spike hill williamsburg

Another one for you if you happen to be in the NYC area, this time here in Brooklyn...Spike Hill.

184 + 186 Bedford Ave
Brooklyn, NY
718.218.9737

Take the L train to Bedford and you're, well, right there. I meant to look when I was there to see what the actual address was of the stage side, but I forgot. If you go and you're not on the side you wanna be on just cross on over near the back.

Lots going on here...

swirly radio international

Yes, check this site out:
swirly radio international
which is "broadcasting live from Williamsburg, Brooklyn"

Always a great selection of music.

slash chords

We kind of broached the subject of slash chords on the post concerning 6th chords. In that case we talked about one specific use of slash chords, viz. representing inversion, or that the chord in question's root is not the lowest, 'bass' note. That doesn't cover completely what slash chords do, so let's now generalize what a slash chord is:

A slash chord is a way of representing a harmonic structure that has a bass note which is other than the root of the chord indicated. A slash chord is written in the form X/Y (pronounced "X over Y") where X is some chord (usually a triad) and Y is to be understood as a single note: the bass note.

There are 2 broad categories of slash chords:

1. The bass note is a member of the chord in question (though not the root).
2. The bass note is not a note found in the chord in question.

Examples of (1) above: C/E is a C major triad with E as its lowest member (in classical terminology this is C major in first inversion). G/D represents G with its 5th as the lowest member ("second inversion"), and so on.

Examples of (2): A/Bb (Bb is not found in the A major triad), D/C, F#/F, E/C and so on...

Furthermore, in this category of slash chords there is at least one big subdivision. Take D/C: it can be seen as an inversion of a seventh chord (in this case D7 but with the 7th in the bass). But D/C may just indicate a C lydian situation, so let's note that context has everything to do with slash chords.

For instance, slash chords are a great way of indicating bass lines. Here's a common one:

C | G/B | Amin |

The bass here is a stepwise line descending (C - B - A).

Also slash chords are an easy way to indicate pedals. Take "Someday My Prince Will Come" four measures from the end (in the Real Book):

Bb/F | Cmin7/F F7 |

Obviously these 2 measures are an F pedal.

repurposing pentatonics pars ii

In our former post on pentatonic scales we discussed how the minor pentatonic (specifically the A minor pentatonic) functioned over its minor and relative major chord/key areas. Today we're going to pick up that thread and see where else a minor pentatonic can be used. Keep in mind that I'm going to be dealing with the A minor pentatonic in these examples, but if it's easier for you to think C major pentatonic just substitute that whenever I use A minor.

There are 4 other keys where the notes of the A minor pentatonic are found. The first one is C major, which was implicit in our last post. The notes of A minor are in bold:

C major scale = c d e f g a b c

There are 2 other major scales where these notes are found:

G major: g a b c d e f# g
F major: f g a bb c d e f

And one melodic minor scale:

G melodic minor: g a bb c d e f# g

We can generalize our information as follows: the minor pentatonic scale is found in it's parent major scale and the major scales located to the immediate right and left of this scale on the circle of fifths.


(Clicking on the image will take you to the great site whence the image came.)

Other examples: F minor pentatonic is found in Ab major as well as Db and Eb major; C# minor pentatonic is found in E major, A major and B major.

The minor pentatonic is also found in the melodic minor scale one whole step below the minor pentatonic's root (F minor would be found in Eb melodic minor).

And since the minor pentatonic can be found in 3 major scales and 1 melodic minor scale, it will consequently be found in any of those derived modes. So A minor pentatonic is found in E phrygian, G dorian, C lydian b7, D mixolydian and so on.

And when we say 'found in' we mean 'can be used where...(blank) is used'.

So bust out your pentatonic licks and ideas and see how they sound repurposed in these key/mode areas.

more written word: musical acoustics

The study of musical acoustics is, to me, extremely interesting. In fact I think that it should be taught as part of music theory in conservatories and music schools, because it really is the theory behind the theory. Yes, depending upon what instrument and the style of music you play you might not think you'll ever want or need to know what uses an oscilloscope or a band pass filter have (but if you're a synthesist, on the other, the subject may already be old hat to you). On the other hand why we perceive tones and how (and why some sounds are 'clangy' and some sounds seem to have more than one definite pitch, and so on) should be knowledge that all musicians possess.

So, for a great primer on this fascinating subject check out the seminal work simply entitled The Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics by Arthur H. Benade. You can read some of it at here at Google Books if you'd like to get a taste of what it has to offer.


The great thing about this book, besides it's clarity, is that it really invites you to do experiments with sound/music. And this sort of engaging activity is really good soil from which creativity can spring.

phil keagy's willow tree

I'm a late convert to Phil Keagy. I'm not sure why because I love his music. This morning I was listening to his 2007 album The Song Within and fell in love with all of it. And one little thing in particular jumped out at me from the 12th track entitled "Willow Tree". There's just a little harp-like effect that he does and I'll share how I play it. Here's the passage in question, which occurs right around 0:31:

The issue is handling the pull off from the A to the E. It's what I call a 'delayed pull off' because you wait to pull it off until after you play the (in this case) the F# on the 2nd string. The trick to playing the thing light and airy is to use one finger and drag it across the strings. I use my i (index) finger: pluck the A, F#, pull off the A to E, pluck the D. Now that the i is on D you're all set to use your m and a (middle and ring) fingers for the arpeggiated chord.

Give it a go: it's quite lovely...

a modal question

So here's a question about modes not often asked as far as I can tell. As a bit of prologue let's assume that we all know a bit about modes: their structures and the sorts of chords (triads/sevenths) that they produce. Armed with such knowledge we could easily address the following question: what is the mode of the following progression?

G7 | Fmaj7/G | G7 | Fmaj7/G | (repeated)

This is fairly unambiguous: it's G mixolydian. An analytic play-by-play might go like this (here the paths are many, but this one). The notes of the chords in question are:

G7: g, b, d, f
Fmaj7/G: f, a, c, e (with a g in the bass)

Now we put these notes in order to see if they form a scale. We could start anywhere, but since we notice that G is prominent (it's the bass note in both chords) let's put it first. We then get:

g, a, b, c, d, e, f

We now have a 7-note scale. Since there are no sharps or flats we can easily conclude that it must be some kind of mode of C major. G is the 5th tone of C major, and the mode on that tone is the mixolydian. (We could also have deduced mixolydian from the tones themselves simply by analyzing their relationship: 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7).

OK, so far so good. But here's the question part: What if the chord progression is changed just slightly to this:

G7 | Fmaj7 | G7 | Fmaj7 | (repeated)

That is we no longer have a grounding G bass note -- instead we have 2 different chords. If they're both of equal length (and consequently equally prominent) what is the mode now? Can we really safely say that it's G mixolydian? It seems that it might just as likely be F lydian. And really the first or last chords may not give any aid in determining: the first chord might likely lead to the real tonal area later, and the last chord might produce some kind of unresolved, "hanging" effect.

Again, we could have a chord progression as above that does emphasize one modal area, by rhythm or perhaps even the melody. But my main point is that in no way would we be on sure footing in certain circumstances when attempting to answer the question of mode.

And, by the way, why would we ask such a question? Because if we're improvising we have to have some way of dealing with the music at hand. And this goes to my over-arching view of practicality. If someone were to say, well, given the 2nd chord progression above I'd just play a C major scale, I don't see how that's a real problem. Also if one were to say that there's no single mode and that s/he would switch between mixolydian and lydian, also not a problem (though if the tune were up-tempo it might be difficult to manage 'switching').

The question is also interesting from an historical point of view: in music around Mozart's time an ambiguous key center would have to be deliberate (like in a developmental section) or it would just be bad music because projecting a key center was the name of the game. In our time that's just not the case: ambiguity abounds and we can bask in it, but also have to deal with its implications...

toop's ocean of sound

This really is a fantastic book. It's how people should write about music -- yes, that means you in the academy especially. It inspires. And no matter how much you already love music you'll love it and appreciate it even more after reading only a little bit. And not only that but Toop (himself a musician) does a great job of situating music in this world's sonic environment.


You can read the whole thing online if you can read French here at Google Books. Otherwise buy it online or at a real bookstore or get it at your library (NYPL has it -- which is where I read it). More than likely it will lead you to many new, wonderful things...specifically it turned me onto Sun Ra's film (yes film) called Space Is The Place.

repurposing pentatonics

For a lot of musicians (especially guitarists) pentatonic scales and licks are among the first things learned improvisationally. But of course pentatonics go way beyond this: they're used everywhere from real American sounding tunes like Amazing Grace to jazz/blues/rock/country/bluegrass to 20th century classical music.

So here's the thing to consider first: just like any other scale pentatonics have modes. That is the collection of notes that make them up can be started (and ended) at different points. Take for example this collection of tones:

c d e g a c d e g a c d ...

If we start this at c we get:

c d e g a c, aka the major pentatonic scale.

If we start at a we get:

a c d e g a, the minor pentatonic scale.

There are 3 other modes, too, but the major and minor are the most common.

Now, as a guitarist I'm just naturally inclined to consider the minor pentatonic as the basic one. Especially from a playing point of view. And this is the first main point of this post: any minor pentatonic lick can be used over its relative major key area. It just simply becomes a major pentatonic in those instances. And the reason for this is that the mode isn't really determined by where we start and stop and what we emphasize in a scale but by what is emphasized harmonically. Put yet another way: playing an A minor pentatonic lick over a C major chord results in a major pentatonic lick sound.

In that vein let's end this post with some numeric thinking which will become extremely helpful when you start to use pentatonics (especially in later posts). When you play your pentatonic licks try to think of how the tones relate to the underlying harmony. Consider these situations again:

A minor triad:
a = 1
c = b3
d = 4
e = 5
g = b7

C major triad:
a = 6
c = 1
d = 2
e = 3
g = 5

The main advantage to a numeric understanding is that it generalizes the information so that you can understand not how just a specific pentatonic relates to a certain chord but how they relate in all cases.

In the next pentatonic we'll see a whole array of other areas where pentatonics can easily be used.

vocaloid

I'm usually behind in tech stuff: not because I don't dig on it hard but because I'm not young enough to just know when this stuff comes out exactly the minute it does. A student of mine turned me onto this product (ultimately from Yamaha): the ZEROGcs Vocaloid. On their page you can listen to demos and download the free version 1 (which is quite limited but still quite cool).

Basically this is a synthesizer voice: in a piano-roll type scroll you type in the notes and the lyrics. It strikes me that the uses here are many, many, many. If nothing else it's fun to listen to the tunes that others have done with this...

the parkside lounge

Another NYC venue for music (and comedy and other events) is the Parkside Lounge located at 317 Houston Street. Be sure to click on the calendar. You can see that they have a vast array of music and entertainment...



The nice thing (to me, and a drawback for certain people) is that it requires some walking from any train that you decide to take, and it's a cool 'hood to walk around.

move it on over

The guitar solo on this classic Hank Williams tune from 1947 is a favorite of mine, and since it's so short (just one chorus of 12 bars) I offer the whole thing here...click on the image and it'll get bigger:

Keep in mind that the eighth notes aren't even, they're swung.

If I had to pick a favorite part -- besides just the whole solo -- I'd have to say the way the A7 gets articulated is hip, and it's hard to ignore as being utterly cool the triplet figures. Also the double-stop section near the end is evocative of the steel guitar. (Oh, yeah, that steel guitar part is cool and worth learning, too!)

Also, if you don't have the recording you can listen to it here on youtube. The solo in question starts at around 0:58.

brainwave entrainment

The idea behind brain wave entrainment is that certain brain wave states can be induced by external stimuli, viz. by a series of tones and blinking lights. Why one might desire such a feat is that certain states of the brain are associated with certain brain waves (as measured by EEG or electroencephalography, "electro-brain-writing"). For example delta waves (1-4 Hz) are associated with deep sleep, alpha waves (7-12 Hz) with relaxed, meditative states. The latter are obviously something that would be nice to have access to whenever, thus 'mind machines' come into play.


Here's a virtual one, the MetaMindMachine. Download it, unzip it and run it. On my computer it begins with some annoying pops, but it settles into tones after a bit. It's way too early for me to say if it's producing it's desired effect or not (I've tried to make my own in the past but to no avail), but it's definitely fun and experimenting with it seems very worthwhile.

Here's an interesting and related-to-music-peripherally point: brain waves can be induced by tones in the ears that are of different frequencies. For example, if alpha waves are desired (say a 10 Hz wave) then in one ear a pitch of 440 Hz is sounded while in the other ear a pitch of 450 Hz or 430 Hz is sounded. The difference in pitch is the wavelength produced in the brain (in this case 10 Hz).

Oh, this is an open-source program, so if you're able and inclined you can customize it, improve it, etc (I'm not among that flock).

some points about triads

Triads are 3 note chords built out of 3rds. Here are the 4 basic types:

These are in root position and close voicing, but triads can be spaced out more, inverted (i.e. the root needn't be the lowest note) and can have more than 3 notes so long as there aren't more than 3 different notes. The following are all A major chords:

I tend to regard the Augmented and Major triads as related (both contain major 3rds) and the Minor and Diminished as related (both having minor 3rds). But actually the Major and Minor are related as they both contain a Perfect 5th. The Augmented and Diminished triads have no commonality at all -- in fact they're kind of "opposites":



Traditionally triads ended up having harmonic functions as they conveyed a sense of key. They acquired names based upon their root as it related to its parent scale:

I tonic
II supertonic
III mediant
IV subdominant
V dominant
VI submediant
VII leading tone

(The 'sub' label does mean under: a subdominant chord is a fifth below just as the dominant is a fifth above the tonic. The submediant is a third below the tonic, just as the mediant is a third above.)

Keys were established by a strong V - I relationship, usually by a
II - V - I
(root movement of a fifth being felt strongest). In the 20th century triads were used by composers much, much more freely as keys were less important than modality or color. You'll find Ponce using progressions like D min to Eb min, F min to B maj, C maj to Gb maj to C maj (all in his fabulous piece Variations sur "Folia de Espana" and Fugue -- vid. variations vii and viii). Of course the voicing is important, but more on that later.

See also Sixth Chord.

max: kiss me kiss me, baby

Ahh, Max, how I love them. And my favorite song is this delicious tune Kiss Me Kiss Me, Baby (1996), from which I'm offering the signature synth lick on today's post. It's doable on guitar (play it up an octave): even though the picking will have to be fast to keep up it's mainly pentatonic (it's at around a quarter = 128, but depending upon how you finger it the jumps can be a bit tricky). Anyway, play it on whatever instrument at whatever tempo...and because it's pentatonicly pliable -- and has a great shape -- it sounds awesome re-purposed. Basically it's over the chords Bb, C and Dmin.

Clicking on the following image will enlarge it:


I broke with convention in notating the 16th tied to an 8th in the 3rd beat of the first measure (and when the same repeats in measure 5) just to drive home the fact visually that it's the very same rhythm as in the in the first beat going to the second.

Here's a youtube link of the tune, although this "live" version is better. (The above starts at 0:27 on both clips.)

minor key signatures misleading

You don't have to think about it too hard to realize that key signatures are really major-key oriented affairs. They do in fact and 'to a T' accurately describe the makeup of a major key: C major has no sharps or flats, F-sharp major has six sharps (all but B) and A-flat major has four flats and so on.

But when it comes to the minor keys it's a whole different story. Well, if we restrict ourselves to the natural minor (aeolian) keys then it isn't a different story. But historically, even in Renaissance music where they did use the 'Church modes', sharps and flats entered into cadences. So much so that G# really did become a part of A minor. And melodically so did F# (hence the name melodic minor).

So, in effect, if we're talking about the melodic minor the key signature of its relative major is likely to be 'off' by 2 accidentals: A minor's key signature has no sharps or flats, but A melodic minor has 2 sharps; C minor's key signature has 3 flats but C melodic minor has only one flat (Eb).

Now, none of this may be an issue if you're playing Bach, etc (though in the older Baroque music the key signatures really hadn't been worked out, exactly because of the issue we're discussing), but it is an issue if you think key signatures when you consider modes from an improvisational/compositional point of view. For example: C melodic minor and E minor might seem quite distant by key signatures (3 flats and 1 sharp respectively), but in fact there's much more overlap: the only accidentals are Eb and F#.

Consider also the difference between a melodic minor key and its parallel major. A melodic minor, for example, only differs from A major by 1 tone: the 3rd (in this case C). Obviously if you think of scales/modes/keys from a numeric skeletal point of view then this won't ever be a problem. But we're generally taught the key signature approach at first, so in a sense there's a bit of unlearning to do.

freddie hubbard lick from stolen moments

This whole solo is super cool, and you should learn the whole thing if you get a chance. I just really like the way this lick lays over the IImin7b5 - V7 progression: it has a perfect contour, and is filled with some nice bebop passing tones. Extremely useful...

(Clicking on the images will make them slightly larger.)





This lick starts at 2:04 on the recording (it's in the 2nd time through the form for Freddie). And oh, yeah, I'm not a trumpet player, so if there are any nuances I've grossly overlooked in transcribing this please let me know...

blonde -- guesch patti

Well, even though I'm not really in favor of posting youtube clips (who knows how long they'll be around???) you'd never know it from my actions. So here goes another one. Since I just posted a tune found in Greenaway's 1996 film The Pillow Book here's another: a French pop tune called Blonde by Guesch Patti.



I can't heap enough praise upon this tune. The music is dark and spacious, and the singing is a great counterbalance to it in terms of weight. And check out the F#7+5 chord at 0:56 (it repeats, too)! (BTW a G7+5 is a great chord in the turnaround in Stolen Moments.) For those of you who speak French you might not need it, but the scrolling text is helpful (it ties into the theme of the film, too). Oh, the clip is absolutely not a G-rated affair, so be forewarned.

consonance + dissonance

There are 2 ways to think about consonance and dissonance. One way is to think about the issue purely physically, e.g. dissonant might mean the beats that are produced between two notes, perhaps two notes that should be the same unison tone but are a little off. The second way is to think about what consonance and dissonance mean with respect to the Western tradition of harmony (or any tradition of music practice), e.g. a perfect 5th is consonant and a minor 2nd is dissonant.

The second way of thinking about consonance and dissonance is largely conventional: while no one would probably regard the octave as dissonant there was a time when 3rds were not consonant enough, say, for inclusion in final cadences (in Medieval music) -- and even when they did become a part of final cadences the preference was for the major 3rd. Schoenberg -- again in his Theory of Harmony -- makes mention of this aspect of consonance and dissonance and states that there really is no difference between the two. His analogy is that the numbers 2 and 10 are not opposites, and that all intervals are, well, equally intervals.

Regarding the first way of thinking about this issue here's a fabulous post by a physicist. In it the idea of physical (or acoustic) consonance and dissonance has to do with the overtones produced by the tones involved. Consonant intervals are explained as those intervals which have many overtones in common, e.g. the octave of a tone's overtones are all contained in the fundamental's overtones, hence not only does the interval sound consonant in this case but they sound like the same note.

There is an issue raised and addressed in the comments. Take for example a sine wave. There are no overtones (the sine wave is a pure tone), hence according to the above mentioned theory of consonance and dissonance there souldn't be any difference between, say, and octave and a major 7th. They do the experiment and verify that in fact you do still hear the 7th as more dissonant than the octave.

Anyway, great food for thought. Also mentioned at the beginning of the post is this site -- check it out, too, it's fab.

otto's shrunken head

This is a cool joint. Lots of different music to be heard. Head to the back lounge for the live music. The only real issue is at times the music in the front room (the bar) gets competitive with the music in the back room. It's no problem unless there's a band in the back doing some dynamic stuff (as in at times playing quietly) at which point you'll be treated to some other music from up front. A largely minor issue.



So if you're in NYC check this place out. Oh, yeah: take the L to 1st ave.

méigui méigui wǒ ài nǐ (rose, rose, i love you)

I got turned on to this tune years ago as it featured prominently in Peter Greenaway's 1996 film The Pillow Book. The tune was recorded in 1940 by Yao Lee. The title does mean "Rose, Rose, I love you," and the Mandarin always sounded to me like make way, make way. The Chinese characters are 玫瑰玫瑰我愛你.



Doesn't the pianist (right around 1:56) almost quote Mozart in his solo??? Very cool...

Also, there's the lyrics in Chinese characters and some info about this song on this site.

overtones and the major scale and a question

In his Theory Of Harmony Arnold Schoenberg gives a rationale for the major scale based upon the overtone series. It goes something like this. The easiest to discern different overtones (or harmonics) are the octave, the perfect fifth and the major 3rd. If you consider a C major scale, the C will produce a G and an E. The G, if considered as a fundamental tone, will produce a D and a B. He then backs up and considers that C is an overtone of F: F produces C and A. A bit more graphically this looks so:

G (D, B)
C (G, E)
F (C, A)

Then, omitting repetitions and reordering one has all the tones of the C major scale: c, d, e, f, g, a, b.

You hear this often: that the overtone series is responsible for the tones of the major scale (or at least implies a major scale collection of tones). But it's really, really, really hard for me to imagine what the process was that brought the major scale into being from the overtones. It's easy to imagine people 10,000 years ago singing and playing instruments. It's difficult to imagine that they had an idea of the overtone series, and that it was somehow responsible for the music that they were making. (It's actually much easier to imagine a scale being built out of successive perfect 5ths: f, c, g, d, a, e, b. In fact the first five tones of this series can account for the major pentatonic scale: f, g, a, c, d.)

But then here is the question: how did the tones of scales develop? Was the first vocal music only made out of perfect fifths and octaves? Without ever hearing the music of our earliest ancestors we won't ever be able to analyze or theorize too much (except upon shaky ground). But it is worth pondering...

sampling + hip hop + on the media

WNYC's On The Media did a whole show (actually a rebroadcast) about the future of the music industry this week, one segment of which -- entitled "They Say I Stole This" -- focused-in on sampling. (Sampling parts of tunes, that is, as opposed to sampling an instrument for use in your midi setup.) You can download the podcast (from iTunes, etc) or read the transcript here. It's an interesting piece concerning copyright and fair use, and though a little thin it does provoke some thought.

I think everyone at heart would say that stealing music isn't a good thing (especially if you're a musician and you'd like to see some bread for the work you've done), but on the other hand if you're old enough to have ever made cassette tapes of your favorite songs it just doesn't seem like copying music digitally should be such a big deal, though the implications are a little different. And if copying whole tunes doesn't seem like such a big deal certainly copying little parts of them won't seem a big deal, either. In fact a decent artistic manifesto could easily be written concerning the merits of using only or primarily the detritus of all the music that has come to us from the past. And not only of famous tunes: there is so much recorded music that has come and gone (and not even digitized) -- and was at best only marginally popular -- that using it to create new music seems like a beautiful way of preserving it, and acknowledging that we are indebted to our past, all of the past.

sci-fi sound sculpture

Sound sculptures are interesting to me. Actually they seem more interesting in the abstract (i.e. talking about them) than actually interacting with most of them, except for the best example, viz. wind chimes. In that spirit here is a completely conceptual (for now) sound sculpture...



I imagine the following: deep in some woods (perhaps even a rain forest) we encounter plants that produce soap bubbles, just like you see little kids (and not so little) blowing all the time. There's only one difference: when these bubbles burst a sound is produced. A sine wave most likely. The frequency is dependent upon how large the bubble is when it bursts (bigger = lower tones). Also, more complicated sounds are produced when these bubbles combine. The sounds could become much like those found on the Casio CZ-101 (which combined sine waves...I believe they called it Phase Distortion synthesis).

another show at yippie

Naked Women are back at the Yippie Museum/Cafe tonight, Friday 3/12. The Yippie is located at 9 Bleecker Street (between Elizabeth and Bowery). We take to the stage at 8pm. Probably 2 strippers, so no, it's not a family affair! Free, absolutely free...

personnel:
T-Bone Blatt: bass
Gus Pearl: guitar
Matthew Polashek: sax
Ken Silverman: guitar
Tom Swirly: ewi
Ramona: trombone
Zebra: drums

blues, high-energy experimental jazz, funk,
psychedelic afro-pop...

BTW: the Yippie is famously hard to find one's way into...persevere and you'll be rewarded!

what a 6 chord can mean

Depending upon where you come from (classical or otherwise) a 6th chord may need some explaining.

If you study music theory in school you'll undoubtedly start with the so-called Common Practice period (roughly the time period from Bach to Brahms). And in this case a 6 chord means a triad in first inversion. It's actually short for ⁶₃: i.e. above the note in question a third and a sixth should be added (this comes from the basso continuo practice in Baroque music). So an E with a 6 under it could be read as follows:


The 'could' meaning that how the triad is voiced, the texture, etc is up to the performer. We'll do a post that more fully addresses basso continuo at some point. For now keep in mind that it's diatonic: an F in the key of C (no sharps or flats in the key signature) would produce a D minor triad in first inversion. To depart from diatonic triads symbols were used underneath...

And now in Roman numeral analysis you'll see something like I⁶, again meaning a triad whose root is built on the 1st scale degree and is in first inversion.

(BTW a triad in second inversion is notated as a ⁶₄ -- pronounced six-four -- chord, e.g. in the common progression
I⁶₄ - V - I
that is a note with a 4th and 6th above...write it out and you'll see.)

But if you read a chart that contains the symbol C6 it does not mean a first inversion chord. It means that a triad with an added major 6th should be played -- in fact in classical music this is called an added-6th chord:


The only issue that arises (and used to drive me crazy until I realized the convention) is when a minor triad is involved. Cmin6 indicates that a C minor triad is to be played along with the addition of a major 6th. For some reason I had always assumed that the 6th would be minor, too. IT ISN'T! So Cmin6 can be seen as:


One interesting thing about these kinds of sixth chords: context is everything! A C6 contains the same notes as an Amin7. Cmin6 is the same collection of notes as an Amin7b5. (To some extent this subject was broached in the post concerning the open guitar string chord.) So it might be easier for you to play a min7 than a 6...the resulting chord will be the same.

Oh, I should mention that, concerning inversions, the notation on a chart would fall into the category of 'slash chords'. For example C/E (pronounced 'c' over 'e') means a C major triad with an E in the bass (the very same as the first example in this post). Also worth nothing is that while all inversions can be expressed as slash chords not all slash chords represent inversions...more to come on that later on.

OK some future posts based on this subject will include more fully tackling basso continuo realization, Roman numeral analysis and other sixth chords found in classical music: augmented sixths (Italian, French, German) and the Neapolitan sixth, oh and more on slash chords.

banjo jim's

A friend of mine turned me on to this place:



Fantastic place. Great vibe. And very, very rare to get to hear this kind of music -- live 7 days a week -- in NYC. Do check it out if you're around...

The skinny:
700 E. 9th Street (at Ave C)
New York, NY

you know, you know

A staple of the fusion repertoire Mahavishnu Orchestra's Inner Mounting Flame is a must-own. It contains all of the ingredients that mark fusion as distinctive: electric instruments, odd meters, rich harmonies, high energy and meditative states. And McLaughlin's playing was much more raw back in the day.

The tune You Know, You Know is a fave of mine. It's basically this (at about an eighth note = 120):


With Jan doing most of the improvising (in his trademark guitaristic manner).

I bring up this tune because it's notable for being so simplistic -- you could imagine a tune with less elements (structually) but it's tough to do that and be this 'catchy'. Plus the 12 beats in the second measure allow for a lot of room improvisationally. Let it be inspirational to you when you compose...

Side note: it would be possible to see this tune as a measure of 9/8 and a measure of 15/8 (instead of 2 measures of 12/8) -- and it might make more sense that way -- but for me it's easier to count it (any tune) when the meter isn't changing.

perfume's monochrome effect

If you happen to watch American Dad! and caught the episode May the Best Stan Win (season 6 episode 12) you'll recall that Cyborg Stan put a cd in the car stereo and told Francine that the music was "Japanese funk" and that everyone in the future loved it (this happes at around 10:47 in the episode). The tune is actually by a group called Perfume and the song is called Monochrome Effect. It is worth sharing:

youtube clip

(the embed function on this one has been 'disabled by request').

The video itself is what I could only describe as 'very Japanese', and the song, in addition to being as catchy as catchy can be (and does kind of give a shout out to the Yellow Magic Orchestra), is brimming with spirit to the point of being ultra-life affirming. As good as J-Pop gets...

music education

The trumpet was my first instrument and I enjoyed it. But once I started playing guitar the trumpet took a back seat. And by the time I went to high school I decided not to continue to play trumpet in the band. I recounted this experience to someone the other day who asked "Why did you quit?" Assuming that it was because I wasn't any good. I was mediocre, and certainly not so passionate about it. It was hard for playing trumpet in the band to compete with learning rock and blues on the electric guitar. Not only because the latter is more socially 'relevant' (i.e. more people go out to clubs and buy music on cd, etc that is rock/blues than is marching band) but also because it's more fun and creative to me -- or at least works more actively a different part of the creative musical brain.

To me this is an oversight of music educators in schools. I know that there are places where improvisation is taught, but it strikes me that overall learning music in school presents only the tiniest slice of what music is. Why no rock band classes instead of just marching band and orchestra? I do teach one class in an elementary school (an afterschool, no grade situation) where, in addition to learning to read music we really do focus on trying to learn songs. Let's face it: popular music culture is not music-score driven, so the need to teach people to read music is less (there, I said it). Just like in 'real life' songs have to be learned by hook or crook: by ear, by tab, by watching someone play.

It's really a shame that this isn't done: teaching AC/DC's Back in Black, Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water, and so on, would definitely bring a lot more people into the fold of music.

manen's fantasia-sonata

Perhaps the most under-rated, under-known and (consequently) under-performed piece of the 20th century "Segovia" repertoire for the classical guitar is the Fantasia-Sonata of Joan Manen (1883 - 1971).

The work is both reflective and very lively (nearly virtuosic). Harmonically it's modal/tonal, and it's lyrical. Overall it isn't a difficult piece to listen to. But one reason a piece like this can suffer is that, even though it is played without pausing, there really are 5 movements to the work. When we hear it presented as one 19 minute track without knowing that it is in fact a multi-movement work it can be hard to keep one's bearings. Here are the movements:

Largo
Allegro
Adagio cantabile, quasi in modo di un recitativo, ma in tempo
A tempo (Allegro Assai)
Tempo primo (Largo)

Really it doesn't vary that much from the traditional sonata one might expect even of Schubert, except that the introductory Largo reappears at the end.

The piece's title Fantasia is not without cause: done in the tradition of Berlioz, etc, it's opening theme reappears (transformed) throughout the work:


I don't know on what album Segovia's recording originally appeared (which album might be difficult to track down these days, anyway). It's currently available on the cd compilation simply called Dedication (which I highly recommend because it contains many, many awesome pieces and the recording quality is very good -- i.e. you can really hear Segovia's vast tonal palette).

vinnie moore lick

I love Vinnie Moore. This comes from a tune of his called "Pieces of a Picture" from his great 1988 album Time Odyssey. It occurs at 2:48 in the tune.

I transcribed this lick because:
1. it's cool,
2. it makes a great exercise,
3. the ending I consider a signature Vinnie lick.

(Clicking on the images will make them slightly -- ever so slightly -- larger.)






Some notes:

He plays it over F#minor, but it would work over anything from the key of A major. Of course you can transpose it to wherever...

It really is around a quarter = 132, so getting it up to tempo may (or may not) be challenging for you.

There's a little bit of rhythmic displacement: the motive that starts with the triplet sixteenths followed by 4 sixteenths begins the first time on the and of the beat then it begins on the downbeat...unity and diversity...

xenakis

"Music is how feelings sound." (anonymous)

Iannis Xenakis' Orient-Occident (1960) is not really a hard piece to experience. It's really visceral. This is not the sort of music that has a melody -- and perhaps to many, many [most] people it is on the fringes or beyond of music.

I think on the contrary that it is music (duh), and that it's mainstream music. If we reflect for a moment on the anonymous quote above we should recognize that there are many, many feelings, and that they cannot all be expressed by tonal harmonies as organized by 19th century composers, or by bop lines or wonderful J-pop melodies. In fact every time music 'expands' we will be ever closer to expressing the full range of human emotions.

scott henderson lesson

I don't really like putting up youtube clips cuz you never know when they might vanish. But I can't resist pointing you to this one: a fabulous short lesson from Scott Henderson, one of my all time faves. Even if you don't dig on fusion I'd recommend playing through these (on any instrument).



very cool, very colorful, and very useful ideas!

tetrachords iii

So here's another post concerning tetrachords (for the earlier posts: part i, part ii). This time we're going to work with the lydian tetrachord:

This tetrachord is different from all the others we've dealt with because it outlines an augmented fourth (the famed tritone) as opposed to a perfect fourth. This has some implications that we'll get to in a minute.

Our other tetrachords up to this point are as follows: major, minor, phrygian, harmonic. With the lydian tetrachord we have a pool of 5, meaning that we should be able to come up with 25 pairs altogether. We've accrued 16, meaning that the lydian will give us an additional 9. But not really...

Let's start with the lydian tetrachord as the lower tetrachord. We'll base these on C, but it could be any tone:

lyd tet + maj tet = c d e f# g a b c = Lydian mode
lyd tet + min tet = c d e f# g a bb c = Overtone aka Lydian b7 (mode IV of harmonic minor)
lyd tet + phryg tet = c d e f# g ab bb c
lyd tet + harm tet = c d e f# g ab b c

So let's put the lydian tetrachord on top now. Since it outlines an aug 4th we'll have to adjust the tetrachord's position if we want the last tone to be an octave of the first tone (in this case a c). We can do this by starting the lydian tetrachord a semitone (or half-step or minor second) above the lower tetrachord, as opposed to a full tone.

maj tet + lyd tet = c d e f gb ab bb c
min tet + lyd tet = c d eb f gb ab bb c = Aeolian b5 [mode III of melodic minor]
phryg tet + lyd tet = c db eb f gb ab bb c = Locrian mode
harm tet + lyd tet = c db e f gb ab bb c

There's one more combination: lyd tet + lyd tet. BUT there's a problem here.

lyd tet + lyd tet = c d e f# g a b c#

The last tone is an issue. It takes us into the realm of octatonic scales: 8 tone scales as opposed to the 7 note scales we've been dealing with. There's no easy fix in this situation, because if we lower the upper tetrachord's position by a semitone we'll simply duplicate the f#, and technically we'd end up with a hexatonic scale. Though this hexatonic scale is famous...see if you know it:

c d e f# ab bb c.

If we rename this enharmonically it's much more obvious:

c d e f# g# a# c, aka the whole tone scale.

Hopefully you'll find that tetrachords are somewhat helpful or at least interesting, as opposed to being unduly complicated. Play them and see...

mixing music + $$$

Look, I'm basically very distrustful of people who only play music when money is involved -- it strikes me that there is a decided lack of passion in such instances. And art after all is about passion (according to me, anyway). But those people have a point: not only should they be allowed to make a living (this is a largely a capitalist system, after all) but also there is a huge tendency in our culture to expect things like music to be free. Always expecting money, then, will help counterbalance this tendency.

It's amazing how often I meet doctors, lawyers, architects, business people who feel that any lesson or fee for doing a gig which isn't free is really overpriced. They don't, notice, think that the services that they offer should be free. Again, this isn't totally unfair: we don't live in a society where economic worth is determined from some governmental agency and handed down to us: we bargain, each party attempting to get the best possible deal for itself. The pernicious aspect is, again, the expectation that music (art in general) should be free. I suppose because it should, after all, be 'fun'.

I don't argue with that last point. In fact I think that equally pernicious for art (especially 'serious' music -- serious said with rolling eyes) is the lack of awareness that art has an entertainment component. Nevertheless if people expect there to be music there have to be musicians making that music. And if they expect that music to soar as high as is possible it will have to be done based upon the model of doctors: we don't expect surgeons to be hobbyists. Music is not so life and death, obviously, but the principle is the same. There have to be some full timers out there practicing their craft if we have high expectations. And not only that, those who labor (and it is work) after a day gig -- effectively a second job -- also should of course be rewarded economically. If you consider all the time, money for lessons, money for instruments and rehearsal spaces, and outlay for advertising it's really rare that there's a real economic profit.