STAND BY ME

[William Cingolani]

“Stand By Me” by Ben E. King would be a good one to add to my (our) Repertoire. It’s a good one for the sax. So if and when Johnny offers it I’m buying it. I think “Stand By Me” makes use of the Pentatonic scale.

[paddy jordan]

i agree William great choice, hope Johnny puts it on his to do list

[john]

Stand By Me uses the repetative 1 Vi ii V chord progression. it’s actually one of the few I mention in my Major Scale Improv course.
what this means is we can use the same major scale to improvise throughout the entire tune.
just play the same scale but practice by starting each chord with the root note…this is doing it modally (with modes)
so if in C major when the Vi comes start on the A. when the ii comes start the C scale on the D etc.
you could also use a pentatonic of course but using the full major scale gives more notes and options.

[William Cingolani]

I have “Stand by Me” in two my song books. In my B flat music book for tenor sax “Stand by Me” is in the key of D major. The music starts on the V7 chord, i.e. A7 and goes to the i chord, D major. So “When the night—has come”..on to the VI chord Bm..”and the land is dark, and the moon” IV chord G major “is the only V7 chord A7.”..light we’ll see i chord D major. The progression I have is 5….1….6…..4……5…….1…..6…..4…….5…..1…..6…….4…..5…..1 etc.Soooooooo Louuuuuucy, I need som splaining.

[William Cingolani]

And one other thing..How does one get that woodsy breathy sound on the mouthpiece?

[john]

sorry William, I meant to say 1 6 4 5, not 2 5
same theory tho…
ignore the first 5 chord on your chart, that must be part of an intro, the song starts on the 1 chord so in your case:
D Bm G A
so you play a D major scale throughout the entire progression.
my point about modes is to start each chord with the root note so;
over the Bm start the D scale with the B (B C# D E F# G A) this is still a D major scale but it starts on the B
make sense now?

[William Cingolani]

thanks Johnny,
Makes sense to me.

[Simon]

Mr.Johhny can you check my purchase of stand by me? It shows pending.

Thanks

[Author]

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