Los Enanitos Verdes “En Vivo” José Guillermo Villarreal a Thesis Submitted
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Los Enanitos Verdes “En Vivo” José Guillermo Villarreal A thesis submitted to the faculty at Berklee College of Music in Valencia Spain in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master’s degree for Contemporary Performance, Production Concentration. Berklee College of Music 2015 Approved by: Victor Mendoza Israel Sandoval Perico Sambeat © 2015 Jose Guillermo Villarreal ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT Jose Guillermo Villarreal: Los Enanitos Verdes En Vivo (Under the direction of Victor Mendoza) For my thesis, I will be making a book with note-for-note guitar transcriptions of the 2004 album, En Vivo by Los Enanitos Verdes, a Spanish-Rock band from Mendoza, Argentina. The album was recorded on May 2nd 2004 in Phoenix (Arizona, USA) and May 11th 2004 in Tijuana (Baja-California-Mexico) during the Amores Lejanos tour. The album itself contains a total of 16 tracks ranging from Hits such as “Lamento Boliviano,” “La Muralla Verde,” “Por el Resto” as well as two new unreleased versions of “Tu Cárcel” by Marco Antonio Solís and “Mil Horas” by Andrés Calamaro among others. Additionally, a DVD of the bands performances was released soon after. The DVD features 6 new tracks that were not released on the album. This project is being done for 2 reasons. First, there is absolutely no sheet music, charts, TAB, or anything published via traditional format of the bands music. After searching online extensively, the very few things that were found were very poorly notated and incorrect. Besides really wanting to learn, play and analyze this music for my own musical development, the ultimate goal is to publish this music and make it available to all the public. These transcriptions have taken a total of 8 months to complete (September 2014 - March 19, 2015). The process for this project was more or less transcribing one song a week until all 16 were completed. I had already used TAB to write out all of the songs (something I began doing slowly since High-School) but needed to figure out all of the rhythms write them out in standard music notation. The end product will have tablature, music notation above that, and chord progressions. Tempo, chord voicing’s, dynamics, and a notation guide will be included as well. Example 1: Guns N’ Roses, Sweet Child o’ Mine. mm. 1-4.1 http://guitarinternational.com/2010/11/14/tab-of-the-day-guns-n- roses-sweet-child-of-mine/ I used an App on my IPhone and computer called AnyTune Pro to slow down the tracks and help facilitate in the transcribing process. I used a musical notation software called Sibelius to notate the transcriptions. PERFORMANCE NOTES 1. Amores Lejanos The first track is the second single from their newest album with the same name. After the fade in of the roaring crowd, Amores Lejanos begins with an improvised acoustic guitar solo followed by the actual song. On bar 6 of the guitar solo, Felipe plays what I like to call the “Staiti Lick.” It is an a minor 9 arpeggio played via sweep- picking (guitar technique in which the guitar player plays single notes on consecutive strings with a “sweeping” motion of the pick) and it is an example that is seen on three of Staiti’s solos throughout the album. After the crowd takes over after the guitar solo and sings the Chorus, there is a “call and response” section between the lead guitar and the vocals. 2. Tequila “Track 2 is one off their 1999 Grammy nominated album Nectar.”2 The first guitar solo features the bands rhythm guitarist, Marcelo Lucero, on lead. Lucero uses a combination of pentatonic licks and bends in his playing, and finishes by sustaining a note for about 15 seconds; reminiscent to Carlos Santana’s approach to guitar playing. The final guitar solo returns the spotlight to Staiti, in which he utilizes the wah-wah pedal and distortion throughout, allowing him to produce an interesting variety of artificial harmonics, especially when they’re treated to whammy bar use. 3. Por El Resto A classic of the band. Unlike the smooth-rock version off of 1987’s Habitaciones Extrañas, this version sounds much heavier. It begins with a rock drum solo followed by the melody, played on a distorted electric guitar. During the choruses, we hear a classic riff from a track called Lords of Karma from the 1987 album Surfing with the Alien by guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani. The first example of many on this album where we hear guitarist Felipe Staiti quote other legendary guitar players and their riffs. The solo, played by Staiti, begins with a note that once again is held for quite a long time (about 12 seconds). The song goes to a Half-Time feel and has a somewhat esoteric, free-jazz feel to it. Staiti uses a variety of modern guitar techniques including high-pitched harmonics, heavy use of whammy bar, and a very fast tapping section using the edge of the pick. The outro solo features a sequence of minor pentatonic, minor blues and Dorian licks ending with one of the most brutal and violent uses of the whammy bar I’ve ever heard. 4. Tu Cárcel Track 4 is an arrangement written by Marco Antonio Solís and the Mexican group Los Bukis. This simple yet beautiful tune, only a 5- chord progression throughout, became the first single off of this album. The main-melody is played entirely on the third string (G) and is a great lesson on single string improvisation. Staiti adds many ornaments, fills and licks giving it a real Rock’n’Roll feel and keeps the song more interesting. For the outro, the melody is played a Major 3rd + an octave higher (creating intensity) then returning to its original harmony and reaching an end. 5. Mi Primer Día Sin Ti This ballad begins with Staiti playing a beautiful progression consisting of Major 9, minor 7 and sus chords before vocalist, Marciano Cantero, enters. This track really shows off Marciano’s range as a vocalist, singing as low as an A2 to as high as an F#4. There’s a brief pause before Staiti begins the infectious melody using distortion and wah-wah. The rest of the band joins immediately. A clean tone is used for the Verses and then Staiti changes to distortion and does a pick scrape on strings 5 (A) and 6 (E) simultaneously, signaling the beginning of the Pre-Chorus and Choruses. The outro solo begins with very fast tremolo picking followed by some soulful A Major Pentatonic soloing (using a series of bends, wah-wah pedal and whammy bar). The final section after the solo is another instance where we once again hear Staiti quoting another legendary guitar player. “Again it’s Joe Satriani only this time Staiti is quoting Satriani’s Grammy-nominated track Summer Song.”3 The guitar and bass play a little “call and response” before changing to the IV chord and Staiti gracefully launching into a 6-measure two-tapping (a guitar playing technique in which the player uses their picking hand to play notes on the fretboard) section using A Mixolydian (the fifth mode of D Major). 6. La Muralla Verde Quite arguably the bands greatest hit and definitely the song with the most intriguing guitar work on the entire album. The song begins with an up-tempo 16-bar guitar solo section alternating between the chords c# minor and B Major and a variety of “delicious” licks in- between. The band enters and the melody is played in harmony between Staiti and Lucero. The melody is played 4 times (3 of which it’s played identical and a variation the 4th) followed by the verse and chorus. The intro melody is played once again only this time, Staiti plays a pinch harmonic (a guitar technique to achieve artificial harmonics in which the player's thumb or index finger on the picking hand slightly catches the string after it is picked) on the 9th fret, 3rd string (E), followed by the verse and chorus. However, on the 7th measure of the 2nd chorus, the band (with the exception of the drums and crowd singing) drops out before Staiti begins one of the most technical and ferocious guitar solos in the History of Rock en Español. I like to think of this solo in 3 sections: Section A, Section B (Half- Time feel), and Section C (Whammy Bar/Circus/Polka section). Although the changes for the first part of the solo are just c#-7 (i) and F#M (IV), Staiti goes through a variety of different modes and uses a wide array of impressive guitar techniques. The solo begins with a long slide on the 6th string (E) followed by an E major triad outlining the c# minor 7th chord. Over the next few measures, we see Staiti launching into a series of effortless hammer-ons, pull-offs and alternate picking runs based on the c# Dorian mode (the second mode of B Major). It’s here that we see the “Staiti Lick” once again. This time it’s a c# minor 9 arpeggio and again it is played using sweep picking. In measure 6 of the guitar solo, we hear Stati quickly shifting between G# and G natural, the blue note, giving a bluesy feel to his playing. Soon after, we hear his inner “Eddie Van Halen” emerge. This tapping-section is very similar to Van Halen’s solo from Beat It off of the 1982 album Thriller. In fact, it is the EXACT same pattern only 2 frets higher.