Product Description
By Mike Strand, ASCAP
This is a lead sheet for a swing ballad with chord symbols and guitar fret boards, for a jazz ensemble, small to large and a solo instrument. It is the foundation for a variety of arrangements, improvisations, and contra facts.
The audio sample is an iReal Pro jazz swing ballad accompaniment, combined with my tune in Finale PrintMusic -- a jazz quartet arrangement.
At 76 quarter notes per minute, it runs about 2 minutes, 13 seconds with only one repetition of the first 16 bars, followed by the 8-bar ending (40 bars in all). You may want more repetitions in a performance with instrumentalists playing contrafacts or improvisations against the first 16-bars, then closing with the 8-bar ending.
The spare, appealing melody is supported by a relatively complex but beautiful harmonic progression.
I wrote this ballad after a long wait for a loved one to undergo a 6-hour surgery at St. Mary's Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. It expresses my initial optimism, changing to worry and dread. Finally I feel tired, relieved and happy when I am allowed to visit the loved one, who is safe and awake in the recovery room.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.