Posted in Composition on Jul 15th, 2007
Now that you have an understanding of the basic 12-bar blues, let’s talk a little bit about the 8-bar blues format. Unlike the 12-bar blues format, the 8-bar blues is much less defined. And that’s part of the fun of playing an 8 bar blues-you can experiment with the chord changes.
Posted in Composition, Music Theory, Scales and Modes on Jul 1st, 2007
Understanding modes
Understanding how to apply modes is one of the tougher concepts for guitarists new to music theory. Before you even try and understand how to apply modes on guitar you have to first make sure you understand what modes are and how they are created. If you are not crystal clear on those concepts than read my post Modes- An introduction to learning modes before reading any further.
Why you should use modes
Before we start talking about how to use modes, lets talk about why you should use modes. One reason of using a mode is to melodically outline the harmonic changes of a song. What do I mean by that? Well by outline the chord changes of a song is your solos it makes your solos more interesting and relevant. It helps the listener hear the chord changes and keeps your melodies in sync with the harmonies.
Another reason to use modes is for composition. If you harmonize notes of a mode by stacking 3rds the same way you would with the major scale, you will have unique chords and the diatonic harmonies would be a lot different. (If that is confusing just keep reading).
Posted in Composition on Jun 24th, 2007
Many of you are already familiar with the 12-bar blues, but since I plan on doing more advanced blues and jazz lessons in the future I wanted to start of with the basics to make sure everyone is up to par (or should I say “up to bar”:)) on the 12-bar blues. I am not really going to go into the history of the blues. You can always go to Wikepedia for that. I want to dive straight into how to play the blues.
Posted in Chords, Composition, Music Theory on Apr 17th, 2007
(Before you read this lesson you should make sure you understand Diatonic Harmony and Buliding 7th chords)
Good composition is about creating music that has movement. Music that has peaks and valleys. If your chord progressions don’t go anywhere, they are just boring. The best way to create music with strong movement is to create tension and resolution in your compositions. How do you do that? Well the easiest and most common way is with V to I (“Five to One”) chord changes.
Posted in Composition, Music Theory on Mar 25th, 2007
Note: Before you read this post it would help you if you read my post on notes, the major scale, and building chords.
As discussed previously a diatonic scale is a scale consisting only of the 7 notes which fit within a givins scale's formula. The most famous and useful (at least in western music) is the major scale (i.e. The major scale is diatonic b/c is consists of all 7 notes derived from the W-W-H-W-W-W-H formula). If you recall, major chords are built from the major scale by taking the 1,3, and 5 notes of the scale and the minor chord is made by taking the 1, 3b, and 5 notes of the major scale. These notes are chosen because chords are made by stacking either major or minor 3rd intervals (See my post on intervals if you don’t know what major and minor 3rds are)