Heres my simplified cannot-stick-to-a-tempo, oompah merchant (thanks maugein96! 
) version of the tune:
Im not going to spam like I did for the previous tune. In one sense this one was easier since the chords were pretty clear on the treble side and the bass only really played single notes. As far as the chords go:
* I replaced all Dim chords with the corresponding root-less 7ths
* I used whatever looked the most similar for a couple of C6 and Dsus4 I found. Or maybe theyre not really that because of the bass runs influencing the chord.
It looks like whenever the bass notes do not fit in with the treble chord, it is because there is a small scale run. Initially I tried to stick to the exact bass notes, but it got a little awkward, so I simplified the oompah bass to only use direct alternate and counterbass. I havent included any bass runs, but I think it might be possible to do something in some of those bars at the end of the phrases where a single note is sustained for 3 beats. However, I might simplify my current version a little more. I still want to stick to the general chord progression in the score, but I want to keep it simple.
As for my original topic (probably obvious for those who know): What Im starting to learn is how the primary (I-VI-V) chords relate to secondary (ii-iii-vi) chords. I have a read a few things online where they explain how in diatonic harmony those are grouped and lead to each other in certain ways. So while you can stick to I-VI-V and it wont sound wrong (I tried it with this tune), if you want to add some more movement (tension), you could replace some of the first group with the corresponding chord in the second group - this isnt a completely random play-whatever-you-want thing. You would use this to achieve an overall movement in the tune. When playing oompah, the way you alternate the basses will play a smaller, more localised role in a specific bar - i.e. whether you alternate up or down the inversions to match the direction of the treble notes. And then of course you can dump the chords and play runs to connect bars, etc.
Working off of existing scores lets me get a feel for where those progressions are used, but at this point Im mostly doing a literal translation and then simplifying the work somebody else already did. SInce I clearly need to spend a lot more time practicing basic playing techniques, I probably wont be posting many more of these soon (Im slow at reading chords like that so it takes me a while to write out everything and then matching some of them with online chord lookups). I was actually thinking about taking some really simple treble-only tunes next and working out simple strict diatonic accompaniment.
) version of the tune:Im not going to spam like I did for the previous tune. In one sense this one was easier since the chords were pretty clear on the treble side and the bass only really played single notes. As far as the chords go:
* I replaced all Dim chords with the corresponding root-less 7ths
* I used whatever looked the most similar for a couple of C6 and Dsus4 I found. Or maybe theyre not really that because of the bass runs influencing the chord.
It looks like whenever the bass notes do not fit in with the treble chord, it is because there is a small scale run. Initially I tried to stick to the exact bass notes, but it got a little awkward, so I simplified the oompah bass to only use direct alternate and counterbass. I havent included any bass runs, but I think it might be possible to do something in some of those bars at the end of the phrases where a single note is sustained for 3 beats. However, I might simplify my current version a little more. I still want to stick to the general chord progression in the score, but I want to keep it simple.
As for my original topic (probably obvious for those who know): What Im starting to learn is how the primary (I-VI-V) chords relate to secondary (ii-iii-vi) chords. I have a read a few things online where they explain how in diatonic harmony those are grouped and lead to each other in certain ways. So while you can stick to I-VI-V and it wont sound wrong (I tried it with this tune), if you want to add some more movement (tension), you could replace some of the first group with the corresponding chord in the second group - this isnt a completely random play-whatever-you-want thing. You would use this to achieve an overall movement in the tune. When playing oompah, the way you alternate the basses will play a smaller, more localised role in a specific bar - i.e. whether you alternate up or down the inversions to match the direction of the treble notes. And then of course you can dump the chords and play runs to connect bars, etc.
Working off of existing scores lets me get a feel for where those progressions are used, but at this point Im mostly doing a literal translation and then simplifying the work somebody else already did. SInce I clearly need to spend a lot more time practicing basic playing techniques, I probably wont be posting many more of these soon (Im slow at reading chords like that so it takes me a while to write out everything and then matching some of them with online chord lookups). I was actually thinking about taking some really simple treble-only tunes next and working out simple strict diatonic accompaniment.
