Music is really hard. Or is it?

One of the things a lot of people I know think about music is that it is really hard to learn, and that you need to have talent to do it. Well, like any other profession, on the high end of things, those things are both true. Systems Engineering isn't exactly a walk in the park, and if you are going to be one of the best at it, it requires some talent. However, getting into the IT field is relatively easy.

The same rules apply to music. Some things seem daunting, like scales and chords. If you want to learn all of them, yes. However, a little knowledge can go a long way.

Lets take the C (referred to as C Major) scale as an example. The notes in the scale are C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. The observant will notice this is all of the major notes, and the order is just slightly out of alphabetical order. Anyone who has played piano also knows that is what comprises the white keys in each octave. If we look at another scale D (D Major) it is D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#. So you can see the pattern is close here, except we have a couple sharps, the F and the C. Since we know there are a bunch of combinations in major and minor, it can seem to get confusing quickly. We also have modes which complicate things further. The thing is, chances are you have something in mind you want to play. Each piece of music is played in a particular key, some will oscillate or change keys, but a that isn't something you need to get into on day one.

Most modern music styles, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Dance, etc. are played with a finite group of keys, and using a limited number of modes, or no modes at all. This means that you can get into it without memorizing the whole thing, you just need to know what Key, Scale, and Mode you are working with on a particular piece of music. With this along tempo and time, you have all the basics covered. I will cover some of this stuff in more detail in other posts around particular pieces of music, but lets just say that your goal, as a novice who doesn't really want to go out and learn all of this stuff at once from a professional teacher, the idea is to limit the number of variables.

So for instance on my music page, there are (or will be soon) a couple versions of a song called Jen's Jazz (the filenames are smoothjam, smoothjamv2, and smoothjamnokb). This arrangement is done in the Key of D. So the chords and notes are largely pulled from the D Maj scale. Some of the instruments may be using different modes, but the central voice in the piece is a soprano sax, which as far as I can tell, is just using the standard D scale. While I arranged the full length piece, I noticed there was something missing. There it was lacking depth and none of the samples available to me solved the problem. So I decided to sample my own. You can here what it sounds like without my samples by listening to "smoothjamnokb".

In order to do that, I needed a midi keyboard, which I have, and some basic musical tricks. I laid down a series of chords and used them to accompany the track. The same piece of music with the keyboard bit I created is here "smoothjamv2". I think it makes a pretty big difference. But it is just a series of basic chords.

So what is a chord? It is just a few notes played together. While this can get even more complicated than scales, a basic cord is made up of 3 notes from the scale. The root note, the 3rd note and the 5th note. So a D maj chord is D, F#, and A. So as I knew what key the piece was in, and I just jotted down all the base chords in D. Then with the music playing I played chords on my keyboard using a basic trial and error method until I found some that sounded good. I also used another musical trick. Its called the 1,4,5 chord progression. A lot of music can be played by using the 1st, 4th, and 5th chord in the key and flourished using notes from those chords. We are a bit too early into this to be adept at flourishing, so we will stick to just accompanying with chords for now. So, the chords I put down are the 1st, the 4th and the 5th, or D maj (DF#A), G maj (GBD), and A maj (AC#E). I only got a little tricky in that in the different sections I play them in a different order and at at a different pace, and I invert one of the chords (play the 3rd and 5th from an octave and the root of the next higher octave) for a section.

Now keep in mind I have only been at this whole music thing a short time. So, this is a trick I picked up on the interwebs, was able to execute, and I think, makes a big difference in that arrangement. It isn't rocket science, it is simply reducing the variables, working with a finite set of notes and chords, and figuring out what sounds good to my ear. Anyone can do it. Really.

Anyway, until next time..