Guitarist's Forum

[Domenico Mosca]

Hi folk, someone can help me to find the tabs  or chords of "the grande affaire".
DM

[Al]

Yeah, sure, if nobody beats me to it I'll do it when I get home later today   Its a lovely chord seqence, I have always really liked the chorus to this song

[Henrik]

Yeah, sure, if nobody beats me to it I'll do it when I get home later today   Its a lovely chord seqence, I have always really liked the chorus to this song

Yes, so true, Al - and the haunting underlying baseline and the bridge before the final verse -
a great song indeed.

I just had to reach out for the guitar to play it because of talking about this  

And it's a fairly easy one to get a good picking version of
more or less within the official chords.


Em, C, Em, Am7  
C, Em, Am7
Dm, F, G7
C, E7, Am
G, C, B, Em

Chorus

(F) (re-...) F, C, Am, F
F, C, Am, F
F, C, Am, F
F, C,Am, F, G

Bridge

E/B ("I...") Am, Am/G#, F
Am, G, F
Am, Am/G#, F
Am, G, F, ...  G , G6

Enjoy  

H.

PS.
When picking try Em7 ( 020000 ) instead of Em
and C? ( 002010 ) instead of Am.

[Henrik]

No, sorry - it is indeed Am7 ( not a C-type chord )
in this version 002010, but you can add the 3'rd
fret on the high E-string - like this 002013
( sounds good when strumming ).

H.

[Al]

  ah, the viking beat me to it (   ) but as I have typed it out already, here it is anyway  

Grande Affaire

Its a waltz so its all played with the thumb hitting the root notes of the chords on the first beat, which might be stating the obvious but its essential to it sounding right. Thus, in the intro, for example, hit the C on the fifth string, then the E on the 6th string and then the A on the fifth string. The first beat with the thumb is followed by then doing a brush on the top four strings for the other two beats, basically, a sort of downstroke/upstroke/downstroke starting on the second beat, so the downstrokes are on the second and third beats with the upstroke in between. Ralph uses the technique a lot, "Slow Burning Companion" for example. You can fill it out by catching the third string before the second beat to fill in between the thunb stroke and the first downwards brush.

The Dm ( I'm not hungry ) uses the fourth string as the root note and the on the word 'much' the bass note is the the F on the sixth string. I've noticed transcribers say this is an F chord, but what do they know !

Note, that when playing the Am you can, when it sounds appropriate, lift your index finger off for a beat and the return it, its another common item in Ralph's toolbox, as it were, he does it at the end of some verse lines, for example.

The chorus begins on a F, it can be played without picking, but you can follow the voice by picking the C on the second string, lifting off and doing the B and then catching the A on the third string, it underpins the melody very nicely. When playing the C behind 'Remember the moon on the wall didn't she shine' Ralph plays a B bass note on 5th string on the way down to the Am on the word 'on', and does similar in the next lines. He also plays a bass note on the way down to the F, he plays it on the 'she'.


For the 'Now I stay....' bit, there are two variations on the Am, the first, with a G# bass is played by hitting the root note of the Am on the fifth string, holding the Am down and reaching to the fourth fret of the 6th string for the bass note on the 'best hotels....'

For the next line, its easier but essentially the same, hold the Am and play the G bass on the 3rd fret of the sixth string.

Thats about it, apart from one chord with a moderate stretch ( the Am with a G# bass ), the only other tricky bit is the Dm with an F bass on the sixth string, which your fret by hooking your thumb over the fretboard. if you are not used to hooking your thumb over to fret the first fret then you will be struggling to play lots of Ralph's tunes, or tunes in this or similar styles. But for this song you can always just go to the F, but the lack of the open strings affects the sound quite a bit.

Think thats it, enjoy ! :-)




Intro

C / Em / Am / G  x 2


Verse


           C    Em              Am
Take a bus, who needs a car !


          C               Em                     Am    
We'll eat here, take this seat near the door


           Dm            Dm(F bass)    G    
Well I'm not hungry much now are you

( bass run up to C on 5th string)     E7 ( b bass ) Am
Is      it         okay          if I share yours with     you ?

           G                   C
Ive got no money and I think


   Bm                  Em       ...... F
I believe that you knew


Chorus

F                  C                Am              F
Remember the moon on the wall didn't she shine

             C                        Am          F
Taste of the sheets and the feel of the wine ?

F        C         Am      F
Wasn't I glad that you was mine


         G         C           ... C(G bass )   C   C(G bass)
In the Grande Affaire


Am             Am(G# bass )  F
I stay in the best hotels

            Am         Am(G bass)      F
And there's white coated waiters attend me


       Am         Am(G# bass)   F
And I look at the beautiful     girls


        Am        Am(G bass)       F              ....... G back to verse
Do they really believe they can bend me

[JJ (Joanna)]

  ah, the viking beat me to it (   )

That's the problem with them Al, old habits die hard!  

[Henrik]

  ah, the viking beat me to it (   ) but as I have typed it out already, here it is anyway  

Sorry about that, Al - but I just thought I would spare you the work
since I already had the good old tabbook out to check, if I was right  

H.

[Henrik]

 
The Dm ( I'm not hungry ) uses the fourth string as the root note and the on the word 'much' the bass note is the the F on the sixth string. I've noticed transcribers say this is an F chord, but what do they know !

Ah, yes, Al - but I think you can act. play the Fmaj6 chord there (1(T)03230  *) ) instead
of the Dm with the deep F root. This is a chord that Ralph uses a lot, eg. "Clare to Here" and even SoL !
And it does actually contain the same notes as Dm ( + the high E which is not used in this case ! ),
yet in a different order, so it has different mood - more melancholic to my ears.

Anyway F and Dm are parallel chords, so there is not a lot of difference there  
but I agree that your version sounds better. My version works fine for me when picking,
instead of strumming. What do you think about my suggestion ?


*) T = Thumb.


H.

[Henrik]

  ah, the viking beat me to it (   )

That's the problem with them Al, old habits die hard!  

Making note in my little black book  

[Al]

 
The Dm ( I'm not hungry ) uses the fourth string as the root note and the on the word 'much' the bass note is the the F on the sixth string. I've noticed transcribers say this is an F chord, but what do they know !

Ah, yes, Al - but I think you can act. play the Fmaj6 chord there (1(T)03230  *) ) instead
of the Dm with the deep F root. This is a chord that Ralph uses a lot, eg. "Clare to Here" and even SoL !
And it does actually contain the same notes as Dm ( + the high E which is not used in this case ! ),
yet in a different order, so it has different mood - more melancholic to my ears.

Hi there, yes just reached for the guitar and played it as an Fmaj6 and I think the additon of the f on the 4th string changes the tone quite a bit, as you suggest, more melancholic, it just seems natural to just add the deep F bass note. So, I do think 'mine' sounds better on this occasion to be honest Blind Boy Fuller uses it quite a lot to my ears, eg "Weeping Willow " and I presume there is an influence on Ralph there. I do play the f on the stop string by the way, it gets brushed lightly, but not prominently.  Its fascinating how little differences can really alter the mood of things. Ralph says he sits experimenting with pairs of notes and chord voicings and you can see why when you try playing this Dm is different ways.

The Fmaj6 does turn up in Ralph's playing a lot, as you quite rightly say. "First And Last Man" is the first Ralphy I ever learnt featuring it, I was working out Bert Jansch's "Runnign From Home" and it was one of those great "aha" moments you have from time to time. "SOL" came not much later, although I had been playing it in D for ages beforehand  

[Henrik]

Hi there, yes just reached for the guitar and played it as an Fmaj6 and I think the additon of the f on the 4th string changes the tone quite a bit, as you suggest, more melancholic, it just seems natural to just add the deep F bass note. So, I do think 'mine' sounds better on this occasion to be honest Blind Boy Fuller uses it quite a lot to my ears, eg "Weeping Willow " and I presume there is an influence on Ralph there. I do play the f on the stop string by the way, it gets brushed lightly, but not prominently.  Its fascinating how little differences can really alter the mood of things. Ralph says he sits experimenting with pairs of notes and chord voicings and you can see why when you try playing this Dm is different ways.

The Fmaj6 does turn up in Ralph's playing a lot, as you quite rightly say. "First And Last Man" is the first Ralphy I ever learnt featuring it, I was working out Bert Jansch's "Runnign From Home" and it was one of those great "aha" moments you have from time to time. "SOL" came not much later, although I had been playing it in D for ages beforehand  

Ha, good thing I managed to get you practicing, Al  
See ? That wasn't so hard, was it ?

Yes, I agree - still think my version adds something when picking.

Yes, most tabs by far of SoL have a D7 ( or a D - even Dm !) there ("With his worn (out shoes) ..." ),
but Fmaj6 works so much better ( wondering if this has anything to do with our Maj ?   ).
I think I read an interview, where Ralph talked about this chord, and that it
was the "right" chord to use in SoL instead of that D7. It simply adds so much more mood
and feeling to my ears. That was really an AHA-moment for me, and from there I
I figured out FCtH more or less by "chance". To my ears it also seems to occur in his upcoming
fantastic song Reverent Thunder ( Rev. Gary Davis - I have a work in progress version of this from
a long radio interview 3 years ago, if you are int. ). I really love that theme, so I just had to sit down
and try figuring it out - and it's beginning to sound a lot better /closer , but I would really like to
hear your opinion, Al, if you are interested.

Ah, ok - will see if I can find "that spot" in Weeping Willow. Yes, First and Last Man - I act. thought
about that after writing my message - only realised this a short while ago, while trying to pick this tune,
just for fun. You can even find it in the lovely Cindy Lauper tune "Time after Time" - just switch back
and forth between Fmaj6 and C, and you are nearly there. ( and in Mike Oldfield's "Moonlight Shadow" btw.   ).

H.

[A french fan]

I can see you are  two very good guitar teachers

Can you explain to me how to play "clowns" one of the first songs of Ralph I think


Thanks to you

[Leighton]

this might help

[Al]

I can see you are  two very good guitar teachers

Can you explain to me how to play "clowns" one of the first songs of Ralph I think


Thanks to you

Hi there, unfortunately "Clowns" is not a song I have ever felt I wanted to play, and I dont have the tab books so I cant help you straight off. I think the guitar is tuned with both the 1st and 6th strings a step down to D, although I might be wrong. It sounds like it starts on an Am or something, but hopefully someone with the book will answer.

Failing that, I think "Clowns" is in this tab book.....  

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=230193253085&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=013

[Geoff]

I can see you are  two very good guitar teachers

Can you explain to me how to play "clowns" one of the first songs of Ralph I think


Thanks to you

Hi there, unfortunately "Clowns" is not a song I have ever felt I wanted to play, and I dont have the tab books so I cant help you straight off. I think the guitar is tuned with both the 1st and 6th strings a step down to D, although I might be wrong. It sounds like it starts on an Am or something, but hopefully someone with the book will answer.

Failing that, I think "Clowns" is in this tab book.....  

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=230193253085&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=013

Correct on all 3 points, Al!  

That book is excellent all through (of course); if you don't have it, get it!  Bidding is only at £5.19 at present - a real bargain!

[Al]

Hi there, unfortunately "Clowns" is not a song I have ever felt I wanted to play, and I dont have the tab books so I cant help you straight off. I think the guitar is tuned with both the 1st and 6th strings a step down to D, although I might be wrong. It sounds like it starts on an Am or something, but hopefully someone with the book will answer.

Failing that, I think "Clowns" is in this tab book.....  

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=230193253085&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=013

Correct on all 3 points, Al!  

That book is excellent all through (of course); if you don't have it, get it!  Bidding is only at £5.19 at present - a real bargain!

  Hopefully Leighton will post another photocopy then I'll be able to play it too  

But if not.......... another copy has turned up on Ebay..and its from a pet free home  

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ralph-McTell-guitar-and-song-book_W0QQitemZ250192273158QQihZ015QQcategoryZ38100QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Leighton]

ok

[Domenico Mosca]

Thank you so much to you all!
DM

[Geoff]

Just a thought, Leighton, and certainly not wanting to spoil anyone's fun, but are there copyright issues here?

Geoff

[Chris]

Yup.....