Learning to read music

[davebrownbass]

I'm sorry...I thought I'd specified that the included sevenths were used primarily in jazz.

 

I actually teach a bass exercise made of the notes Dan gave you...where you arpeggiate a seventh chord up, then play the included mode back down. (I didn't invent that, Lady...lot's of people teach that.)

 

So, it would go like this:

 

C-E-G-B-a-g-f-e-d-c

D-F-A-C-b-a-g-f-e-d-

E-G-B-D-c-b-a-g-f-e-

 

And so on.

 

We play it so the capitalized notes are quarter notes and the lower case are eighths. That puts it in 5/4 time.

 

To play this properly will require extensions on the D-F-A chord, shift every chord and play in one position with string crossings.

 

Best way I know to get the sound of the chords of the major scale AND the sound of the modes in one exercise...with bonus fingerings!

 

It proves what Dan said in another post...scales and chords are the same thing.

 

My second reference to the movie "Short Circuit" today. I seem to hear eager young bass players shouting "Input...Input"

 

But I'll second the wise suggestion made earlier. "Be patient."

 

Experiment with these ideas, but don't get to anxious. I admire what Jeremy and Dan and others say here, I understand it. That come's from years of experience.

 

You learn, taking one step at a time. Play what you know, and just one idea and work it in.

 

Music theory is a big circle, you are at the center, and spokes are going in all directions. You'll have to travel down one or two spokes to see the connection.

 

And, after years, you can rise above the wheel and see the connection in it's entirety.

 

But you gotta be patient, keep playing,

and keep having fun.

[dohhhhh6]

Ssadly, I haven't quite used all this great stuff on an actualy bass quite yet (but I have been thinking about everything you said!). So soon as I can (after my lesson which got rescheduled to today) I'll go through a bunch of this stuff on bass and keyboard (which I happen to have a keybaord less than 30 feet from this computer ) and learn some good theory. Yes, I think I'm going a little fast, but right now I'm in a mood which makes me want to learn a lot. This mood is something that I go through kinda of quickly so I want to take advantage of it. Again, thanks for all the help. Peace.

[MartinJ]

Originally posted by davebrownbass:

...

Now, here's a principle for learning you need to know:

 

Analysis is the practice of learning by taking things apart.

Synthesis is the practice of learning by putting things together.

 

You need to do both.

...

Absolutely, brother!

 

In fact, there's a solid theoretical basis for the synthesis part of the learning; cognitive psychology folks refer to something called Constructivism. The idea is that you don't build robust knowledge by receiving (and/or analyzing) information, but rather solid understanding is constructed in the mind of the learner. This only happens when the learner has to synthesize - or otherwise outwardly express - the knowledge he/she is trying to understand.

 

Teachers report this phenomenon all the time when they express the old adage that one really learns something when one has to explain it (the synthesis part) to someone else.

 

Cool point, Dave.

[Dan South]

Hey Lady In Pink!

 

Don't worry if you don't immediately "get" all of what's been posted here. We live our entire musical lives in the context of simple seven note scales, and yet decade after decade we discover new relationships among those notes. I would encourage you to work through these examples without the pressure of trying to understand everything. Just pick up what you can and reflect back on these lessons in the future. Some of what we've presented here will become obvious to you immediately. Other concepts will gel in your mind and heart months or years later. The important thing is to actively pursue knowledge, even if it's not completely available at first glance.

 

Learning the inner workings of music is like climbing a mountain. You can't see all of the mountain until you've climbed quite high. On your first ascent, you might only make it one tenth of the way up, but in that relatively short journey, you'll see many amazing things. On subsequent climbs, you'll see more and more and more. No one ever sees ALL of the mountain; it's too vast. There are always new, joyful secrets lurking in the most unexpected places. If you climb the mountain once, you may come away frustrated or disappointed. But if you dedicate yourself to a lifetime of climbing, you'll find new and delightful adventures on every excursion.

 

Cherish every note that you play and every step that you travel on your musical journey. I congratulate you on having opened your mind and heart to new ideas. That's the first step that makes all others possible.

 

[dohhhhh6]

Ok, I started some of DBB's weird chrod/mode thing. But without tab, I was all over the place hitting open strings and just about gave up when I realized that there was a arpeggio and the 7th and down of a scale. LOL sometimes we should take titles into account . I'm nto doing anymore of those chord/mode things for a lil while though...

 

All the stuff was pretty brief and refreshing. Thanks for all the help guys. I've finally made the move to standard notation WOOT! Well sorta... I'm not sure if I'm gonna keep taking tab for my bass lessons since I still need some time before I make a complete evacuation of tab (and then still I might pull SOME tab out every once in awhile). Right now, I'm raiding my old piano books and taking no prisoners. I'm only play treble cleff right now because I'm more familiar with treble cleff, those ledger lines are annoying, and because I want to get the most fun out of reading these old tunes.

 

At this moment, I know the main rift to "Yellow Submarine" from using the piano books . Right now I'm working on Jesu, Joy of Man's Desire's treble cleff. It's a lil hard because I've been learning the lines on the E and A strings and then I find out how to play everything including open strings and the first few frets. A little tedious, yes but it's all good for the moment I guess.

 

As soon as I get back from vacation, I'm thinking of spending some time with my fretboard so I hopefully won't have to learn everything on the E and A stirng that relearn it using all the strings. Wish me luck guys!