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#1
01-20-2018, 05:10 PM
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My Eureka monent for theory
On nights when I wake up and can't sleep, I'll try to go over theory in my mind, sort of like counting sheep. I was just having all sorts of troubles with scales and modes and the construction of chords.
So this past week I got a bass guitar and took a lesson. Laying out the fingering and the appeggios was really helpful. I saw how it works on a bass in a way that I never saw on a guitar. I also got a chord wheel last week and was fooling around with it during the week. Last night I woke up around 4 am and as usual, tried to put myself back to sleep going over this theory. But suddenly I started to see it clearly. A Eureka! moment. It was crazy...I was lying in bed and this stuff was racing though my mind. It suddenly all came together for me. I never did get back to sleep and I was excited to grab the guitar today and see what happened. Sure enough.....I'm finally putting it all together. Suddenly I see how it all fits. Anyhow, I've been pretty happy today. I really, really, think it was getting the bass and learning just a few tings that made it all come together. BTW, the bass is fun too. So if you are stuck on something, I think picking up a different instrument might be just the thing to get the mind moving again. Last edited by Gmountain; 01-20-2018 at 05:31 PM. 
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#3
01-20-2018, 05:31 PM
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Congrats on your eureka moment! Those are always exciting.
Your experience is quite common. Your subconscious never sleeps. It acts on what you feed it. It is particularly responsive to input when you are in a drowsy state. Providing it with a new way of looking at something (new instrument, chord wheel, e.g.) can be very effective as you have found out. The power of the subconscious is well documented. Edison, among many others, was a master of exercising his.
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#4
01-20-2018, 06:52 PM
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#5
01-20-2018, 06:56 PM
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__________________
Waterloo WL-S, K & K mini Waterloo WL-S Deluxe, K & K mini Iris OG, 12 fret, slot head, K & K mini Follow The Yellow Brick Road
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#6
01-20-2018, 11:05 PM
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__________________
http://www.jessupegoldastini.com/
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#7
01-20-2018, 11:15 PM
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#8
01-21-2018, 05:49 AM
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No Eureka moment for me as of yet....just lots of glacier persistence. Its coming, but slowly....... little bits n pieces at a time.
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#9
01-21-2018, 01:47 PM
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 "Use them when you hear them" is all you need to know. I mean, "because it sounds right" is the only true answer to "why" in any case. All the music theory in the world won't explain it any more than that. (OK, I don't know ALL the music theory in the world...  But I've been studying it - idly - for nearly 50 years and realised very early on that music theory is not interested in explaining why things sound good. That's not what it's for.)
__________________
"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen.
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#10
01-21-2018, 02:28 PM
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I really think that anyone who wants to learn more about theory and be able to apply it to theor guitar playing would greatly benefit form the use of a keyboard or piano
The piano IS a visual representation of theory. With some very simple things that need to be remembered, numbers....All you really need to know is; 1358 and 3478 and 2356 and to be able to locate middle C, located in the middle part of the keyboard. They really should have used Aminor as the center point, but they used Cmajor instead. Simply for the fact that if they did it would be a,b,c,d,e,f,g and then start again....whereas with c it is c,d,e,f,g,a,b,c.... at any rate...a major or minor chord consists of the following degrees in the scale a 1 a 3 a 5 and an 8 which is really the 1 played one octave higher....in the case of the C it is the C above the first one you start on. Well thats nice but how do I know what the scales are? If we start on C, and with one finger, or just our eyes, and count up one white key at a time and observe, we see something. Between the E and F and between the B and C there is no black key. All that is telling you is that because there is no black key, that the INTERVAL between the E and F and the B and C are 1/2 steps. All the other steps are whole steps as there is a black key between them. So if we REMEMBER the interval pattern we will see that the 1/2 steps in a major scale fall between the 3rd and 4th degree{notes} and the 7th and 8th degrees. THUS SHOWING YOU THE UNIVERSAL SCALE made from the intervals that are shown to you by the piano itself. So if we now take this same 1,2,34,5,6,78 {think of the commas as black keys} and choose say an Fsharp note and then count out .....1 to 2 is a whole,2 to 3 is a whole, 3 to 4 is half, 4 to 5 is a whole, 5 to 6 is a whole, 6 to 7 is a whole and 7 to 8 is a half....we have now played an Fsharp major scale, and tofind the chord, we just need to play the 1,3,5,8 degrees of the scaleand we now have a major chord. And if we do the same thing, but start on an A note, we can do the same exact thing, if we do we will see that the 1/2 steps now fall between the 2 and 3 and then the 5 and 6, thus showing you a minor scale, the A minor, the relative minor to C major{ it also has no black keys} and then also find the 1.3.5.8 and now we are playing the A minor chord. So this very simple thing, that the piano SHOWS you all the basic theory you need to get started is very enlightening to some as it basically shows you the following. The scale patterns for all major and minor keys, and thus shows you every major and minor chord in root position. As well as shows you all relative major and minor keys if you pay attention. After learning and ingraining this is your head, after that, there is a little more needed, such as understanding inversions, and or how any chord can be played in root position, first inversion and then second inversion and then back to root again. And then understanding things like 7ths,9ths,11ths,13ths augmented and diminished, but even those things with a piano are very easy to see. So I just can't recommend using a keyboard in conjunction with your guitar playing theory enough. Its WAY more visual and does not have the confusing B string to mess with your mind, you can see it on a piano so easy and then be able to apply it the guitar. the interval patterns are the same, a constant, all you need to do is pick any note and apply the same rules 3/4 7/8 for major and 2/3/ 5/6 for minor and you've got a large part of it.
__________________
http://www.jessupegoldastini.com/ Last edited by jessupe; 01-21-2018 at 02:34 PM.
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#11
01-22-2018, 06:19 PM
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I agree. The Beatles were very good on that approach. They broke all sorts of "rules". Lots of rock solos pay only glancing attention to the rules. To my ear a lot of Bach's stuff is really out there on the edge, what he does with harmony and the relations. Then you've got jazz. We have a comedic musician (Bill Bailey) over here in the UK who does a skit on jazz - like you can play anything you like in any order however weird...
I think the best approach is just to learn enough music theory to do what you want to do in music. Obviously if you are going to conduct a classical symphony orchestra you'll probably need to know a hell of a lot but if you are going to try and compose some popular songs on your guitar, you don't need that much. Quote:
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