tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17555954127935502012024-03-05T14:49:26.207-05:00de musicawhat is this thing called music?
whatever you think it is it is in fact more...cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.comBlogger171125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-23620869181736533222014-10-30T22:36:00.000-04:002014-10-31T20:31:47.321-04:00what is a key? part viIn this post we're going to look at some examples of chord borrowing. By this is meant that a chord is taken from another, often parallel, key. For an example let's look at the opening to the Finale (3rd movement) of Giuliani's Guitar Sonata, op. 15:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKlivKAvG3jv34Qwoo3PQoucDfz_rdMDX0sDBh1p4yufvkx490fhzMs6DLOr0J7A7db0X6VtYMHs9LVfNMd_rZ6-s9pyiy64iawzRjqSTOD7SV2WBtD7R9OrYCUauCzAAOtQNoFtVf6Ev_/s1600/giuliani-sonata-op15-finale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKlivKAvG3jv34Qwoo3PQoucDfz_rdMDX0sDBh1p4yufvkx490fhzMs6DLOr0J7A7db0X6VtYMHs9LVfNMd_rZ6-s9pyiy64iawzRjqSTOD7SV2WBtD7R9OrYCUauCzAAOtQNoFtVf6Ev_/s1600/giuliani-sonata-op15-finale.jpg" height="106" width="320" /></a></div>
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This piece is in C major. The not-too-subtle arrows, however, are pointing out a chord (the same chord, thrice) which contains an Ab, patently not a card carrying member of the C major scale. The chord in question is a B diminished seventh chord (minus the third, a D) over a pedal note C. This fully diminished chord is the VII chord of the C harmonic minor scale.<br />
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If we (or rather, Giuliani) had stuck only with the VII of C major we (he) would have had a B half-diminished chord. Both of these VII chords (can) resolve the same way: to the I chord. However -- and just from a bare bones technical point of view, minus any emotion or drama imparted to the music -- the fully diminished chord, because of the Ab, feels even more in need of resolving. So even though this chord is not part of C major, it still causes motion towards the C major triad.<br />
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This happens fairly often with the IV chord. In a major key the IV (which is a major chord) is followed/replaced by the IV from the parallel harmonic minor, which IV chord is a minor triad.<br />
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Cmaj | Fmaj Fmin | Cmaj |<br />
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The first time I really remember hearing this kind of borrowing was in the Beatles' Across the Universe, where there is a Gmin to Dmaj. It pops out but leaves no doubt as to where it's going.<br />
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On a related note is the Picardy Third (click <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy_third" target="_blank">here</a> for the Wikipedia entry). This is a fairly old harmonic practice that uses a major triad instead of an expected minor one at the end of pieces, etc, in minor/modal keys.<br />
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<br />cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-65922228355032247852014-10-06T17:11:00.001-04:002014-10-08T11:20:20.867-04:00what is a key? part v -- caveat iiToday's post will be concerned with another caveat when considering keys. This one could also be called <i>About Non-Chord Tones</i>.<br />
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<u>CAVEAT NUMBER TWO</u><br />
So far in our series we have encountered a situation where we had to exclude some tones from a key because they were part of another key (see this <a href="http://cmrguitar.blogspot.com/2014/10/what-is-key-part-iii.html" target="_blank">post</a>). Here we're going to look at a similar situation, but we are going to exclude notes that are <i>not</i> part of another key. Consider Scott Joplin's <i>The Entertainer</i>:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWljENH4YRVdBe7Y9myi0DEcRgN_5Fu0STovIDiwE5j6KnZQEMriM83F_ujEnKq8QWIeRaP2_Eld_e3gEX543gYqKFoAbEdbObNX8zjosSiJgVsTvn39YxV1Daj9GmS0iTnRWCO-AG-1Oh/s1600/scott-joplin-entertainer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWljENH4YRVdBe7Y9myi0DEcRgN_5Fu0STovIDiwE5j6KnZQEMriM83F_ujEnKq8QWIeRaP2_Eld_e3gEX543gYqKFoAbEdbObNX8zjosSiJgVsTvn39YxV1Daj9GmS0iTnRWCO-AG-1Oh/s1600/scott-joplin-entertainer.jpg" height="224" width="320" /></a></div>
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All the notes highlighted in red are not part of the C major scale. This should be somewhat obvious, because C major contains no notes which are sharps or flats, and all of the highlighted notes are sharps and flats. But not only are they not not part of C major, they don't form part of a chord which is in another key, either. Consequently these sorts of notes are called (very creatively) <i>non-chord tones</i>. </div>
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There are actually a fairly large slew of non-chord tones, but technically classifying them all isn't really important for our purposes here. The main thing to keep in mind is that all twelve tones of the chromatic scale can be in play without destabilizing the tonal center. This is good to know when improvising or writing melodies. </div>
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There is a lonely note above highlighted in blue. Upon inspection can you see why it has been singled out as a different kind of chromatic note? </div>
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It's because that Bb <i>is </i>part of the chord, the 7th of the C7 chord, which is the V7 of the key of F major, and low and behold F major is the next chord.</div>
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<u>Endnote "Caveat to a caveat"</u></div>
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In the Joplin tune the lonely D-sharps at the very end of the two lines <i>could </i>be considered as the #5 of a G augmented triad. In which case the D-sharp is in fact a part of a chord, but the chord it is a part of actually reinforces C major, and not another key area. More on this in a later post!</div>
<br />cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-64284435026951517252014-10-05T19:20:00.001-04:002014-10-06T00:59:09.740-04:00what is a key? part iv -- caveat iSo up to this point we've been analyzing keys by looking at the group(s) of notes that we've found in pieces of music and giving the group(s) a name, so far basically a major key name. There are two caveats we need to be aware of now, and in this post we're going to look at the first one of them.<br />
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<u>CAVEAT NUMBER ONE</u></div>
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Let's look now at the following progression:<br />
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Amin | Dmin | Emin| Amin |</div>
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Let's go through all the steps we did before to find the key of this progression. We'll look at the notes of the chords:</div>
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Amin = A, C, E</div>
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Dmin = D, F, A</div>
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Emin = E, G, B</div>
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Putting them all side by side gives us</div>
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A, C, E, D, F, A, E, G, B</div>
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And if we only leave the first instance of a note (and throw out the repetitions) we are left with</div>
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A, C, E, D, F, G, B</div>
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Finally while we put these notes in ascending order we might notice that there are no sharps or flats, which means that we have the notes of a C major scale:</div>
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C, D, E, F, G, A, B</div>
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And this is true. From an improvisational standpoint you could take your C major scale and blow away over these chords and you would be on firm ground. </div>
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BUT if we had to describe the key of this piece to someone it might seem strange to say that it's in the key of C major. Perhaps they ask well, shouldn't there be a C major chord in the key of C?</div>
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That seems like a good point, and it's really true. When we want to describe the key of a piece as accurately as possible we should take note of the harmony. For instance a piece in the key of C major should probably somehow articulate "C-ness". In the progression above it seems most likely that the A minor chord is the tonic, or the harmonic base. If A is the harmonic base we could organize all of the notes above as</div>
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A, B, C, D, E, F, G</div>
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This is commonly referred to as the A natural minor scale, and it is also known as A aeolian, The above progression is best seen as being in A minor because that is the most pronounced chord. </div>
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The A minor-ness of this progression could even be more pronounced. Let's switch Emin to E7:</div>
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Amin | Dmin | E7 | Amin |</div>
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The only difference from before is that E7 (and you could just go ahead and use plain ol' E maj) has a G# where E minor had a G natural. </div>
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E7 = E, G#, B, D</div>
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The scale then looks like this:</div>
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A, B, C, D, E, F, G#</div>
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This, too, has a name: the A harmonic minor scale.</div>
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<b>The point of all of the foregoing is that simply identifying a group of notes is not really enough to determine a key: we really have to take into account the chords and see (actually <i>hear</i>) what the harmonic focal point is.</b> </div>
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And by the way this is why I think a lot of people get tripped up on modes. Simply telling someone that ABCDEFG is A aeolian is not enough information to make something sound like it's centered around A. You could play those group of notes over </div>
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Cmaj | Fmaj | G7 | Cmaj |</div>
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and the result will never be that the progression sounds like A aeolian. It will sound in C major because of the chords. </div>
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cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-34703628245084889772014-10-01T23:40:00.001-04:002014-10-30T16:53:54.849-04:00what is a key? part iiiFollowing on the heels of the <a href="http://cmrguitar.blogspot.com/2014/10/what-is-key-part-ii.html" target="_blank">last post</a> we're going to talk a little bit about dominant 7th chords in this post. And as a way of getting into that let's look at the following common chord progression:<br />
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Cmaj | Fmaj | Cmaj | Cmaj |D7 | Gmaj |<br />
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To determine the key here we'll go through the same process as we did in the last post. First let's determine all of the notes of all of the chords:<br />
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Cmaj = C E G<br />
Fmaj = F A C<br />
D7 = D F# A C<br />
Gmaj = G B D<br />
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Now let's put them all side by side:<br />
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C E G, F A C, D F# A C, G B D<br />
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and get rid of the repititions of notes:<br />
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C E G F A D F# B<br />
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And now we'll put them in an ascending order:<br />
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C D E F F# G A B<br />
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Well now we've got a strange situation: there are eight different notes here. All major scales (and minor scales, double harmonic, neapolitan, etc) contain only 7 different notes. If we are to assign this progression to a major key we'll have to get rid of one of these notes. How should we go about this? Let's look at the F, F#, G area. There are no major scales which contain this sequence of half steps, so we might be able to get rid of one of these notes.<br />
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If we get rid of the F# we're left with<br />
C D E F G A B<br />
the ol' C major scale. If, on the other hand, we get rid of the F natural, we are left with:<br />
C D E F# G A B.<br />
This has a name, C Lydian. But that is a mode of (or the same group of notes as) G major:<br />
G A B C D E F#<br />
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So now if we're only examining the notes of the chord progression we're at somewhat of a stand off: is the key of the progression C major or G major? Or maybe it's both?<br />
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Actually it is both, but just not at the same time.<br />
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Let's look at the Fmaj and D7 chords. When we come to Fmaj it's safe to say that the note F# is not really being articulated; likewise when we reach D7 the F natural is not part of the chord (look at the notes of the chords above if this doesn't make sense). In other words when we have F in our chord progression we are in the key of C major, and when we have D7 we are in the key of G major.<br />
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Notice something else here, too. The D7, as related to G, is V chord (that is the note D is the fifth note up in the key of G major). <b>This is the only place that this happens in the major scale: there is only one dominant 7th chord, and it is built on the 5th scale degree</b>. This is very good information to know, because when we encounter dom7 chords we can check to see if we are in a key where that dom7 chord is the V chord.<br />
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When this is the case we say that the dominant seventh chord is <i>functional</i>, i.e. that it has a certain role that it is fulfilling, namely that of pronouncing the key.<br />
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<b>Not all dominant seventh chords are funtional!</b> The blues progression is the most famous example of this, but actually this chord (and any chord) might just be used for the sonic atmosphere which it produces. These are cases where the dom7 chord is <i>non-functional</i>.<br />
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And even when we have a live, functioning dom7 chord, it may not go to it's I chord. The most famous example is what is known as a deceptive cadence:<br />
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Cmaj | Fmaj | G7 | Amin |<br />
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Here G7 goes to Amin, the VI of C major, but it's still a part of functional harmony.<br />
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And here's a way to hear how dominant 7th chords really <i>push </i>acoustically to a new key.<br />
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Let's take a Cmaj triad and go to all the other diatonic chords in that key:<br />
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Cmaj | Dmin |<br />
Cmaj | Emin |<br />
Cmaj | Fmaj |<br />
Cmaj | Gmaj |<br />
Cmaj | Amin |<br />
Cmaj | Bdim |<br />
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Now in between these chords we'll add a dominant of the second chord -- i.e. the second chord is considered the I and we'll add a V of that right before:<br />
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Cmaj | A7 | Dmin |<br />
Cmaj | B7 | Emin |<br />
Cmaj | C7 | Fmaj |<br />
Cmaj | D7 | Gmaj |<br />
Cmaj | E7 | Amin |<br />
Cmaj | F#7 | Bdim |<br />
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This isn't really an academic exercise, either. All of these progressions are far from rare, and you're probably familiar with hearing them (with the exception of the last one).<br />
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So the main point of this post is that not all progressions are in a single key; and sometimes when this happens dom7 chords can be a helpful signpost in helping us to determine the key(s).<br />
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ENDNOTE: There are in fact eight note (octatonic) scales running around out there in the world, the most famous of which are bebop scales and the diminished scale. The reason they weren't considered above is because bebop and diminished scales aren't actual generators of harmonic progressions, they are scales which are used to play over existing harmonies (bebop dominant is used over dominant chords, for example, whereas the diminished scale can be used over diminished chords and dom7b9 chords).cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-24651318618845345692014-10-01T12:48:00.002-04:002014-10-01T12:48:53.936-04:00what is a key? part iiIf you read part i of this series and found yourself thinking WTF??? have no despair: this post will (hopefully) be a bit more clear and get us nearer to understanding what a key is.<br />
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Let's take a common chord progression:<br />
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Cmaj | Amin | Dmin | G7 |<br />
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Let's examine the notes of all these chords:<br />
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Cmaj = C, E, G<br />
Amin = A, C, E<br />
Dmin = D, F, A<br />
G7 = G, B, D, F<br />
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If we put all these notes together side by side we get the following:<br />
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C, E, G, A, C, E, D, F, A, G, B, D, F<br />
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And if we take out the repetitions of a given note we will obtain:<br />
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C, E, G, A, D, F, B<br />
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Lastly we could put them in ascending order:<br />
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C, D, E, F, G, A, B<br />
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This group of notes may look familiar: it's the C major scale. (You might have put the notes in order beginning with A, obtaining A, B, C, D, E, F, G, aka A aeolian, aka the A natural minor scale. Same group of notes. Improvisationally it won't matter how you think of it.)<br />
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This is a clear example of, or a very clear articulation of a C major scale. But the scale actually is just an abstract way of organizing notes. They aren't actually encountered in the scalar order in this progression. To make a distinction we say that the above progression is in the <i>key </i>of C major. Just keep in mind that a key and scale are really the same thing:<br />
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A <b>scale </b>is a way of presenting the notes in a very clear manner.<br />
A <b>key </b>differs from a scale in that the notes can come in varying orders and combinations.<br />
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Next post will deal with dominant 7th chords and how they help to determine a key,,,<br />
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<br />cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-49389792357685927892014-09-29T14:56:00.000-04:002014-09-30T12:12:10.202-04:00what is a key? part iToday's post kicks off a series on the nature of keys.<br />
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I want to come at the question from a different angle: instead of defining what a key is first let's look at some music and try to describe what's going on melodically. In so doing perhaps we'll get a better understanding not only of what a key is but why they're very helpful descriptively.<br />
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Here's a transcription of the beginning of a traditional Thai piece called <i>Javanese Suite</i>. To hear a great performance of this by the ensemble Fong Naam click <a href="http://youtu.be/vFS_iYv_Jbo" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyU6yWp5eC2GWvc8G7u01msLI70zzvMfSOL72TLZPKDy2-tqaLv530WP80NhxvxRXSVYLdPuOJQp-3QSZJ0RNSZC_GSwbBmNxO9t7JicdUOmMLffDfkNhvsNp_hpQ3NXclD91xu6WIpF2H/s1600/javanese-suite-sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyU6yWp5eC2GWvc8G7u01msLI70zzvMfSOL72TLZPKDy2-tqaLv530WP80NhxvxRXSVYLdPuOJQp-3QSZJ0RNSZC_GSwbBmNxO9t7JicdUOmMLffDfkNhvsNp_hpQ3NXclD91xu6WIpF2H/s1600/javanese-suite-sm.jpg" height="129" width="320" /></a></div>
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If we had to describe the notes of this to someone (perhaps even to ourselves if we wanted to improvise our own embellishments) how might we start? Well we can see right away that there are a lot of repeating notes. Let's consider all the repeating notes as one note for the purposes of analysis (for example: there are 7 Ds in this musical passage: but for our purposes we'll just write down one D). Then let's put the notes in order from lowest to highest. Here's what we get:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcbUlnMvFiL21yiVxXuFFr6fybrRLrZN3jyuen7hTNAqKQhuvso0I4lEZR7WVSLGro8iG-xtBW90k3VRbcg5bbC6d8fXZURrZxrBvbW2qL3_HZAWhrDBYXIcID_fp75LbPpsfrygRkqOdW/s1600/g-min-penta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcbUlnMvFiL21yiVxXuFFr6fybrRLrZN3jyuen7hTNAqKQhuvso0I4lEZR7WVSLGro8iG-xtBW90k3VRbcg5bbC6d8fXZURrZxrBvbW2qL3_HZAWhrDBYXIcID_fp75LbPpsfrygRkqOdW/s1600/g-min-penta.jpg" height="71" width="160" /></a></div>
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We can now see that the entire passage is made up of only five different notes: G, B flat, C, D, and F. If we jumped in and improvised to this tune (which we can do with the YouTube link above) we should be safe if we stick to these notes. And by safe I mean that we won't be adding any "colors" to the piece that aren't already present.<br />
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[If you're so interested try playing along and adding some other notes like A, E, Fsharp and so on. They will objectively change the sonic nature of the tune. This is very different from saying that what is added would be 'good' or 'bad', because those judgments would depend upon a performing and listening community.]<br />
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So basically we can say that by knowing the notes that make up a piece we have a <b>key </b>to unlocking the door which might otherwise bar our entry.<br />
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And if we went through hundreds and even thousands of pieces we might start seeing patterns. And that is of course what has already happened for centuries and centuries. At this point we don't have to reinvent the wheel. There are handy names for the sets of notes we're going to encounter (and if there isn't there are still other ways to classify those sets, too!)<br />
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If we look at our five notes from above again we might recognize that they have a name: they form a <b>G minor pentatonic </b>scale. And this is the same group of notes as a B-flat major pentatonic scale:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5anZ6HwyQIe4QHOwEmbUgBmeoApqZppQOXPEWy0Ty4AAQZK0cwISxBQO_l7Z2z70cMzvj_V2q6FN4zMFdik5Zohg8_lD4kK26knrNBwuJgqxTVIMom9ICpmX9CqTLDy57MMjgiqAKEJiZ/s1600/b-flat-maj-penta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5anZ6HwyQIe4QHOwEmbUgBmeoApqZppQOXPEWy0Ty4AAQZK0cwISxBQO_l7Z2z70cMzvj_V2q6FN4zMFdik5Zohg8_lD4kK26knrNBwuJgqxTVIMom9ICpmX9CqTLDy57MMjgiqAKEJiZ/s1600/b-flat-maj-penta.jpg" height="58" width="160" /></a></div>
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Knowing what a pentatonic scale is and how to play one on your instrument(s) in any key would be crucial if you were going to play other music like this. For instance try playing along to Zhou Xuan's performance of <i><a href="http://cmrguitar.blogspot.com/2011/02/zhou-xuan-song-of-four-seasons.html" target="_blank">Song of the Four Seasons</a></i>. If you sing or play the melody you'll soon discover that it's from the F sharp major pentatonic scale. And if you had to transpose the song for some reason (like for certain instruments' tuning, or for a singer, etc) doing so shouldn't be too complicated if you know the pentatonic scale.<br />
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The former paragraph is getting at this main point: we might find hundreds of other tunes in G minor pentatonic, and the order of notes might be different melodically. It would be a severe pain if we couldn't recognize that:<br />
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D, F, D, G, D, C, B-flat<br />
C, B-flat, C, D, C, B-flat, G<br />
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are both made up of the same group of notes. Knowing that they both are from the G minor pentatonic scale cuts down on what we have to categorize tremendously. See my post on <a href="http://cmrguitar.blogspot.com/2011/04/permutations.html" target="_blank">permutations</a>: it's obvious that we don't want to name every sequence of notes as they can become nearly infinite in number.<br />
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Now if you didn't play along with the recordings or if any of the above particulars are confusing don't be alarmed whatsoever! The main thing to take away from this post is this:<br />
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<b>Knowing the notes that make up a piece of music is the <i>key </i>that allows us to enter into the music more fully. And being able to determine what pattern (if any) the notes are in is extremely important as it's less that we have to memorize. </b><br />
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This is why it's a good idea to learn many different kinds of scales: they allow us to categorize the music we encounter. And the more scales that we know the more able we'll be able to understand various styles of music.<br />
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To be sure there are some complicating factors that arise (e.g. a lot of music isn't in one single key or sometimes it's ambiguous as to what the key actually is or sometimes the sets of notes used don't correspond to any scale) but fundamentally the process is always the same: discern the notes and see if they fall into pre-established patterns.<br />
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More to come!<br />
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<br />cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-30531969406700293302014-09-25T13:50:00.002-04:002015-08-20T22:02:22.575-04:00the triads of the major scaleHere is a C major scale:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYMGYH-14gsf48AocuLZW0aN13Jz0nYmZ1oAPH6-V137kqVs4rnYhX4TCBLYfSOAnXlGlZ_jxKrZmnAnpXyfcmOjuk5o8Sdn-DbWgcSmu1bz86PDAH6idY10l-bZCD21w1bGIefeXUVL0g/s1600/c-major-scale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="40" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYMGYH-14gsf48AocuLZW0aN13Jz0nYmZ1oAPH6-V137kqVs4rnYhX4TCBLYfSOAnXlGlZ_jxKrZmnAnpXyfcmOjuk5o8Sdn-DbWgcSmu1bz86PDAH6idY10l-bZCD21w1bGIefeXUVL0g/s1600/c-major-scale.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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What we're going to do now is build triads on top of each of those scale degrees (except for the 8th scale degree because it's the same as the 1st and will give us the same chord). We will do this by using only notes from the C major scale, that is with no sharps or flats. What we get is the following:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipdv0xsTRIXX4riSO-10g0NB3MIKPYeJhqYPEA-fc6MSE-IAj4yJV-a5Z1DIiph8BtWLQ6nIdJo14qlZks_BX67VskbAmDSFw4k2ooucbHDiPnfdxDcyQpDXnP7VDdjXkMRFGP5AvphAtW/s1600/c-major-scale-chords.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="45" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipdv0xsTRIXX4riSO-10g0NB3MIKPYeJhqYPEA-fc6MSE-IAj4yJV-a5Z1DIiph8BtWLQ6nIdJo14qlZks_BX67VskbAmDSFw4k2ooucbHDiPnfdxDcyQpDXnP7VDdjXkMRFGP5AvphAtW/s1600/c-major-scale-chords.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The chord built on C gives us a C major triad, the chord built on D gives us a D minor triad, the one on E gives us E minor, F gives us F major, G gives us G major and A gives us A minor. Lastly the chord built up from B gives us a B diminished triad.</div>
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So you might wonder, why the Roman numerals in the chart? These numerals are actually very helpful, because they give us a more general way to talk about the chords in <i>any </i>major scale/key. Since all major keys are built up from the same recipe (a sequence of WWHWWWH steps) all the chords built up from the individual degrees will likewise occur in a predictable pattern.</div>
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Put more simply: In D major the chord built on the D (I) gives us a D major triad. In B flat major a chord built on Bb (the I) gives us a Bb major triad. In F sharp major the chord we get on C# is C# major, the V chord, just as we got a G major chord in C major. </div>
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Here's a quick way to think about it:</div>
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I, IV, V are Major triads </div>
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II, III, VI are Minor triads</div>
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VII is a diminished triad.</div>
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This is important information because if you find a chord progression like the following:</div>
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Gmaj | Amaj | Cmaj | Dmaj </div>
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You know right away that the entire thing is NOT in one single key. Why? because there are FOUR DIFFERENT major chords, and in any given major key there are only three. </div>
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If on the other hand we had only the following chords:</div>
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Gmaj | Cmaj | Dmaj </div>
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we would be dealing with the I, IV and V of G major. </div>
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How about these chords:</div>
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Emaj | Dmaj | Amaj</div>
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Why is the above key not E major? If it were in E major the VII should be a D# diminished chord, but here we have D major, a bVII with respect to E major. </div>
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Why is it not in the key of D? If the above were in D major the II chord should be E minor, but here we have E major. </div>
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Are all of the above chords found in the key of A major? YES! E major is the V chord, D major is the IV and A is the I. </div>
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For some more practice check out the following <a href="http://cmrguitar.blogspot.com/2011/04/what-key-is-it-in.html" target="_blank">post</a>.</div>
cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-69272882277381848782014-07-17T19:47:00.004-04:002014-07-17T19:51:56.300-04:00triadic inversion another wayToday's discussion is about inverting triads. What is generally meant when inverting triads is the following, done with C major:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3txaNqqvtwEIZqCw_r_or3VwxmNrA-7GXAnohZA_b0UN0h-AIt1puQYWsHOs2wsFQ1PgiXmfKWPSQJOsg-uLSbeCZUDi5FfF_GMx5M1uWWSCaCloxdWqYP6fLNeWvVw18yrxJVaT_PzHi/s1600/triad-inversions-cmajor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3txaNqqvtwEIZqCw_r_or3VwxmNrA-7GXAnohZA_b0UN0h-AIt1puQYWsHOs2wsFQ1PgiXmfKWPSQJOsg-uLSbeCZUDi5FfF_GMx5M1uWWSCaCloxdWqYP6fLNeWvVw18yrxJVaT_PzHi/s1600/triad-inversions-cmajor.jpg" height="92" width="320" /></a></div>
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That is to say, what we're really dealing with here is a <i>re-ordering</i> of the notes.<br />
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The concept of inversion as applied to melodic lines, however, has more to do with the actual meaning of <i>inverting</i>, i.e. turning upside down/placing in an opposite order (like a mirror). For example the following little line<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd6TDeoY2vBL_Tdk9bqsje7GAKxqxXw_Lmo6ZNbWG-H8fRh7pPF0iQanFDNerDn_aga2M-bky-bZsWUG25o3iZC4vk6NA1jS-hzm0B1cuC1fD4MvrAUPSglpYsSbPapkdi2KARuFnInEm6/s1600/mel-line-o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd6TDeoY2vBL_Tdk9bqsje7GAKxqxXw_Lmo6ZNbWG-H8fRh7pPF0iQanFDNerDn_aga2M-bky-bZsWUG25o3iZC4vk6NA1jS-hzm0B1cuC1fD4MvrAUPSglpYsSbPapkdi2KARuFnInEm6/s1600/mel-line-o.jpg" height="157" width="320" /></a></div>
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will invert (diatonically, that is not adding any sharps or flats) to:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKZh4dRGN8yaE8uwWKF6_zDyuqBpIuBcyRId-CQ3CdL_Dcits2ev-AlQGd3Y5eLHzZQjmxw1GVHsAa10crGEcKlEJeWs75O9TUmGu5pBEE20Gd-9_4DsvHS4C77gd3MeIAWrYWOqmobCjq/s1600/mel-line-i.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKZh4dRGN8yaE8uwWKF6_zDyuqBpIuBcyRId-CQ3CdL_Dcits2ev-AlQGd3Y5eLHzZQjmxw1GVHsAa10crGEcKlEJeWs75O9TUmGu5pBEE20Gd-9_4DsvHS4C77gd3MeIAWrYWOqmobCjq/s1600/mel-line-i.jpg" height="157" width="320" /></a></div>
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Now, what if we apply the same idea to chords? Something interesting will happen. We'll invert C major three times, first with C as the axis of symmetry, or mirror line:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIwWkTmB6JrdltryPWtQIuZ9KABxqFshVYqMFZEJEp2M9CN91eteDqIAUAHp6mAFsEP5ujp4PBPKFnm9JXWtzqIl_4JfXArv8W63vshB0aOHiK2nWRfYZGulUlZMEfazzO1vcTDFQ5KGye/s1600/cmaj-to-fmaj.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIwWkTmB6JrdltryPWtQIuZ9KABxqFshVYqMFZEJEp2M9CN91eteDqIAUAHp6mAFsEP5ujp4PBPKFnm9JXWtzqIl_4JfXArv8W63vshB0aOHiK2nWRfYZGulUlZMEfazzO1vcTDFQ5KGye/s1600/cmaj-to-fmaj.jpg" height="120" width="320" /></a></div>
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The chord we end up with is an F major chord. Now let's use G as the axis:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9-w8jU6fyAh_zE5VNGAgdLRl5aPkdfqnUYD23ktCarEkEL1BFNtbyijn7Xkyaw2RQ_oFMo7XpqQ71gM0a_Wi0RClbtmWTxfTZFstUYr8DbI71WFf9zo2QRegsgHrV0XHIXgmIhZLBR-ZU/s1600/cmaj-to-gmaj-inv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9-w8jU6fyAh_zE5VNGAgdLRl5aPkdfqnUYD23ktCarEkEL1BFNtbyijn7Xkyaw2RQ_oFMo7XpqQ71gM0a_Wi0RClbtmWTxfTZFstUYr8DbI71WFf9zo2QRegsgHrV0XHIXgmIhZLBR-ZU/s1600/cmaj-to-gmaj-inv.jpg" height="120" width="320" /></a></div>
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Now we've produced a G major triad. So the interesting point here is that simply by inverting a triad (let's say melodically) we end up with the IV (subdominant) and V (dominant) chords. Not only that, these inversions have given us all the notes of the key of C major.<br />
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Oh, and the last way to invert the triad, with E as axis, produces...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnrBXQEv-9mIdisG24EjOqhdib9KPJSns3bSFEtctl3na6437Nncba-8ppJ7UgNwz7vGpC6AFlTqZOsF9uH0njzPzVoXj5BxOkQxUodfKG-Vnvgr_gog42WFjVCJZ2K_0i_8_gtRN68VJt/s1600/cmaj-to-cmaj-inv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnrBXQEv-9mIdisG24EjOqhdib9KPJSns3bSFEtctl3na6437Nncba-8ppJ7UgNwz7vGpC6AFlTqZOsF9uH0njzPzVoXj5BxOkQxUodfKG-Vnvgr_gog42WFjVCJZ2K_0i_8_gtRN68VJt/s1600/cmaj-to-cmaj-inv.jpg" height="119" width="320" /></a></div>
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...yeah, we get the same chord right back.<br />
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These are, by the way, diatonic inversions. Next time we'll examine what happens when we invert our intervals strictly.cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-28124547979587011022013-07-14T16:52:00.004-04:002013-07-14T17:00:36.061-04:00intervals on the mandolinI bought a mandolin a couple of months ago and though I haven't exactly tamed it I have made a little progress in investigating its fretboard layout. In this post we're going to examine how intervals lay and look on the mandolin fretboard. In the next post we'll talk about the concept of inversion and a way of conceptualizing that using the mandolin and bass fretboards.<br />
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For starters: the mandolin is generally tuned exactly like a violin. Starting with g3 (the g right below middle c on the piano, aka c4), the next strings are tuned in perfect 5ths ascending giving us altogether g3, d4, a4, e5, or simply g, d, a, e. N.B. The mandolin actually has eight strings, but they are tuned in unison pairs and are played conceptually as if there are only 4 different strings.<br />
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Before going further it will be important to read what was said about intervals in this previous <a href="http://cmrguitar.blogspot.com/2010/06/intervals-on-guitarbass.html" target="_blank">post</a>, at least the first four paragraphs. We'll be referring to the chart found there enough that I'll put it up here again:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi5NWcrI-W0CnxrK_FCLl968gerH82o0dI7IDiGnFDyfeN-x964YXQ6FOc-LIEFR9QQMCvll9nE0b1MUHv14hD843f6qLVPDEUqzvh38XxUy5EEz22uqGCZ27cWBpsMk2Vn4XXQGCWBp8j/s1600/guitar-string-intervals.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi5NWcrI-W0CnxrK_FCLl968gerH82o0dI7IDiGnFDyfeN-x964YXQ6FOc-LIEFR9QQMCvll9nE0b1MUHv14hD843f6qLVPDEUqzvh38XxUy5EEz22uqGCZ27cWBpsMk2Vn4XXQGCWBp8j/s320/guitar-string-intervals.gif" width="77" /></a></div>
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So, again, for the mandolin (or really any stringed, fretted instrument born of music that has 12 pitches in an octave) we can easily ascertain the name of any interval on a single string simply by looking at the number of frets spanned and finding that number in the chart above in the left hand column. The number to its immediate right will be the name of the interval.<br />
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Some simple examples: what is the interval from an open string to the 5th fret? We probably won't need the calculator for this one: 5 - 0 = 5. Consulting the chart gives us P4, the perfect fourth. How about the interval from the 4th to 8th fret? 8 -4 = 4, and the chart says that that is a M3 (major third).<br />
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OK, so now when we branch out from one string to another we'll apply this same principle, i.e. we'll simply calculate the number of frets away the two notes in question are and consult the chart. To begin with let's recall that the mandolin is tuned in perfect fifths. How many frets is that? If we locate P5 in the above chart we'll notice it's equivalent to 7 frets. So going from one open string up to the next one on the mandolin is the same as going up 7 frets on the initial open string. Generalized this means that if we have notes on the same fret but on adjacent strings they are a P5 apart, such as:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDlFLNuKUDRE6qXYESvbjksOMjtw8EvTuYe1z-bfzK-H72rZ1b8FaNQ01-wTS6xlf_geFQLva6g2gXgKseGjSMWuU1VESKnZFetFqWuDy4OjMiNNojMOvq0CB7KR3B0GbV24AhybvOKCxc/s1600/mandolinP5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDlFLNuKUDRE6qXYESvbjksOMjtw8EvTuYe1z-bfzK-H72rZ1b8FaNQ01-wTS6xlf_geFQLva6g2gXgKseGjSMWuU1VESKnZFetFqWuDy4OjMiNNojMOvq0CB7KR3B0GbV24AhybvOKCxc/s1600/mandolinP5.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKSAvBOorKGupTRRM8sycLjnmpmxVULOIaCwUDn9kjUbYV9uSZrYcIzv2sgZS1nLiWCP_c50ZzvgSo4WPw93PSjQ2ue5Zh9bc_h6aGAHKaPAemnY8ywAz5AzTxFnJYtHEzqDjDG4MIoDc8/s1600/mandolinP5b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKSAvBOorKGupTRRM8sycLjnmpmxVULOIaCwUDn9kjUbYV9uSZrYcIzv2sgZS1nLiWCP_c50ZzvgSo4WPw93PSjQ2ue5Zh9bc_h6aGAHKaPAemnY8ywAz5AzTxFnJYtHEzqDjDG4MIoDc8/s1600/mandolinP5b.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbvDxS2mnOkEoPeHMrwHqvL6MqZtHtUDVa8ydRP9HlbfTrUbxZOZv-8siPoDJBUId3qIKiIeAGCbPfzTLv1t8RQj_nokt55AlnWja5zlfiNZYhdiTWJunbYosQQCzjNf2MtWUEz2gcTkRC/s1600/mandolinP5c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbvDxS2mnOkEoPeHMrwHqvL6MqZtHtUDVa8ydRP9HlbfTrUbxZOZv-8siPoDJBUId3qIKiIeAGCbPfzTLv1t8RQj_nokt55AlnWja5zlfiNZYhdiTWJunbYosQQCzjNf2MtWUEz2gcTkRC/s1600/mandolinP5c.jpg" /></a></div>
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So now let's look at this interval:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq_ZEdndNDV8NBhbO1MnxE_6TyepHEnU49MLTMSBE5QN2IycFh6-Ei0hwPmZvenRfDWU-RWtCLOpdb5ub3mWqcMC6tJ8T9ixx8jpm27UtqiRwrQHEGNVFVHDcQI1eTcz97ke0oy8OpturE/s1600/mandolin-M6.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq_ZEdndNDV8NBhbO1MnxE_6TyepHEnU49MLTMSBE5QN2IycFh6-Ei0hwPmZvenRfDWU-RWtCLOpdb5ub3mWqcMC6tJ8T9ixx8jpm27UtqiRwrQHEGNVFVHDcQI1eTcz97ke0oy8OpturE/s1600/mandolin-M6.gif" /></a></div>
<br />
To determine the interval name we proceed in the same manner as before. We've gone across one string (= 7 frets) and up 2 more frets, giving us a total of (7 +2 =) 9 frets. On our chart we see that this is a M6 (major sixth).<br />
<br />
How about this one?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHy3ZTczNfeyWjcRBNM3eZMLMWm_JtHWHgJA6ZQD8WYs-skM_UeWz6Ovzjm4jjfPst4uej7yiiFVjSQ4eRo1LOPO7cDdJdKYt4c03_9496V0jQEEvH0O3gjOF_rzbaGP8VwpBRRHLRK9ah/s1600/mandolin-m3-diff-strings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHy3ZTczNfeyWjcRBNM3eZMLMWm_JtHWHgJA6ZQD8WYs-skM_UeWz6Ovzjm4jjfPst4uej7yiiFVjSQ4eRo1LOPO7cDdJdKYt4c03_9496V0jQEEvH0O3gjOF_rzbaGP8VwpBRRHLRK9ah/s1600/mandolin-m3-diff-strings.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Here we've gone across one string and back 4 frets. When we move backwards (lower on the neck) we simply subtract (or add negative numbers, if you like). So we have 7 - 4 = 3, a m3 (minor third) on the chart.<br />
<br />
Let's now work the other way around: we'll select an interval and then figure out how it should look on the fretboard. And what better interval to select than the octave (P8)? That's a total of 12 frets according to the chart above. We could do that on the mandolin on 2 strings (or even on a single string) because the frets aren't all that large. but why don't we do it on three strings? Travelling laterally across 2 strings is the same as (7 + 7 =) 14 frets. That's 2 more frets than we need, so all we have to do is go down 2 frets and we should have our octave:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnBwZVZXbxzJVRVixoUcCBP9hb_A2ti3PTeuKuhdY9JvLBzdlE0iVZ_zuDJCgBLZcOdDfpYlMtwomWxTpCwY_KmTno_7X4okTonezuDbPdZH032-f76RT2e3HMCeEmWuNJgrRsY5rK4UHe/s1600/mandolinP8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnBwZVZXbxzJVRVixoUcCBP9hb_A2ti3PTeuKuhdY9JvLBzdlE0iVZ_zuDJCgBLZcOdDfpYlMtwomWxTpCwY_KmTno_7X4okTonezuDbPdZH032-f76RT2e3HMCeEmWuNJgrRsY5rK4UHe/s1600/mandolinP8.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
And that's really all there is to it. One thing worth doing: if you're a guitarist/bassist coming to the mandolin you might set your fingers on the instrument in familiar ways and see what the new intervals are. Mandolinists taking up the guitar/bass could do the same thing. It can take the mind a little while to straighten out all of this information as old patterns end up producing new sounds (it's certainly taking my brain a lot longer than expected!) Doing this will lead us into the next post concerning inversion...cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-84875681821145987532011-08-06T20:42:00.000-04:002011-08-06T20:42:00.618-04:00a little bit of math: 7 note scalesI've been considering scales and modes lately, and have been wondering how many possibilities there are out there. I started writing out some lists (based on the major/Ionian scale, such as 1234b567, 1#2345b6b7, etc). At a certain point, however, I started to consider using <i>any </i>combination of 7 notes from the total chromatic of 12. Here writing out by hand started to become futile, so I wondered how to go about determining the actual number of possibilities. So here's a little math about that.<br />
<br />
If we are concerned with 7 notes from a total of 12, and are not concerned about order -- we're looking for a set of tones, not a melodic sequence -- then what we want to find is known mathematically as <b>combinations</b>. There's a simple formula for determining them which is shown in the following image (which image was swiped from wikipedia -- thanks, guys!!!):<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8ILToAytwik1QZ3L1b4jYaioidGRIBKALPktF6w4ounoB6XuG8KKCfNBHWzNvf4w6stAJVyEh3qxyGWi_lHlOdzp-P-I1c3ojqj4-OG7KQh6Zzstmy92LhDzR2_PnHXlaG7tW-b21pywn/s1600/combinations-equation.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8ILToAytwik1QZ3L1b4jYaioidGRIBKALPktF6w4ounoB6XuG8KKCfNBHWzNvf4w6stAJVyEh3qxyGWi_lHlOdzp-P-I1c3ojqj4-OG7KQh6Zzstmy92LhDzR2_PnHXlaG7tW-b21pywn/s1600/combinations-equation.png" /></a></div><br />
(In case you're not familiar with it, that ! doesn't indicate a loud, demanding or angry number: it's a factorial. 4! = 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 24. It's better if your calculator has a factorial button, because 12! = <br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">479,001,600...best to do that in one keystroke!)<br />
<br />
In our case n = 12 and k = 7. If you work through the equation you'll see that 12 tones taken 7 at a time can be arranged 792 different ways! (That exclamation is not a factorial). Some of these modes will be quite strange beasts from a typical scale point of view: c, c#, d, d#, e, f, g# is not the most common mode around. But if we want to know the exact, finite number then here we have it.<br />
<br />
And here's something interesting, too, very, very interesting: if we want to know how many pentatonic scales there are we will find that there are 792, the exact number of septatonic scales (start to work it out and you'll see why). Hexatonic scales, by the way, produce the highest number of combinations: 924. <br />
<br />
So if you're wondering if there are any more modes/scales out there to investigate the answer is most probably YES!</div>cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-47566598770975529522011-08-05T00:43:00.000-04:002011-08-05T00:43:21.111-04:00sus4 chordsSuperimposing triads over a given harmonic structure is a well-known and -documented phenomenon. I personally love hearing a D major triad over an E minor harmony. And by triads usually meant are the famed major, minor, augmented and diminished. But we shouldn't overlook sus4 chords (or sus2 chords: we'll talk about that, too) as possibilities. As a refresher: a Csus4 chord is comprised of the notes <b>c</b>, <b>f</b> and <b>g</b>, and generalized a sus4 chord is made up of a root, P4 and P5. To a certain extent they can have a "cold" sound as there is no third, major or minor, and are found natively in quartal/quintal harmony.<br />
<br />
So as far as use goes there's the obvious: wherever you want! Also here are some conventional usages:<br />
<br />
Root of sus4 chord matches root of harmonic chord (e.g. Absus4 over Abmaj7; Esus4 over Emin).<br />
<br />
Sus4 chords come from the harmony of a scale implied by the harmonic chord. For example take Dmi7. In a certain context this could be a dorian chord, meaning that we're dealing with a C major scale. In the case of major scales sus4 chords can be built on the 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 scale degress (yup, you guessed it: a major pentatonic scale!). Concretely: over Dmi7 we could use Csus4, Dsus4, Esus4, Gsus4 and Asus4. Over melodic minor there are less: take sus4 chords built on the 1, 2 and 5 scale degrees. Basically we just have to check the scale tones against those of the sus4 chords and we'll be good.<br />
<br />
OK, mention was made of sus2 chords: whassup with them? Let's examine the following 2 chords: Asus4 and Dsus2:<br />
Asus4: a, d, e <br />
Dsus2: d, e, a<br />
Yeah, the same notes. So we can generalize the situation as: a sus4 chord is the same collection of tones as a sus2 a perfect 4th higher.<br />
<br />
As far as that goes, let's look at these notes again, but now starting with e as the root: e, a, d. This can be seen as an E7sus4 without the 5th. So a sus4 chord can be used as a 7sus4 the root of which is a perfect 5th higher.<br />
<br />
Hopefully these will add something to your palette...cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-646069357662644992011-07-26T13:04:00.000-04:002011-07-26T13:04:50.383-04:00some scale relationships iiFollowing up on what we discussed yesterday I'd like to offer a variant upon that approach.<br />
<br />
It's all fine to see how scales can be linked in a chain, each "link" being one accidental away from the ones before and after it. But it might be that you're familiar with certain modes, but not so much with the parent scales whence they hail. For example tons of musicians know about the overtone scale but not all realize that it's a mode of the melodic minor.<br />
<br />
So, in today's diagram what we've done is to look at the modes of the major/ionian scale and see how one -- the lydian -- relates to other lydian modes.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCIAbXsDxO3TOZTOZLVbGyixkHkSL3jHe_hr0xQT2Mn0o-IK0Fk2M85GU2gmH5_SYeoBCd-oAsCkDc3Mo-qTu2YXUBEbaQsWcyteO0m3nVSVCiHm4KmpnD33wnNSKRtHtUfa3tFMoP276D/s1600/major-scale-to-lydian-other-modes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCIAbXsDxO3TOZTOZLVbGyixkHkSL3jHe_hr0xQT2Mn0o-IK0Fk2M85GU2gmH5_SYeoBCd-oAsCkDc3Mo-qTu2YXUBEbaQsWcyteO0m3nVSVCiHm4KmpnD33wnNSKRtHtUfa3tFMoP276D/s320/major-scale-to-lydian-other-modes.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>In this case we've tracked through the lydian flat-7 (aka lydian dominant) to arrive at the lydian dominant augmented (lydian b7#5). Please note that bi-directional arrows indicate a scale-mode relationship, while the uni-directional arrows indicate scales that are distant by one accidental. The other way of saying what this diagram is hoping to express is that if you conceptualize your modes in this fashion (lydian b7, lydian b6, lydian #2, ...) you are still obviously framing your mode/scale understanding as we outlined yesterday.cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-45942076669932542272011-07-25T18:46:00.006-04:002011-07-25T22:19:08.598-04:00some scale relationships<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">One way to ponder and categorize scales is to organize them so that a new scale is described as an old one <i>with one modification</i>. For example, the melodic minor scale can be viewed as a major scale with a flat 3; the harmonic minor can be conceptualized as a melodic minor with a flat 6. The following image describes several scales this way, taking the major/ionian scale as primary:</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGFJJ2CklnAKESFETVBt4xCj8zO334Rx1YW_bUPTsSuzwQLlLzTXuURtm2_4t2BvzyRZWK47-A5lC3sHqN0okXOshDu6mQHXsQLjsXYrcd73GdC_zFsUOpQzUzuZYm7CaDjjIIaq4gogUt/s1600/scale-relationships-chart-better.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGFJJ2CklnAKESFETVBt4xCj8zO334Rx1YW_bUPTsSuzwQLlLzTXuURtm2_4t2BvzyRZWK47-A5lC3sHqN0okXOshDu6mQHXsQLjsXYrcd73GdC_zFsUOpQzUzuZYm7CaDjjIIaq4gogUt/s320/scale-relationships-chart-better.jpg" width="247" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3ZcsCTbXq0hyphenhyphenifa45breRktY42CcsEAvJB8X9WMBb9ZhO4ofRfGm4rY_Jr8_QSi3-rNKg5Yks8pYEWMvuO6GeixFH_M7ceUcnVsYLUp8FdqFdoLxO2ckzkb-XKTLMgMrgzd4nswOH5mi2/s1600/scale-relationships-chart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div>The box for the whole-tone leading has been made a different color because it doesn't strictly involve only one change (but it is deducible by a series of changes starting from an augmented (ionian sharp-5) then to a lydian augmented).<br />
<br />
(By the way the above image was made with Open Office Draw: a great and <b>free </b>program!) <br />
<br />
The modes of these parent scales haven't been included, though not doing so is to a certain extent a taxonomic bias. For instance I had at first included the scale/mode ionian #2, as it's only one deviation from the major scale. But upon reflection it turns out that it is a mode of the neapolitan minor, a scale which is already quite well known. Consequently I decided against the inclusion of the ionian #2, though an interesting and extremely complex chart could be generated by including such modes and showing their relationship(s) to other scales.<br />
<br />
A chart like this also tells use at a fairly quick glance just how far scales are from one another. For instance the doulbe harmonic scale is just one note different or one "scale away" from the harmonic major; the neapolitan minor is three scales away from the major/ionian.<br />
<br />
Of course there are a myriad scales out there, but this beginning should at least get the mind working with a view towards simplifying that array -- "well begun is half done", after all.cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-47626097250322790822011-04-27T13:18:00.000-04:002011-04-27T13:18:38.615-04:00permutationsLately I've been examining how very little musical material can generate vast amounts of music. Think about all the tonal music that basically elaborates a I - V - I relationship.<br />
<br />
To get some of this flavor let's take 3 notes (a, b, and c) and put them into sixteenth note "slots". Let's also stipulate -- at first -- that we can only duplicate one note (i.e. we have to use all of the tones). Here's what we start to get:<br />
<br />
aabc abca bcaa<br />
aacb acba cbaa <br />
abac acab<br />
baca caba<br />
baac caab<br />
<br />
bbac bacb acbb<br />
bbca bcab cabb<br />
babc bcba<br />
abcb cbab<br />
abbc cbba<br />
<br />
ccab cabc abcc<br />
ccba cbac bacc<br />
cacb cbca<br />
acbc bcac<br />
accb cbba<br />
<br />
So here we get 36 different little motives from 3 notes distributed over 4 note-slots. We could augment our rule to allow the duplication of 2 notes (thereby not using all three notes). Here's a little of what we get:<br />
<br />
aabb abba bbaa<br />
abab baba<br />
<br />
aacc acca...<br />
<br />
bbcc bccb...<br />
<br />
That's 15 more motives or cells. Also let's allow a triplication of notes:<br />
<br />
aaab abaa baaa <br />
bbba babb abbb<br />
bbbc bcbb cbbb <br />
cccb cbcc bccc<br />
ccca cacc accc <br />
aaac acaa caaa<br />
<br />
There's 18. And lastly let's allow a quadruplication:<br />
<br />
aaaa bbbb cccc<br />
<br />
which adds 3 more cells. All in all this totals 72 different motive-cells.<br />
<br />
And this is just a surface scratching. We could further define some rules for our rhythms: take for example<br />
aaaa.<br />
This could be 4 sixteenth notes, but we could also combine them into larger units, such as:<br />
one 16th and a dotted eighth,<br />
one 16th, an eightn and a 16th,<br />
a dotted eighth and a sixteenth,<br />
2 eighth notes,<br />
one quarter note.<br />
<br />
Obviously our cell-motives will increase dramatically when this "rule" is applied across the board. <br />
<br />
Why so possibly obsessive about this sort of thing? Well in improvisation and composition we're always looking for ways to make what we do more organic. Just this most basic surface examination shows that there is A LOT of material waiting to be made out of very little building blocks (similar to how electrons, protons and neutrons combine to form over a hundred different elements). Anyway if you're ever bored or just un-inspired take up this sort of exercise and see where it leads you.cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-33186871180899729992011-04-18T16:42:00.001-04:002015-08-20T22:04:46.860-04:00what key is it in?This question of what key something is in is one that comes up often, and the reasons for it being asked can range from the academic to the very practical -- it is in the spirit of the latter that we will offer up an answer. <br />
<br />
The no.1 reason we might want to determine the key of a tune/piece or section thereof is for improvisational purposes: it's hard (though not impossible) to improvise without knowing the key. In certain cases this will be ambiguous, which means more leeway for the improviser; at other times there will be only one key.<br />
<br />
So, let's define a key as the parent scale of all the harmonic/melodic structures in a given instance. That might be a rather convoluted way of stating something very simple. Here are some examples.<br />
<br />
A favorite: Knocking On Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan. The chords:<br />
<br />
Gmaj | Dmaj | Amin | Amin | Gmaj | Dmaj| Cmaj| Cmaj| (repeat to infinity)<br />
<br />
The key here (according to our definition) is fairly unambiguous: G major. Major keys give us 3 major chords and 3 minor chords. In G major those chords are specifically: Gmaj, Cmaj, Dmaj; Amin, Bmin, Emin. All of the chords of the tune number among those just enumerated, so there we have it.<br />
<br />
Here's a slightly more involved one: House of the Rising Sun.<br />
<br />
Amin | Cmaj | Dmaj | Fmaj | Amin | Cmaj | E7 | E7 |<br />
Amin | Cmaj | Dmaj | Fmaj | Amin | E7 | Amin | Amin | <br />
<br />
We have 4 major chords (analysing E7 as such) which tells us right away that we're going beyond the chords found amongst our normal major keys. In this case Amin going to E7 is telling us that this in in A minor. Now there are 3 different minor keys:<br />
<br />
1. Natural (same as its relative major)<br />
2. Melodic<br />
3. Harmonic<br />
<br />
One way of looking at this would be to say that this song is in A natural minor (i.e. C major) whenever the chords are Amin, Cmaj, or Fmaj. When we encounter Dmaj it's probably really in A melodic minor (the natural 6 gives us the F#) but it might be easiest to think of it as Gmajor (D mixolydian). The E7 is either melodic or harmonic minor. <br />
<br />
How about a chord progression like this:<br />
<br />
Emaj7 | Bmaj add b9 | Amin | AminMaj7 |<br />
<br />
There are some possibilities here, but all of these chords come from E harmonic major, though you might conceptualize/hear it as shifting from E major to A minor.<br />
<br />
Of course there are other indicators that you might already be aware of / be doing: II - V is more or less subsumed by our definition, but it is a distinct and very prevalent pattern to be on the lookout for.<br />
<br />
Keep one thing in mind: this is a practical way of understanding the concept of key. Take the following example:<br />
<br />
Dmin | Cmaj | Dmin | Dmin |<br />
<br />
According to our method this is in C major, though really C doesn't seem to the tonic but instead D does (that is the progression is in D dorian). However have no fear: as far as improvising goes you'll still be on solid ground if you're thinking C major -- though knowing the major key's derived modes is a good idea. <br />
<br />
For the above mentioned "way" to work of course we need to know some basic scales (and where to look for those that we might not know) and their triads, and all of us can always learn more of these.cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-41778808654212183062011-04-05T23:26:00.004-04:002011-04-06T10:42:28.179-04:00aura lee cagedIf you have a guitar method book like Mel Bay's or Alfred's sitting around and you feel like you've learned the notes in open position (or maybe not even those) and you'd like to expand your knowledge of notes over the entire neck try the following. Take a simple tune such as "Aura Lee" -- perhaps better known as Elvis's "Love Me Tender" -- and play it in as many of the 5 traditional major scale patterns (<a href="http://www.cagedguitarsystem.net/" target="_blank">CAGED</a>) as possible. <br />
<br />
Here is what the first 4 bars of "Aura Lee" will look like as found throughout the CAGED system:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgay4qxDMtXDjIfoX9s2TtTrl1o2boWdjsyRRJBe2IwFcUPQR3z0B3YSsQh1LIbd87vS3c-oLNd2DNaQQ9YelFIKN0q-jpS7-fiPubQLYfAuF7XDIVmGkKQuCoEKHOCoUZv3L-KC3tj71WI/s1600/aura-lee-caged-j.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgay4qxDMtXDjIfoX9s2TtTrl1o2boWdjsyRRJBe2IwFcUPQR3z0B3YSsQh1LIbd87vS3c-oLNd2DNaQQ9YelFIKN0q-jpS7-fiPubQLYfAuF7XDIVmGkKQuCoEKHOCoUZv3L-KC3tj71WI/s320/aura-lee-caged-j.jpg" width="287" /></a></div><br />
(E<sub>0</sub> means the E pattern in open position, E<sub>12</sub> is the E pattern at the 12th fret.)<br />
<br />
So in this case the tune can be played in six different positions. And more generally speaking we can note that if the open G string on the guitar is the lowest note in a first position melody that same melody will be able to be played in all of these same patterns. If we only had notes on the E and B strings we would have even more possibilities; if an open D is in the mix less. <br />
<br />
And since there's an interest in this blog about patterns in music, let's examine how the notes relate to each other across contiguous patterns. If we examine the penultimate measure we'll see a regularly occurring interlocking/overlapping-ness: <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkmzrfM5Ec2qht5G5qvD2W_WDOlSmw9zgNsniIl1t2RPTFZ0xHqmazdHxViNqn20mC2O_HvNZdrm0FjLIkFDqL_Xgp8eXyQBPE-A7Dludgd4BKZF3AzzqSGlLwBNvnb4qiJMrP2XjUjNEX/s1600/aura-lee-caged-penultimate-measure.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkmzrfM5Ec2qht5G5qvD2W_WDOlSmw9zgNsniIl1t2RPTFZ0xHqmazdHxViNqn20mC2O_HvNZdrm0FjLIkFDqL_Xgp8eXyQBPE-A7Dludgd4BKZF3AzzqSGlLwBNvnb4qiJMrP2XjUjNEX/s320/aura-lee-caged-penultimate-measure.jpg" width="68" /></a></div><br />
This is a beginning: we could also explore this tune as found throughout 3 note per string scales, too (or even 4-note/string if you're so inclined), which might be the subject of a blog down the line.cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-66735149813160042442011-02-27T00:18:00.003-05:002011-02-27T11:03:33.155-05:00zhou xuan -- song of the four seasonsI just got a collection of songs by the fabulous and (in China) ultra-famous singer Zhou Xuan. Here's an example of her singing "Song of the Four Seasons" (hopefully hearing it will tempt you to seek out and listen to more!):<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="325" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RlEu2lcE9sg" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe><br />
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There's some info about here <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Xuan" target="_blank">here </a>at the wikipedia site.<br />
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And to give credit where credit is due: I had never heard of Zhou until I saw the film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424273/" target="_blank">Electric Shadows</a> (which, by the way, is the literal reading of the Chinese characters for the word 'movie(s)' which looks like 电影 / 電影).cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-51971504669369837572011-02-22T22:04:00.009-05:002011-02-23T12:52:20.289-05:00ivy -- nothing but the skyI'm comfortable enough with myself to admit that I watched the film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469184/" target="_blank"><span style="font-style: italic;">Shanghai Kiss</span></a>. Not a fabulous movie. In fact not even a decent movie, though I liked all the actors and the places (it's great to see Shanghai on film -- see below).<br /><br />But one excellent thing about the film is that the tune "Nothing But the Sky" by Ivy is in it. Here's a link:<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/iQlwh2Pp5Hc" allowfullscreen="" width="400" frameborder="0" height="325"></iframe><br /><br /><br />But to see/hear how it was used in the film check this one out:<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eEyjmXUJUwg" allowfullscreen="" width="400" frameborder="0" height="325"></iframe><br /><br />The nearly sci-fi landscape of Shanghai along with that ambient, ultra-airy sounding voice is really an excellent match...<br /><br />Oh, and here are the entire lyrics for the song:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Meet me tonight<br />Fifteen miles high<br />Nothing but the sky<br />Shining in your eyes...<br /></div>cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-57446776024030986412011-02-21T00:01:00.000-05:002011-02-21T00:01:03.914-05:00rhythmic training by robert starer<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaxUbrlNup_LgYzKLfAEwKBxfHF5q2W2oCYDeOeW4DYLhLypV01DrKzgMGv9JXj_5sas_biXEcz1wRbTD2QcIlMau0U3Pz9Y_dmoElSJeeoD-cYXWkoUx6-PEigygbGLaOMuY5Vdvj_zI2/s1600/rhythmic-training-starer.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 278px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaxUbrlNup_LgYzKLfAEwKBxfHF5q2W2oCYDeOeW4DYLhLypV01DrKzgMGv9JXj_5sas_biXEcz1wRbTD2QcIlMau0U3Pz9Y_dmoElSJeeoD-cYXWkoUx6-PEigygbGLaOMuY5Vdvj_zI2/s320/rhythmic-training-starer.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575552668003648562" border="0" /></a><br />A book I used a million years ago at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati (for a guitar sight reading class): Robert Starer's <span style="font-style: italic;">Rhythmic Training</span>. I'm giving an amazon link <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rhythmic-Training-Robert-Starer/dp/0769293751" target="_blank">here </a>because you can look through some of the book there, but of course buy it at your favorite vendor of music scores...<br /><br />Anyway it's an excellent book to go through from time to time, and especially if you're having particular difficulties (e.g. switching between triplets and sixteenths while keeping a steady pulse). The last few exercises are still brutal for me...cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-75989128745871129252011-02-20T00:11:00.000-05:002011-02-20T00:11:00.608-05:00the fan manI read this book last year and looooved it. The main character -- Horse Badorties -- is a hippie who's exclusively into medieval music. He lives in the Lower East Side and has a choir of young runaway girls and has them hold tiny battery-powered fans which emit to him a beautiful sound. A great, weird book. Horse's hatred of Puerto Rican music parallels my own detesting of Dominican music...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsu7MR31pX4O1eI1fANP6m0hoiw_oClu9wW4tskh8ougaKuR3UHGl2jgVm9k0VTTwG8qJ_sl5TPhLPFtPsaneXJnUoSUI1QNXGWQ_t-J90myg9XvrOSFmmuw77T4H59OVR8e6wDt6HBwmo/s1600/fan-man.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 238px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsu7MR31pX4O1eI1fANP6m0hoiw_oClu9wW4tskh8ougaKuR3UHGl2jgVm9k0VTTwG8qJ_sl5TPhLPFtPsaneXJnUoSUI1QNXGWQ_t-J90myg9XvrOSFmmuw77T4H59OVR8e6wDt6HBwmo/s320/fan-man.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575482637529038866" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Click <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fan_Man" target="_blank">here </a>to read what wikipedia has to say about the novel. If you read and enjoyed <span style="font-style: italic;">Confederacy of Dunces</span> you'll dig this...highly recommended.<br /><br />And if you do read it try to get the illustrated version (though it looks like the newer edition has a forward by Vonnegut which must be a great read).cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-15773969686550706742011-02-19T19:45:00.000-05:002011-02-19T19:47:11.053-05:00music as patterns iThis is one of two series I want to start on this blog (look for the other "mystery" series to appear shortly!), viz. the investigation of music as patterns.<br /><br />Let me just discursively throw out some ways in which patterns are a part of music:<br /><br />VIBRATIONAL (from a simple vibrating sine wave to complex multi-timbrel occurrences, the vibrating ear drum, and so on)<br />RHYTHMIC (organization of sound even irrespective of pitch)<br />FORMAL (melodic shapes, harmonic structures, harmonic progressions, divisions of a piece of music into common forms -- sonata, song, aba -- scale structures, fingering patterns on particular instruments)<br /><br />Also patterns may be grouped into those that are PERCEPTIBLE and those that are more CONCEPTUAL. A melodic phrase is an example of the former whereas the graphic representation of a square wave producing the pitch B4 is an example of the latter. Of course a melodic phrase notated is more conceptual but still perceptible, so perhaps another category of VISUAL needs to be added.<br /><br />At any rate future posts in this series will start to examine some of these issues and others having to deal with emotion, entrainment and the like.cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-55850025263765437382011-02-19T13:22:00.005-05:002011-02-19T13:30:21.902-05:00ai no tenshiThis is my favorite tune from Satoshi Kon's 1998 fabulous anime classic <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156887/" target="_blank">Perfect Blue</a>, and it's called "Ai no tenshi" (The Angel of Love).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ_DH7jzoxQ&feature=related" target="_blank"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 238px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCneicSUxhXCzdAYuhz0UkhE7xa4rBMk2TBjAKLi5U0Od_ezjDQXM0LTCY4EkEnFieqPRmYWsQ_sUtVOzSkb9Yye4ZTz-AERAYlJSzOt7XCBvjg4yyj_6MG4q_fYPN70wvwxetmnhlJUTY/s320/perfect-blue.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575468922948724946" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Also of potential interest is the following clip which shows the tune being recorded by the singers (which clip is on the dvd, btw):<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyOAM5nlNRc&feature=related" target="_blank"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1YWDQQKgEeyJNCw08zn5T2WD83ygTvSq5Uu1zMs1o0SjQXosIfINgNHV_HvrcqPgw0viRkm7wLjsSae5YiR_zm9-VqhsYxmAIit4TAy44Uz6tlg2PbagOyO7RU3wRB1bXF3pfHB_l7LOC/s320/chamJ.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575468820796174242" border="0" /></a>cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-37486544038228005692011-02-06T14:31:00.002-05:002011-02-06T14:40:47.100-05:00highest f major chord?Sor's Fantasy no. 2 (op. 7) is a spectacular piece. For those of you who have the Bream Baroque Guitar record and have heard the piece that way keep in mind: Bream only plays the Introduction. There's a whole theme and variations which follow, some of which are truly remarkable.<br /><br />Remarkable in terms of just having to deal with a somewhat uncomfortable fingering examine the following passage from the B section of the 3rd variation:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjh8L912Eg3Caan9tURCgeELvfx0Izxqz4X1vfThjGNl2aU40Ad83kFUu0In7cdFjWD8iHv2jyxVJhravfXkpuRBl3P-EhRFJiGW3tuhS25A4nkkSZdf7ZtTBxUH_S_QLv8xv3Zf8QPg-N/s1600/sor-fantasia2-hi-f-chord.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 55px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjh8L912Eg3Caan9tURCgeELvfx0Izxqz4X1vfThjGNl2aU40Ad83kFUu0In7cdFjWD8iHv2jyxVJhravfXkpuRBl3P-EhRFJiGW3tuhS25A4nkkSZdf7ZtTBxUH_S_QLv8xv3Zf8QPg-N/s320/sor-fantasia2-hi-f-chord.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570663772724778706" border="0" /></a><br />Yes, that F chord is stratospheric! Yes on the electric guitar (or any guitar with a cutaway) this is not a real beast. But keep in mind: the lowest fret here is the 13th. I'd be tempted to introduce some rubato at this point just to accommodate this technical aspect.<br /><br />By the way: you shredders should check out the 6th variation...cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-13483529281568629822011-01-02T20:22:00.006-05:002011-02-01T11:24:48.151-05:00new ideas in a new yearIf I were made dictator of the universe for a minute or two I'd like to change some aspects of conservatory training. These would be the additions/changes:<br /><br />One semester (at least) of music writing and improvising. NOT taught by a "composer", especially not by an academic one. Here the goal is to reveal to musicians that if they can play an instrument they can improvise on that instrument. And also they can write music of very diverse styles for that instrument of any other.<br /><br />One semester of "pop music" performance. Here we would, for example, play Let It Be. But the pianists would be given the chart on a cocktail napkin and NOT (I repeat NOT) permitted to write out any parts. The performance would have to be convincing, etc. Real world.<br /><br />Basics of recording, multi-tracking, etc. Are there <span style="font-style: italic;">any </span>musicians, anywhere, who at this point don't need recordings of their playing? Might as well be armed with some knowledge of how it's done...maybe even enough knowledge to do it one's self.<br /><br />I would certainly toy with the idea of getting rid of music history. Maybe a course that contains the basic bullet points. Maybe in theory situate the concepts historically. There seem to be lots of musicians in the world who function just fine without knowing thing one about clausulae -- just as there are millions of musicians worldwide who know nothing of set theory and would much prefer to stab themselves repeatedly with rusty implements than learn anything about said subject.cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1755595412793550201.post-86499754120760971022010-12-30T10:08:00.003-05:002010-12-30T15:11:27.704-05:00the yearly roundupHard to believe but another year is looming large on the horizon. That means it's time for the yearly roundup of good stuff that I've encountered music-wise. And by encountered I also mean re-encountered, too. This stuff isn't necessarily particular to 2010, that's just when it happened my way.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Books</span><br /><br />David Toop's <span style="font-style: italic;">Sinister Resonance</span>. Toop does it again. This book is special for me because it has come along right at a time when I've been thinking about the peripheries of music and sound more generally as well as what's going on when we hear/perceive such.<br /><br />Wallace Berry's <span style="font-style: italic;">Structural Functions in Music</span>. Actually I'm not sure where I come down with this book. The author does penetrate deeply. I'd be interested if the book were about music and not just a small segment -- though maybe people could start writing appendices of sorts applying Berry to Indian music, R&B and free jazz, etc.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Recordings</span><br /><br />Carolyn Hove, <span style="font-style: italic;">Ascending to Superlatives</span> (yeah, I'm not thrilled about the title, either, but there it is...) Great English horn album starting off with a Castelnuovo-Tedesco piece entitled <span style="font-style: italic;">Eclogues</span> (for English horn, flute and guitar) which is fantastic. All the works are terrific. This record will make you believe in 20th century music (if your faith has indeed ebbed). Also, though I went to CCM I had no idea the Gerhard Samuel was <span style="font-style: italic;">also </span>a composer...<br /><br />Not entirely unrelated is L'ensemble Pyramide's recording of Migot chamber works featuring flute, clarinet, harp, bassoon, etc. Great pieces! I'm a huge Migot fan and if you've never heard of him just go ahead and jump in with this one. The works are modal and very, well, French. If you dig on the likes of Poulenc and Dutilleux you'll like this one. There's a wikipedia thang about Migot <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Migot">here</a>.<br /><br />Gentle Giant's <span style="font-style: italic;">Octopus</span>. My favorite prog album to date. Very diverse, excellent tunes.<br /><br />Bill Emerson's <span style="font-style: italic;">Gold Plated Banjo</span>. A good friend of mine always turns me onto what he considers the "best of", any genre. For bluegrass his pick is this one, and I have to agree. It's so filled with gladness that it'll make you happy that you're alive -- it'll at least put a big smile on your face!<br /><br />The B-52s first album. I heard it when I was in 6th grade and loved it. I listened to it again about a month and a half ago and I still love it.<br /><br />Other albums heard a long time ago and re-enjoyed: Vangelis' <span style="font-style: italic;">Albedo 0.39</span>. That's right albedo, the reflectivity of an object, 1.00 being perfect, 0.39 being roughly the Earth's. V does all of the instruments and the tune Main Sequence is spot-on fusion (with even a great little blues lick near the end!). Of course the opening tune is great (Pulstar) as is the tune Alpha, both of which were in Carl Sagan's <span style="font-style: italic;">Cosmos</span>.<br /><br />Susanne Schoeppe's Ponce, Moreno, Dolezel & Castillo: Guitar Recital (yeah, technically any recording with the word "recital" in the title should entitle the maker(s) to a public torturing...pretend the album is called Diario, I guess). Susanne needs to be thanked, sincerely, for playing (and playing beautifully) Torroba's <span style="font-style: italic;">Sonata Fantasia</span>. It's an absolutely exquisite work and hopefully will only grow in popularity.<br /><br />Zombies: <span style="font-style: italic;">Odessey and Oracle</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Video</span><br /><br />Scott Henderson: <span style="font-style: italic;">Jazz-Rock Mastery</span>. This is really 2 videos in one: the first is about scale choices for given common chords (maj7, min7, min7b5, dom7 and altered dom7s -- Scott details playing both inside and outside); the second concerns phrasing and is really a breath of fresh air.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Various</span><br /><br />The <a href="http://www.yourockguitar.com/" target="_blank">You Rock Guitar</a>. I picked one up back at the beginning of November. A really fabulous midi controller. FINALLY a midi controller that has what I (we) really want: a midi out! No need for a 13 pin cable which then gets converted to midi then sent to the midi out. This is very inexpensive and easy to play. It's <span style="font-style: italic;">not </span>a guitar, so there are some compromises: pulling off to open strings doesn't work, and the strings which are picked/plucked are all the same size which means that your hand doesn't get any clues as to where it is by string size. It has some onboard sounds but I go right into a Yamaha TX-7. The best feature: it doesn't EVER go out of tune...cmrguitarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645949107948513085noreply@blogger.com0