Stop Bugging Me About Music Theory! July 5, 2014 No CommentIf you troll through the internet looking for music theory + guitar, you find people telling you that you need music theory. Some of them are angry about it. Nobody needs music theory. Unless you want to make a career out of music. Most people not learning guitar in college or university (which happens to be most people) aren’t interested in going pro. Some are. In which case, learn your theory. It’ll be easier to make a living. The rest of you? Don’t worry about it. Some background I’ve taught theory and composition in university. Some truth You don’t need music theory to play the guitar. Some more truth You’d probably be happier if you knew some music theory. You might even be able to play the guitar better. I’ve tried to address the second truth by posting about note-reading, building chords, defining terms, key signatures, etc, but only when it applies to making something. I haven’t addressed the first truth because there’s not much to say about that. You either agree or disagree. Here’s what I think: Play and learn Just play the guitar. Theory will follow practice. Learn a scale and you have a finger exercise. Use that scale to play a solo on a jam track and you’ll know about keys (most jam tracks – from books or internet – tell you what key you’re in). This won’t tell you a ton about keys, but you’ll know that you need to relate the scale to the key. If you don’t, everything you play will be hit and miss. You won’t like that, and you’ll learn more about the key/scale relationship. You’ll learn that you need to use the letter-name of the key as the first note of the scale. In other words, start the scale on C if you’re in the key of C. Examples: C minor pentatonic on a blues in C C major pentatonic on a country song in C C major scale on a tune in C major C minor scale on a tune in C minor If there’s any information in those four statements that you didn’t already know, you’ll search, find, and learn. Or you’ll take a few lessons. You might even want to study theory as a separate thing. When you get dissatisfied with playing in the same place on the guitar, you’ll learn about modes. These allow you to play the notes of a scale anywhere on the guitar. When you get dissatisfied with the number of chords you know, you’ll learn more and figure out how to use them. All of these activities are theory-based. Why would you not do them? Be curious If you’re curious about music and the guitar, you’ll move down a path of increasing knowledge and interest. At some point, you’ll probably get a teacher if you need advice or direction. If you’re not curious about music and the guitar, then ask yourself why you’re holding a guitar. There’s no shame in putting it down and finding something you’re more interested in. Whatever you do, don’t let people make you feel bad for not knowing music theory. Just play the guitar. thoughtsShare : Tweet
Rhythm Stretching July 3, 2014 No CommentThis is a fairly standard idea. Simply take a rhythm and stretch the duration of each chord in the progression (or note in the riff) equally. Use the same chords (or notes) from the original rhythm in the stretched rhythm. To make this idea as clear as possible, the original rhythm that I use will be quarter notes. In each example, the numbers above the quarter-notes correspond to the numbers above the notes in the stretched rhythm example. Example 1 For the first example, I’ve stretched each quarter-note equally by an eighth note. This… …becomes this. Example 2 You can stretch whichever note(s) you want. Here I’ve stretched beats 2 and 4. Example 3: Gradient rhythm Another idea is to stretch the notes in an ever-increasing gradient. In the next example, each succeeding note gets longer than the one before it by an eighth note. To be perfectly clear: Beat 1 – quarter note Beat 2 – quarter note plus eighth note Beat 3 – quarter note plus two eighth notes Beat 4 – quarter note plus three eighth notes Beat 5 – quarter note plus four eighth notes Don’t be monotonous Use this technique as a way of brainstorming variations and generating new ideas. Stretching a couple of notes in the original rhythm creates a related rhythm. Moving from the original rhythm to the stretched rhythm and back relieves monotony. Composition, UncategorizedShare : Tweet
Rhythm Chunking 3: Riffs June 28, 2014 No CommentRiffs are generally thought of as the repetition of a short melodic unit, or a short chord progression. The rhythm always stays the same. Conventionally. Let’s not be conventional. Melody + rhythm = riff First, we make a five-note melody. Now take those five notes and superimpose them on different rhythms. I’ll use the ones we made in the last posts (The last chunk is new. I needed something to complete the five-note melody I started on the second note of the second-last chunk). Superimposing the five notes on different rhythms creates a nice kind of tension. It allows you to predict (as a listener) what the five notes are without being able to predict when they’ll repeat. Make your own Make your own stuff. Create a short melody – anywhere from 4 to 8 notes. Then make 3 or 4 different rhythms and string them together in different ways. rhythm 1, rhythm 2, rhythm 3 rhythm 3, rhythm 1, rhythm 2 rhythm 2, rhythm 1, rhythm 3 etc. If you spend some time superimposing your melody on these different rhythms, you’re bound to come up with stuff you like. Long melodies Once you’re comfortable doing this with short melodies, try it with long ones. Restrict yourself to one rhythm here. If the melody is really long, it can be difficult to hear when it repeats. Using different rhythms makes that even more difficult, and the whole thing can lose focus. But do some experimenting and see what works. Start with one rhythm. Then try it with two. Go crazy and use three. Stay sensitive to when it stops sounding good. Composition, guitar, UncategorizedShare : Tweet
Rhythm Chunking 2: Chord progressions June 26, 2014 No CommentIn the last post, I talked about possibilities for creating different rhythms by taking smaller, 3 to 5 beat chunks of rhythm from a longer stream of notes. I superimposed chords and pitches on these rhythms to create a rhythmic chord progression, a riff, and part of a solo. Let’s focus on chords in this post. The first example uses a single rhythm chunk repeated three times. Now string different rhythmic chunks together using those same chords. Creating variety By the way, I’m not trying to make this sound awesome. I’m just randomly plugging in chords to make a point. The point is that you can create a crazy amount of different progressions by using the following procedure: Take a few rhythmic chunks out of a stream of notes. Repeat one of those chunks with a single chord or with different chords. Mix the chunks and superimpose a progression of chords on the result. Use the progression from number 3 on a different combination of rhythm chunks. Limit yourself Try using just three chunks. Combine those chunks in different ways to create a variety of different combinations. Example: Chunk 1, Chunk 1, Chunk 1 Chunk 1, Chunk, 2, Chunk 3 Chunk, 2, Chunk 3, Chunk 1 Don’t let these get too long (Chunk 1, Chunk 2, Chunk 3, Chunk 1, Chunk 1, Chunk 3, Chunk, 2). This sacrifices focus and doesn’t communicate directly. Experiment with length and see what you like. Composition, guitar, UncategorizedShare : Tweet
Rhythm chunking June 22, 2014 No CommentBy chunking I mean taking a chunk out of a rhythm you’ve made, and using it as the main action. You can create chunks from a longer rhythm, say 4 or more bars. Three chunks For now, take chunks of 3 to 5 beats from this longer rhythm. Here’s a 4-beat chunk. Where did I find this chunk in the 4 bar phrase above? What beat does it start on? Here’s another one. Here’s one that doesn’t start with a rest. It’s not 4 beats long, either. Remember to experiment with different lengths. Strumming Make that last chunk a strumming pattern… Riffs …or change the notes and create a riff. Solos You can also use this idea to create part of a solo. So the basic idea here is to take a longer rhythm, take a chunk out of it, and then repeat that chunk to create chord progressions, riffs, and solos. The range of possibilities is endless. I’ll look at using this idea in a chord progression in the next post. Composition, UncategorizedShare : Tweet
Erasures 2 June 19, 2014 No CommentThe next step is to take the patterns you’ve made (see last post) and play them in all the possible orders. Some examples: Original + erasure 1 + erasure 5 Erasure 4 + erasure 3 + erasure 1 + erasure 6 Erasure 5 + original + erasure 2 + erasure 4 + erasure 3 Get the idea? You can probably see that the number of possibilities is fairly large. I’m not going to write them all down, but you can. Or just write out three, and then play them. Tomorrow, do a couple more and play around with those. Really, all you have to do is one a day. New stuff Working in this way gives you new stuff to explore everyday. Some of what you make you may not like, but some you will. And that stuff can turn into entire pieces, or just a really cool groove. In any case, your rhythm playing will get better, and you’ll develop an attitude of experimenting. You’ll become fine with failing because you’ll discover that finding stuff that works is worth looking at the stuff that doesn’t. Composition, UncategorizedShare : Tweet
