Desperado

(The Eagles)
 Desperado by The Eagles

Country Corner this week is

looking at a classic ballad from
country-rock band The Eagles.
The tune is Desperado - and
I think Linda Rondstadts ver-
sion was mostly responsible for
popularizing it. (Were going
to look at that version in a later
tutorial in this series as its in
a different key. And is slightly
different from the original ver-
sion).

Now this is a ballad and the bass doesnt come in until 2 minutes into the
tune - and the tune is only 3 minutes 30 long! Im going to give you the
complete score for the last minute and a half in a moment.

One other thing Im going to do is when I set out the chords in Band In A
Box Im going to lay out all the parts as this is one of those songs where
you could play this many different ways. For example I think it would
make a really nice tune with just piano, bass and vocals and the bass
could step up a little and play a more expressive and melodic line than is
played on the original.

Heres what the bass line looks for the latter part of the tune - there are
two sections:

Letter A: Bridge 2.00

Letter B - Last Verse - 2.32

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How To Program the Sections In Band In A Box

1. Set Key to G
2. Aim for a performance tempo of around 60 BPM.
3. Choose a band style for practice. There are a few options - theres
the Country Ballad With Piano Style if you want to practice with a fuller
band context. Or theres two or three solo piano accompanist tracks that
would work at this tempo level. Or you can use the chordal metronome
built into Band in A Box.
4. Mute the bass!

Heres the progression for the intro - note that Bar 5 is a 2:4 bar:

Heres the chords for the first verse - in this verse Bar 8 is a 2:4 bar:

Heres the chords for the section that begins Dont You Draw The Queen
Of Diamonds:

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The next verse looks like this. Bar 9 is a 2:4 bar AND its where the bass
comes in:

Next up is another bridge, but the chords are slightly different than pre-
viously. This is Section A on the notation:

And finally we have the last verse. This is Section B on the notation:

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