The next featured ensemble selection is entitled Yellow Bird. It is upbeat and syncopated, but is innately tropical, mingling hints of calypso and Hawaiian music.
Yellow Afterglow| Waiʻanae Range at dusk | Peter Kun Frary
Yellow Bird Musings
Yellow Bird is based on a late 19th-century Haitian song, Choucoune, written by Michel Mauléart Monton with lyrics by Oswald Durand. It was rewritten with English lyrics in the 20th century and retitled Yellow Bird. Hawaiian musician Arthur Lyman recorded it in 1961, scoring an international hit, and lighting up the Billboard charts at number 4. Indeed, the many and varied versions of Yellow Bird attest to its longevity and popularity.
Yellow Bird Lyrics
Yellow bird, up high in banana tree
Yellow bird, you sit all alone like me.
Did your lady friend leave the nest again?
That is very sad, makes me feel so bad.
You can fly away, in the sky away.
You're more lucky than me.
I also had a pretty girl, she's not with me today.
They're all the same those pretty girls.
Take tenderness, then they fly away.
Yellow bird, yellow bird.
Did your lady friend leave the nest again?
That is very sad, makes me feel so bad.
You can fly away, in the sky away.
You're more lucky than me.
Wish that I were a yellow bird, I'd fly away with you.
But I am not a yellow bird, so here I sit Nothing I can do.
Yellow bird, yellow bird.
Study Tips
Yellow Bird is a trio, a piece with three separate guitar parts: guitar 1 (melody), guitar 2 (chords) and guitar 3 (bass). Your instructor will assign parts. The PDF scores for the individual parts are linked at the bottom of this page.
Rest Symbols
The guitar 1 part uses symbols called rests. A rest is a measured period of silence. While rests are few in guitar solos, they are common in ensemble music.
Yellow Bird Rests| Guitar 1 is silent for 4 measures while guitars 2 and 3 play an introduction. In other words, guitar 1 counts to 4 four times before playing.
Rest Names
Memorize the names and values of the rest durations below: whole rest, half rest, quarter rest and eighth rest. Beat durations are for quarter note meters, e.g., 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4.
Playing Rests
How do you play a rest? You don't! You simply count out the rest duration and play when the normal notes begin. If a note is ringing over a rest, touch the string to stop it from ringing (or lift the fretting finger off the note).
Yellow Bird should be performed at an allegro tempo (120+ BPM).
Listen to the Track
Before practicing, listen to the audio track and familiarize yourself with the sound and feel of Yellow Bird. If playing guitar 1, practice counting out the introduction rests with the audio track.
Yellow Bird | Frary Guitar Trio
Once your part is under your fingers, play with the audio track. Learn your part before coming to class and rehearsing with your ensemble.
Yellow Bird Musings
Study Tips
Rest Symbols
Playing Rests
Listen to the Track
