"Hello Goodbye"

Last week I read in Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions about the viola overdub for "Hello Goodbye."  This reminded me that back in August I'd learned one viola part for the first verse and the first chorus (although I'd mistakenly thought it was violin).  Rather than try to notate the part, I'd decided just to film it.

I finally got around to doing that to-day.  Since reading about it, I also figured out one of the viola parts for the second verse and the second chorus.  I'd previously figured out almost all of the bass and fuzz guitar parts.

Since I don't own any type of bowed string instrument, I used the mellotron violin sound on my keyboard.  The longer notes aren't too bad, but the short repeated ones ended up a bit too choppy.  I did the best I could (although I think I accidentally hit an extra note).

"Across the Universe"

Recently, I've been reading in Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions about the recording of "Across the Universe" in February 1968.  Last night I was thinking about the song and realized something about the title line.  "Universe" is sung with a melisma (four syllables rather than just three), and that the word is stretched out gives something of a sense of the span of "across."

According to the Past Masters, Volume Two liner notes, the version of "Across the Universe" on Let It Be is basically the same as the version on the World Wildlife Fund charity album (collected on Past Masters, Volume Two), just slowed down and remixed with different instrument parts.  The World Wildlife Fund version is almost in Eb major (the tuning of the whole song seems a bit off to me), and "universe" is sung to Bb C D D; the Let It Be version is in C# major, and "universe" is sung to G# A# B# B#.