Tag: music theory
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Primary and Secondary Chords in Modal Music
The piece discusses how chords in a mode can be categorized as primary or secondary based on whether they contain the modal note. Primary chords reinforce the modal flavor, while secondary chords do not detract from it. Understanding this distinction allows musicians to intentionally shape the modal sound in their compositions, impacting how pronounced or…
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Modal Notes
Every mode differs from its parent scale by exactly one note. Play that note on the strong beats, and the mode actually sounds like itself.
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Learn the Difference Between 3/4 and 6/8 Time
3/4 and 6/8 can look identical on the page. The accents are what tell your ear the difference, and where hemiola comes from.
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The Blues Scale is a Compromise
The standard blues-scale lesson (minor pentatonic plus one passing tone) skips why the scale sounds bluesy in the first place.
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Three Minor Scales, One Minor Key
Natural, harmonic, and melodic minor aren’t three separate scales. They’re three solutions to the same problem.
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The Dominant Seventh Wants to Go Somewhere
Guitarists learn the dominant 7th as a chord shape. It’s actually an engine.
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CAGED Is a Starting Point
The CAGED system is a useful way to organize the fretboard. The mistake is treating it like music theory.
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Voice Leading on Guitar
Guitarists learn chord shapes. Pianists learn how notes move between chords. This gap explains more than you’d think.
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Learn to Hear the Melody
A lead sheet tells you what the melody is. Your ear is what makes it yours.
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Intervals Are Sounds, Not Fret Distances
Ask a guitarist what a minor third is, and you will most likely hear: three frets. That’s correct in the same way that “turn left at the stop sign” is a correct description of where your house is. It tells you how to get there, but it doesn’t tell you what’s there when you arrive.…