p5

~ the creative process ~

~ art topics A to Z ~

~ the balance ~

Art in a nutshell. Imagine that, art in a nutshell. Pretty big nut I'd imagine :) This page is like a topical table of contents, an alphabetical index of sorts and hopefully a way for you to begin to find a way into our music theory story (with a bit of history), to find and create your pathway and storyline right on through life.

Art, and our own pursuits of it, we'll often find a thing or two that really turns on us on. Since we're drawn to this thing, to a varied degree our art is initially shaped by this single component. This is our own rock to build upon. And while we'll evolve over the decades of our career, each new 'rock' that comes along as we evolve brings new creative and art energies.

When we look at recognized greatness in art, and compare multiple pieces of the same artist, we'll find these common threads. Often termed a 'period' of an artist's career / portfolio, they become our own natural trademarks, that started out as something that just really, caught our fancy, turned us right on, that we stuck with and developed and wove into our own art DNA. Stick with your art and these will come along. Develop your own way of shaping them and they'll become manifest in the works you create.

Discovery generates excitement, the curiosity to explore, energizes our creative process that produces works of art that capture our spirit and the intent of our statement. 'All our journeys, short, long, medium, all need a first step.' Please take one, or two, or three now, thanks :)

So what does art do for you ... ?

"Art imitates life."

wiki ~ Plato

In a nutshell, again. The topics and discussions on this 'art' page are really just an expanded glossary at heart. The difference is that instead of just defining and linking one word or idea, the entries are usually a weave of two or more ideas into a brief musical arts discussion. Art discussions will energize art expression, and that my friend, is a very good thing. For any idea, even by its very own nature, must come from somewhere.

Writing about art. The style of writing in these discussions is more about the 'art' of things than the theory. Or, putting the theory into practice. So no real limits defined by the theory of the topic, wherever the discussion needs or wants to go ... it goes :)

So what is the energy of art? Capturing a thought we conjure up expressed in a tangible and transferable form? Musical art? A way to express the soul of our thoughts on its journey from beginning to end, expressed aurally through pitch, timbre and vibrations, all woven together and motored along through metered time?

In theory, creating the music we each love most can become a three dimensional model of elements; rhythm (s) in time, variability of pitch and their tuning schemes and sequencing, that totally human thing we all tend to do second nature, to find a balance.

Conjure up, create and express something new. Is art simply the capture in a tangible form of a thought we conjure up? Ranging from the doodles in the sand to stick figure twisty animals in ancient caves, to flat, one dimensional representations to full on 3d sculptures, to rocket ships into space that helps us travel to beyond the beyond? All of this wide spectrum contains the same simple application; that our creative thinking brings forth something new, either from existing work or right out of the blue.

What is music? Music is something which lives outside the realm of the tangible arts yet conjures its own unique physical presence in the human motivating energies it creates. People hear a beat and begin to dance. That no human feeling is outside music's expressive bounds shows us the universal expressive strengths it holds.

By our own physical actions we get to transfer our thoughts and ideas to recreate our ideas in sensations of sounds and rhythm. That we can synch up our thoughts with others in our band in real time and share with all who listen, is surely a human bonding that goes way back in our communal histories.

What is our own music? Music is the expression of our thoughts in a medium which lives outside the realm of the tangible, yet energizes 'to set in motion' what it conjures up. That in our curiosities in learning about music we look to strengthen our abilities to fine tune and express our ideas and experiences, making our music our own, as unique as each one of us truly are. We all share a common DNA yet we each are unique in our own ways, so the same with our own unique emotional, artistic and musical expressions, for we all get the same pitches to start with.

Artistic concepts. The following topics are simply ideas about the musical arts. They range from intellectual theories about learning and how we learn to aspects of the musical arts that probably deserve whole chapters, and do get whole chapters, in other books. They are included together on this page to facilitate the writing in other sections of this work while also providing additional food for thought for the browsing, emerging modern artist, guitarist, theorist and musician.

These topical discussions are all about conceptual ideas to consider as we hone our craft throughout our careers. Many entries suggest ways of viewing the musical resources we have, shaping a possible perspective of our music. Choose what works for you, consider the rest perhaps, for we never know where the next good idea might come from.

"There was no one near to confuse me, so I was forced to become original."

Art ~ A modern artist. In this work, a modern artist / modern guitarist is idealized as one who wants to potentially 'modernize' their own work by having an ability to draw new ideas from all through our spectrum of the Americana styles. Remember the old timey phrase to 'jazz it up' a bit?' If we can jazz it up, why not rock it up, or folk it up, or bluesify or bossify our ideas, if it seems to create the right groove ? Like finding a great song from another era and style, and create a way to bring it up to date, in a modern way.

The reader here wants to know what musical elements make any style become that style. The basics are all involved; melody, chords, rhythms and forms, but how do they differ across our spectrum of styles? We here as 'modernizers' look at each of these components and identify and label their properties, often using just the basic numbers, all in relation to the style and historical era we find them.

Once we're numerically empowered, morphing between styles becomes a simple matter of adding in or taking out select pitches, to shape the core components of any style or genre within. And while there's no limits to the mix and match of the 12 pitches, there are longtime true and super solid historical relationships between numbers and style, just think triads :) ... now everlong the basis of our harmonies in each succeeding generation of our Americana artists and their musics. Once we can sense that time and rhythm core a style, learning the basics of the elements is a snap, or two.

For example, it is beyond 'hen's teeth rare' for a lullaby melody to have nine different pitches. A lullaby, songs for children, are mostly created four or five pitches. Thus, these melodies are ...

Easy to join right in, and sing right along.

Easy to rote learn and remember forevermore.

Melodies created with nine different pitches are usually in the jazz realm. Yet, the jazz artist will find a lullaby melody and jazz it up with colortones. Likewise, a lullaby artist will hear and learn of a 'major 9th' chord, which usually belongs more toward the bossa and jazz side of our styles spectrum. And this chord might become the perfect 'closing' chordal color for one of their lullaby arrangements, the perfect 'close' for their special story shared.

So for the modern artist / guitarist, there's a potential for a fluid back and forth through our spectrum of styles. We can fully explore the way the same 12 core pitches are grouped and recombined in special ways to create this linear spectrum of styles. Once grasped, we develop the knowledge base to explore ever more, the music that we choose to hear with an 'ear' towards this 'borrowing' of pitches between styles.

We each then evolve our own ways by developing the ability to 'borrow' ideas we hear from other styles and shape them into what we dig to do with our music. Through understanding music, we want the artistic skill to let other musics 'influence' our own thing. Folk players might hear a jazz chord and say 'wow, I need that chord right in this spot.' Jazz players will find a folk melody and use its core to remake it into something more urban, while retaining its folk roots. Rockers hear something classical and say, 'I need that sort of eight bars to set the mood.' On and on really. Just looking to 'modernize' what we're already working on, using an understanding of music theory to get there.

Once this entry process is initiated, based on a learner's existing knowledge, this start point quickly gives each reader a way into the progressions and evolutions of each of the topical discussions in this text. Along this pathway of learning we can gradually become better at recognizing common elements and their patterns in any art we might encounter, which can further generate ideas for our own explorations and evolutions.

That we intuitively recognize the sounds we each dig as we find them is the basis of this study method. And while there's a ton of influence coming into our ears, when we hear something we dig, we know it. Wanting to know 'what' that sound is why you're probably reading this here now. Total coolness for the curious, for near everything we hear that we dig and can identify in the theory, ties right into the historical evolutions in music.

As a modernizing artist / guitarist, as you work through the text, please remember that as you begin to skip links already taken because the term is now familiar, you're learning the vocabulary of the theory. This vocabulary represents real musical sounds you dig. We modernize by expanding our vocabularies.

That we have theory 'pioneers' to follow makes our work here so much easier. Dismantling the theory is truly the academic process, after the art is created. Along the way we get to explore what has come before, helping to shape our own ideas and evolve the new. Nearly everyone has borrowed and learned from those whom have come before us. Talent only goes so far, we still have to shed and study, study and shed.

If there's any one thing I've learned about life and art, that helping to making art happen in whatever way I can becomes a pathway to enrich each and every day by working collaboratively in community. So if nothing else and if we want, all through our lifetimes in the arts, we can always find a positive something to do and fun folks to do it with :)

A cool part of 'modern artist' theory is that eventually it can give us a way into really any music we ever might hear. While listening, once we recognize a pattern or two, we've found a way into the music. It builds from there as newly discovered pieces fall in place. Each new piece a potential 'modernization' of the program. Motion to Four is the same in all styles, yet how we get there becomes the 'art' within each style. The ideas we hear and emulate as we go along collect into a catalogue of phrases, becoming the basis of our own approach to making music and musical conversations.

Tops in this modernizing process? Probably correlating letter name pitches with appropriate numerical positions within a chosen key. For in these numerical equivalents we can then easily discuss ideas such as scale degrees, arpeggio degrees, color tones, blue notes, altered color tones, chord degrees, chord progressions and chord substitution in any of our 12 major or 12 minor keys. Imagine that ... and of course mucho more :)

Other modernizations. An important modernization for many is starting to think and play 'more through the changes than over them.' Here the linear parent scales give way to the vertical arpeggios. Which when added to improvised lines can quickly modernize our sound.

Finding a gallop rhythm for each of our main styles to deepen the swing is a modernization for many. Simply being able to find and lock in on 2 and 4 and groove is for many a solid step up that opens news doors.

Learning musical forms is a way to modernize. Understanding the relationship of balance between melodic ideas in songs of different lengths of forms opens a vast vast vista of potentials for own own melodic phrasing.

Developing our ability to count measures in various ways within form is another one of our numerical understanding evolutions. For combining form and melodic shapes is probably the whole ball of theory wax. Strengthening our sense of form also enables cats to 'stretch out', creating longer improvisations on the themes of their music in performance. Strengthening our sense of form is a true modernizer gift for all.

More profound, intuitively energized self understandings of one's own art will organically evolve as the theory takes hold. Especially if encouraged in a collaborative environment. For as ideas are shared, new questions often arise. Teaching is another way to come to a better understanding of what we know too.

So strive to know enough of the theory so as to allow an initial way into any of our Americana styles of music. For we then get to go on down the road as an unlimited resource for new ideas, thus ever evolve our own music, if we so choose. So depending on where we are artistically today and look to get to over time, a theory grounded foundation generates pathways of exploration for understanding all of the various arts we dig.

Start in with a music lessons for guitar / bass. Included in this book is a blues guitar lesson for the modernizing, advancing guitarist.

Art ~ Accelerate the learning. In the educational theory of writing textbooks, this work is designed so that each reader uses what they already know to navigate through the linked discussions. Choosing where to go explore based on what they know. Links on the right of many paragraph entries are designed to do a couple of things. Vocabulary for sure, to related components that can advance the topic at hand.

Written in this text is ability to accelerate one's own learning by clicking through the hyper links of vocabulary words they already know. For there are pathways created by links in regards to the discussions we find them that connect to deeper insights of the topic's thread.

Origin of topic links go to the glossary ( start page ). Glossary links often to the art page where the word is usually placed into performance or historical context. From here, if there's a whole page for the idea / word, that will generally be the next link forward. Most pathways end up at V7 and its tritone within as adding a 7th to the triad can be a game changer.

From there we go to chord substitutions, improvisation, composing and points beyond; polytonality and #15. This forward motion of thinking is thanks to the looping nature of our musical architectures, we know that all roads eventually lead to the same few Americana musical complexity centers, that stylistically are mostly on the jazz end of our style spectrum. Discussions such as finding the blue notes and the moving towards chromaticism in diatonic musics, the near endless V7 substitutions etc., of blues and jazz, the #15 of the symmetrical arpeggios, are common EMG endpoints to these hyperlinked pathways.

Way forward links. When a reader already knows the topic under discussion and needs a new way forward in the theory. These 'forward' links are often written just that way; 'a way forward' or 'building on this idea', 'imagine that' are a few. Keep in mind that the progression of the theory is most often directed by simply adding new pitches to existing groups. As we expand the pitch resource, we've more combinations. These new combinations often translate into expanding across a spectrum of musical style.

So simply more pitches in our chords or melody? Towards jazz. Less pitches on down to our core five? Then towards our Americana blues and folk. Numerically more clicks in our tempos? Deeper rhythm subdivisions into the measures? Ideas like 4/4 into 12/8 and beyond? Eighth notes? Towards jazz. Less clicks, subdivisions and towards half and whole notes? Towards the folk end of the spectrum, generally speaking :)

Art ~ Adding the 7th. Adding a 7th to a triad is probably at or near the top of the 'super theory game changer' list of theory ideas that are paradigm shifters for the evolving Americana artist and guitarist. Please examine the following evolution as we add a 7th to a major and minor triad.

Cool ? Cycles through a couple of times, hear the shifting from major to minor ? The 'add sev' begins the triads evolutions which include; the blues hue of V7, all things V7, a 'softening' of the colors with major 7th, a 'passing 7th' motion (an essential motion in the minor tonality), its various inversions, and all through its four essential triad stackings of; major, minor, augmented and diminished.

For in this one additional pitch to our triads we advance our first move along our musical styles spectrum. Think of musical styles where there simply are no 7th's added to the triads. Children's songs and a wide swath of the folk musics. And this would include anything globally that is 'roots' music; here theory defined as music whose are harmonies created solely from triads.

For once the 7th comes into play, our tonal center and its gravity begins q softening process and we open up 'suggestions' for the music to go beyond its diatonic borders as we create our art. We have the flip side of this of course; music whose diatonic center holds true regardless. Lest we forget the power of a V7 chord to return us to our original tonic pitch of any song.

Once the 7th is added to our triads we energize the blues to jazz Americana qualities that easily mix anywhere into the Americana fabric of musics. To 'jazz it up' as folks used to say. The ideas and theory principles of chord type, chord function and the entire topic of chord substitution manifests with adding a 7th to a triad, and really for most player / theorists, stop right there that's plenty. For not only does our root motion thus story lines evolve, we open up the other color tones.

Once comfortable through the full arpeggio we can symmetricalize our intervals and blast off to #15 and then beyond, to create the evolved tritone pairing of the Lydian / Dorian weave, that when presented at a 432 Hz. tuning pitch level basis, should turn our whole thing around to a more loving, caring and sharing universe. All with just adding a 7th to a triad? Well, that's a beginning yes.

Art ~ 'Add 2.' ( 'add 2' might be something else in other systems, here it is about being a sentient, music theory empowered being :) Into the waybac we go to find the author at a theory seminar with a jazz piano player at our local college. A young Lass wants to know what a particular chord is called. The Lady plays the chord, the piano player finds the pitches, and goes into this beyond long winded explanation. Finally ends.

The Lady says' ... will I just call it my 'add 2' chord. Piano player; no such thing in the theory. The Lady; well it's my favorite chord. Piano player. Sorry, but no such chord as an 'add 2.' ... so it's a what ____ ?

So call it whatever you want please, for in any of this labeling process there's usually going to be another way to 'correctly' identify the puzzle pieces we come up with. While some 'theory labels' have to be exact to get the idea across, such as major or minor, in other areas of identifying the colors, just let it all ride.

So 'add 2' turns out to be some sort of open 'D' major chord with the middle finger left off. Imagine that :)

Art ~ advanced readers. For those that are reading here that already have the basics of understanding their music rote learned; know of the 12 relative keys and the diatonic realm, can arpeggiate and spell any chord in any key, know of the blue notes, their tuning and the rub they create over V7 harmony, who understands about finding parent scales, can hear the 'top' of our common musical forms, and knows their way through a diatonic Two / Five / One cadential motion, there's a couple of discussions linked here that are deemed 'advanced' in relation to these combined basics, a next rung up or next valence of the energy. 'Advanced' is determined by tonal gravity and the aural predictability of the music. For as the advanced techniques come into play, both gravity and its strengths are swept away, enabling the artist with a wider latitude of what happens when and where.

Still advancing to advanced status? Here are the above topics for review. Clicks to the right journey us to the land of evolutions and advancements.

Art ~ Advance the challenge. This seems to be a way of artists throughout all of the styles through all of history. The 'what if' questions that require a new way forward, bringing a greater challenge to the artist to complete the piece. Age old and hopefully something that will never go away.

So ... 'bored with your own playing?' Need something new to explore? U b not alone amigo, we all struggle to advance. In any style, learn a new song

With folk styles explore an open tuning.

With the blues try an open 'G' tuning with a slide. Or add in a new chord or two to the 12 bar blues with chord substitutions.

With country add in the 6th to your chords and swing rhythms.

In pop music, work through the 'diatonic 3 and 3' theory, the blues elevator and start on the 'butter' scale shape.

In jazz guitar, go through the five diatonic scale shapes in 12 keys in localized position. For chords, run the Two / Five / One chords through 12 keys in localized positions.

Have all this under your fingers ? Cool. Consider exploring the #15 arpeggio, working through chord substitutions and adding more chromaticism into your single note lines and learn new songs or compose some of your own.

Explore the additional links / vocabulary included from those points forward i.e., read the next entry too.

R O !

Art ~ Advance the learning. 'Advance the learning' is an 'e text' feature whereby an author can project directions where the theory can and will go, then provide the links to these next topics in the spirit of the evolution of the style / pitch intellectual dynamic. So on many pages within, there's a suggestion or two for advancing the discussion on that page. The links included here are a few 'advance the learning' starters.

So if you're already hip to the topic, there's 'advance the learning' suggestions for ways forward to related topics, advancing the current discussions. Format wise, the links to the right in any paragraph are these 'advances.' So cats can click ahead in a discussion to new learning challenges of that topic. The oft included quip used of 'those in the know will know', is a sort of hidden hint of text that something is afoot nearby in the theory evolution, and its click is probably right at hand.

So I've been doin' this for a while now and over the decades I've heard players who are true serious about their thing say stuff like ... ; 'man I need something new', 'even just one new idea a week', 'really bored with my playing', 'man I sound like doo doo today.'

Regardless of how we phrase it, creating art everyday and the boredom with the effort just seem to go together sometimes and is a very natural cycle. Artists of all stripes can shed their boredom away. One solution is to simply create ways to up our own game. Endless possibilities for those so inclined. The theory itself becomes a ring of keys to unlock doors to explore.

And the cool thing is once we choose a thing to 'advance' on any given day, once engaged the boredom often will soon vanish, poof, gone ... Stick with the 'advance' process and over time we can get better and better at what we want to do. Performing your music these days? Have a warm up routine yet? Here's one.

Totally advance the learning ~ shedding the whole tamale. Ready to 'advance' for the foreseeable future your listing of things to practice? Jazz tenor saxophonist John Coltrane throws down the gauntlet here for us as career minded, mostly leaning jazz cats or anyone else smart enough I guess, to think about what it takes to not only exhaust, develop and evolve their own musical resources, but to compose and create representatively meaningful and lasting musical art.

And while there are so many additional great players who have done this, Coltrane is historically recognized as the artist that completed the Americana musical journey from totally inside diatonic to totally outside 12 tone art, while never losing the blues / gopel anywhere along this array of musics and thus becomes the model of musical evolution for this e-book. By having today the songs that Mr. Coltrane's wrote, with a ballpark historical order created by their recording and release on audio records, we have a pathway for the evolution of Americana tonality from tonal to atonal, diatonic and blues based art on through to 12 tone abstract. For jazz artists, the 'anything from anywhere' through the 12 relative major and minor keys really becomes the shedding that creates the whole tamale. For once the basic theory is in place, it comes down to shedding to get the resource under our fingers. Then there's the putting the theory into motion in musical time considerations, so ... around and around it'll go.

R O !)

Art ~ All musics. There's a couple of 'alls' that help get our arms completely around our resources.

One 'all' is that the perfect octave interval is the basis for all musics. For the octave interval, two pitches an octave apart, sound the best (purest) of all the pitch combinations we might imagine. For while there's various tunings created by various cultures throughout history and spanning all of Earth, we can usually locate the octave interval as their bedrock basis of organization of musical pitches in all cultures.

What we Americana Westerners often term as the 'Eastern musics', the musics of the Asia and India areas, is built upon the same octave interval rock as our own 'Western' Americana sounds.

Yet, East and West each sound unique in their ways of pitches and rhythms yes? Sure do. The difference? Simply that in our Western musics, we divide the octave into 12 equal parts through equal temper tuning. In doing so we enable nicely tuned up stacks of pitches we know as the harmony, triads and chords.

In the Eastern musics, the division of the octave goes well beyond 12 pitches, up to 24 or perhaps even more depending on the locale and the cats who live and make the music there. So are chords possible with 24 pitches? Probably, but that's a lot of pitches to tune up consistently and organize. Their solutions? Everyone plays the melody all the time :) Like our Americana dixieland? Exactly. While each of the melodies use their own chosen pitches from the 24, they all consistently portray the same storyline as defined by the song they've chosen to play.

Knowing this, we here in the West easily move beyond just our 12 equal temper tuned 'set in stone' pitches of the octave interval with our 'blue' notes. Ah ... yes the blue notes. For ... 7 + 5 = 12 yes?

So even in natural, ancient and rock solid theory, East meets West, all within Mother nature's own perfection of the octave interval :)

All music was once new. This is just a true statement that can mean mucho to cats who compose. That wherever we venture through historical time and geographical location, whatever music we might ever hear, it all was at one time the 'new' riff, ditty, song, composition, style, trend or tunes with poetry defining a historical events and epochs. So be bold and confident in expression all sisters and brothers, just go on and ...

'tell it like it is ... ' :)

Art ~ All V7 and beyond in two parts. Thiee next two ideas are a total kaboom if your jazz leaning working through bebop and into 'sheets of sound.' In moving in this 'all V7' direction improvisationally, it's always good to remember that Americana musics has always had a genre whose harmony and chord progressions are exclusively comprised by the V7 type chords, meaning there's a unique two pitch tritone interval in each chord (tritone is what makes a V7 ... V7 :) We've the blues of course, which even today continues to represent this unique harmonic style of composition.

The gist of it, part one. In evolving our Americana harmony, especially in the jazz realm of the 30's or so, cats began to jazz it up by judiciously placing a V7 chord before every written chord, in any song they might perform.

So, a '2 5 1' chord progression in 'C' ...

~ D -7 / G7 / C maj 7 ~ becomes ...

~ Eb 7 / D -7 / Ab7 / G7 / Db7 / C maj 7 ... or ...

~ Db 7 / D -7 / F#7 / G7 / B7 / C maj 7 ... cool ?

A glorified half step lead in extravaganza ... ? Absolutely. Ramp up our improv through the changes challenges ... ? Yep, it might be a bit 'vertical up' for a spell, sure quick fix to the same old same old :) Still bored ... just up the clicks !

Super simple concept that just trainwrecks a lot in a hurry for now everything is a half step away from where it's 'supposed' to be and we're conquering tonal gravity, so as to extend our thoughts further into the beyond.

'by half step = chromatic = obscure a tonal center'

Art ~ All V7 ... the gist of it, part two. Our Americana jazz harmony of today has evolved to where players will make every chord in a song or progression a V7 chord type. Just cycling dominant chords ... ? Yea pretty much.

So, a '2 5 1' chord progression in 'C' ...

~ D -7 / G7 / C maj 7 ~ becomes ...

~ Eb 7 / D 7 / Ab7 / G7 / Db7 / C maj 7 ... or ...

~ Db 7 / D 7 / F#7 / G7 / B7 / C maj 7 ... cool ?

This creates a sort of seamless, often bluesy and as tempos brighten or quicken their pace, add a chromatic flavor to the music.

For when there's a few voices involved; say guitar, bass, piano, drums, a horn or two and everyone's wailing away thinking along these lines, all the pitches combine to create this seamless 'chromatic blur' that rides along on the groove and shaped to hold together by the son's musical form. Here's Pythagoras, and from his look, probably thinking from the root of the chord to keep track of things, while the chromatic sounding pitches scoot on by ... :) Note his 'matched' grip on the sticks.

Art ~ Alternating bass. One / Five / One. This usually describes a guitar technique that finds us using one chord shape, whose root pitch is on the 5th string. Coolness through tuning built right in as its fifth is located right below, same fret, on the 6th string. There's a solid handful of these voicings and they form a nice harmonic vocabulary for performing in the folk, blues and bossa nova styles. Here's a lovely pairing.

Art ~ Americana. As broad a topical heading we might ever find for our musics, in theory our Americana musics are created quite simple really. Two sets of the same letter pitches, where one set is precisely tuned and another is loosely tuned. For as soon as we pair equal tempered tuned pitches to create chords with 'just' tuned blue notes from say a slide guitar, we bring the core Americana spice. From this slight variance of tuning pitches, and then rubbing them together to make the 'blue hue', all else Americana flows and follows.

Art ~ An idea. So just how much of what we do as people starts with an idea? Just about everything right? Any different for creating art? Nope. Often through the simple necessity to express ourselves, the artist captures an idea in such a way so that it can be understood, shared and enjoyed by those who choose to experience it. If there's a universality to the idea, a special quality to it that helps all of us identify and unify with it, then all the better.

As musicians, what makes up this 'captured idea' is really limitless. One pitch and a rhythm loop will do it. Two pitches, an interval and a rhythm can be enough. Beethoven's Fifth Symphony surely. Maybe a word or two? "The Truth Is." Or even just a vision, perception or feeling we get from without that vibrates within.

Of something from our everyday lives to inspire us to create; of love, beauty, joy, a sadness or a true story of our doings. All continually generate those true universal sparks to explore and develop.

So just a real good chance that some of these works were sparked to life by just one idea, that came to these artists to initiate the process of creating and composing. Then the work begins. And this is where the theory looms large. For in developing an idea into a full work, there's those 'tricks of the trade' composers have to help form up an idea to its completion. Tricks are often disguised as music theory. Imagine that :)

In UYM / EMG, there's really just two theory tricks. One is that composing, which includes both writing it out and improvisation, becomes a puzzle. The second is that our music theory and its silent architecture systems are created by a series of filters and layered together within a perfectly closed loop of pitches.

The concept of a puzzle is pretty straightforward. A full on Beethoven symphony puzzle probably has a 1000 pieces or so. A 12 bar blues puzzle maybe just two or three. Each can be inspired by just two or three pitches, and each present their own unique challenges of form and balance. When starting out in composing music, learning of phrases and forms is our start point. Learning to count measures, feeling the 'top' of a form, are keystones to building arches and cycles for each song.

The idea of the architectural systems and 'filtering' is simply about the hierarchy of the theory created by the number of different pitches in our own style of music. For to learn and understand our musics, its organic architecture basis encourages us to correlate musical style with number of pitches.

Each of the core components of a song: its story, melody, chords, rhythms and form, each in themselves also can have this sort of numerical build process. Each additional piece along their evolutions added creating a new filter of sorts. A wider set of elements to create with. We simply try our original idea through the filters and see how it shapes the puzzle piece we are searching for. Career long development along these lines is why many dig the theory providing the 'search / what if.'

Sound academic? Cool, it's supposed to be because theory is academic. As long as we stay true to the original idea we have. For our collective histories remind us that even musical puzzles of a 1000 plus pieces lovingly crafted together, shows there's no bounds to the evolutions of our own craftsmanship.

Art ~ Anatomy, architectural elements. We've such a solid start point, in our silent architecture, that it's a shame to not simply list its elements. For while our core structure is Mother Nature's, our present day number of building materials kinda goes beyond measure. Architectural elements can include everything right? So, time, pitches, groups, loops, sequences, chords, rhythms, and every conceivable gadget magic, and in this era, electronic gadget magic, ever invented that when sounded and heard by someone, encourages their participation and chiming in with their vision of what that sound (s) mean to them.

Art ~ Arms around the resource. This is just an intellectual idea that in theory we've only 12 pitches to work with. Once they are rote learned we've got our 'arms around them', they form a closed loop and we begin to fill things in with a more organized manner for memory and later recall.

Art ~ Arranger. As the word implies, an arranger 'arranges' the music to be performed with the musicians involved in the production. So depending on lots of factors, arrangers need all sorts of knowledge many of us musicians don't really ever get to deep into. Such as, what's the range of the viola? What's a 'drop D' tuning? Can a timpani drum be tuned to the pitches of a triad? Many composers arrange also, just a natural fit for their degree of curiosity and finding the right puzzle pieces to bring their music to life.

Art ~ Arpeggio studies. We initially get away with the smallest of entries here for potentially the largest and most potent of our powers in creating our musical resources. For the arpeggio is the 'middle lick' between pitches in a scale and these pitches stacked as a chord. The idea of outlining the chords of a song with their arpeggios, to create beautiful improvised (?) melody in jazz, was first recorded by Coleman Hawkins in 1939. Passed to Charlie Parker's bebop styled gospel of the 40's and John Coltrane, who's arpeggiating approach culminates in 'sheets of sound' in the 50's. And since ? Who are the modern arpeggio kings ?

So ... any chord at anytime, can be presented anywhere, in any style, by correctly sounding out the pitches of its arpeggio? Yep. :)

Art ~ Artistic balance. This idea of artistic balance is like 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Artistic balance in a song, or music in general, might be depicted by a hanging mobile, where seemingly disparate sized pieces make a whole piece of art that floats in the air. And while in theory, most everything is built up from the balance of a four bar musical poetic phrase ... not always, as the saying go'ed :)

Art ~ Artistic filters; melodic, harmonic and rhythmic. This idea is an intellectual idea that becomes a musical exercise. We simply take one idea and 'filter' it through a pattern to create new combinations. For example, we can filter major triads through a whole tone scale. Or filter a rhythm sequence through the chords and form of the 12 bar blues. Lyricists will filter their idea through word combinations. Jazz players will permutate one melodic idea through various filters. The chord progression of a song is very common filter. Its structural form also.

Art ~ Artistic signature ...'it all comes out on a ballad.' Know anybody else who laughs like U, or writes and signs their name like you do? Know anyone else who speaks and sings like you? Plays the same melodic turns and twists? No? So each of us is a one of a kind, and unique in so many personal and positive ways yes. To sing with our own voices a joyous phrase and play that line and speak that joy through our chosen instrument. That's cool and surely satisfies the expressive nature of our need to make art with our own signature.

For emerging improvising musicians, the concept of artistic signature is to a certain degree initially founded in the exciting ability to sing the line, play the line. This basis of sing the line / play the line is contingent on having something to say I guess and as with verbal language, is partially based on one's internalized vocabulary of words. Same principles apply to the music? Yep. So how do we build up our musical vocabulary to have something to say?

Well, potentially lots of ways. In all of the art forms, the study of the recognized masters and their careers is potentially a large part of the development process of the emerging talent.

This knowledge of the historical development of a musical style and its creators, coupled with the new ideas from our own searching and experiences, helps to gradually shape our own artistic voice.

The great artists we love studied the work of the great artists they loved, and those artists studied with those before them, and back and back and back in history all to go forward, forward, forward in time.

Listening to music is often the essential part of this process, while knowledge of music theory can help organize and internalize the sounds we hear. That we can sing along to any music to internalize its magic is a pillar of developing an artistic signature.

Sing along with bands that swing and learn to swing in your own rhythms. Internalize the swing by singing.

Combining this simple idea of 'sing and play' with a gradually expanding understanding of the theoretical structure of our music system, we set in motion a proven program of study to initiate the development our own artistic signatures.

Make a record of originals at some point. Adding our signature to the ledger of the music history includes us in the collective energy to bring forth and share the joy, sorrows and challenges of the world we live in, past, present and the future. Do join in :)

If while listening to music, we can identify our musical hero's by simply hearing a few notes of their music, this identification of the artist by their sound is our aural recognition of a player's artistic signature.

The idea to consider here is how you can use your strengths and develop your own unique signature. This is hopefully an ever evolving process of searching, whereby our artistic statement and signature, evolves and matures as we ourselves evolve and mature, as artists and sentient beings, as we channel the universal energy and share our discoveries in music with those who join around us. 

So, is the concept of artistic signature important for everyone? Sure is. Solidifying one's artistic identity can be a healthy endeavor, and building the chops to make the music a total plus for getting smarter. Just knowing of the concept oftentimes helps to validate an artistic direction we might choose to go.

And although we might not know what may develop from our labors, perhaps it is the 'lessons learned through the searching' that shape our being.

Artistic signature, and the search for each of us to capture our own, becomes an integral part in the continuing collective growth and development of all the various styles of Americana music. Weaving our signatures together. Seek and ye shall find eh?

Is the need to express ourselves simply part of our natural core sentient beings DNA ? And if so why? To convey the shared joy and compassion of our hearts and bring all peoples together in peace and harmony.

Will aspiring to solve for ourselves these understandings and goals shape our own unique artistic signatures? Do you have a favorite musical artist? Can you recognize their sound wherever or whenever you hear it? Yes? Well, that's their artistic signature :)

Art ~ ASAP ~ rote learn some essentials. Part pun, as if there is an need for anything 'asap' in understanding our music / music theory :) But let's say the phone rings and you got the music gig you wanted, whatever it is. And now are feeling a bit unprepared to hang in this gig in regards to understanding your own music and music in general. Ya want to do a quick study to prepare.

So these topics are just some true rote essential ideas, components and evolutions of our musics. 'I wish I knew'd that back when I first started' sorts of facts. Hearing major or minor colors, V7, know 12 bar blues form. So the few topics in this entry are just those sort of things; theory ideas and components that help create theory skills right now; asap, fill in the rest as you go along. Rote learning, writing down the letters of the pitches, spelling out the letter names of chords, etc., wins the day, every day.

Art ~ As your time permits. A Y T P

Art ~ Aural predictability and the zero wiggle.

This idea is about playing with a listeners expectations as we create our musics. We can sound like we are going to go there (resolve) and go there, or hint that we might go there and then not go there, or even go somewhere else, then go back there later and resolve, usually ... :)

Or the flip side of zero wiggle, as when we're the bass player, and there's this big build up to one pitch. A build up of predictability that tells everyone within listening distance ... that the music is going to arrive to this and only this 'one note destination station', and if all the stars align, it'll be on time = total predictability :)

Our most predictable Americana lick to a resolution that everyone knows is coming is by far and away is the 'Muddy walkdown.'

So children's songs usually go right on to where it sounds like it is going, thus clearly predictable for all. The 12 bar blues is totally predictable, thanks to its turnaround, yet with endless variation of time, tone and timbre, to get us there.

In the pop through country styles, with clear hooks and repeated vocal lines, when folks can join in and sing along on a first hearing, its predictable and a gem.

So in jazz? Jazz by its very nature sounds very less predictable. We jazzers tend to fill in the spaces between the principle points in songs, or find unique ways to get there. "Between' implies chromatic, which quickly blurs tonality and thus, a too predictable outcome.

As music becomes more chromatic, as in today's modern jazzy styles, its predictability can virtually vanish, to all but the most astute listeners. Time, form, phrasing, a melody, all combine to knit and keep chromatic flavored musics together. Takes strong players to make it go. Add bright tempos and off ya go to where nobody knows !

And yet, always best to keep in mind showbiz advice from the 'Boss', about putting on a really memorable show for customers ... 'To make folks feel welcome and surprise them somehow.'

Art ~ Back / middle / front of the beat. Simply a realization that in our phrasing of musical ideas, we can find different spots on even just one beat, each of which has a way with the melodic line. 'Out in front' finds the rhythm section playing a sort of catch up, call and response with the lead line and can be a great way to tell a story. Ray Charles' essential "Georgia On My Mind" uses this 'out front' styling.

Rolling right down the middle or 'on top' of the beat include American arpeggio kings Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. And Dexter Gordon might be the king of 'behind the beat' in telling his tales.

An easy way to feel these spots in time is to work with a metronome. Getting the clicks on 2 and 4 and singing along with the clicks, finding the various 'spots' of where the pitches and rhythms lay into as time goes by.

Art ~ Backing a soloist / poet. This is a performance consideration and really comes down to one thing. To not distract them from what they are doing while they are doing it. If this means not playing at all (tacit) so be it. Getting 'under' the soloist's volume is not always easy. And stepping all over the soloist is an easy way to lose the gig. Luckily rehearsal will win these days.

Remember, even a great soloist needs a nudge from time to time. As 'call and response' and 'theme and variations' core the Americana dialogue, it only takes one idea to begin the process among hip players.

Backing a poet.

At the turnaround of the form is oftentimes where the backing part can get dicey. Do we lay off and give the soloist the room to decide ... or as backing cats, help to drive right through the turnaround ? Even talking through arrangements helps.

Remember that in improvised musics, when we get under the stage lights things often change from what was discussed. That getting under the soloist, again in terms of volume, is usually makes for a good start. We call this volume loud / soft spectrum 'dynamics.'

Art ~ Banish the boredom. Creating art everyday, and the boredom with the effort, just seem to roll together sometimes. Cats shed their boredom away. One solution is to simply create ways to up the challenge of our own game. Endless possibilities for those so inclined. And the cool thing is, once we choose a thing to 'advance' on any given day, once engaged, the boredom often will vanish, pouf, gone ... Stick with the 'advance' process and over time we get better and better at what we want to do.

Art ~ Bass line stories / root notes / chord progressions. This concept comes to us here directly from our AmerAfroLatinEuro master maestro Mr. Clarke Terry, during a trumpet workshop I attended. Terry shares the idea that each song's bass line clearly carries and conveys the story's own message. Just like with the lyrics / words and pitches and rhythms of the melody line. So songs with similar 'messages' also will have similar bass lines. Cool ? No brainer right ? Cool :) Here's one by letter names, try it slowly as a love ballad, repeat many times :)

C ... E ... F ... G ... :)

Any feelings come to mind ? Maybe sing the pitches, loop it and hum along, find a few words to express your love for (... ?) This bass story line is then yours forever more, when ya need to tell a love story by song.

And since we've a solid half dozen or so 'categories' of stories for writing songs, then we've a half dozen or so bass line stories to master. Can that be? Yep, let it be. Just makes the learning that much easier. Of course we each get to jazz it up our own way. These half dozen lines form a good basis.

A benefit? Mostly in the 'merging' together of cool events from one similar song to another. Why not borrow ideas from one song and place them another ?

A second benefit? Is in chord substitution. For in each of the bass line stories we get a few pitches sequenced a set way, such as the One, Four, Five chord progression of the 12 bar blues. These become the 'events' of the story. And in its retelling? Bluesy jazz leaners provide variety to these basics through their chord substitution.

And for starters, triads are a great way to tell the story, and any story in any style really. Always root to root to start, and in this next idea running major triads. Ex. mp.

Easy enough huh? This line could be the 'basis' of a lot of different melodies. And it is a melody in itself too. Crazy how the three notes of the One, For and Five triads get us a long way on down the road.

Need some brooding passion today? Find something with the 'tonic minor 9' color motorized in a Latin One / Five bass motion beat to get it rolling. Humorous? Easy, the jaunty pentatonic major color is all over this. Add a style to this mix, and try a few tempos too, and historically speaking, the core bass line stories of each of our Americana genres evolve.

We can easily readily place any bass line 'story' into a couple of 'categories.' The blues is surely one such category. Others? Jazz ballads, rhythm changes and both 32 bar song forms often have a similar storyline.

That composers enjoy and study the works of other writers is also a part of this bass line story learning process. Classic Americana songs such as "Summertime" by the Gershwin Brothers, is a song / bass story line, that has been loved by so many, has probably spawned many a new song from admiring artists. Included in this work is my own inspiration that probably has some roots in "Summertime." Titled "Voices From The River", there's just a commonality of essence from one to the other.

Knowing of this might help us group similar songs to facilitate their learning and encourage the cross pollination between similar storylines. That most guitarists play some bass and vice versa, becomes a possible way to cross pollinate this process. Play melodies on both instruments.

So thanks in part to the uniqueness of each of us and peeps and artists, there's endless variations to the basic forms and ideas of a bass line story. The gist of this I think is to simply recognize that bass line stories do indeed exist and that in that recognition, we get a solid way into a song that might be unfamiliar, as say at a jam session etc. Thus a better chance of making sense of new music through its bass story line. R.O. !

From the Stones in 'E.' Be the beast, of sorts :)

Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower." A super ancient bass story line and syncopated and rhythm :)

Changing strings and adding in the dominant to close / cadential the loop a new way, ancient too.

Miscellaneous bass line stories. Tune up to standard pitch, the letter names for each example work just fine, just find the rhythm and groove and push these letter name buttons.

1 4 6 5

Art ~ Become an expert. No reason in the world not to become an expert at something. If we figure out what we love to do and become an expert at it, our chosen work becomes a pleasure and we show up every day ready and raring' to go :) That the 'more I know, the more I realize how much more there is to know', can be a beautiful thing. So over the decades of doing, we become more of an expert in what we love, through curiosity and study, sharing knowledge and collaborating to create a musical life.

Art ~ Be the motor. In that when we play music with others, we want to help propel the thing along, keep it moving, lively, danceable and more ...'Tough when we gots to pull others along, which if ya gotta do, you gotta do.' By doing so, hopefully there'll be someone to pull us along when that time arises. Other wise we strive to pull our own weight, be the motor. As Jerry Garcia once quipped in song ...

In all the styles in our Americana music history there's cats on all the instruments that love to be motor; drive the groove till the dancers shout and jump for joy, round and round. Drums is the thunder. Bass brings in the voodoo and storyline. Together they create the swing of the thing. Lead players 'bring it', sing it, tell the stories. All combine to create the music, which can bring all folks together to create community, of sharing together something we all can dig and be a part of together.

Art ~ Big four. This term comes here via the Ken Burns 'Jazz' series and is spoken by maestro Wynton Marsalis in episode one. It might originally come from the marching band drummers that created the beat for the parades in New Orleans. The even 'boom boom boom boom' of the bass drums keeps everyone marching right along. The booms create the quarter note pulse of one measure of 4/4 time. While any of the four beats will find their accents, popping on 2 and 4 is most common (snare drum) throughout the spectrum of Americana musics. This pop on 2 and 4, is what can quickly bring the swing thing for most artists in any style really. Paired with the snare pops, almost any sort of a 'walking' bass line is also an example of the 'big four' but with pitches.

Art ~ Bingo (a). Like all over the globe, a 'bingo' is a bingo, meaning we're playing at something and we win. This idea in AK here, applies workwise too, where 'fixing stuff to fix stuff' is the norm. So, when something that was wrong, then fixed, gives us a 'bingo' moment. It's got it's own song too, that everyone knows and can sing together. Pals and I have had some good laughs over this one, hope you do too... and ... 'Bingo was the name ...'

Art ~ (reading) biographies. Those into music love to hear about other musical artists. Just a natural thing. Serious cats here will also dig the educational aspects of reading about the artists they dig. Everything from the historical life and times of an era to the #1 hits of the day, to the gear to get those sounds to the story behind the hooks, of how they got there and hopefully back, or not as the case may be ... and still out on the road :)

By far and away for this Jose, the Ken Burns "Jazz" documentary is a must, it connects all of the early dots, must be 500 bio's included in the series, and shows the ways we've moved forward ever since.

Art ~ Blues' hue / blue notes for 'C' major. Vibrato and some bend. Since we only get 12 pitches, this first bit of the theory goes pretty quick if you gots some coolness and chops already under your fingers. I learned this idea about the blue notes from Tony James, one of Alaska's own titans of blues and jazz; simply that each pitch in a melody can 'got it's own', with applying vibrato, and which is quickly 'bluesified' by extending beyond vibrato to its bending.

Classical artists might term this to ... 'warm up' a note with a heartfelt vibrato. So through vibrato and bend, our pitches will naturally start to lean towards becoming a blue note bringing this 'blues hue' to our palettes, especially so if the harmony at that moment is leaning towards V7.

Adding in some of the 'blues hue' color is simply about adding in a pinch of a non-diatonic blue note into diatonic lines. For in every nook and cranny of possible genres of Americana music, there's usually a way to tastefully wiggle in some blues hue.

That so much of our Americana music over the last century or so is generated diatonically from the relative major / minor scale group of pitches, surely the Euro harmony, yet there's always room for the blues hue, created by placing the blue notes, within diatonic harmony of the seven pitches of the relative major / minor group. For even the stingiest of efforts in any sort of song we can look to might find a spot to spark a bit of on a blue note or two :) In theory ...

Thinking in 'C' major.

7 diatonic pitches / C D E F G A B C / white keys

5 blue hue notes / Db Eb Gb Ab Bb / black keys

Art ~ Blues guitar. Americana music includes these next melody ideas. They create pathways of notes that have shaped the 4 bar phrase / 12 bar blues form since the beginning. Get these snippets of melody under your fingers by ear. Three essential licks for the emerging blues artist in 'C.'

"Muddy Waters walkdown."

"Elmore James intro."

"Socking beat one in the 10th bar of the turnaround." Heard too many great recordings of blues soloists not to to mention this lick. Simply that by totally stinging the root pitch right on the top of the beat of the key on the first beat of the 10th bar of the 12 bar blues form, whatever happens after, or not as the lick might be, the rest of the band should know exactly where to go with it to find the downbeat on one of the next chorus. Here's a 12 bar 'A' blues, stinging the pitch 'A' on beat one, bar 10, using the muddy walkdown (up) to close the form and get into the next chorus.

Find the top in the 12 bar blues form.

Art ~ Blues' in A. This is a common way that players 'call' a tune when performing, especially in jam sessions or cats sitting in with the band etc., so common in unrehearsed situations. And while it sounds simple enough, there's quite a bit of musicality involved, much of which is just 'understood' by the musicians involved. Of course the root pitch is A, it's in a blues styled major key, the three principle chords are A7, D7 and E7 and it's probably a 12 bar blues form. The rest you'll just have to hear and find your way in. A 'muddy' lick of sorts will often kick it off and could be part of the turnaround too. The time, tempo and feel of it is often described in terms such as; a shuffle, swing, rockin', swampy etc. How the leader counts it off is often the best clue; 1234 with accents on 2 and 4 for any kind of swing feel, 123 - 456 spoken as triplets for the 12/8 of a shuffle etc. Listening to the records is most often the preparation for strengthening these combined skills that maybe included in a 'blues in A.'

Art ~ Blues Societies / Americana. Join up with like minded blues artists globally with ...

Art ~ Blues rub. The core idea of a blues rub is mostly about how a blue minor third melody note rubs the major third that lives within V7 supporting chord, the basic blues chordal color we use to motor our blues lines, and form up the harmony for a 12 bar blues. Thus:

Other blues pitch rubs ? Surely. The tritone of course. There's the #9 colortone. Push the tonic way out of tune, that'll get the hair standing up. Or, push b7 into the tonic, plus double stops for guitar featuring these blue notes and more, so lots of variations in this rub, as each instrument gets a few tonics to explore with. And then there's the beautiful non-rub of Six :)

Art ~ Body dance. My slang term that describes ANY signs that the rhythm joy of the music is having a physical effect on folks hearing the music being created. Wide range here; from full on jump for joy dancing to the age old toe tapping to finger taps to the gentlest of cerebral nods ... a body must and will somehow find the dance :) Is this why so many love the blues? That it is so easy to follow along with the story and its form? Could very well be. And surely the magic of the swing motor is insatiable. Resistance is futile :)

Art ~ Borrowing pitches. For the music theorist to sort things out, ideally all a song's pitches lives within a diatonic world, meaning that everything we need to create our music comes from the pitches of a key center. And while this is often true in children's songs and folk music, even the first mention of a blue note in the music usually means we're borrowing a pitch from outside our diatonic key center. Problem with this? No, not at all. We as theorists just generally want to know where it's coming from, i.e., its organic or diatonic source :) Once known, we can recreate the coolness when needed.

What does the borrowed pitch do for us? Back in the day there was an expression to 'jazz it up' to give a thing a bit of something new, something exciting, something different. From a dash of salt for a stew, to a new color for a different cut of cloth for a coat, to a new dance step, to using a C# in the key of C major to find V7 of ii, we often look to 'jazz a thing up a bit' to freshen up what might have become the mundane.

We all look to do it in our lives, as musical artists and now music theorists, we simply look to understand the why of the 'jazzing up' so to speak. In knowing the theory of it, , creative new ideas for how to jazz up something else down the road are energized too, and can begin a whole creative process for new works.

In theory. Once we realize that a pitch we come across is not diatonic to the song we're working on, we can investigate what it is adding to the music we are making. Is it just one non diatonic pitch in a melody line? Then probably a blue note or passing tone. Is it a non diatonic pitch in a chord and progression? What key is that chord diatonic too? Can we look at that key for ideas or resources to better understand and create solutions for voicings, find a parent scale for soloing over or through the chord? Chances are it'll be a V7 of something.

These sorts of investigative tools are what the theory cats use to find new ways to solve the same old same old. Is part of an artist always looking for something new, a new combination of elements to better express their ideas and emotional statement? Could be.

The evolution of our Americana musics over the last 100 years find many of our legends also as the exploratory visionaries of their day, that looked to push the existing boundaries of the art worlds they inherited. Does this happen in just music? No. All the fine arts have their visionaries and an evolution to the theory of the principles of their artform. It's just a natural process as new generations of folks come along, learn the existing body of knowledge in their times and create anew. For example, can you visualize when painted pictures were two dimensional?

Art ~ Bowl of gumption. Not sure where this comes from as it been around for so long now. But at some point some boss somewhere said to a crew member 'better get a bigger bowl of gumption in the AM if you want to keep work with this crew.' Cool. Gumption. Good. I thought oh ... like oats for the horses. Gumption is our inner voice that says 'I got this.' Gumption is also very sticky stuff, makes us stick to it, see it all through and finish strong.

Art ~ Break the rules. Established rules in music tend to create a particular sound and style of music, often of a distinct historical period. For example, if we follow the part writing rules of 17th century counterpoint we'll probably sound a bit baroque and hopefully a bit like Bach. 'Learn the rules first then break them' as your music demands. Rules also create real templates or forms for creating songs, which when performing gets us all collectively on the same page, right now. So things just go along quicker, and when the 'breaks' do occur in the art being created, it's really no big deal. It's more of an evolution from an existing form or style than something out of the blue, although that happens too. Is there really anything out of the blue in music anymore?

Art ~ Bring it (slang). Just really a slang term to capture the extra energy juice we each can bring to what's at hand and needing to be done. In blues mostly but all of our Americana styles too. As today we can find the blues pert near everywhere in Americana musics, that when performing our stories for an audience of folks, there's an extra energy possible to be channeled, theirs, back to the musicians, to really make a memorable moment for all. We can make and store up extra juice for later by being more confident and competent in what we're doing.

An awful lot like playing sports, similar licks to 'bring it.' "Just do it!" Yep. "Time to testify brother." Amen. 'Home run time.' "Giddyap!" Yep. '3 2 1 GO !" :) "Yo, tell it like it is." We each have our own way. That the juice in the blue notes carry is generally easier to squeeze out is pretty common knowledge. Know a blue note or two?

Art ~ Bring some voodoo. More stage slang about grooves, the voodoo brings a nice sweaty dance groove to any firelight, under the lights and stars sorts of setting. Some singers often call this the 'big beat.' Jim Morrison did. Here's four pitches in the lower harmonic structure that, with the right drum hits and ambience, conjures up a sweaty voodoo mojo workin' medium slow fat back under the lights.

In the right settings, playing this beat can get everyone's attention and keep it. Boom boom boom boom b ... :)

Art ~ Build a solo. This is the challenge that many of us as Americana improvising musicians face on a regular basis. Too many variables to consider here, but the core of it is to tell a version of the story being played, all based on the theme of the song. Our own 'version' of the tale so to speak. Beginners should find the melody of the song. In days now past the 'rule' was that if I didn't have the melody of the song under my fingers, I didn't really qualify to get to take a solo on that number.

In some of the bluesier styles, climaxing the ride is the essential pure joy of the process. The whole band, audience and especially the dancers, join to build it all up together, insuring all get to join in at the moment to release the tension that builds up to the climax ... then kaboom as they often said :) 'Sing the line play the line' is probably the first mantra in this building process.

Here's this idea from the old EMG print book in a graph featuring time and intensity ... so sort of the math of the process that make our hand stand up :)

Just a rumor. That when the younger, then emerging tenor saxophone jazz star Wayne Shorter got into the Miles Davis quintet, and when performing in concert, the idea of 'needing' to climax a ride in the traditional excitement of jazz performance evolved; in that it need not happen every time. So a new 'reflective' approach to improvisation in straight ahead jazz began anew.

And from way back when. According to New Orlean's legend, the original blues becomes the processional music for the internment ceremonies of a beloved who has passed. The Ying / Yang balance of the blues; of sadness when going the memorial service and the joyful to return to life and memorial banquet, both creating the walking tempos of the family's procession.

In building a blues solo of a couple of choruses long, this pairing of the 'sad / joy' ~ Ying / Yang and rhythms often life centers on a few combinations of pitches; the 3rd above a root pitch 1; and both a minor 3rd for sad, major 3rd for joy; ' A C A' and 'A C# A .' Next could be the '1 6 5 1 6 5' note magics of the gospel in major, from the kid's song of old "Shortnin' Bread." The pure driven snow mountain song "Old Joe Clarke" gets us moving around '5 6 b7 6 5 ~ 5 6 b7 6 5', which sounded over a major triad brings some rockin' rhythms to both 'billy and roll.'

Then there's the pure blue's minor of '#4 4 b3 1 #4 4 b3 1' that brings us a sorrow, which along with both the 'b3 1 b7 1 ~ b3 1 b7 1' 'b3 4 1' and three note '5 b3 1 ~ 5 b3 1', a descending minor triad to build up the passions of love and loss for the redemption magic usually in octaves of the "Saints", '1 3 4 5' pure major sounding uplifting joy and redemption of our lives to continue onward.

To set this in motion I call "All Blues" by Miles Davis, for a written groove, rhythm and bass line that the band will know. Then play through these motifs over the course of a dozen times through the 12 bar blues form to build my solo. Along the way the groove will change, the bass line rhythm will go to walking quarter notes, 'Bird blues" changes will come along, and eventually the solo will climax with one note; a tonic 'G' with various accents, bends articulations.

Art ~ Build any triad / chord. That we only get to build up chords on a couple of instruments, the string harps, the various keyboards and the fretted string instruments, the in 'theory' way to build any chord is quite easy and rather straightforward. We ask; I need a ______ chord, in a ______ musical style, whose letter name pitches are __ __ __ __ __ . Then locate these pitches on a chord playing instrument and voila !

Even find it on a stringed harp on a Greek vase ... ?

Art ~ By ear. This is generally the way most of us learn Americana music and is a natural way to learn any instrument. Vocally sing, hum or scat the line you want to play and find it on your ax. As there's only 12 pitches, we've already narrowed down our search considerably. Learning melodies by ear will help lock in the pitches and intervals. The melodies we learned way back as kids might be the perfect music to start this whole 'by ear' process off. Listening to our favorite players, we learn of the magic, and a source for new ideas. Sing along with the recordings, then find the pitches you sing as best you can on your ax. 'Hearts to hands' is the connection we often seek to be the storyteller. This living and sharing connection strengthens the more we do it. Got something to say? It'll come, just keep on keep on.'

Also, there are those natural artists that play by ear. I think those that do, know it. They play the music they dig by ear, sound great and blend right in. Learn what they can when they can, but don't really worry to much about it. These artists too seek to become masterful on their instrument, and have their own artistic signature. Not 100% sure here but I think this level of natural talent still has to practice. Rehearsals too helps :)

Art ~ By the numbers. There's two basic sets of numbers that we use to represent the letter name pitches within any chosen key center. One through eight creates a stepwise sequence of the pitches which become scales. One through fifteen, and moving by leap, needs just the odd numbers to make arpeggios, triads and chords.

~

scales melody 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

arpeggios for chords 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15

~

Author's note. In my college classes, a lot of the music theory discussions was by numbers. So there's a lot of that throughout this book. And formal studies of the modern masters of today, and studies of theory in general, will all have a fair share of this same numerical dimensioning, of 'measuring' the 'interval' or distance between two notes and assigning it a numerical value; generally ' tonic 1 through 8' for melody notes and the 'root 1 through 15' for harmony. So along with music vocabulary, the rote learning these numerical basics will help in most if not all college classes.

The bandstand. In working with blues hue'd dance bands, using letter names to identify the necessary chords and root pitches more often is the way it goes. "This next song is in 'G', so the chords are going to be 'G, C and D', works nice getting folks on the same page. The numbers lingo; "tune's in 'G', 1 4 5." Rest by ear.

In a 12 bar blues song in 'G', thinking by numbers is common. So the 'G, C, D' becomes, the One, Four and Five. Easily combined, just rote the best of both through a couple keys you sing in, call it good. Just saying.

At some point in understanding your own music and learning the theory a cat might begin to think of things in terms of understanding their musings by simply replacing a letter name pitch with the number that represents it, as determined by it place within a key center and its key signature. For example, the letter pitches of a one octave 'C' major scale become the bumbers '1 through 8.'

C	D	E	F	G	A	B	C
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8

Advancing into this one perspective of the pitches can truly rocket accelerate ones learning. I just don't think there's really any real sustainable loopholes in this; anything in musical letter names can be represented in numbers when viewed from within a key centered on one, tonic pitch. What we gain is the ability to project our 'numerical theory' into any key, on to any musical color, emotional setting or pitch combinations, that we might ever conjure up in any of our relative 12 major and 12 minor key centers. Blues too? Yep, blues too. Blues by the numbers :) So the whole tamale? Yep, numbers can cook up the whole tamale too.

For example, a letter named pitch such as 'C' is numerically represented as '1' in the key centers of 'C' major and C minor. So in a song written in the key of 'C' minor, a chord whose root pitch is 'C', numerically can be represented as a '1' / I / One chord. So in any key major or minor, the chord built on key's root pitch is One. So whatever happens with a One chord can be the same for each of our other key center's Ones. Handy !

145 / 251 / 3625 ... Another quite common application of these numerical equivalents is with describing the root pitches of chord progression. A song written with 'three chords and the truth', for instance a 'G, C, D' er', is also in numbers a One / Four / Five chord progression in G major. This numerical designation we can extend into any chord progression, both diatonic and non diatonic, on through to the pitches of their parent scales, arpeggios and all the color tones and their alterations.

One pitch / two pitch, three ... Here's a short list of what we can, will or might do with various quantities or numbers of pitches. History, theory, style, composition and form, all mesh together here. The trick is to 'keep it between the lines.' Meaning diatonic with numbers. For if I only have three pitches, I only have three to work with. Which three ? Well U decide that, ( we'll follow along the overtone series to get us started upon this pathway ).

More '3 of ... ?' Three chords? Or 3/4 time. Or three part harmony. Each of these become ways into the theory. And each number, one through eight, each have their own coolness and place within our music / math

Art ~ Cadential motion in America :) Cadential motion is what we use to direct where our music is going and create stopping points. They most often end our musical phrases, and the songs we place them in. They come in lots of different varieties and each has its own sense and degree of ending or closure.

A 'perfect authentic cadence' creates a perfect sense of a complete closure to a phrase of music within a chosen key center of music. All comes to rest. In rhythms and time, emotionally, spiritually and in the story being told, all 'perfectly' resolve to a perfect closure. It does this by loading up on the tonic pitches of a song's key and the bass motion of V to I. Here's cadential perfection of closure in 'C major then A minor', root position Five to One chords.

End of phrase, end of story ... ? Perfectly authentic :) Next tune :) Break time already ? Another take? OK.

So in a folk song in 'G', a 'G' chord often is followed by 'C.' This is diatonic motion of One to Four so no real chord cadencing or cadential aspects. We'll use a 'D' chord to set up the return to 'G.' In a blues styled tune, this same 'G' chord often becomes 'G7' before the 'C7' chord is sounded. Again V7 or 'D7' becomes the Five chord to One / 'G7.' In our theory system, Five to One motion can become the core of it all for our cadences. Really just depends on style and the endless mix of ethnicity of the folks making musics worldwide.

In pop to varying degrees, not uncommon to use the full or more complete F / G 7 to C, ( IV / V7 / I ) whereby complete means that we use the full weight and potential of the gospel Four, then to the tritone bearing V7 to solidly resolve itself to One. This cadential motion creates a true Americana sense that we've arrived at a resting point. Also, this cadential motion is often used to modulate to a new key center with a song. This One / Four / Five motion is the core of the 'diatonic 3 and 3.'

Jazz very often uses a full or complete cadence (V7 / I) between any and all chords within a song. Crazy sounding for sure but it seems as if any opportunity to use a chord or two to set up the direction of the music it will. Jazz evolves the gospel / pop chord progression of IV / V7 / I cadential motion by often subbing one chord for another, in this case a Two ( ii -7 ) for Four. That the Two / Five / One is a 'sleeker' motion, and as such, can move everything along at a faster clip. This encourages and even allows jazz tempos to accelerate. We can see this 'Two chord acceleration' emerge in the music in the 1930's and forward.

For in the 1940's, empowered with the sleekness of the Two / Five cadential motions, Charlie Parker's bebop generation continues this acceleration of the music, that demands both accurate tonal direction and super sleek and super fast cadential motions. For in his compositions we'll find the divvying up of the diatonic pie into ever thinner slices for his arpeggiated, bluesy explorations. Parker's ability to fully arpeggiate and bluesify the cadential motions through a tonal center, at blazing speeds, opened up new cadential and modulation options in the jazz language. A decade later, through the arpeggiation of chords and new substitution principles, John Coltrane will create a 'sheets of sound' approach to soloing through the changes that take Mr. Parker's ideas to yet another pinnacle of development, to the edge of chromaticism, where cadential motion's are rare and often used only to finalize a performance to a closing.

In today's chromaticism, cadential motions are a slippery thing, as chromatic motion in and of itself is a slippery thing, and coupled with all of the chords in a song's progression as tritone bearing, V7 type chords, its a blur of colors. Tempos blaze of course and melodic lines, coupled with modern styled 1/8th notes, take on a sort of swinging chromatic blur with no traditional sense of cadential closure. Think of an express train passing many stops, becoming a rocket ship that somehow stops at them all, safely and on time. Modern jazzers will do this and keep the blues hue to boot !

Art ~ Call and response / improvisation and rhythm. This age old back and forth is perhaps the original way it all goes down. Still as valid today as ever, the back and forth dynamic runs deep in our sense of creating community and togetherness in performances. We can bring this dynamic to any musical style, the blues and gospel are mainstays of this interplay.

Great for kids too, for example, a common call and response event with kids is "Old MacDonald Had A Farm" ... E I E I O :)

And if there's a more natural entry way to develop our musical phrasing, and our own signature ways of saying it, beyond the ancient ways of call and response and mixing in some rote learning, please share with the world. Add some clicks to lean any 'call' into and measure up any phrase of any length you can conjure, then just give your Muse a chance to 'suggest' an idea. Sound it out and then wait the same amount of time in the 'silence of space' as the click go by. 'Call again.'

Know now the secret that our musical imaginations flourish in silence too ... especially while moving through time:) Over the longterm and with the addition of the principles of forward motion, new improvisation is just a 'call ... and response' away.

Art ~ Call and response / rhythm / four bar phrase.

Art ~ Capture emotions ~ set the mood. Can we understand our musics by looking at our most precious states of emotional being? Of course we can. Can 'joy' be consistently captured with a set group of pitches? Or is their magic only brought to life in combination with the motion of time, like a frisky, toe tappin' rhythm?

Is the longing that often awaits love's arrival easily found and sounded in a minor chord, pulsed to life by a heartbeat, thump thump thump rhythm? Easy, and absolutely. Are our sorrows and regrets balanceable with the renewal of life into light as with Yin / Yang in our stories through musical tones? Balance is tricky yes? And does our now ancient relative minor / major weave provide the necessary pitches for our new age emotions?

There's room for a debate here. And what about the blues? And the stories there? From folk legend to the modern urban of today, the blues run deep in Americana.

Simply by listening to the music we each love and letting ourselves go with it, we know this 'emotional capture' exists yes? Of course it does, its one reason why music is so cool and reaches out to everyone. So how do we each learn to do this? Develop a palette of musical sounds and rhythms that express our range of emotions in our stories?

A start? Find a song and melody that brings you joy. Sing it till you thrill at your own power to bring your joy to this song. Then find another. Or a sorrowful song that when captured by your voice the tears swell, then you'll own the pitches and understand their pathways of expression forever. Find an instrument and tune it to find the pitches. And once you're this far ... there's no turning back :)

From Chinese Healing Secrets book we gain new insights into our music' physical and spiritual effects on our seven emotions and some music color suggestions.

"I made up stories showing love, hate, passion, envy, jealousy, etc. I tried a scene as a street walker. I was a mother who had lost a son in the war. Before I was through, I had taken off my hat, my shoes and even my jacket. In my intensity I was all over these people, roughing them up. But I walked out with the contract."

Art ~ Capture the historical times in music. Thanks to nearly a century's worth of Hollywood film scores, we've today a rather vast library to explore for clues to what musics will capture any given time in our history. For from cave to castle to space travel, it's covered. The epic scores for epic historical stories depicted in the movies must be imagined and written. For while today's 'sampling' is cool, and especially potent in our modern today, capturing the historical times of the storyline of a movie in memorable musics is an art like no other (at least for us musicians). Everyone should get a try at this 'scoring music for a movie' somewhere along the way. Its fun, challenging and a fascinating process.

And even us writers and composers of 'new' music also sample too, perhaps in just a different way. We should always remember that 'all music was once new.' In doing so we carry on the tradition of ever modernizing our culture. Say I need music for George Washington crossing the Delaware River in the winter, I can find paintings of the event to visualize and cue up a song from their day; "Yankee Doodle." Find its groove to set the mood, look at the heroic paintings and conjure up something that will capture the spirit of the scene and times in music. The new "Hamilton" show's music modernizes the whole story through its music.

And once we've the idea, the rest is just the work process of composing the new music. Ideas often play out into duds, but in the process of trying, I've learned and probably have a new way forward or two. So we begin again and again.

Art ~ Chord function / quality / type. Rhythm and time considerations aside for the moment, does the pitch, arpeggio or chord we hear, as the music goes by in real time, give us the sense of being at rest or in motion to a future resting point? We hear this 'at rest' all the time at the endings of songs in every style.

This basic dual sensation, in motion or at rest, becomes the initial basis of defining the function of really any pitch, scale, arpeggio, chord or even rhythm, in all of our styles our music. We as theory scientists can then examine most any chord for its pitch qualities of intervals and further evolve the concepts to create our three unique chord 'types.'

Chord type in a way allows us to measure just how much forward motion or sense of rest any combination of pitches might contain. Of course, what chord we find and where we find it in the music ... is the whole tamale in this. This search is also the curiosity juice of our own evolutions, as a modern guitarist.

So in a formula of sorts;

chord function / quality ~ evolves to chord type

Since there are only so many pitches and combinations, in creating chord type we find the same intervals between their pitches and thus understand to define and shape the sense of forward motion of really any musical element, create the artistic idea of how any component might function and understand its quality in relation to the other parts of a song.

That all music basically works in this fashion, this 'either ~ or' (at rest / in motion towards being at rest) is a perfect way to initially define function, to get a sense of the 'musical function' of any component. Simply, does it create tension or release in our musics ...

So how we understand our resource and design our music is often shaped by this one component; a sense of being in motion (on the road) to a place where we come to rest (landing home). Read further for insights and further evolutions into this essential property of music.

Art ~ Chord quality. The idea of chord quality is mostly a jazz concept and is based on the type of 3rd and 7th in any given chord. No 7th? Then its probably some sort of triad. So is a chord a major or minor? And is its 7th degree a major or dominant 7th? For these two intervals define our chord type. Once in this realm, any chord can be defined by type, opening up new possibilities for viewing harmony and function in composition.

Art ~ Chord type / pitch, arpeggio, chord. Mostly a jazz concept, chord type is simply a way to catalogue chords together that will function the same way in similar musical settings. There are three categories of chord types here in Essentials; One, Two and Five.

Art ~ Click and read. Click and read is the mantra for interacting with this book. Click of course is the magic with the computer mouse that clicks and through the hyperlinked word which takes us to another spot in the story. Read is what we do when we get there. From an educational standpoint, this work is organized for self directed learners, so for libraries, home school and 'e' curriculums shared over the internet.

And it is among my sincerest intent that school age students learn to read English too, one among the many dialects to be explored.

English is the main language that has been historically spoken here in North America that creates the working vocabulary of musical terms we today can use to describe the art and theory components of the tones we dig. Endless local slang makes the translations ever evolving of course, but the basics of academia now span globally and truth be known, a 'secondary dominant' is pretty much the same stack of pitches here in Alaska as in Seattle, S.F., L.A., N.Y., London, Berlin, Moscow, Beijing and Tokyo and points in between.

So in the 'global affairs' ways of today, getting folks on the same page with the same terms and ideas is a great facilitator in getting things accomplished. And that just feels good for there's always another song to write, learn and explore and mixing ideas from far away lands has always lent a touch of the 'exotic' to the same old same old Americana weave. That music can become for some an endless pathway of artistic discovery and expression within a community of sentient beings. The Americana experience has its uniqueness in its philosophical strive to be all inclusive, gathering all peoples together into the weave of community who share the joys of music together.

And for posterity. In putting this work forth I attempt to capture and expound upon the whole tamale of the Americana music scene from a nuts and bolts theory view of the vast array of styles in our musical arts. The main reasoning here is that if later generations ever need to recreate the magics we love today, if they understand math and numbers the way we do, they'll have a 'theory way' written out to recreate our unique sets of pitches, their two distinct tunings for creating melodies and chords, which we combine for our songs, coupled with how our musical time is altered to create the wide ranging magics of the swing rhythms, putting Americana musics into motion.

So with this in mind ... see a word you do not know of yet or an idea you're curious about ... ? Click the link and go explore. Click and read on :)

Art ~ Closure ( perfect ). The idea of a perfect closure is really in three parts. One is that any loop of pitches in any interval configuration will always close back to its starting point if extended far enough along its interval structure. This phenomina also works with rhythms and beat patterns. This helps us to prove up our theory machinations and re-create the loops of nature.

The second 'closure' has to do with the more modern application of equal temper tuning to our 12 pitches. This way of tuning creates a perfect closure for these super precision tuned tones embodied in the chromatic scale; equal sized half step intervals in both ascending and descending directions ( at least on a piano :)

Thus empowered, these 12 equal tones enable to bring about the scale / arpeggio / chord evolutions that will further empower the ideas of 'anything from anywhere', a sort of end goal (lifelong) concept, describing the range of musical colors and style skills a modern guitarist brings to the Americana songbook today.

Loop three. That our original natural pitches include the pentatonic group, both major and minor, we can trace its universally accepted pitches from our earliest shows on through to pure, early Americana standards, melodies and songs that captured America's own unique grooves as its histories unfolded through the centuries, songs and their melodies that were then parodied into new songs as the Americana styles evolved.

With these same pitches we can loop back to their starting hues and colors, but now into a whole new 'pentatonic vista', with a new approach to Americana's challenges of improvising through fast moving chord changes as discovered by John Coltrane, closing the loop back to its pentatonic origins after a journey harmony evolutions of 100 years or so.

Art ~ Colors / palette. This representation is simply a way to organize our musical colors in a one dimensional picture, that lays out our musical components as the way a painter might with their colors.

Art ~ Cool with the numbers. Becoming cool with the numbers is all about swapping letter names for their representative numbers within a designated key center. This simple process can become a giant facilitator in our music. Here's a chart spelling out the diatonic triads in 'A' major. From the chart we become cool with the numbers by thinking that; Our root pitch A is #1 of our scale, arpeggio and triad, Two is B, Three is C# etc.