~ 'lifting' ideas off recordings ~

~ ... following the ancient aural traditions of the generational passing along of musical ideas through hearing them, 'lifting' generally means getting ideas from a recording of music, getting pitches, licks, riffs and dittys, chords or rhythms under our fingers while listening to the music we love ~

Lift this line. Ever do this before ? Lucky that we ALL get to be newby's and enjoy our first success ! Find this first melody riff ditty by ear, tuned up to standard pitch.
Get it on the first try ? Right on ! Second ? Cool. Three tries a charm ? No worries, just keep on trying at it'll come, as this melody and pitches are among the first we might ever have learned ...

~ and always remember ... the pitch we're hunting for ... its got to be one of 12 pitches, for that's all we get, so one by one we can try each of them out ... to find the one we want ~

~ tune up our instrument to the recording ~

~ find root notes of chords in song's chord progression, this is a song's bass line story ~

~ determine if chords are major or minor ~

~ sing along, find real melody notes ~

~ and how many beats per measure ~

~ any one note, on any Amer Afro Euro Latin recording, is going to be one of 12 pitches ~

~ learn your music by ear ...

for it is forever the ancient way ~

 

~ This song is copyrighted, so you will have to find your own recording, work it out by ear and you'll be good off to a good start ~

artist ~ Selena
"I Could Fall In Love" (live)

hint: we can find all the bass line story notes for this song on a low 'E' string :)

 

~ This song is copyrighted, so you will have to find your own recording, work it out by ear and you'll be good off to a good start ~

~Michelle Branch ~

~ Carlos Santana ~

"Game Of Love" (street scene)

 

~ This song is copyrighted, so you will have to find your own recording, work it out by ear and you'll be good off to a good start ~

The Beatles
"I Will"
key of 'F'

 

~ This song is copyrighted, so you will have to find your own recording, work it out by ear and you'll be good off to a good start ~

Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton and Friends

Crossroads ( live )

"Sweet Home Chicago"
blues in 'E'

now, what's next for you ... ?

Review. The three tricks to lifting are to figure out the key of the song your lifting from, then tune up solid. Second, is any pitch we are trying to find is one of 12. So even searching one by one takes like a minute :) Third, and this idea could be first, that most produced songs are a couple of minutes. Meaning that the same spots in song will come along a few times. So while in some of these exact spots it's hard to hear a pitch, or whatever, that maybe the same spot in the next chorus might be easier to hear. Hope this helps :)

"I find myself listening to the older players. You see one bar of theirs and you can get one hundred more licks out of it ..."

References. References for this page's information comes from school, books and the bandstand and made way easier by the folks along the way.

References academia Alaska. And when you need university level answers to your questions and musings, and especially if you are considering a career in music and looking to continue your formal studies, begin to e-reach out to the Alaska University Music Campus communities and begin a dialogue with some of Alaska's own and finest resident maestros !

'energize your own learning in life through education, exploration and discovery ...'

comments or questions ...?

~ jacmuse@ak.net ~