Major stuff (or How I started understanding the minor things)
When I first read the book "The Guitar Handbook" by Ralph Denyer the terms C Major C#, D-flat etc jumped up at me... I'd heard these terms from childhood as in Beethovens Symphony in Eminor (or whatever!!)
The first basic 15 chords given in the book talked about A major, minor, seventh. It really puzzled me. Why are they named like that? Finally I managed to work it out.
I Think!!
Scales - Moving horizontally down a string :
Major scales are 2 tone:1 semi:3 tone:1 semi in hop-step
Minor scales are 1 tone:1 semi:2 tone:1 semi: 2 tone in hop-step
Chords - Moving vertically across the strings :
The chord A minor consists of 3 notes A-E-C.
If you look at the hopping pattern : A to C (1 tone:1semi) C to E (2 tones)
Isn't this just like the start of the Minor scale shown above '1 tone:1 semi:2 tone:1 semi: 2 tone'
The difference between scales and chords is that in scales A, C and E are seperated by time and in chords they sound at the same time.
Its like many single stringed instruments playing at different parts in a scale simultaneously.
With player1 playing 'A' player2 playing 'C' and player3 playing 'E' (the order doesn't matter)
They're playing in A minor together
Earlier I'd got confused with the usage of terms like major seventh, minor third, fifth etc...
usually they're used normally (mathematically) to mean a fraction ie. one-third, one-fifth etc.. This helped in confusing me as to the complexity I'd have to work with... The only thing that helped me through this phase was the fact that most guitarists would not be good with fractions anyway!! SO there must be an easy way to understand this. Finally I found out that these terms mean Not fractions but intervals as in "fifth note" from current note.
About the book :
One of the good things about the book is that its a complete treasure house of stuff on the Guitar.
BUT it's NOT a book which explains the terms it uses. You'll find the explanation elsewhere in the book. That means that you've to
a)Skip over things you don't understand in the hope that you'll come across the explanation later.
b)Remember the missing pieces and hunt them down across the book.
c)The Links between concepts are NOT explicitly stated i.e relation between scales and chords is mentioned but the case-study is not emphasising neither the relation nor the Reasoning behind the theory. Many things are inserted as givens. So you need to work out stuff on your own and re-create the links between concepts explicitly.
While this ensures that what you learn you'll retain it's not a good thing to do to children ie beginners!! :)
The first basic 15 chords given in the book talked about A major, minor, seventh. It really puzzled me. Why are they named like that? Finally I managed to work it out.
I Think!!
Scales - Moving horizontally down a string :
Major scales are 2 tone:1 semi:3 tone:1 semi in hop-step
Minor scales are 1 tone:1 semi:2 tone:1 semi: 2 tone in hop-step
Chords - Moving vertically across the strings :
The chord A minor consists of 3 notes A-E-C.
If you look at the hopping pattern : A to C (1 tone:1semi) C to E (2 tones)
Isn't this just like the start of the Minor scale shown above '1 tone:1 semi:2 tone:1 semi: 2 tone'
The difference between scales and chords is that in scales A, C and E are seperated by time and in chords they sound at the same time.
Its like many single stringed instruments playing at different parts in a scale simultaneously.
With player1 playing 'A' player2 playing 'C' and player3 playing 'E' (the order doesn't matter)
They're playing in A minor together
Earlier I'd got confused with the usage of terms like major seventh, minor third, fifth etc...
usually they're used normally (mathematically) to mean a fraction ie. one-third, one-fifth etc.. This helped in confusing me as to the complexity I'd have to work with... The only thing that helped me through this phase was the fact that most guitarists would not be good with fractions anyway!! SO there must be an easy way to understand this. Finally I found out that these terms mean Not fractions but intervals as in "fifth note" from current note.
About the book :
One of the good things about the book is that its a complete treasure house of stuff on the Guitar.
BUT it's NOT a book which explains the terms it uses. You'll find the explanation elsewhere in the book. That means that you've to
a)Skip over things you don't understand in the hope that you'll come across the explanation later.
b)Remember the missing pieces and hunt them down across the book.
c)The Links between concepts are NOT explicitly stated i.e relation between scales and chords is mentioned but the case-study is not emphasising neither the relation nor the Reasoning behind the theory. Many things are inserted as givens. So you need to work out stuff on your own and re-create the links between concepts explicitly.
While this ensures that what you learn you'll retain it's not a good thing to do to children ie beginners!! :)
posted by Gurudutt Mallapur | 9:12 PM
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