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I learnt the guitar, and therefore music, by playing from a simple chord book and strumming for hours, playing along to records and copying my mates. Although I can play other instruments, I had zero training, instead gleaning bits here and there from the mysteries of music instruction books. And practice, practice, practice. Much has changed in learning material since then (YouTube, my god, YouTube) although one thing has remained:
it’s all practical study.
I still can’t read music. Trial and error is my guide. Give me a track to play along with and my guitar, and I’ll have the song composition more or less worked out by the end of the song. A good deal more to work out the lead guitar.
Now that I am learning how to read music on the piano, and learn the piano properly with scale practice and arpeggios to a metronome, I can feel that a part of music comprehension, composition and indeed soloing is about to open up to me:
understanding a song without using an instrument.
The limitlessness of music is underpinned by some basic components. Can the forum help identify these components, the options of each one, and suggests methods to train the musical mind to recognise them? Basic and advanced tips are all welcome.
Here is a suggestion to kick things off: use the mental space provided by arpeggiated chords to recognise the chords in the music.
I may require a good week to explain what I mean by mental space and arpeggiated chords as I lack the formal knowledge to define them. I am sure many of you have this knowledge and the skills to present its explanation clearly without my undertaking, so please do chip in.
I will bring each point to the header of this thread to provide a guide and avoid repeated suggestions.
Once we have defined the steps, we could put members to the test with some easy songs.
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Comments
If so then basically you can decode a songs chord structure by recognising 2 features ..... the interval it has moved to and the flavour such as major, minor, maj7, Dom7 etc. This is a pretty easy skill to pick up if practiced often and I start every guitar lesson with this to build this skill in students .... being IMHO one of the most useful musical skills you can have
After learning the 3 different positions of a triad (135, 351, 513), it dawned on me how easy it was to hear a chord triad, sing those notes and then find them on the keyboard. However, with the guitar I just searched for the bass root of the chord and then applied my knowledge of chords relative to the tonic. Unfortunately, these are tricks I use with an instrument. I wouldn't know how to use relative pitch to identify which notes they are, or even the bass root for that matter, probably because I've never tried. So before I do, if I've understood correctly, I should do the following:
identify the tonic note, use relative pitch to establish the scale (major or minor) and then identify the bass root of each chord to determine the chords, using my memory of basic musical chord theory to identify the chord (I, IV, VI, II, etc.)
Where: octave
O: semi tone drop
Ver: brain suggests a tone drop to VI but after running up and down a major scale and mentally hearing a 135 triad, I believe it’s a 2 tone drop to the V
The: tone difference up to VI
Rain: tone difference, looks like I’m right, up to VII
Bow: semi tone up to VIII; I can hear I’m right as I’m fairly confident recognising the octave
any suggestions for mentally verifying is appreciated
Way: same as as Some, so tonic
up: I counted the major scale and was surprised to hear High fell on the V, so the interval is a tone above, VI
high: as previously said, V
There's: ah, this is below the tonic, way below, a tone and a half, so low VI
a: an octave above?
land: tone down to V
panicking, so I’m running through the melody to identify the easy notes and work from them, such as Bye. Hearing III, II, I, It seems that these three notes are II, III, I.
That means that Once In A start on the II like Lul, In has the that particular drop you only hear on the VII.
That I Dreamed Of has a similar run but where on the scale? Of sounds like a IV so I checked it against the easier heard V and it seems right. Not sure, not sure. Checked Dreamed against Land. There the same so I was wrong. Instead I now hear That I is the tonic and II. SO of must be a VI. I’ll write that down:
I: II
dreamed: V
of: VI
Once: II
in: LOW VII
a: I, checked against Some
lul: II
la: III
bye: tonic
That was harder than I expected. Let me see if any of it is right.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
so it’s a no from me
do professional singers possess this ability? Is this what Rick Beato mentions in his study book?
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Actually, my plan is three-fold: ear training, learn to read music, and understand rhythm a lot better. Before I bust my finger I was learning Opening by Philip Glass where you hold 3 beats to the bar on the right hand, 2 beats to the bar on the left hand. Other than the hypnotic playing and the extra beats, it showed I needed to improve my time keeping and improve my pressure control over the keys. As I prefer a New Orleans style of piano, or B3 style, I've never had to worry with these types of control. Incredible stuff; I could feel my mind widening.
The plan so far is the training app for ear training, Simply Piano app for reading music, and a metronome for timing.
Yeah, that one comes easy. Minor key, riffing on the I, II, and III. Flattened 7th for the stumble, you might fall?
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.