A standard among standards, “How High the Moon” was originally written for the Broadway revue Two for the Show in 1940, with lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis. Benny Goodman & His Orchestra had the first hit recording of the song in 1940. Among the many subsequent renditions, perhaps the most famous is Les Paul and Mary Ford’s legendary 1951 recording where they respectively overdubbed 12 guitar and 12 vocal parts. The song is interesting from a theoretical standpoint, because it changes tonality every two to four bars. In this lesson, Joe introduces a solo on “How High the Moon” from the recording Tiny Moore Live! played by electric mandolinist and fiddler Tiny Moore, who played with Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys in the ‘40s. Joe shows you the basic melody and chords plus Moore’s melodic statement of the tune. In next month’s lesson, Joe will show you Moore’s improvised solo. In this video, Joe walks you through the basic melody and chords. For the progression, he shows you how the tonality modulates by switching from major to minor for the transitions.
