how music works How Music Works is a comprehensive suite of multimedia tutorials which explain music in clear, simple language you can relate to. Packed with 115 topics in nine tutorials, and illustrated with 360 diagrams and 750 demonstration sounds, the tutorials start with the very basics of music and advance to topics which are valuable even for professional musicians. Whatever musical instrument or style you are interested in, these tutorials will be an essential source of information and guidance for years to come. The How Music Works tutorials are available online at www.howmusicworks.org but these tutorials are not printable and do not have the sounds. To get the full benefit of the tutorials, the ChordWizard Music Theory software is highly recommended.
10 Ways to Play the Most Beautiful Open Chord Shapes 10 Ways to Play the Most Beautiful Open Chord Shapes Part I A great way to make your chord progressions and songs sound awesome is to use open chord shapes. I always love to use these chords to add some flavor to my chord progressions. One of my favorite chords is Fsus2.That chord has got the whole package for me. It’s sounds beautiful, gentle, tight, cool and rough at the same time. When you move an open chord up the neck the name of the chord changes and the chord gets extended with 1 or 2 notes. While you can play barre chords at any fret on the fingerboard, open chords can only be played at certain frets. Because of all the extended chord names I didn’t bother to name every single one of them. It’s all about incorporating these chords into your songs and chord progressions, putting your creativity to the test, experimenting with all the possibilities, replacing some basic chords for these extraordinary ones, learning to hear what sounds right and what feels good. Have a great time!
not_available Strings Woodwinds Brass Percussion Vocal Vocalist Jokes Folk/Rock/Popular Music and Instruments General Acknowledgement These jokes are a continually-growing collection, and unfortunately, I can no longer remember which jokes I heard from whom. Strings Violin Jokes What's the difference between a violin and a viola? There is no difference. What's the difference between a violin and a fiddle? A fiddle is fun to listen to. Why are viola jokes so short? So violinists can understand them. How do you tell the difference between a violinist and a dog? The dog knows when to stop scratching. How many second violinists does it take to change a light bulb? None. String players' motto: "It's better to be sharp than out of tune." Why is a violinist like a SCUD missile? Both are offensive and inaccurate. Why don't viola players suffer from piles (hæmorrhoids)? Because all the assholes are in the first violin section. What's the difference between a fiddle and a violin? No-one minds if you spill beer on a fiddle. Viola Jokes
circle of 5ths text Find the Chords in a Scale Once more, the key of C is our reference. Because the Circle of Fifths can help us name the notes in any major scale, it can also show us the chords in a major chord scale. Here's how: First, remember that any key has a set of chords which go with it, just as it has a major scale of single notes. In the major chord scale, the 1, 4 and 5 chords are all major chords -- named the same chords as the 1, 4 and 5 notes. The 2, 3 and 6 chords in the chord scale are all minors, and the 7 chord is a diminished or diminished 7th chord. The minor chords add color to what we play, but one of them is the primary minor chord -- often called the relative minor -- based on the 6th note of the scale. A trick in using the Circle of Fifths to find the relative minor is to move 90 degrees right from the root chord.
ear training Lyric Writing Exercises: a 5-Day Workshop Guest post by Maria Rainier If you’re anything like most songwriters, you’re all too familiar with that frustrating sensation of being stuck in a rut. You know it’s important to write something – anything – every day, but there are times when that just seems impossible. Maybe you don’t have enough energy, you might be too critical of your first attempts, or you could be missing out on the muse. Whatever the reason, you can still get your daily writing done in a productive way if you introduce new exercises into your routine. The next chance you get, try starting this five-day lyric writing exercise workshop – it’s the perfect way to begin a week of successful songwriting. Day 1: Research Mix & Match The first step is to give yourself something interesting to work with. Day 2: Collaborative Brainstorming Contact a friend by chat or email. Day 3: Titles & Nuggets Using what you’ve written from the previous two exercises (or relying on your notebook), construct some potential song titles.
100 Awesome Online Tools to Teach Yourself Any Instrument (For F Go beyond the garage band or stagnant piano lessons with these incredible ways to learn every instrument from the guitar to keyboard to drums to brass and even a few lesser known instruments. Best of all, the lessons are completely free of charge! Best Tools to Teach Yourself to Play Guitar A classic, the guitar is a great way to go solo or join in on band. Both acoustic and electric are featured. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 12 String Guitar: Ready for something more complex? Best Tools to Teach Yourself to Play Bass Guitar Every band needs a bass player and these free online lessons will show you how to play like a professional. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Best Tools to Teach Yourself to Play Strings Learn how to play the violin and other related instruments with the help of these free online resources. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 5 String Banjo: These lessons focus on basic three-finger styles which is the foundation for bluegrass, classical, ragtime, jazz and rock. 28. 29.
theta - music ear training How to Become a Music Mogul in 3 Easy Steps October 1, 2009 12:00 AM 1. The Setup If you bought a computer within the last few years, you already have the beginnings of a good home studio. Either a PC or Macintosh will work equally well. 2. Before starting your session, rehearse all the musical arrangements, including both vocals and instrumentals. 3. Once you've laid down all your tracks, it's time to review them and splice the best pieces together. Alumni Weekly: A grand unified theory of music Peter Murphy Dmitri Tymoczko wrote the first article on music theory ever to be published in the prestigious journal “Science.” A few years ago, Princeton University music theorist and composer Dmitri Tymoczko was sitting in the living room of his home playing with a piece of paper. Suddenly Tymoczko (pronounced tim-OSS-ko) realized that if he cut two triangles from the piece of paper, turned one of the triangles upside down, and reconnected the two triangles where the chords overlapped, the two-note chords on one edge of the resulting strip of paper would be the reversed versions of those on the opposite edge. Tymoczko had discovered the fundamental geometric shape of two-note chords. He soon saw that he could transform more complex chords the same way. The link between geometry and music has deep roots. Pythagoras and his followers thought big. Two-and-a-half millennia later, fifths and fourths are still the basis not just of three-chord rock-and-roll, but of much basic music theory.