Have you ever wondered what those strange symbols are at the very beginning of each line of music? Doesn’t it seem a little bit pointless to have them at the beginning of each line? Those symbols are sharps or flats … Continue reading →
The blues scale is kind of a unique animal: half diatonic scale, half blue notes. Some people think that only the flat 3rd, flat 5th, and flat 7th of the diatonic scale is used in the blues, but that’s not … Continue reading →
Here’s a bluesy little chord progression you can use in quite a few musical situations. It involves playing the IV chord of the key and then playing the IV chord of that IV chord to create a chord progression that … Continue reading →
There are scads of ways to add fillers to your songs, from counter-melodies to passing tones to unusual chord sequences to quartal voicings to…and on and on. Three of the easiest ways to take the chords of a song and … Continue reading →
Among the ways to reharmonize a melody is a technique I call the “half-step slide”. As you progress from one chord to another, look for a way to “slide in” to the target chord — like a runner stealing 2nd … Continue reading →
Why do I need to learn scales and chords and music theory? Well, if you have the talent of a Mozart or Bach or Erroll Garner or Oscar Peterson or Dave Brubeck, you probably don’t. But if you’re like the … Continue reading →
A piano has 88 keys, 36 are black and 52 are white. When depressing the keys, you trigger hammers inside the piano to hit strings, which is what produces the sound. The keyboard has white keys that are tuned to … Continue reading →
