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Topic: Music theory Instruction book |
Dennis Saydak
From:
Manitoba, Canada
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Posted 27 Nov 2014 7:45 am |
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| Deirdre Higgins wrote: |
You see if I should play with other musicians and they say we are playing in the key of 'A' for example I'd be lost.
Steel guitar is my first instrument I have no musical background whatsoever. |
Deirdre, here's what worked to get me up & running on a new tuning. I carefully labeled my chord positions on the fret board as shown in the following picture (C6 tuning). This helps me memorize these basic positions as quick as possible. Then I use Riff Station software to play a song and the chord progression is shown as the song plays. You can slow down the song if needed until you become familiar with the progression. Here's an example (Farewell Party). http://play.riffstation.com/?v=kgxkMlJG4hE
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Dennis
Just when you think you're getting ahead in the rat race, the rats get faster. |
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Deirdre Higgins
From:
Connecticut, USA
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Posted 27 Nov 2014 8:44 am
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I thank everyone for their helpful replies.
Dennis, the Riffstation is very nice software shows all the chords. my problem is I don't know where the chords are on the neck at the moment I'm using Open E tuning.
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Jerry Byrd Fan |
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Dennis Saydak
From:
Manitoba, Canada
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Posted 27 Nov 2014 9:00 am
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This should solve your problem assuming you have a 6 string lap steel guitar. Note, you place the bar directly over the frets for proper intonation, not in-between them.
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Dennis
Just when you think you're getting ahead in the rat race, the rats get faster. |
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Jim Williams
From:
Meridian, Mississippi, USA - Home of Peavey!
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Posted 27 Nov 2014 7:08 pm
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What you mainly need to learn is the basic theory of chord progressions in keys. The Nashville Number System is a way of referring to the chords which makes transposing to different keys easier. The most basic songs will have three chords being the 1, 4 and 5 chords (lots of old songs only have two). The 1 chord is the same as the key the song is played in, hence in the key of A for instance the 1 chord would be A, the 4 chord D and the fifth chord E. There is a chart on this page http://mypianolessons.net/number-system/the-nashville-number-system-playing-piano-by-numbers which you can use to find the 3 major chords of any major key. The relative minor of a given key will be the sixth. Read the page and it will make more sense. Of course some songs will have more than three chords and a relative minor, but this is a start.
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GFI SM10 3/4, 1937 Gibson EH-150, 2 - Rondo SX Lap Steels and a Guyatone 6 String C6. Peavey 400 and a Roland 40 Amps. Behringer Reverb Pedal. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Chase Brady
From:
Ohio, USA
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 25 Dec 2014 3:17 am
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I used teaching guitar as an excuse to build up a pretty huge library, but it is mostly six-string oriented (and some standard classical & jazz scores and bios). But: "The Jazz Theory Book" by Mark Levine is pretty much an industry standard, used in colleges and music schools all over. It's NOT instrument-specific. The way it's organized it's also a very good reference text, for "what the heck is THAT scale?" momos. It starts simple, and adds up information layer-by-layer.
I don't actually think the steel guitar is a very good basis for learning theory, the tunings are WAY too idiosyncratic. "MUSIC" makes a heck of a lot of sense as a stand-alone, and steel guitars... don't. I love them BUT: Having some kind of piano around, any cheapy keyboard, is a requirement for delving into theory. If you were to go to Berklee, Julliard, University of Miami, any decent music school at all - you're going to come out of it with piano skills. My little Yamaha magic-fingers Squeak-o-Tone still gets a cuddle fairly frequently.
In the forties and fifties it was quite customary for jazz musicians, the horn players like Miles Davis, Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie etc. to show up on each other's recordings - playing piano. Mmm, if you just happen to be a Miles Davis fiend, there's an interesting book out - "The Music of Miles Davis" by Lex Giel. It actually has a nice little roundup of theory, as expressed through particular song forms. It's another one that starts simple and builds. |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 25 Dec 2014 6:32 am
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| Chase Brady wrote: |
Mike Perlowins' book...
$ 79228162514264337593543950335.00 |
That's why it's top shelf.
Mike's making clear what is thought of as ... what, unnecessary by some?
For me, theory is fun; change a note, change a chord, it changes to something else.
Mike Neer writes at the end of lesson 11:
'The beauty of music is that at its best, it defies all of the rules but does unnoticeably.'
It's those rules that you change, and you can know what you did
to make it different, to make it yours. |
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Bill Brunt
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 25 Dec 2014 5:33 pm
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There is far more learning material out there that teach how to play melodies, or solos than there is that teach how to sit in with a band, or back up a musician.
Joe Wright offers free online lessons at the following link, that teach how to form simple licks, or series of useful notes, by teaching how to learn your fretboard, and take advantage of the way it is laid out to navigate from note to note in meaningful, short sequences, that you can use as fills during 4 beat measures, or pairs of measures.
Don't watch all of the lessons at one sitting, or you will be overwhelmed.
http://www.sierrasteels.com/lessons/lap-lessons.html
Troy Brenningmeyer has some lessons which teach simple licks, and how to impose them over the chords the rest of the band members will be playing.
He also describes the 1, 4, 5 chord progression, and may also include 7ths, but I don't really remember that for sure.
For those who understand music, is the following true??
The beauty of the Lap Steel is, that - say in the E tuning, the G chord is at the 3rd fret, and the 4th of that scale is 5 frets forward, and the 5th is 2 more frets forward.
Edited to make sense:)
That holds true for any Key:
Root at a given fret, ... the 4th is always 5 frets up, and the 5th, two more forward.
Last edited by Bill Brunt on 29 Dec 2014 12:21 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Posted 25 Dec 2014 6:33 pm
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Sounds like you would benefit by taking a basic music theory course, Dierdre.
Your local community college likely offers such a course. Some offer a special course that is dumbed-down just a tad and intended for non-music majors.
If you are eligible (most adults are), you may even qualify for a Pell Grant that would cover most, if not all, of the cost of the course. |
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Jim Williams
From:
Meridian, Mississippi, USA - Home of Peavey!
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Posted 28 Dec 2014 4:36 pm
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The beauty of the Lap Steel is, that - say in the E tuning, the G chord is at the 3rd fret, and the 4th of that scale is 5 frets forward, and the 5th is 2 more frets forward.
That holds true for any chord starting at E, at the nut, G at the third fret... the 4th is always 5 frets up, and the 5th, two more forward.
Yes, I think that statement will hold true.
_________________
GFI SM10 3/4, 1937 Gibson EH-150, 2 - Rondo SX Lap Steels and a Guyatone 6 String C6. Peavey 400 and a Roland 40 Amps. Behringer Reverb Pedal. |
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Jim Williams
From:
Meridian, Mississippi, USA - Home of Peavey!
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Posted 28 Dec 2014 4:38 pm
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Quoted: The beauty of the Lap Steel is, that - say in the E tuning, the G chord is at the 3rd fret, and the 4th of that scale is 5 frets forward, and the 5th is 2 more frets forward.
That holds true for any chord starting at E, at the nut, G at the third fret... the 4th is always 5 frets up, and the 5th, two more forward.
Yes, I think that statement will hold true. I have used that formula playing backup on the dobro in G, which I was not really familiar with.
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GFI SM10 3/4, 1937 Gibson EH-150, 2 - Rondo SX Lap Steels and a Guyatone 6 String C6. Peavey 400 and a Roland 40 Amps. Behringer Reverb Pedal. |
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