Transcribing Notes From John Neil (Head Transcriber)
Superstition – Stevie Wonder – Song Breakdown
Great song from Stevie Wonder, and a big hit, and preformed by Stevie Wonder himself (except for the horns). I clocked the tempo in as 102, however it wavers a lot. It starts slower, and the choruses in general speed up and then it settles back down in the verses. And as many drummers do, the drum fills speed everything up as well. I actually prefer it this way myself, as opposed to tracking songs to a click as many bands do, it gives it an ebb and flow and humanness to it all.
Keyboard
Wow. After tearing apart this performance, I have a newly found (or increased) respect for Stevie Wonder’s playing. I got it isolated, slowed it down 60%, and it’s still incredibly intricate. There are 2 basic Clavinet parts in this song. This is the main one (the other one is more on the left side of the stereo spectrum). It seems to be a scary key signature – Eb minor, but it’s all based on the Eb pentatonic scale, which is made up of all black keys. I’m thinking this is so it’s easy to play the keys like a percussion instrument, as that’s what he does for a lot of this (it might also be so help with getting his bearings, being blind). To that end, notes with “x” note heads are basically just clicks (sorta like a muted guitar string), but produced a bit of tone as well, so I estimate what notes these are. There are also lots of “ghost” notes, that barely play, but add to the funkiness. And some notes are held down while others play, which may be tricky at first. For all these reasons, I’d recommend playing this with a metronome, starting very slowly.
Download the Keyboard Sheet Music Here
Rhythm/Lead Guitar
There isn’t a guitar part in the studio recording of this, so I made up a part that goes along with the basic melody of the Clavinet hook & the bass line. Once the guitar is tuned down a half step, this is mainly just E pentatonic.
Download the Lead Guitar Tab Here
Strum Guitar
There also isn’t a strum guitar in this song, so a funky part was made up. There are lots of mutes, stops, and syncopations, so this will benefit from metronome practice – starting slowly & working up to tempo.
Download the Strum Tab Here
Bass Guitar
This is an adaptation of the Moog bass track Stevie laid down. The Moog (monophonic synthesizer – meaning only 1 note can be played at a time) is in what’s called “legato mode”, which means the attack of the note only happens when a key is lifted before the next key is played. Otherwise it’s “legato”, so there is no attack into the next note. There is also some “glide” on most of the time, which makes the notes slide to the next note when it’s legato. He also uses some pitch bend to make some notes more “fancy” … like a quick up-down about a semitone. He is also using a modulation wheel that adds vibrato to some notes, which is more rigid like a trill (it sounds like it’s a square wave modulating the pitch). So depending on what’s going on at the time, and simplicity’s sake, I made these either hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, or bends.
Download the Bass Tab Here
Drums
I transcribed the drums from an isolated drum recording. There are lots of ghost notes in some areas, and some of those are louder than others, so it’s really a feel thing. They are in the background when listening to the fill mix, but still add a lot to the groove.
Download the Drum Music Here
Download the Lead Sheet Here
