Picturing a circle of fifths can help you identify key signatures, find related keys, and remember the order of sharps and flats in key signatures.
The circle of fifths is a way to arrange keys to show how closely they are related to each other.
Keys are not considered closely related to each other if they are near each other in the chromatic scale (or on a keyboard). What makes two keys "closely related" is having similar key signatures. So the most closely related key to C major, for example, is A minor, since they have the same key signature (no sharps and no flats). This puts them in the same "slice" of the circle. The next most closely related keys to C major would be G major (or E minor), with one sharp, and F major (or D minor), with only one flat. The keys that are most distant from C major, with six sharps or six flats, are on the opposite side of the circle.
The circle of fifths gets its name from the fact that as you go from one section of the circle to the next, you are going up or down by an interval of a perfect fifth. If you go up a perfect fifth (clockwise in the circle), you get the key that has one more sharp or one less flat; if you go down a perfect fifth (counterclockwise), you get the key that has one more flat or one less sharp. Since going down by a perfect fifth is the same as going up by a perfect fourth, the counterclockwise direction is sometimes referred to as a "circle of fourths".
If you do not know the order of the sharps and flats, you can also use the circle of fifths to find these. The first sharp in a key signature is always F sharp; the second sharp in a key signature is always (a perfect fifth away) C sharp; the third is always G sharp, and so on, all the way to B sharp.
The first flat in a key signature is always B flat (the same as the last sharp); the second is always E flat, and so on, all the way to F flat. Notice that, just as with the key signatures, you add sharps or subtract flats as you go clockwise around the circle, and add flats or subtract sharps as you go counterclockwise.
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A guitar guide for beginners and more Beginners Guide to the guitar
If anyone wants it.. right click on link and click "Save Link As/Save As.." and save it to your computer. (You have to have Adobe Reader to view this file)
The acoustic guitar guide Acoustic Guitar Guide
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A complete guide for everything you need to know about playing guitar.. from holding the guitar to chords/scales/picking and tons more! Guitar101 E-book
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A look/lesson at JAZZ chords/theory: Jazz Guitar Chords/Theory
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Free Jazz Improv Magazines: Free Jazz Improv Magazines
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I believe one of the 1st things someone should learn before anything is the notes up and down the fretboard.. or on any instrument for that matter. This will help in the long run for guitar/bass players when trying to understand scales/chords/progressions and more and also help you make them in different positions.
The image is of a guitar neck showing all the notes from open and so on, on every fret.
This applies to a standard tuning 4-string bass as well. (Strings: E A D G)
TAB or tablature is a method of writing down music played on guitar or bass. Instead of using symbols like in standard musical notation, it uses ordinary ASCII characters and numbers, making it ideal for places like the internet where anybody with any computer can link up, copy a TAB file, and read it.
What TAB will tell you
TAB will tell you what notes to play - it will tell you which string to hit and which fret to fret it at.
TAB will tell you where hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, slides, harmonics and vibrato are used.
TAB will tell you what tuning the piece is in. If this isn't given explicitly, assume normal tuning. TAB should also give you information on use of capos etc.
TAB will give you an indication of the ryhthm of the piece - i.e it will tell you which are the long notes and which are the short notes.
However it will not tell you exactly how long or how short they are.
This leads me on to ...
What TAB won't tell you
TAB will (usually) not tell you the note lengths of the notes - so in most cases you will have to listen to the song yourself, with the TAB in front of you to work out the ryhthm of the notes.
TAB will not tell you which fingers you use to fret which note.
TAB will (usually) not tell you anything about picking and strumming - you will have to decide for yourself where to use upstrokes/downstrokes and so on.
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Reading Guitar Tablature
TAB notation - the basics
TAB is simple to read, and should be simple to write if you want to submit a song you have worked out yourself. The idea is this :
You start out with 6 lines (or four for bass). These correspond to the strings of the instrument. The top line is the highest pitch string, and the bottom line is the lowest pitch string. Below is a blank bit of TAB with the string names at the left.
Numbers are written on the lines to show you where to fret the string with the left hand. If a zero appears , this means play the open string. Like standard musical notation, you read from left to right to find out what order to play the notes. The following piece of TAB would mean play the sequence of notes (E F F# G G# A) on the bottom E string by moving up a fret at a time, starting with the open string.
OK so far ?
Here we have notes being played one at a time. If two or more notes are to be played together, they are written on top of one another, again just like standard notation.
In the next example we have a G bar chord.
Which would mean strum the same shape starting at the bottom string, so that each string is hit slightly later than the last string, but all notes will ring together. Below is am example of the same shape again, but now the gaps between the notes are bigger - so you would probably pick the strings separately instead of slowly strumming the shape.
You might ask - How do I know how fast or slow to play this ? Are all the notes supposed to be the same length ? This is where TAB differs from standard notation. Most often TAB will not give you any information on the note lengths. It is usually left up to you to listen to the song to pick up the rhythm. However - don't despair. TAB should give you some indications of timing. In the example above all the notes are evenly spaced so you can reasonably assume that the notes are the same length (maybe all eighth notes or quavers) but this may not always be true - it depends on who wrote the TAB.
As a general rule, the spacing of the notes on the TAB should tell you which notes are the long ones, and which are the short and fast ones, but obviously it won't tell you if a note is a triplet or anything like that. Again, this will depend strongly on the person who wrote the TAB.
As an example, here are the first few notes of the American National Anthem in TAB. You should see fairly clearly that the different spacing corresponds to the different note lengths.
Obviously it will be a lot easier to play the TAB for a song you know well than for a song you've never heard of because you will already be familiar with the ryhthms of the familiar song.
Other symbols used in TAB
So far I've looked at what notes to play : which string to hit, and where to fret it. I've mentioned how to get an idea of note lengths by looking at the spaces between notes on the TAB, but this can only be a rough guide. You will always have to check with the original track to work out details of the rhythm.
A lot of other imprtant information can be included in a piece of TAB. This includes hammer-ons, pull offs, slides, bends, vibrato and so on.
The standard practice is to write extra letters or symbols between notes to indicate how to play them. Here are the letters/symbols most often used :
* h - hammer on
* p - pull off
* b - bend string up
* r - release bend
* / - slide up
* - slide down
* v - vibrato (sometimes written as ~)
* t - right hand tap
* x - play 'note' with heavy damping
For slides, s is sometimes used to indicate either an up or down slide. Symbols for harmonics are explained below in Section 3.2 That last one, the x, is used to get a choppy, percussive sound. You usually use your fretting hand to lightly damp the strings so that when you pick the note it sounds dead.
Note that the use of 'x' is totally different from the use of an 'x' when giving chord shapes.
For example if you wrote the chord of D, you would see :
EADGBE
xx0232
where the 'x's mean do not play this string. In tab it is implicitly assumed that a string is not played if it is not marked. So the same chord in TAB would be :
with no 'x'. The x is is only used in TAB to represent a heavily muted string which is picked/strummed to give a percussive sound.
There are a number of other symbols for things like whammy bar bends, pick scrapes and so on. There seems to be no particular standard way of writing these - details should be given in the TAB to explain what the symbols mean.
Bass TAB will probably need a few extra symbols to cope with the different techniques used in bass playing - for example slapping and 'popping' the string with thumb or middle finger. You could use 's' for slap and 'p' for pop as long as you wrote them underneath the lines of tab to distinguish them from slide and pull off which would be written on the lines of tab.
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Hammer ons and pull offs
With hammer-ons and pull-offs you might find things like these :
Here we have a descending blues scale using pull-offs to the open strings. For each pull off you only pick the first note of the pair with the right hand - so in this example you would pick all the notes on the 3rd and 2nd frets, and the open strings would be sounded by pulling off.
Because you give the string an extra bit of energy when you hammer on and pull off, you only need to hit the first note with the picking hand. You could even have a long string of hammer-ons and pull-offs like this :
Note - you might see other symbols used to mean hammer on or pull off, for example ^ can be use to mean hammer-on and pull-off, e.g:
G---2^4^2----
which would mean "hit the note at the 2nd fret, hammer-on to the 4th and pull-off to the 2nd fret". It would make things easier if everyone used the same symbols, so unless you have a strong objection to 'h' and 'p' please use those. In any case, for any tab you send you should always explain what your symbols mean so if you use anything 'unconventional' make sure you explain what it means.
Bends
When bends are involved you need to know how much to bend the note up. This is indicated by writing a number after the 'b'. For example, if you see this :
it means strike the B string at the 7th fret, then bend the note up two semitones (one whole step) so that it sounds the same pitch as a note fretted at the 9th fret would do. (Sometimes the bend is written with the second part in brackets, like this ---7b(9)--- )
means play the note at the 7th fret, bend up two semitones, strike the note again whilst it is still bent, then release the bend so that the note has it's normal pitch. Sometimes a pre-bend is used - this is where the string is bent up *before* the note is struck. After striking the note, the bend is released. Pre-bends are usually written like this:
This means: fret the note at the 7th fret and bend the string up two semitones (without actually playing the note). Now strike the string and release the bend.
You sometimes get a note which is bent up only a quarter of a tone or so. In this case it would look a bit strange to write :
B--------7b7.5--------
if you have to bend it up half a fret's worth. Instead it's written as :
bend up 1/4 tone
E----------------------------------------------------------------
B------7b--------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------
with instructions on how much to bend written above the note.
Slides
The most common symbols used for slides are / for a slide up and for a slide down.
You might also see 's' used to mean slide.
You don't always need separate symbols for 'up' and 'down' slides since a line of TAB reading :
where the exact start or finish of a slide is not given. Here you have to know whether you're sliding up or down. In these cases use your judgement to choose the starting or finishing fret. The effect usually desired is to have a note 'swooping in' from a lower pitch or dropping suddenly in pitch as the note fades.
You could have a whole series of slides running together, like this
which would mean you only strike the first note with the pick using the sustain to produce the other notes.
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Note length information
Occasionally you will find TAB which includes information on all of the note lengths. There seems to be no particular 'standard' way of doing this, but it usually involves a line of letters or symbols above the TAB.
See below (Section 3.2 part 6) for more details.
If the explanation of the timing symbols is not given in the TAB then you've got a problem ! In this case a quick email to the author to ask for enlightenment is the only way forward.
[Back To Contents]
Writing Guitar Tablature
Getting started
Perhaps one of the most important things to do before you start typing up a piece of TAB is to decide exactly how much information to include in it. The trick is to convey the right amount of information in a clear, easily readable form.
Questions you can ask yourself are :
* Is the song played using mostly chords ?
* Are there a number of riffs which appear throughout the song ?
* Is there a clear verse/chorus/middle bit structure ?
By planning ahead a little you should be able to produce a clearly structured TAB which will not only be easier for others to read, but also easier for you to type in.
There are also choices to be made when deciding what package to use when typing the TAB in. All you really need is a simple text editor, however a mouse-driven editor will probably make things easier.
When you start typing in it saves time if you draw out one blank stave and then make 8 or 10 copies of these before you start typing in the fret numbers etc.
If you use a more complicated package like Microsoft Word then make sure that the characters you use are all the same length. If an 'm' character is wider than an 'i' character then your TAB is going to look very strange on another text editor. Choose a font where all charcters get the same width - Courier usually does the job.
There are also a number of programs available by ftp which were written specifically to make TAB writing easier. Details of these programs including ftp addresses are in the 'TABBING MADE EASY' FAQ by John Kean, along with other useful hints for writing TAB. You can obtain this FAQ from OLGA (www.olga.netsoftware.html).
To TAB or not to TAB
If a song can be described well with just chords, then it will be a lot easier to read and write if you just use the chord shapes, rather than tab out the chords.
BUT - if you do just send in the chords it makes things much clearer if you give the chord shapes as well. For example, if you wanted to send in Led Zeps 'Gallows Pole' you could write:
To TAB out these chords will take a lot longer to type in, and will probably take people a lot longer to read and understand. Where a song is based around chords like this, it makes things much easier if you just give chord shapes and names, then show where the chords go in relation to the words.
[Back To Contents]
Things to do when writing TABs
One of the most important considerations when typing in TAB is to make it clear and easily readable.
There are a few simple things you can do to make things work.
* Use spaces !
It's amazing the difference it can make if you insert a few blank lines in the right place. If you are used to writing the words above or below the lines of TAB make sure you leave a few lines free so that it's clear whether the words belong to the line of TAB above or below. Space out the individual lines of TAB and the whole thing will be a lot easier for others to understand.
* Define the symbols you use.
It would make everybody's life a lot easier if everyone used the same symbols for hammer ons, bends etc.
BUT - if you are convinced that your particular way of writing bends and slides makes much more sense than anyone else's, that's OK as long as you tell everybody what system you use. It makes very good sense to start your TAB file with a list of symbols used.
The list of most commonly used symbols is below :
o h - hammer on
o p - pull off
o b - bend string up
o r - release bend
o / - slide up
o - slide down
o v - vibrato (sometimes written as ~)
o t - tap (with strumming hand)
o x - muted, struck string
when you get on to harmonics , you might see a variety of symbols used. Even in standard music notation, an accepted way of writing natural and artificial harmonics has neverbeen agreed ! However, using brackets is the standard way of writing harmonics, so a natural harmonic at the 12th fret would be :
Normal brackets () are sometimes used for grace notes or optional notes so 'pointy' brackets is the usual choice for harmonics. Because there are no standards (in written music or tablature) to distinguish between natural and artificial harmonics, some confusion sometimes arises. If you are writing out some tab with harmonics, it's best to add a note to say whether they are natural harmonics (most commonly at the 5th, 7th and 12th frets) or artificial (pinched) harmonics. With artificial harmonics, you have to fret a note with the left hand (say at the 2nd fret) and pinch the harmonic an octave above (at the 14th fret) so you should make it clear whether the number you write in the tab is the fretted or pinched note. It is more common to tab out the pinched notes, so if you see tab like this :
It will usually mean fret notes at the 2nd, 4th and 5th frets, and play the artificial harmonics at the frets shown in the tab.
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* Label bits of the TAB
It makes things a lot easier if you can see where the 'verse' and 'chorus' parts of a song are, so put a few labels in certain places to guide people through it.
Many songs will have clear 'verse' and 'chorus' structures - so you can tab out the riffs/chords or whatever for these just once, and then indicate where these are repeated. Or there maybe a couple of important riffs which are used - so TAB these out and label them 'Riff One' and 'Riff Two' - then when they come up later in the song you can just say 'repeat Riff One four times' instead of tabbing the whole thing again.
As long as it's clear which bits of TAB go with which label, you will save yourself time this way as well as making it easier to read for others.
* Include Artist/album
It's useful for others to know where to find the original song, so at the beginning of each TAB include some information on the artists who recorded the original, and the album on which the song can be found.
* General comments
It's also useful to include a few lines at the beginning of the TAB to explain the style of the song, or to point out important features such as alternative tunings, use of capos etc.
A few words along the lines of "use a staccato, funky kind of strumming style for the chords, then change to a sustained feel for the lead line" will help people to get an idea of how to approach the playing style.
Information on the type of guitar (electric/acoustic, 6 string/12 string) and effects used would be useful.
One point on the use of capos and alternative tunings :
For TAB using a capo, it's standard practice to write the numbers of the frets relative to the position of the capo. So if you had a D major shape with a capo at the 2nd fret the TAB would be :
The notes fretted on the top three strings are 2 or 3 frets above the capo position, so they are written with the numbers 2 or 3, even though you actually fret the notes at the 4th and 5th frets.
When writing out the names of chords played using a capo, it's usually best to use chord names that take into account the actual pitch of the notes. For example, in the tab example above, guitarists recognise the chord shape as a "D shape", but because the capo is at the 2nd fret the actual chord is an E (2 semitones up from a D), so you should write the chord name as E. This makes it easier for other musicians (or other guitarists who aren't using a capo) to play along in the right key.
It's similar with TAB for guitars tuned a semitone or tone lower than usual. If a song should be played with the guitar tuned to Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb, and it has this chord :
although it "looks like an E chord" it is actually an Eb, because of the tuning, so in the long run, it avoids confusion to call it an Eb.
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* Timing information
You may want to get really serious and include details giving the precise rhythm of the piece. This will involve a lot more typing, but it means all the information necessary to play the piece is given explicitly.
One way to approach this is to write a line of dashes interspersed with numbers which count the beats. So in 4-4 time, you would have : 1---2---3---4---1---2---3---4--- etc Under this you can write a line of d's and u's to represent down and upstrokes. Here is a simple example where the rhythm is 2 crotchets (quarter notes) followed by 4 quavers (8th notes)
You could expand on this to use upper and lower case letters to indicate accents and so on. If you use this method make sure that you clearly separate the 2 lines of rhythm information from the 6 lines of TAB !!!
One other way of including timing information is to use one letter/symbol for each note type.
For example use e for 8th note (quaver), s for 16th note (semi- quaver) and so on. The letters you use may well differ depending on whether you're used to the american system of quarter notes, 8th notes etc or the english system of crotchets and quavers , but the method is the same.
If you're not sure of the 'translations' here they are :
Here I've used q for quarter note, e for 8th note and t for triplet quarter note.
If you want to send in a TAB with rhythm information like this then it's essential to explain the system you use. I've seen a lot of different systems of letters and numbers of varying degrees of simplicity and readability. Whichever you choose to use, you'll have to explain all your symbols to make sure others can work out what the hell you're on about.
If you want to give a few clues as to the rhythm of the TAB, but don't want to get too involved, use of bar lines is an effective way of conveying timing information.
Simply insert a vertical line of |'s to indicate the end of a bar. So using the national anthem example I had before, with bar lines it looks like this :
It's a lot easier to follow a piece of TAB when you've got at least some of the lyrics to follow, and you can match up the notes/riffs in the TAB to the lyrics.
Try to include lyrics for at least the first verse and chorus. If you're not sure of the words you can www.lyrics.ch - there is a large collection of song lyrics held there.
Failing that a request to the newsgroups along the lines of
" Please mail me the lyrics to such and such so that I can make a proper job of the TAB I'm working on"
will usually get a sympathetic response.
As a final note on writing TAB I should say that whenever you post to the newsgroups ALWAYS cross post to both guitar groups, and also mail a copy to guitar@nevada.edu so that it can be included in OLGA.
For more information on posting to the guitar newsgroups and OLGA see the other FAQs regularly posted to the guitar newsgroups.
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Things to avoid
* Tab Wraparound
One of the most common problems in writing TAB is text wraparound. This makes the TAB almost impossible to read but is very easily avoided.
The problem occurs when you write a line of TAB which is maybe 80 or 90 characters long. For a lot of people this is too wide for their screen, so what should be a single line of tab ends up being split onto two lines.
(This probelm only occurs with text files, not with HTML. I've simulated the effect below)
This looks pretty weird when you see it. When I wrote it, using Windows 'Notepad', it looked fine because I could fit the whole thing on one screen. For most newsreaders though, it is too long and you run into problems.
All you have to do is be careful when you type in TAB so that you the maximum width of line is say 60 characters.
I've tried to do that in this FAQ so that the maximum width is about
this much. If you limit your TABs in the same way, you should be OK.
Of course, if TAB does get wrapped around the author might not realise because it looked fine on his/her screen when they wrote it. It might be worth letting them know of the problem, so they can be careful in the future.
(This includes me ! If parts of this FAQ are too wide for your screen, please let me know !)
* Very squashed TAB
It's amazing how easy it is to ruin an otherwise good piece of TAB by not spacing it out so that the end result is a mass of cramped TAB, explanations, labels etc.
When you finish typing up, go back through the TAB and see if you can insert a few blank lines here and there to separate verse from chorus or whatever. It really does make it a lot easier for others to read.
It might also be worth considering if you've included too much detail in the TAB. Usually this will not be the case, but I have seen a few TABs which go into great details, but are extremely off-putting to try to read because of the sheer quantity of information.
* Unnecessary repetition
If a line of TAB or a particular riff is repeated a number of times then save yourself the effort, TAB it once.
It's also easier to read like this.
That's all I think you need to know about reading and writing TAB. If there's anything important you think I've left out or if there are bits of the FAQ which you can't understand then let me know.
Ok so you’ve just seen the glistening axe that’s going to propel you to glory on the stage and in the studio, so what next??
Oddly enough the maintenance starts before the guitar even leaves the shop or at least it should do.
When haggling over your new guitar try to get the shop to throw in a set of new strings and a set up for you prior to you collecting it. (Or them sending it.)
You should be able to specify the kind of action you want, if you don’t say anything then the guitar tech will set it up for what he or she feels is best.
It’s important to start with a well set up guitar as then you know:
A. It has a new set of strings that haven’t sat on it for several months collecting corrosion and dust
B. The neck will be properly adjusted
C. The intonation will have been set
D. The bridge or trem will be adjusted properly
E. The nut slots will have been checked and adjusted so the strings don’t stick
F. Everything will be fitting properly/ the electrics will be working properly
G. * The frets should have been polished (*not all tech’s do this as part of a set up though)
The following items will be needed to look after your guitar.
A string winder
At least one spare set of strings
Lemon oil **not needed for maple fretboards**
Lint free clothe
Guitar tuner
A gig bag or better still a hard guitar case
An old soft towel
Do’s and don’ts
Don’t lean you guitar up against a radiator or other heater
Don’t leave the guitar in direct sunlight
Don’t put your guitar case or guitar by the windows/ rear windscreen of your car or truck. (A certain guitarist once put his in the back of a VW camper only to find the neck joint got to hot. the neck was hanging off his flying V when it came in my door
Don’t touch the truss rod, unless you really know what your doing leave it to the pro’s
Try not to get it wet.
Never grab a mic stand whilst resting your other hand on the guitar strings or bridge (to many guitarists have been electrocuted this way due to a bad earth on their gear.)
Don’t leave it in damp places.
Do put it in the case when you have finished with it for the day/night.
Do wipe the strings, neck, bridge and other area’s where your hands have been resting with a clean cloth after playing. Our sweat is surprisingly corrosive
Do try to keep your guitar in an enviroment with an even temperature and humidity.
On a weekly basis all you really need to do is check the tuning and keep it clean, this of course will increase to nightly for those who are playing any gigs.
It’s a good idea to get in the habit of replacing the strings regularly.
How often will depend on how much you play.
If you just play at home occasionally and case the guitar then once every 2-3 months will suffice, if you play everyday at home it could be once a month.
If your gigging regularly then prior to every gig or after every gig.
It’s also a good idea to get in the habit of cleaning the fretboard when you change the strings.
So here’s what you should do.
Remove the old strings from the guitar
If you have a maple fretboard then all this means is whipping of any build up with a clean cloth, if the residue is stubborn then you can use a cloth dampened in a little warm water and washing up liquid, just make sure you dry it off with a clean cloth after.
For rosewood or ebony boards:
Get a piece of clean lint free cloth,
Place the guitar on a level solid surface on an old soft towel; roll the towel so that it supports the neck at least halfway up.
Put your finger inside the clean cloth and place over the open top of the lemon oil, invert so the cloth absorbs some of the oil then rub into the fret board between the frets.
Leave for 15 mins to soak into the board, and then wipe off with a clean cloth.
Check the nut slots are clear and strings aren’t sticking; if in doubt rub a little graphite from a 2B pencil into the slot (use the old strings to check)
Give the bridge and saddles a quick clean with a plain cloth, use an old toothbrush to reach dust in awkward places.
Do the same for locking nuts.
Fit the new strings and tune to your desired pitch (generally A440)
When fitting the new strings you don’t need lots of coils around the string posts
3 are fine for wound strings and 5-6 for plain strings.
Cut off any excess using wire cutters.
Stretch the strings by placing your hand between the fretboard and the strings and pulling up sharply several times, then re tune to pitch.
Wipe the guitar over with a clean cloth to remove any finger marks and that’s it job done.
It may sound stupid outlining this but so many just don’t bother with any of this then start bitching about how crap their guitar is.
I would also recommend getting a pro set up done on your guitar (s) once a year.
A pro set up should cover all the things listed A-F at the beginning of this post.
I know what a difference a pro set up can make, I can remember a local teacher sending a kid to me begging me to have a look at his guitar as he couldn’t afford a new guitar, his was shit and he was ready to give up.
He left it with me overnight to have a look at. I did a full set up and fret polish. He came back the next day and couldn’t believe it was the same guitar.
In short it made the difference between him carrying on and packing in playing.
Though I’m a trained guitar tech I still send my guitars to someone else to get set up.
My mate Alvin is one of the best in the game especially as an acoustic builder.
He’s an ex Gibson guitar tech who has made acoustics for people such as Gordon Giltrap etc
I know he will do a good job on my babies, and prefer to trust the job to him.
Wish I knew about this before I quite guitar. Once I start back up(wanna learn bass, before I pick back up guitar).. this page will probly be my best friend.
You can use other sonorities not found in the diatonic set, such as fully and half diminished chords, or augmented chords. But you have to be careful because a lot of those non-diatonic chords resolve in specific ways.
Hey
I have a question that has been bugging me for a while. So, In theory if I would like to write a song (on guitar) and I am starting off lets say with the Am chord then with D and then C, How do I know, which other notes (voice) can i put .on. them?
Brock [forum info]
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VF Awards 2010 Poster you'd least like to see naked!
Sk8Bitch: In the end you'll find out that theory really means nothing and to go with what you feel when writing a song. Theory is good, and most learn it in the beginning as a road map, but later it's never really used because by memory you're used to writing how you feel. There's no law that says a certain chord can only be used in a certain progression or whatever. Play the chords in the order you think you like and a order that sounds good to your ears...if they don't sound good then change it up.
That Mark Levine's book "Jazz Theory Book" is just friggin' awesome. And when you've got all the basics figured out, you can move on to another great book:
Ron Miller: Modal Jazz Composition And Harmony Vol. 1 (Advance Music, 1996)
Might be a hard one to find, but sure is worth it. To get 100% out of the book, you'd need to have a piano at hand - but fear not, you don't actually have to know how to play it, just how to make chords. A friend of mine, a guitarist, also found this book illuminating. It gives you a different kind of perspective to music. A bit jazz-oriented, but then again; you don't have to like jazz to get the picture, although it helps if you check out the songs recommended by the book.
The first kiss cuts the deepest, and the bleeding never stops...
My music theory professor was a fucking twat. I learned way more from my tutor. She was patient with me because I only have a certain amount of music theory. Granted the music I do doesn't really apply music theory, but I was there to learn.
I have learned that music theory is a great guide for any genre of music. It allows for awesome chords and layering. Essential parts of all music especially electronic production.
I just bought a thick-as-a-brick book about the orchestration, and the little that I've already read about it, has helped me a lot! I play the keyboards in a progband (Carved in Ashes, obviously) and both classical and jazz theory has helped me quite a lot with writing harmonic lines and chord progressions.
"The first kiss cuts the deepest, and the bleeding never stops..."
