Brad Mehldau lick on Wonderwall

Brad Mehldau covers the Oasis tune Wonderwall on his album Brad Mehldau Trio (Live). It’s a great arrangement, and settles in to a solo section basically on Em.

For the first 24 bars of Brad’s solo he plays phrases that largely stay within the basic ‘harmonic rules’ for playing over an Em7 sound. But around bar 25 he plays a distinctly out couple of bars that caught my ear. It’s a great demonstration of using a repeating motif based around a C# triad, followed by an A triad. The outside note choices are then resolved with a much more inside bluesy Em phrase.

The basic idea is a 4-5-b3-3-1-5 pattern, and it’s used off the 6th (C#) and then off the 4th (A). There’s a bit of variety in getting into and out of the core pattern of the two phrases, but I think you can see idea. I really like the way Brad starts the line on the G#, the 5th of the C# triad, but also the natural 3rd against the Em tonality. Making major 3rds on minor chords sound great isn’t that easy (in my experience), but here a master shows you how – cool, eh?

And how’s his general touch and subtle variety in weighting of the notes? Phew!

Cheers,

Steve