"Sofa No. 1," arr. by Michael Hedges (Patreon)

Friends:

I have a surprise mid-month lesson to offer you this month. "Sofa No. 1" has long been my favorite "flatpick" tune of Michael's, and my recording has generated many requests for a good transcription over the years. I've worked tirelessly the last two weeks to prepare this lesson for you, I hope you enjoy!

"Sofa No. 1" originally appeared on Frank Zappa's One Size Fits All album in 1975. Apparently Frank Zappa's son, Dweezil Zappa approached Michael some time in the early 90s about arranging 8 bars of "Sofa No. 1" on acoustic guitar for an upcoming project. Hedges ultimately arranged the entire piece.

Hedges' arrangement first appeared commercially on the Oracle album, released in late 1996. Several live recordings exist from the mid 90s. The Echoes radio show has two excellent broadcasts of live living room concerts where he plays "Sofa," one from 1994 and another from 1996. You can find them here.

The earlier version (1994) will be closer to this transcription. This was transcribed from very rare live video of Hedges performing the piece sometime in 1993, we believe. This version is the closest to Zappa's performance, with only slight deviations from the form in a few measures. It also includes the excellent bass run in the passage from measures 9-13. These measures would ultimately, for some reason, be excluded from all other known recordings of the piece.

This is my first attempt at transcribing Hedges' flatpicking work, a very challenging task. I hope the detail in the transcription reflects the nuance he brought to the arrangement and captures the depth and beauty of the piece. He used a few techniques to perfect the voicing of chords while using a flatpick - carefully muting strings with the left hand, (indicated by either Xs or numbers in a box in the tablature), and hooking the pinky of his right hand on the first string to mute it from ringing in chords that needed the melody on the second string. This is indicated with conventional string stopping notation. 

I believe I cover everything you need to know in the Patreon lesson uploaded to YouTube here https://youtu.be/Ln9s9kZ3xMo

My original recording of this, many years ago, can be found here. I should do this one over again! https://youtu.be/YVOYcF7Txxw

The transcription is attached below. As always, please leave comments or questions below. Have fun!