@Phrygian: agree entirely that chord structures are a fascinating form of discussion. It helps understanding what you're playing too. However, for non musicians, they don't care (and rightly so as a song is meant to be heard rather than analysed).
RogerCook wrote:If the tune is in the key of F major, isn't that chord Edim7?
Yes, officially the song is in F. The sheet music also suggests this. I agree with that, but it's certainly a tricky question to answer.
As an electric guitar player most would immediately think (well I do anyway) - "oh, it's in F!" so that means "F minor pentatonic" or "F major pentatonic" which is a mistake in this one, as 'the Arabian style' tune means your jumping outside of the (what I would consider) standard diatonic chords for that key, which are:
I. F – A – C (F major chord)
ii. G – Bb – D (G minor chord)
iii. A – C – E (A minor chord)
IV. Bb – D – F (B Flat major chord)
V. C – E – G (C major chord)
vi. D – F – A (D minor chord)
vii. E – G – Bb (E diminished chord)
When I play Maroc 7, the only chord I see from that list that appears in the tune itself is the IV chord, plus (from memory) there's one C in it, preceded by the F# (as the main melody repeats/'turns around" the first time).
My point is - thus for me anyway, the safety of finding the notes to the melody in one of those 2 F pentatonic scales has gone and I have to start thinking about 'notes of the next chord' instead (jazz style, which immediately throws me out of my comfort zone). However, 'home base', or 'tonal centre', or 'where does it resolve?', is indeed F, the note F at least.
In Maroc 7, with its Arabian style tune, the melody is based more around the parts of the (next) chord which jumps in and out of the key of F throughout. The chords also switch between major and minor a lot too, which is credit to the way this tune is written. As a guitarist, this sort of in and out of key can throw you and you have to think of the notes in the chord rather than sticking to safe pentatonic scales (this is the case for me anyway).
The only time I feel 'safe' (sticking to one scale) in Maroc 7 is the F# to F chords part. When that is going on, I'm in the Bb flat harmonic minor scale. Those two chords being 1 semitone apart is all over the heavy metal world (Metallica, Megadeth, Yngwie Malmsteen, everywhere) but you would never think Hank is playing an evil sounding metal solo, would you? Perish the thought. The scale is the same though, and the melody again is well written.
This is why (for me at least) this is a unique sounding Shadows track, particularly for the early days. I have to give Paul Ferris a lot of credit for writing this tune and for me, I can't imagine he wrote this on a guitar. I love playing it and again I really am so disappointed that there is no live version of this from The Shadows themselves.
Of all the Shadows 20 Golden Greats tracks I've learnt to play over the years, this has to be the most intricate and definitely the most thought-provoking in terms of attempting to understand what I'm playing.