“In a Silent Way” Zawinal/McLaughlin Guitar Analysis

Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guys,

Today, a look at the amazing performance/improvisation of “In a Silent Way” by John McLaughlin and Joe Zawinal.

PART 1:

The key to this is to look at the 16 bar structure and view the two main chords and acknowledge how the melody is/can be contained within them.

FORM and CHORDS Chart:

So, from this simple chart we can observe that we have two main prominent chords. These are E6/11

and Bm7/E

6/11 as Substitutions;

Here, is how the 6/11 is exploited by John for the intro: So, instead of the plain minor 7th chords we have:

PART 2: Chord Melody Barre Shapes:

Now, let’s loosely add some chords [Shapes] to the melody, and see what we can come up with,

EXAMPLE: Notice that the 1st note of each melody section [circled] fits perfectly within the chord shape.

In terms of harmonising the melody and creating a nice ethereal or dissonant resonance on the guitar it is a really good idea to employ a pedal note.

In this case it is the low E string.

Example:

To conclude, we will cadence nicely with the 7sus4 chord and a little descending run back to the tonic chord of E Major.

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