CC Transcription Page:     Ida,  Sweet as Apple Cider

Standard Transcription Page:     Ida,  Sweet as Apple Cider

The “CC xcript page” contains tablature depicting the way Charlie Christian would actually play his solo.
The “standard page” tab has the fingering which would normally be used by most guitarists.  < for comparison purposes]

C&A:

What a great solo this is.  There’s a quantum leap from old swing to innovative improv when Charles comes in after Cootie’s preceding trumpet solo.   This tune has great chord changes, especially for its day, with a couple of bridge-like sequences that allows CC to improvise in a way that he is usually limited to on only the bridge of most tunes.

CC immediately surprises the listener with the rhythmically displaced first two notes, then follows with two bars that subtly relate to the melody before taking off with his own lines.  On mm 5-7, he turns the usual phrasing upside down with emphasis on the upbeat—at bar 9 he alternates stress on the downbeat and upbeat.  There’s a bridge-type, three-bar run on mm 10-12, followed by CC again alternating the accent on the downbeat and upbeat at mm 13-14.

A giant swoop to the upper frets at mm 16-17 is followed by another brief allusion to the tune’s melody.  An unexpected, relatively long pause between the Bb7 phrase at bar 21 and the one at bar 22…  Then with only a hint of a pause he tears off on one of those beautiful, long CC runs one normally hears on a bridge (five uninterrupted bars at mm 23-28).  After an off-beat octave, an ingenious lick and some alternating strings scattered about, on the last two bars of his solo Charles leads in the ensemble riffs.

Lovely music!

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