Some friends and I have been working on our own version of Army Dreamers, by Kate Bush. The original version is replete with instruments, including a prominent Mandolin, some background violins, a synth of some sort, and even the sound of a rifle being racked. Since we’re two guitarists, a bassist, and a singer, there’s quite a bit of arranging to do to make it work.

Although there’s plenty of tab around for the mandolin part, that’s only a few notes, with the violin part kicking in immediately afterwards. I wanted to cover both.

There are four separate phases in it, which I’ve made up some unimaginative names for:

• The slide phrase
• The downwards walk
• The upwards walk
• The violin phrase

The bar structure runs like this:

1. Slide phrase + violin phrase
2. Downwards walk + violin phrase
3. Slide phrase + violin phrase
4. Upwards walk + violin phrase

That structure is then repeated for the entire song. As you can see, the violin phrase is actually dominant, being played at the end of every bar.

:::text
   The slide phrase        The violin phrase       Downwards walk phrase      Violin phrase again
e|--17/14-14----17/9-9-----9h10p9------------------10----9----10--------------9h10p9----------------|
B|----------------------------------10--------------------------------7----------------10-----------|
G|---------------------------------------9--------------------------------------------------9-------|
D|-------------------------------------------9--------------------------------------------------9---|
A|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|



   The slide phrase        The violin phrase       The upwards walk phrase    Violin phrase again    
e|--17/14-14----17/9-9-----9h10p9----------------------------7----9-----------9h10p9----------------|
B|----------------------------------10-------------7----8------------------------------10-----------|
G|---------------------------------------9--------------------------------------------------9-------|
D|-------------------------------------------9--------------------------------------------------9---|
A|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|