Transcription: My Kind Of Girl

Tune: My Kind Of Girl
Composer: Leslie Bricusse
From the album: Sinatra-Basie
Leaders of the session: Frank Sinatra and Count Basie
Recorded: October 2, 1962
CD: Reprise 1008-2
Transcription starts at 0'07"; ends at 1'15"
Tempo: 113 beats per minute

Two popular beliefs about Freddie Green's style are: 1) He always played three note chords, and, 2) He always changed the chord voicing on every beat. This recording disproves both of these statements. Listen to the first four bars. Freddie clearly plays the same "one note chord" for sixteen beats and does not change the voicing.

Freddie is very audible in this transcribed passage as the only instruments backing Sinatra are guitar, drums, bass, and piano. Also, the bass is assigned to the left channel and the guitar to the right channel; this also enhances the clarity of Freddie's voicings.

As always, Freddie places the vast majority of the clearly sounded notes on the 4th string and the 3rd string. The transcribed notes show only the pitches that can be definitely discerned. The chord diagrams provide suggestions on what muted notes may have been sounded simultaneously with the transcribed notes. Note that Freddie frequently changes his left hand position on beat one and beat three, even if there is no harmonic change.

Important: The chord diagrams illustrate probable fingering forms used by Freddie Green based on extensive research conducted by the primary contributors to this web site. As there is no video record of this recording session, Freddie's exact fingerings will never be known.

An "x" indicates that a finger is placed on the string, but the string is not fully pushed down to make contact with the fret.

A "black dot" indicates that a finger is placed on the string, and the string is pushed down to make contact with the fret.

A "white dot" indicates that a finger is placed on the string, and the string is pushed down to make contact with the fret. A white dot also indicates that the note is added to the chord form on the previous beat. Adding an upper note on beat 2 or 4 is a typical Freddie Green technique.

If there is no "x", "black dot", or "white dot", the string is fully damped by a finger of the left hand.

Left hand fingerings are not included; experiment to find fingerings that work for your technique. Note that Freddie often used his left thumb on the sixth string.

Transcribed by Michael Pettersen
March 2004

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