A Day In The Life Of A Fool
The song and my struggle to play it
Chord Melody is a term jazz guitarists use to describe the combining of the melody and chords of a song into an arrangement that can be performed by a solo guitarist. It is a difficult thing to do well on the guitar.
I fell in love with chord melody guitar playing when I was taking guitar lessons in the 1970s from a jazz guitarist named Robert Richter. He taught me a couple of chord melody arrangements, and I was hooked.
Decades later, I decided to try my hand at arranging some jazz standards into chord melodies. The trick is to keep the melody as the highest-pitched note in the chords.
I had some luck with the songs Tenderly and My Funny Valentine, and I made videos of myself performing them. I posted the videos on YouTube [videos below.]
I decided to try another jazz standard, A Day In The Life Of Fool. A song by Brazilian composer Luiz Bonfá and lyricist Antônio Maria. In the United States, the song is also known as Carnival, Theme from Black Orpheus, or simply Black Orpheus. It is a melancholy song with a haunting melody and sad lyrics. Here is the English translation of the lyrics:
A day in the life of a fool
A sad and a long lonely day
I walk the avenueÂ
and hope I’ll run into
The welcome sight of youÂ
coming my way
I stop just across from your door
But you’re never home anymore
So back to my roomÂ
and there in the gloom
I cryÂ
tears of goodbye
‘Till you come back to meÂ
that’s the way it will be
Every day in the life of a fool
Songwriters: Carl Sigman / Luiz Bonfa / Antonio Maria Araujo De Moraes
The title was prophetic. It was a major challenge to come up with a playable arrangement. I did eventually work out an arrangement I thought sounded good and I began practicing it. It took a long time to memorize and even longer to be able to play it well.
Then, I tried to make a video of myself playing it. Ha! Mistake after mistake every time. I made several attempts to record it over several months. It became ridiculous.
Then, one winter day in February of 2015, all my guitar lessons were canceled due to snow. I decided I would record it that day and post it no matter what.
Well, the same thing happened. Mistake after mistake. Finally, I got through the song with flaws I could live with and posted the video. I needed to move on!
Here it is, warts and all:
And here are the videos of me playing Tenderly and My Funny Valentine if you are curious.
I still love chord melody playing, but I haven’t created a new arrangement since that day in the life of a fool.
Someday.
Very interesting, Mark. I've been learning to play the alto sax, and people here keep asking me to record a demo. Every time I try, I fluff it, even if I've played the tune a dozen times perfectly. I actually wrote about that here, in a jokey way: https://terryfreedman.substack.com/i/142061895/the-johnny-sax-column
Maybe I'll just record something and post it warts and all too. I've only listened to your Black Orpheus so far, and although I'm pretty musical I didn't detect ANY warts. Cheers
I enjoyed all of them. It makes me feel as if I was sitting somewhere enjoying a refreshment with good company.