there isn;t any general principle involved
songs are individual - some have 'tricks'
some don;t
it;s just like any music really
they just have to be learned
another thing is, the bass has to agree most of the time with the guitar
you may decide to change it from the way some 'original band' played it
the accordion melody doesn;t necessarily lock the chords into some unalterable pattern
a lot of times it is arbitrary
by changing it, you will change the way the song sounds - with the same accordion part
steve riley did this with lovers waltz
not sure why, but it sounds better his way than the original band's version
and of course if you play the bass side, it will clash with guitar and bass a lot of the time anyway
it is true that a lot of times the chords will change in odd places, but that is usually because the melody does demand it, if you DIDN:T change exactly there it would be a real dissonance
but that isn;t necessarily unique to cajun
it;s one way to make it interesting, given the limits of the genre
[accordion plays limited keys and chords, and it can;t be chromatic or bend notes]
another weird thing is, extra and missing beats
A and B parts that arent; the same length
or the vocal part may be the A part just longer
or only on certain verses
usually it is 2 inserted or deleted
odd numbers would be hard to dance to
This area is new to me. My band mate (not the guitarist) is saying, if the guitarist is playing rhythm, aren't they going to be coming in squarely on the beat with the chord change?
If you are using a bass player.
The answer is NO.
The bass always leads the chords.
Because he hits the downbeat before the guitar which is doing mainly offbeats.
If you are using a guitar only, that is a different story.
as he will be doing both.
Side note about Cajun music guitar players.
As a bass player, the most annoying thing is having a guitar player, playing all over your notes.
Some guitar players that are used to playing as Cajun trios, forget to leave off the bass notes when a bass player is added. They end up doing walk-ups, when you might be doing walk-downs. It can be a mess.
I have to agree with Larry.
It's up to the band to decide how they plan to play each song.
I listened to your sound bites for the up and coming gig and you use different chords on some songs than I am used to hearing. Different than the way I usually play it, and different than Mark plays it, and different from the "original".
This is NOT wrong. It sounds fine, it's just a matter of the whole band understanding, learning and knowing your interpretation.
I agree that it is much more difficult for someone who did not grow up listening to ethnic/cultural music to follow along with the unusual chord changes. I think the most common mistake is to assume that the rhythm is a 4/4 count. The tendency, these days is to play songs with a 4/4 rhythm because is rocks things up a bit. There is nothing wrong with that, but be **** sure everyone is familiar with the song and its chord changes. In my opinion, most of the melodies in Cajun music, two-steps of course, were originally played with a 2/4 feel. It is true that in many cases, the chord change will come in at the right place either way, but sometimes you will find a song that doesn't. For example, if you walk a bass in 4/4 time on J'etais au bal, you will have to cut a measure in half in the b part.
I would suggest that they play it in 2/4 until everyone is familiar enough to test out the 4/4 feel. On the particular song that was mentioned in this thread, I would definitely stick with 2/4.
Ditto on what Ganey said! Also if you look at it in terms of 4/4 you'll end up with two extra beats on the 2nd line of the A part on ALOT of 2 steps. I've heard some songs change on the upbeat. I don't think Cajun music is any more crooked than old time, bluegrass, blues, jazz, or any other types of American music, or most music in general. It requires a certain "groove", and in order to get in the pocket of that groove you got to listen to a ton of it and play it regularly for some time. Good Luck Dwight!
I have no idea whether I get the changes right when I play fiddle. Cajun and some zydeco is all I play. I didn't "exactly" grow up with it because it was not really played in the home, but I would hear it out in the environment. Houma was not a cajun music cultural hot spot. At least not that this rocker knew about.
I have no idea whether I get the changes right when I play fiddle. Cajun and some zydeco is all I play. I didn't "exactly" grow up with it because it was not really played in the home, but I would hear it out in the environment. Houma was not a cajun music cultural hot spot. At least not that this rocker knew about.
I think the problem is that they aren't listening to the music, just playing in the moment. And I can't pay attention to exactly what chord they're playing and play my part at the same time, unless they're right in my ear and it can come through all the distraction.