What’d I Say by Ray Charles Piano Sheet Music

A 100% accurate note-for-note transcription of the piano part played on Ray Charles song What’d I say from the 1959 album What’d I Say.

What’d I Say by Ray Charles Piano Sheet Music

A 100% accurate note-for-note transcription of the piano part played on Ray Charles song What’d I say from the 1959 album What’d I Say.

Experience our Piano Transcription of What’d I Say by Ray Charles

PDF Sheet Music Downloads of our transcriptions are available for educational use only to members of The Van Tuyl Music Foundation clubs.

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About Our Sheet Music

The Van Tuyl Music Foundation’s sheet music transcription of the piano part played on Ray Charles’s song What’d I Say was completed by our team of elite, professional musicians who invest multiple hours into ensuring the accuracy of each transcription. PDF sheet music downloads of our transcriptions are available for educational use only to members of The Van Tuyl Music Foundation’s Rhino Clubs, to students in programs funded by The Van Tuyl Music Foundation, and also to donors of The Van Tuyl Music Foundation who support our mission to make modern music education accessible to people of all ages, ethnicities, and economic backgrounds.

What is a Transcription from The Van Tuyl Music Foundation?

A transcription from The Van Tuyl Music Foundation means that our team of elite, professional musicians spent hours listening to and learning the song, and then transcribing every note, accent, dynamic and fill we hear. Once the transcription is complete, it is then checked, and re-checked for accuracy before we release it. Because we are human musicians, it is possible that we miss a note somewhere, or make an error, but it is extremely rare. Accuracy is our primary concern, so if you find one, please alert us so we can fix it!

About What’d I Say (from Wikipedia):

“What’d I Say” (or “What I Say”) is an American rhythm and blues song by Ray Charles, released in 1959. As a single divided into two parts, it was one of the first soul songs. The composition was improvised one evening late in 1958 when Charles, his orchestra, and backup singers had played their entire set list at a show and still had time left; the response from many audiences was so enthusiastic that Charles announced to his producer that he was going to record it. According to Charles’ autobiography, “What’d I Say” was accidental when he improvised it to fill time at the end of a concert in December 1958. He asserted that he never tested songs on audiences before recording them, but “What’d I Say” was an exception. Charles himself did not recall where the concert took place, but Mike Evans in Ray Charles: The Birth of Soul placed the show in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Shows were played at “meal dances” which typically ran four hours with a half-hour break, and would end around 1 or 2 in the morning. Charles and his orchestra had exhausted their set list after midnight, but had 12 minutes left to fill. He told the Raelettes, “Listen, I’m going to fool around and y’all just follow me”.

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