Lesson 1 (Building Blocks)
| Deep calls to deep at the sound of Thy waterfalls (Psalm 42:7) |
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Here's a short summary of what Steve was teaching about at the last Deep to Deep (although I take full responsibility for mutilating it).
The Starting Point
Much Western music is built on what is known as the major scale, a repeating series of seven notes. You probably know this already, but let's not make any assumptions. Below is a C major scale.
This pattern of notes (C D E F G A B C etc) keeps on repeating. If you want to play a scale other than C major you have to sharpen or flatten the some of them to keep the gaps between the different notes the same (so G major is G A B C D E F# G - if you try it you will find that you can use the same fingering pattern as C major but starting from G instead of C). However, not all the notes are equally important.
Arpeggios
The three most important notes are the first (or root), the third and the fifth (C E G in the C major scale) - when played in sequence they are called an arpeggio, and the arpeggio is normally topped off with the octave (the next highest C note above where you started).
If music was just about individual notes played in isolation it would be much easier (and very boring). It is a useful skill to be able to play arpeggios (eventually in all keys and across several ocataves) but you also need to hear them in the context of other notes (chords). Try repeating a C major arpeggio across the following simple chord sequence (C G F C):
You could also play the correct arpeggio for each chord (C E G C for C major... but F A C F for F and G B D G for G major). The bottom line is that an arpeggio is a way of spelling out the construction of a chord, note by note. Compare the sound of this to the example above and you will probably already find several ideas for melodies and accompaniements.
Stop Relaxing!
What you will find is that it is very hard to create a melody that goes anywhere using just the note from the arpeggio. All of the notes sound very resolved (happy!). The easiest way to generate a bit of angst is to add in two extra notes, the second and sixth tones of the scale. This creates what is known as the pentatonic (five note) major scale - C D E G A in the key of C.
Now repeat the arpeggio exercises from above, using pentatonic scales over the chords. Firstly, use C major pentatonic over each chord:
Secondly, try altering the pentatonic scale to fit each chord.
You should find that both work quite well. Once you've got the pentatonic scale under your fingers, try applying different rhythms and different sequences of notes take from the scale. When you get some fluency in this you will find that you have an easy way to create bass lines and solos which will fit well into most songs.
To get an idea what these ideas sound like, you can have a listen to this sample midi file (2Kb) provided by Phil Kan (link opens in a new window).