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We’ve all heard the Beatles song that says; “There’s nothing you can sing that can’t be sung-all you need is love.” And, well, maybe we thought this was just a product of the times or controlled substance speaking.

Well here’s what another well known musician of his day had to say about the subject;

“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.” 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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The question of whether music evolves or not would certainly run hand in glove with the question or whether society itself evolves, or has evolved.  Every generation certainly has a feeling, to one degree or another, that it is somehow hipper, more knowledgeable and has it more together than the previous generations.  

The ‘classical music‘ stream turned avant-garde in the early 1900’s and on into the 1960’s or so and was popularly regarded as the ‘new music.’ From the jazz of the 1940 and on, rock music arose and this was also heralded as ‘new.’

Many still regard the avant-garde as the ‘new music,’ even though it’s at least fifty or more years old. Since rock, there has been ‘New Wave‘ and ‘New Age.’

“In order to take the spiritual temperature of an individual or society, one must mark the music.” Plato.

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Here’s a couple of contrasting opinions for you;

“Nothing separates the generations more than music. By the time a child is eight or nine, he has developed a passion for his own music that is even stronger than his passions for procrastination and weird clothes.”   Bill Cosby.

“Music is what unifies” Seu-ma-tsen, Chinese philosopher.

I guess it comes down to the question my good friend Fritz Kundler has posed; Do you wear your music or listen to it?   Does this song make me look fat? 

Without a doubt, many people wear their music which is a function, as Mr. Cosby has pointed out, of creating an identity that is sparate from the previous generation. This has gone on, no doubt, since before Rome and, rather than being a highly original identity, it is a tenuous one, blown about by fashion and dictated by, as Fritz points out, men in suits.

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Feedback on the free guitar lessons has been quite positive and I thank you so much. There have been a number of requests for more posts on open string chords so we’ll start with guitar for beginners and move on from there.

Again, as you are learning guitar chords, you want to learn the name of the chord and associate that with the shape of the chord. By shape I mean how it looks in the chord box.

The other thing is it doesn’t do you much good to learn a chord here and a chord there; you get the best benefit by practicing going from one chord to another.

In any key that you play in there are three chords that tend to show up the most and so you will progress the quickest if you group these chords together and practice going from one to the other. These are sometimes called the Primary Chords but they are the chords that are built on the first, fourth and fifth notes of a scale.

For example, if you are in the key of C Major, your scale will start on C and run; CDEFGABC. Therefore the main chords for C major will be C, F  and G. And here they are;

C Major Chord

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This series in guitar lessons on this blog will teach you about chords. We will start with guitar chords for beginners and work up to more advanced chords like bar chords and jazz chords.

The easiest chords to start with on guitar are known as ‘open string‘ chords. They are called open string chords because they combine some fingered notes with the open strings of the guitar and make for easy strumming.

The best way to learn these chords is from chord boxes. This is what a chord box looks like;

C Major Chord

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So, continuing in our tradition of jazz guitar lessons for free on this blog, here’s something that is a fun and easy way to start creating your own jazz.

Use the traditional twelve bar blues formula. This simple, open eneded form has generated more blues and jazz tunes than anyone can count. It’s based on what is known as the ‘Primary Chords.’ There are three ‘Primary Chords;’ they are I, IV and V7.   These are roman numerals and they stand for the chord built on the first note of a scale, the chord built on the fourth note of a scale and the chord built on the fifth note of a scale.

In the key of C Major, then, the ‘Primary Chords’ would be CM, FM and GM. Following the diagram here, you can see that you would use the I chord for four measures, the IV chord for two measures, the I chord again for two measures, the V7 chord for two measures and finish off with two measures of the I chord.

The idea here, is that one instrument takes a solo each time through and ‘jams’ or improvises using the scale pattern for  the key you are in, in this case C major. The other instruments play a supporting role, often playing chord patterns throughout. In the diagram, I have shown some suggested chord patterns that would be used in each measure, changing the chord when needed. (Ignore the fact that there are rests in the measures and just play through with the same chord pattern until the chord changes.)

The Twelve Bar Blues

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Image by Tony the Misfit via Flickr

To be a fluent improviser in jazz, it helps to know your scales really well. Fortunately it’s not all that difficult; scales and chords are really just patterns, and the cool thing is, on guitar it so easy to just move these patterns to whatever key you’re in.

This is a C major scale because the 2nd finger begins on the 8th fret which is C. The inportant thing here is to just learn the pattern. Check out the fingerings on the bottom and you will see that it is a fairly simple pattern. If you want a scale for a different key, just move the 2nd finger to that note and do the exact same pattern;

After you learn the pattern really well, practice jamming and making up some riffs or melodies using the notes of the pattern. Put some swing into your rhythm and you will sound like a guitar hero. Here are the notes on the 6th string so you can change to any key;

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So here’s another in a series of  jazz guitar lessons free right here on this blog. So just what is meant by the term swing? (Music-wise, that is.)

Well, swing is a musical performance practice indiginous to jazz and also a lot of pop music to come after. It has to do with how the 8th notes are played and you must get a grip on this to be in the groove. Take a look at this table of basic rhythms for music;

The Basic Rhythms

In classical music, the 8th notes are played evenly; 2 on a beat, but in jazz, the first 8th note of a pair (the one directly on the beat) is made longer and the second one  is then shorter.  The two 8th notes are then just like the quarter note with an 8th note as a triplet rhythm. This rythm is best understood as if you took an 8th note triplet and tied the first two 8th notes together. Tied notes become one note that has the duration of both the notes added together.

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Here is a two octave blues scale in TABS. Most books have a major pentatonic scale pattern in more than one octave, but seldom a two octave blues scale and the blues scale is very handy for playing lots of cool jams. The blues scale is based on the minor pentatonic scale with a ‘flated fifth’ added. In this TABS, the red fret numbers are where you would shift up always with the first finger. The blue numbers are for going down and the blue 8 is a second finger.

2 Octave Blues Scale

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Here is the motivational quote for the day;
Dr. Wayne Dyer has said this about inspiration;
“I think of the word inspiration as meaning ‘being in-Spirit.’
When we’re in-Spirit, we’re inspired…and when we’re inspired, it’s because we’re back in-Spirit,
fully awake to Spirit within us. Being inspired is an experience of joy. We feel completely connected to our Source…”
Comment; Being inspired then is a matter of being connected to our Source. To be connected to our Source,
we must raise our vibration.

Connect with your source by clearing your chakras with musical tones. 

Be the superstar you truly are.

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