After a hard day’s housekeeping work, I finally sat down, picked up my guitar and played along those videos suggested by YouTube.

One of those was a mashup video Havana X Smooth by YouTuber Joseph Vincent recorded in late 2017. I had no clue on what it was but men the melody sounded really like Smooth by Santana & Rob Thomas.

忙了一整天，終於可以坐下來，提起結他跟隨著 YouTube 推介的 video 一起彈奏。

其中一首是由 YouTuber Joseph Vincent 在 2017 年製作的混搭影片 Havana X Smooth。我對這歌雖然不太認識，但聽下來總覺得旋律和 Santana 與 Rob Thomas 合作的 Smooth 極之相似。

While playing along the groove, my little boy rushed into my room and surprised that I was listening to Camila Cabello’s Havana!

正當玩得興起，兒子突然走進房間，驚訝怎麼我會聽 Camila Cabello 的 Havana！

“What?
Who is that Camila Cabello you are talking about?”, I said.

“吓？ Camila Cabello 係邊位呀？”，我反問他。

My boy told me that Camila Cabello is a Cuban singer who made the song Havana very famous years ago.

他還告訴我 Camila Cabello 是來自古巴的女歌手，那首 Havana 數年前紅極一時。

“How come you know her and the song? You were below 10 at that time!”

“咦，你嗰時十歲都未夠，你又識佢同埋佢啲歌？”

“Thru Minecraft Note Block!“, he said.

“我喺 Minecraft 嘅 Note Block 聽過嘛!”，兒子霸氣地回應。

My boy is a Minecraft enthusiast and he first came across this song while he was listening to music created by other users with Minecraft Note Block.

兒子是個 Minecraft 的狂熱者，他之所以認識 Camila Cabello 的 Havana ，是因為有其他玩家利用 Minecraft Note Block 編輯了這首歌。

Smooth played by Santana & Rob Thomas back in 1999 was one of my all time rock favourite.

Havana by Camila Cabello released in 2017 was one of my boy’s favourite too.

Interesting enough, two individuals having different life experiences finally crossing each others along two, or may be one song!

Smooth 是 Santana 與 Rob Thomas 在 1999 年合作推出的歌，亦是我至愛的搖滾樂曲之一。

而 Camila Cabello 在 2017 年推出的 Havana 亦是兒子的至愛。

有些事情其實也很奇妙，我和兒子雖然有著不一樣的人生經歷，但竟然因為這兩首，又或者一首歌而再遇上！

So are these two songs the same?

Smooth is a Latin rock with Cuba like MV, but actually filmed in California.

Havana is a Salsa inspired Pop song, sung by Cuban singer Camila Cabello.

那究竟這兩首歌是否一樣呢？

Smooth 是一首拉丁搖滾樂曲，有著一個古巴風情的 MV 但實際是在加洲拍攝。

而由來自古巴女歌手 Camila Cabello 所唱的 Havana 則是一首受 “騷沙”音樂節奏所感染的現代流行曲。

With respect to the melody, you will notice that:

Camila Cabello’s Havana is extremely simple and having the progression: Gm / D# / D7 throughout the entire song.

Whereas for Rob Thomas’s Smooth, the main progression runs like this (I deliberately changed its key from Am to Gm) :

在旋律結構上，大家會發覺：

Camila Cabello 的 Havana 音樂結構非常簡單，整首歌的和弦進程是以 Gm / D# / D7 來完成。

而 Rob Thomas 的 Smooth 的和弦則是以下述的進程為主 (為方便比較，我特別把調子由 Am 轉變成 Gm)：

                 Gm   D# D
Man it's a hot one
 D7                         Gm       D# D
Like seven inches from the midday sun
             D7             Cm7  Cm7/A#    Am7b5
I hear you whisper and the words melt everyone
D7               Gm  D# D
But you stay so cool
D7      Gm D# D             D7         Gm  D# D
My munequita, my Spanish Harlem Mona Lisa
         D7         Cm7   Cm7/A# Am7b5
Your my reason for reason
     D7         Gm     D# D
The step in my groove ...

It is obvious that they all share the same chord progression of Gm / D# / D7 but Smooth got some minor variation. That’s why you got the same groove!

In fact, there are numerous Havana X Smooth mashup shown in Youtube other than the one I mentioned in the beginning of this post!

Well, whether Havana is a copy or having some kind of sampling from Smooth, I’ll leave it to you!

很明顯，這兩首歌都擁有同一和弦進程，只是 Smooth 多一點變奏而已，這亦反映出為何兩者都帶著同一韻律感。

事實上，大家也應留意到 YouTube 內還有很多的 Havana X Smooth 的混搭影片。

至於 Havana 是否一首抄襲或節錄的歌曲呢，我就留待大家自行決定了。

By the way, my boy strongly suggested me to take a look at the funny Official MV for Camila Cabello’s Havana.

Enjoy!

兒子還極力推薦我去看看 Havana 那個笑爆嘴的官方 MV。

大家慢慢欣賞吧！

Oh, one more thing …

YouTuber Joseph Vincent has a really nice voice that worth listening too!

還有一點 ⋯

YouTuber Joseph Vincent 擁有著一個極度吸引的聲音，大家一定不要錯過啊！