If I Use My Own Hands


I've been digging into Madison Cunnigham's music so I can to learn to play some of it. And while I'm finding the guitar parts a challenge, but not insurmountable, the vocal melodies are proving to be the real hurdle.

Take this gorgeous mid-tempo song from her first album, Authenticity, made as she was graduating high school. The basic outline of the chords isn't insane—though the move from the G-based verse to the E-major chorus is an inspired left turn that gets me every time—but that vocal line? I found it too hard to learn by ear; I had to start notating it just to map it out. Not only is it beautifully strange (look at those first four notes); she also pulls off Joni Mitchell-worthy phrasing throughout, with the slightest embellishments counting for so much and seeming to require something like perfect mimicry or the song falls apart.

The form below repeats with some variation, elision, and extension. Mysterious things indeed.  
UPDATE: On closer listening, I'm hearing another chord not charted here: on measure 4, 10, and 14, there's a passing Abdim, best I can tell. 

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