Quote:

I think that the notes that are causing you a problem are actually passing notes (non-harmonic tones) in the melody (C, Bb, A, G against the above chords).



OK, this is probably the issue for me not just on this tune, but on lots of songs. Long time ago remember a teacher saying something about "passing tones".

I'm a guitarist, but against my own better judgment , on numerous occasions find myself keyboard players seem to get me with this.

It seems like keyboard players will often play the chord with some ascending or descending notes thrown in, a piece of the melody. Sometimes it's obvious when leading to the next chord and I can get myself to ignore it. But many times, for me, the chord seems drastically altered and if I just play the straight chord - say Eb6 or whatever - it just feels wrong. A lot of songs, for me, are defined by little things like these "passing tones".

And the affect is more of an issue with slow songs like this one. At what point do the passing tones create a new chord?

How do musicians deal with 1) remembering these "little lines", 2) communicating with other musicians (in my case, fellow amateurs) when you want it in there. Obviously there is staff notation, which brings some of us to a crawl, and necessitates so much extra paper. OK, tab would be good besides standard notation.

Maybe I should separate my analysis into chord structure, listen just for that. On a second pass, work on the passing tones. Heck, maybe I could pay attention to the notes of the key and how they relate to the current chord, the melody, or the next chord? Maybe on moving forward in my music understanding? ........ Nah. I'll just turn my amp louder.

Finally, I have found a cool signature with sufficiently dry humor.