Subject: Michelle's Question
Michelle's Question
September 30th, 2016 at 8:22 am EDTHey Friend, Today I've got to be brief. I have to be in to work early, so the rushing has already started! I got an email from Michelle N. asking a question about the Circle of Fifths. She writes: Hi Dave, are these instructions only applicable to re ...
Let's Try Another...
September 29th, 2016 at 8:37 am EDTHey Friend, I mentioned I had a little process I used to figure out a scale based on a particular key. It's nothing elaborate, just a way I keep things straight in my head. Regardless of the the key, I always keep C major as the reference. Remember, ...
Going in Circles
September 28th, 2016 at 8:29 am EDTHey Friend, We started talking a little about the Circle of Fifths yesterday, and from that, we figured out that if we're going solely off the number of sharps (#) or flats (b) in a key, the next logical choice to study would be the key of G major. G ...
So What's Next?
September 27th, 2016 at 8:36 am EDTHey Friend, Let's move this along. We covered a lot of ground with the key of C major. Seven chords (plus some variations), in upwards of ten versions for each. Many shapes you can use to work your magic around the guitar neck. But that was just one ...
Baby Steps...
September 26th, 2016 at 8:32 am EDTHey Friend, Yup, no email yesterday. I was a bum. It wasn't that I had something else going on or that I didn't intend on writing. I just got caught up in other stuff. Not that I wasn't thinking about you... I did make a decision as to how The Chord ...
Stttrrreeetttccchhh...
September 24th, 2016 at 5:00 pm EDTHey Friend, I have to say I'm stuck on the Wings song "Bluebird." I'm scratching my head over the key, and wondering about the choice. Maybe I shouldn't question genius, and perhaps it's that I just don't understand the process well enough yet (much ...
It Sounded Easy Enough...
September 23rd, 2016 at 8:37 am EDTHey Friend, Day Two of needing to write while under the cover of headphones. My wife has a deadline to get through these webinars, so you may be getting a few more of these emails with me distracted by the music I happen to have on at the moment. Aft ...
Creating Dimension
September 22nd, 2016 at 8:37 am EDTHey Friend, As I sat down to write this today, my wife was in the middle of listening to a work webinar. The woman giving the webinar is a Southern lady, with a heavy accent. Not unpleasant, but distracting, for sure. Especially for someone like me t ...
From Lows to Highs
September 21st, 2016 at 8:27 am EDTHey Friend, There are many ways to fill out the sonic spectrum in music. By that I mean making sure the bass, mid-range and treble frequencies are represented in a song (as long as they serve the song). Unlike an orchestra that can have hundreds of i ...
Filling Out
September 20th, 2016 at 8:35 am EDTHey Friend, So where were we? Oh yes, scaling for music... We were talking about how composers need to understand the venue that houses their orchestra. It's not enough to pull a bunch of musicians together and sit them down in sections. They had to ...