"So What?" - Miles Davis

the only thing about this song is that i don't know what it's supposed to sound like.

There's a version here.

http://www.milesdavis.com/MP3/so_what.mp3

Unfortunately my ears aren't really good enough to transcribe it and I 'm beginning to doubt they ever will be.

Are those minor chords Nick?

Yep, sorry the - means minor

Dmin
Ebmin

This starts about 30 seconds in.  I transcribed the bass line which is the lead in this recording.  The chords are played by piano.

It's also really good music to practice your dorian scales.

You play the bar with the 5th string root for Dmin measures.

7          5
8          6
7          5
7          5
7          5
x          x    

and move that up to the 8th fret / 6th fret for the Ebmin measures

The lead line goes like this

-----------------------------------------------------7-----5----
-----------------------------------------------------8-----6----
-------------------------7-----9---------7-----------7----5----
---------7----9---10-------------10-----------------7-----5---
-----------------------------------------------------7-----5---
----10----------------------------------------------------------

??? ??? ???  So I dug out my Chord book and see

Dm       Eb
5           6  
6           7
7           8
7           8
5           6
X           X

So I look a little further and find
Dm11 (no9)
5
6
5
5
5
X

At which point I decide I'd better ask what's going on.
Though I don't see any reason not to use the straight Dm?????
Or am I missing something obvious?

Go ahead and listen to the MP3

I guess it really doesn't have just two chords.  I stand corrected.  It has four chords, but only one fingering.

Each measure has two chords

The first is a whole step above the second

Em7add11 --> Dm7add11

when it modulates up a 1/2 step you get

Fm7add11--->E^bm7add11

Sorry for any confusion.

:)
That's okay - I just don't feel secure enough in my ears or my chord construction to figure out what was happening

:) Thanks for all your work.

If you are in tune, you should be able to play right along with the MP3.

Let me know if it works.

That's much better  :D

But it would be nice if someone with better ears than checked  :-[

I checked it nine ways from Sunday.

I am probably not going to include this in the database, as I don't think it meets our "easy" requirements.  But, the following site is putting up tabs for the top 100 albums of all time.  One of them the just put up has the tab for this tune, so I thought I would post it.

http://guitar.about.com/library/blrs012.htm