangements. Give me the dough and I'll duplicate any arrangement for you. It's easy once someone else has done all the work of writing it and then recording it for you to copy out. A lot of stuff (James Brown, Stax...) doesn't even need writing out. Any muso with a grounding in soul can play that stuff by ear, but I'll grant you a lot of Motown doesn't fall into that category.

One last thing, on a bit of a tangent, wasn't it siad that the mighty Jamerson couln't read music?

On my Detroit session David J. Van De Pitte did the arrangements from my demos. He expanded the songs and gave them some great horn flurries throughout. The charts were all hand written and no computers involved. The bass line for 'Suddenly there's you' I did. I created something that Babbit or Jamerson may come up with in the studio. This was 4 years before I even thought I would be doing the session! Bob Babbit faithfully re created the bass line and put his stamp on some great runs throughout the song. He is truly a great bass player and it was a thrill to have him on board. If you want to see the first page of the rhythm sheet music, go here. Remember, the sheet music is: copyright Carl Dixon 2008....

https://carlsmusic.blogspot.com/

Don't forget, the 45's are still for sale too.