Donny Hathaway’s live version of What’s Going On is a gem. It’s a beautiful arrangement with some extra extra hits that make it extra fun.
The pdf contains the full chart (sheet music) and all the chord & scale pictures that I used in the video. It’s a lot of pages so just scroll down to view the chord & scale charts.
I chose this song for a lot of reasons. This is clearly a classic that most people are familiar with, but this version really knocks it out of the park.
Because of the styles of music that I play I end up performing this song pretty regularly. If the band knows the hits and changes from this version we are definitely doing it the Donny way.
It just spices up the song in such a nice way to have all of these extra extras.
This is also a great way to learn some new chords and work on your rhythm. The rich harmony is a great practice in 7th chords & extensions.
Dig in to Donny Hathaway
Donny Hathaway was a very special singer. He has so many amazing songs, but I think my favorite is his version of “A Song For You”. Such a beautiful song.
He was a spectacular talent that met a tragic early end, yet he continues to inspire people to this day.
His music is worth celebrating, so this one goes out in memory of Donny and the gift he gave to the world of his music.
Here is a link to Donny Hathaway’s What’s Going On from the album Live.
Very nice lesson on a damn fine version of a damn fine tune. Just one minor nitpick: On the 4th beat of the 4th measure of the interludes, where you have marked “Bm7”, I believe the bass guitar plays an E which makes this chord D/E. Doesn’t really affect what the electric guitar plays but still…
cheers!
Well I’ll be darned! You are totally right. That chord is a D/E, and when I’m thinking of a Bmin7 I’m just playing a D triad, so that is actually D/E. Thanks for the correction! I won’t be editing the video to fix it but you’ve made me want to be more careful in the future. Cheers!