What is a Major 7th (maj7) Chord?

If you're looking for a pretty sounding variation to your major chords, allow me to introduce you to the major 7th chord (sometimes written "maj7", "M7", and several other ways). It sounds pretty cool, a very relaxed chord on most occasions (at least, that's how I think of it).

To play a major 7th chord, we play the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th note of a major scale. It's only one note different from the 1st, 3rd, and 5th note we use for the major chord. Adding that 7th really adds a cool dimension to the chord though.

An A major scale is: A B C# D E F# G# A, so an Amaj7 chord would be: ACEG#
An F# major scale is: F# G# A# B C# D# E# F#, so an F#maj7 chord would be: F#AC#E# (an "E#" is the same pitch as an "F")
A G major scale is: G A B C D E F# G, so a Gmaj7 chord would be G B D F#

Major 7th chords can be found in many styles of music, including pop, rock, jazz. One great example of a song with major 7 chords is David Bowie's "Space Oddity", or Oasis' "Half the World Away". Like the minor 7th chord (which I posted about here), they tend not to work very well with heavily distorted guitars, so they're not as common in really heavy rock or heavy metal, but there are exceptions (none that I can think of right now, mind you).

Major 7 chords are definitely worth knowing and adding to your musical vocabulary. The easiest way to play one on guitar is to play your open C chord without the first finger. That turns the C into a B on your B-string, which then gives you CEGB, the four notes needed for a major 7th chord.

There are a variety of ways to play major 7th chords, which I will talk about in the future.

Temet Nosce (Know Thyself)

Temet nosce; Latin for "know thyself" [bonus points to any speakers of Latin who can tell me how to pronounce it - my classical language of choice is Greek]

Who are you? What kind of musician do you wish to be? This is one of the most important questions when learning music.

Are you a jazz musician? The next Kurt Cobain? Do you love learning scales as much as I do? Knowing who you are, and who you wish to be, as a musician, is fundamental to learning your instrument. If you know what you want out of music, you can make sure you're moving towards your goals as quickly and easily as possible.

Let me give some examples to make my point:

If you're going to be the next great jazz guitarist... you had better learn every scale, every mode, and every chord that you possibly can. You're probably going to want to get a jazz "fake book" (a book that contains progressions to many jazz standards) and learn it cold. You're going to need to train your ear to recognize chords and different chord progressions. You will need to know more music theory than just about any other musician out there (except for maybe other jazz musicians).

If you want to play some funky bass lines... you're going to need to learn your scales, some modes, how to slap and pop notes, and study some classic funk bass lines.

If you're a punk rocker who wants to stick it to the man... you probably want to learn some power chords, and you're probably going to want to learn some punk songs (I'll leave it to you to do the research). You probably should learn your scales, too (but you won't, because you're too punk). Or you can do whatever you want - I'm a teacher and maybe you think I'm "the man" you're sticking it to.

If you'd like to know more about any particular style of music, check out my introduction to various music styles below:

Introduction to the blues
(More to come!)

In the future I will continue linking to introductions to various styles of music from this post, so you can get an idea of what's involved in learning any particular style of music. But for now, just ask yourself what you really want out of your instrument, and start figuring out what it's going to take to get you there.

Temet Nosce.

Songwriting Sessions: Songwriting in Action (Lyrics First!), Part 3

Part 1 of this series of blog posts can be found here.
Part 2 of this series of blog posts can be found here.

I've written the lyrics to the song "Blood in the Fields", and now it's time to start on the music. I started working on the melody to the chorus with this particular chord progression in mind: Dm C G Here's what I have so far:    The song is in the key of D Dorian, which is sort of like D minor (more on this in future theory posts). I used notes from the D Dorian scale to come up with this part of the melody.

I'll keep plugging away at the song and see what I come up with. Rock and roll!

(Part 4 of this series is here)

Wonderful Wonderwalls

Is it possible to take someone else's song and change it just enough so that, while it still bears some similarity to the original song, it ends up almost sounding like an entirely new song?

I believe these two videos answer the question with a "yes".

First, here's the original version of "Wonderwall" by Oasis.

I love this song. It will probably always be one of my favourite songs (I'd be surprised to see it leave my top 10, and it has pretty consistently been in my top 3). I love pretty much everything about this song and would love to have written it. In fact, I'd be happy write a song half as good as Wonderwall.

American Singer-Songwriter Ryan Adams decided that he'd take a slightly different approach: he covered "Wonderwall" in a beautiful and unique manner that, I think, really stands on its own. Here's Ryan Adams' version of the song. Listen to both and bask in the glory of two brilliant recordings of the same song.

I remember reading somewhere that Noel Gallagher, member of Oasis and the guy who wrote the song, loved Adam's version of the song - so much so, in fact, that his own performances of the song started sounding a little more like the cover.

When to Take a Break

In my opinion, unless you've broken your hand or fingers, you should probably never take a long break (more than a day or two) from playing your instrument. Sometimes, though, we need a quick break from practice. But when should we take one? And for how long? I wrote this post to answer these questions.

When (not) to take a break

A short break can be good for a few reasons:

1) It gives you a chance to relax your hands and fingers (and any parts of the body) from any built-up stress or tension

2) It gives you a chance to clear your mind and come back to practice with focus and attention.

If you're making good progress, you're feeling relaxed, and you're calm and not angry or frustrated, you're probably fine to keep practicing. If, however, you're feeling tense, angry, frustrated, and you don't feel like you need a moment to clear your head, then you need a break!

How long of a break?

Usually two to three minutes is a good break for your mind and body. Longer breaks are fine as long as you don't let it keep you from your practicing goals! If you're looking to do an hour a day of practice, make sure you do the whole hour. Short two minute breaks are a great way to bring you back into focus, and help you let go of stress when it builds up.

What if I'm really frustrated?

If you're getting really angry or frustrated with your work, and you feel you need a longer break, by all means take one! Just remember to feel good about the practice you've already done, and remind yourself that you should never completely give up. There's always hope! You can learn to play whatever you're working on.

Remember who you are as a musician, and try to embrace gratitude. Do those things often enough, and you'll find most frustration playing your instrument will fade.

Take breaks as needed

In the end, how often you break doesn't matter too much as long as you're not making excuses or trying to get out of practicing! Perhaps if we practiced perfectly, we'd never need to take a short break, but until then, take a short break when needed.

How do I Play Harmonics?

Harmonic, you say?

A harmonic is a pleasant-sounding note that you can get at certain frets by lightly touching the string at the fret-wire (the metal dividers that separate frets). I won't go into why harmonics exist on the guitar and bass (it has to do with overtones, a subject for another day). But learning how to play them can be rewarding. They are occasionally played in songs and they can be used to make it easier to tune by ear (which I've written about here).

Most of the time when we play guitar, we play by pressing one or more fingers hard enough into the string(s) that we get a clear sounding note or notes. In the case of harmonics, however, we do things a little differently. Here's how we play a harmonic.

How to play a harmonic

1) Place one of your fretting hand fingers over the fretwire (the metal part of the frets) on the right side of the 12th fret. Notice how each fret has two fretwires surrounding it? Place your finger lightly over the one on the right (not the left).

2) Do not apply pressure with the finger - your finger should be touching the string, put not pushing down at all, like you normally would while playing.

3) Pluck the string with your pick or finger, and then lift your finger off the string immediately after.

If you time it correctly, you should get a pleasant sounding note from your efforts.

Where to play harmonics on your fretboard

Harmonics are most easily played at the 12th fret, which produces the same note you would get from playing the 12th fret normally. The next easiest places to play are the 7th or 19th fret, both of which give you the pitch that you get from normally playing fret 19. The next easiest is the 5th fret, which, along with the 7th fret, we can use to tune. There are other places harmonics can be played as well, like close to (but not quite on) the 4th and 9th fret, as well as others.

Start with the 12th fret harmonics, then work on 7th and 5th fret. If you get really adventurous after that, you should see if you can find any other harmonics. Have fun!

Wednesday Weekly Progress Update - January 25

How did I do this week? Let's see what I've been up to...

1) This blog - ongoing:

Aside from editing a few pages here and there, I added:

What is a Minor 7th (Min7) chord?: This is a post about what notes you need to make a minor 7th chord (I've yet to add specific examples on the guitar fretboard, but have covered the theory side of things)

Listen to the Song: When learning a song, listen to it! This post gives some good reasons why.

Songwriting Sessions: Songwriting in action (lyrics first!), Part 2: Part 2 in a series of posts where I write a song starting with the lyrics.

old performance footage: This is an old video (almost a decade old!) of me performing with one of my bandmates. Check it out!

Get motivated, stay motivated: This post has some tips for you to get motivated, and to stay that way. A must-read for any musician.

Progress so far: 9% (these percentages are just my best guess, but it's probably close enough)

2) Songs For Ghosts (my 2nd album):

I've done a fair bit of recording vocals this week, but I've still got a fair bit more to do! Things are going well, here.

Progress so far: 58% - still working on vocals

3) Poster for my office:

More progress here. I'm averaging about 2 blog posts a week about the poster content (not including this one), and I feel good about that.I wouldn't be surprised to see a poster hanging in my office this summer.

Progress so far: 42% - solid progress

4) Other repertoire - ongoing:

3rd album songs - I've practiced playing a bunch of them, and this has been the first week where I've been working on some of the lyrics as well. In the case of a few songs, I feel like I need to write lyrics to make any further progress on them, so it's been a good week for that.

Cover songs - I've made some progress here on two or three of the five (I think it's five) songs I'm working on. This has typically been pretty low-priority, but I expect to see more practice on these after I finish "Songs For Ghosts" in March.

Keep being awesome! I'll try to do the same.

What is a Minor 7th (Min7) chord?

If you're looking for something to spice up your minor chords, look no further. Minor 7th chords are a very cool-sounding variation on the typical minor chords we know and love.

To play a minor 7th (sometimes written as "min7", "-7", and probably other ways that I never use) chord, we play the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th note of a minor scale. It's much like how we construct a minor chord (which I discuss in more detail here), but with the added 7th. Here are some examples:

An A minor scale is: A B C D E F G A, so an Amin7 chord would be: ACEG
An F# minor scale is: F# G# A B C# D E F#, so an F#min7 chord would be: F#AC#E
A G minor scale is: G A Bb C D Eb F G, so a Gmin7 chord would be G Bb D F

Minor 7th chords can be found in many styles of music, including pop, rock, jazz. They tend not to work very well with heavily distorted guitars, so they're not as common in really heavy music like metal or really loud rock, but occasionally there are exceptions (none that come to mind as I write this, unfortunately).

Minor 7 chords are definitely worth knowing and adding to your musical vocabulary. Here's an example of one of the easier minor 7 chords to play on the guitar.

A minor 7 (Am7) chord

I used paint to make it (visual art is not my strong suit). There are other ways to play minor 7 chords, which I will go into in more detail in the future.

Listen to the Song

As a general rule, when you're working on a song, it's a good idea to listen to it every once in a while. Why? Here are three good reasons:

1) You may have missed notes or parts that can only be heard with repeated listens.

When I was in my first band, my band mate Ryan was learning the guitar solo to an Oasis song, "Don't Go Away". He listened to the song at home (I think with headphones) many, many times over. When I saw him at our next rehearsal, he excitedly pointed out to me all kinds of guitar parts, as well as other instrumentation (like trumpets) that I had never noticed before in the recording. It was really neat to go and listen to the song after talking with Ryan, and discovering that all of these things were in the song the whole time and I had never noticed!

I took a valuable lesson from this experience: you can never know a song too well. Listening to the song over and over gave Ryan (and me) a deeper understanding of what we wanted from our performance of the song (the fact that we never actually performed the song is unfortunate, but besides the point).

You may discover new parts of a song you're learning, parts that you should be learning.

2) You may have all of the notes, but not the correct sound/feel/dynamics of the song.

It's often easy enough to learn all of the notes to a song. It's another thing altogether to play all of the notes, and to play them well. Even once you're confident you know a piece of music, listen to the original recording again, and see if there are any subtle changes you might need to make to how loudly you are playing, or whether you are using the write tone or guitar amp (or pedals, etc.). An artist is free, of course, to change any of these things if he or she sees fit, but only make such a choice as an artist, not as a lazy student who failed to do their research!

3) To remind yourself why you're learning the song (motivation).

Sometimes we just need to be reminded why it's worth learning AC DC's "Thunderstruck", especially when practice isn't going as well as planned.

Listen to the song and get pumped about the fact that you're learning it. Get pumped about the fact that you're playing music! Awesome music! Inspiring music! Get listening, get excited, and get practicing!

Listen to each and every song you're working on, from time to time (if not more often). It will help keep you on the path to musical greatness.

Songwriting Sessions: Songwriting in action (lyrics first!), Part 2

Last week I started a series of posts about writing a song by starting with the lyrics (which you can read about here if you haven't already). I think there are many ways to start writing a song, and this time around I'm starting with the lyrics rather than the music.

For reference, here are the lyrics that I came up as a first draft:

Blood in the fields (first draft)

Chorus:
There's blood in the fields, nobody is clean
They've all been fed to the killing machine
The people in charge sit so snug in their chairs
While the dead in the fields rot without care

Verse:
Nobody wants this but somehow we're here
In a world where the chief motivation is fear
We're living in houses with blankets for ceilings
And everyone's scared, everyone's scared

Chorus:
There's blood in the fields, nobody's alive
They've all been shot down, nobody survived
The people who ordered this just got a raise
And their retirement will take them someplace far away

Verse:
They won't see the fields or their scarlet red drink
But one day they might, on vacation, stop and think
About those young men they sent to their early graves
But they'll soon forget, on the beach watching waves

Chorus:
There's blood in the fields, nobody is clean
They've all been fed to the killing machine
The people in charge sit so snug in their chairs
While the dead in the fields, they still rot without care.

Time to make some changes

For a first draft of lyrics, I think these are okay. Now I'd like to tackle some of the parts I don't like and fix them up. I've had a week to let it all sink in, so it should be easy enough to make some tweaks (there's a tip for you: if you ever get stuck writing a song, take a break and come back on another day, as a fresh perspective often makes it easier to edit your work).

The first chorus:
First things first: I want to change the last line of the first chorus from, "While the dead in the fields rot without care". What exactly does that mean? I guess it's supposed to mean that nobody cares about the dead soldiers, but the way it's written makes it sound like it's the dead that don't care that they're rotting (which may be true, but wasn't what I was going for). I'm going to change it to, "There's blood in the fields, and yet nobody cares". As an added bonus, I now have a stronger emphasis on the title of the song.

The first verse: 
The next line I'm going to make a small tweak, from, "Nobody wants this but somehow we're here", to "Nobody wants this, and yet somehow we're here", as I like the flow of it better. I like the end of the first verse (and the fact that part of it doesn't rhyme, breaking up the rhyming scheme), so I won't make any changes there.

The second chorus:
I changed the last line to, "So pleased they've secured their retirement pay". The original line, "And their retirement will take them someplace far away" doesn't flow as nicely,

The last verse:
I changed the last two lines to, "Of those young men they sent to their untimely death / But so soon they'll forget, so soon they'll forget". This sounds a lot better to me, as I hated the watching the waves line from my first draft.

The last chorus: 
I changed the last line to, "There's blood in the fields, and still nobody cares", which I think ties the theme of the song and title together quite nicely.

Here's what the lyrics look like now:

Blood in the Fields (second draft)

Chorus:
There's blood in the fields, nobody is clean
They've all been fed to the killing machine
The people in charge sit so snug in their chairs
There's blood in the fields, and yet nobody cares

Verse:
Nobody wants this, and yet somehow we're here
In a world where the chief motivation is fear
We're living in houses with blankets for ceilings
And everyone's scared, everyone's scared

Chorus:
There's blood in the fields, nobody's alive
They've all been shot down, nobody survived
The people who ordered this just got a raise
So pleased they've secured their retirement pay

Verse:
They won't see the fields or their scarlet red drink
But one day, on vacation, they might stop and think
Of those young men they sent to their untimely death
But so soon they'll forget, so soon they'll forget

Chorus:
There's blood in the fields, nobody is clean
They've all been fed to the killing machine
The people in charge sit so snug in their chairs
There's blood in the fields, and still nobody cares


Afterthoughts
I think this is an improvement, and now I'm going to start thinking about putting it to some music. This is when things start to get exciting for me, as the lyrics just don't feel "alive" without the music to back them up.

More to come soon!

old performance footage

I used to be in a band, "Union of Lanterns". I thought it might be fun to link to one of the few performances you can find of us online.

As a band our performances were short-lived. We only played for about a year before we went our separate ways. It's kind of a long story, but we're still friends and I really enjoyed my time performing with Darren, Ben, and Kristyn (only Darren is in this video along with myself).

Anyway, our friend and fellow musician Todd Donald used to do this "iTodd" series of vids where he'd interview local performers and have them play a few tunes. This video in particular is us playing "A Stone's Throw Short of Perfection", a song off our first album. (I'll put up a link to where you can buy Union of Lanterns music soon, if that strikes your fancy.)

The singing gets a bit loud in the second verse, but I think we did a pretty good job overall in this vid. Enjoy!

Get motivated, stay motivated

One of the most important factors in your development as a musician is motivation. What makes you want to keep playing?

Whatever it is, you need to keep making it happen! It doesn't matter too much what motivates you. It might be the cheers of an appreciative audience, the satisfaction you get from learning a difficult piece of music, or the relief from stress that playing an instrument can bring. It doesn't matter.

What does matter is that you get motivated and stay motivated! Here are some tips to do both.

Get motivated

Who are you as a musician? (I wrote a post about that here.) Why do you want to learn music? Figure out what really drives you to learn music. Write it down if you need to, on a piece of paper, on your cell phone. Wherever it will remind you of why you're playing music.

Stay motivated

Sometimes the things we do in music don't seem really fun. A lot of students I teach don't really like practice, at least at first. The important thing to keep in mind is that you can change your mind about how you feel about things like practice.

Whenever the thought of doing something gets me down, whether it's practice, restringing my guitar, or anything else, I stop and ask myself, "Should I really be upset about this?" The answer is always no, and I remind myself that what I'm about to do will bring me closer to the fun part of music. Then I usually do whatever it is I planned on doing.

When I finish, I make sure to feel really good about doing it! I remind myself that I did a great job, and I also make sure that I notice that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be (it almost never is)!

You CAN enjoy practice (and other things that might seem "boring")...

I've found over time that these reminders have actually changed how I feel about things like practice, using the metronome, restringing my instruments, writing music. I genuinely enjoy doing all of these things.

If I get really down and find my motivation isn't what it should be, I sometimes stop and take a break. Sometimes I get back to it right away, sometimes I don't. But my general rule is: "Never completely give up. There's always tomorrow." And eventually I accomplish all of my musical goals.

Get motivated, stay motivated!

If you follow this advice, you should find staying motivated should not be a problem for you. You can learn to become more and more motivated with time and practice. Just keep at it!

Wednesday Weekly Progress Update - January 18

Well, this week was definitely a step up from last week. Let's go over my progress on my various projects this week.

1) This blog - ongoing: 

Lots of progress here. I added:

Notes on the Ukelele Fretboard: As the title suggests, a post about the notes on the ukelele fretboard.

Songwriting Sessions: Songwriting in action (lyrics first!): In this post I begin to demonstrate songwriting in action by writing a song, starting with the lyrics.

Working on the bucket list...: This post shows the work that I've been doing on a ukelele song I've been writing (which is one of the songs on my"song bucket list" - a list of song ideas I want to see finished in my lifetime).

Tuning Your Instrument: This is a "hub" page for tuning.

Practice!: This is a post about practicing, and the benefits and expectations relating to it.

I also added some things to the sidebar. You can now access the table of contents to my site, as well as the mastery poster and homepage, no matter where you are on my blog!

Progress so far: 7.5%

2) Songs For Ghosts (my 2nd album):

I recorded some vocals throughout the week, but most of it is probably junk. Why? It turns out my recording set-up was not working well, and some of my vocal recordings came out sounding muffled. I've improved the situation and am looking forward to recording my vocals.

The other challenge is that I'm currently trying to get all the vocals done in one take. On my last album I allowed myself to "punch in" - basically to mix and match vocal takes until I had one great sounding take. I'm trying not to do that this time around, but if I can't get satisfying vocal takes in the next month, I'm going to start allowing for this. I'd prefer to do it in one take, but I want to finish this album before the summer.

Progress so far: 53% - still working on vocals (but I think I know how to record them now!)

3) Poster for my office:

I've made some progress on this - I added one idea to the poster (which I can't remember off the top of my head), and I blogged about practicing, which is not surprisingly the first item on the poster list.

Progress so far: 39% - still organizing and clarifying

4) Other repertoire - ongoing:

I made some progress on practice with songs for my third album. I didn't get to practicing the cover songs in my repertoire this week (there are about 4 or 5 of them), but I will try to do that this week.

This was a better week. I'm looking forward to seeing more progress this week. All of my projects are still pretty far from completion, but I'll keep this momentum until they are done! I hope you do the same with all of your musical endeavours.

Notes on the Ukelele Fretboard

These are the notes of the ukelele fretboard, from the open strings (labeled "fret 0") all the way to 

the 12th fret. Many ukeleles don't have more than 12 frets, but for those that do, the notes just repeat themselves after fret 12 anyway. Fret 13 is the same as fret 1, fret 14 is the same as fret 2, etc.

Why learn the ukelele fretboard

If you have any desire to write songs on the ukelele, as I do, you should learn the fretboard, since almost all songs are based on scales.

Learning the fretboard can also make learning chords on the ukelele easier, because many of them have the same shape, but have a different name based on what fret they are played.

How to learn the notes of the fretboards

Scales are probably the easiest way to start learning notes on the fretboard. I'll have some ukelele scales up soon.

Songwriting Sessions: Songwriting in action (lyrics first!)

(Part 2 of this series can be found here)

I've talked a little about songwriting over the weeks and given some advice on how to write. Why not lead by example?

This post (and other posts in this series, as I expect it won't end with one) will show you how I go through the motions of writing a song. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I don't always write the lyrics first. Later on I'll have a series where I write a song starting with the music, but I figured I'd start with lyrics this time around.

Okay, so what to write about? I was initially tempted to write about some other aspect of songwriting, because, to be perfectly honest, I don't really have a great idea for a song. But as a firm believer that you should keep writing anyway, today I'm going to do just that.

I'm going to write a song about war. The lyrics might change in the future, but here you can have a first draft of what comes to my mind as I'm writing it.

Blood in the fields (first draft)

Chorus:
There's blood in the fields, nobody is clean
They've all been fed to the killing machine
The people in charge sit so snug in their chairs
While the dead in the fields rot without care

Verse:
Nobody wants this but somehow we're here
In a world where the chief motivation is fear
We're living in houses with blankets for ceilings
And everyone's scared, everyone's scared

Chorus:
There's blood in the fields, nobody's alive
They've all been shot down, nobody survived
The people who ordered this just got a raise
And their retirement will take them someplace far away

Verse:
They won't see the fields or their scarlet red drink
But one day they might, on vacation, stop and think
About those young men they sent to their early graves
But they'll soon forget, on the beach watching waves

Chorus:

There's blood in the fields, nobody is clean
They've all been fed to the killing machine
The people in charge sit so snug in their chars
While the dead in the fields, they still rot without care.

First impressions of a first draft

Well, let me start by saying that I generally never let anyone read the lyrics to any of my songs until they are (more-or-less) completely finished. So I hope you feel privileged!

Let me finish by saying that, while I don't think these lyrics are terrible, there are definitely problems with them. I like the rhyming scheme but need to re-work the end of the first and last chorus - that "care" at the end seems like the right word, but in the wrong sentence. There are other small nit-picks that I'd like to make, but I'll save them for next time.

In the coming weeks, you can watch me tool with this song, and you can watch it evolve. I've never done this before in front of an audience, so this should be exciting!

Working on the bucket list...

A little while back I made a post about a "song bucket list" (which you can view here). It's basically a "bucket list" (things to do before you "kick the bucket", i.e. die), but for different ideas or types of songs.

While some of the items on the list may not be crossed off for awhile, as most of my efforts are towards my acoustic album (for which all the songs are already written), I have been chipping away at a few. One of them is a ukelele song. I don't have lyrics. I don't have a working title. I have some ideas for the melody, but at any rate, the song is far from finished.

Despite that, I thought I'd record what I have so far and post it here. Why? I thought it might be cool for you to see a work-in-progress of a song. Any aspiring songwriters out there may find it useful, as well.

As I said, the song is far from finished. I imagine the recording of the finished product to have more than just ukelele and vocals, but it's still too early for me to have an idea of what I want.

In the future, I plan on showing how I write a song, from start to finish, using one of the song ideas on my bucket list, just so you can have an idea as to how I really write a song.

Have a great weekend!

Tuning Your Instrument

Looking to tune your instrument? You've come to the right place! This page links to every post I've made about tuning. It will be updated regularly until there is enough info for guitarists, bassists, and ukelele players to learn to tune their instrument.

Guitar
How to Tune Your Guitar, Step 1: Using a Tuner
How to Tune Your Guitar, Step 2: Tuning the Guitar to Itself
How to Tune Your Guitar, Step 3: Alternate Tunings


Bass (coming soon)

Ukelele (coming soon)

Practice!

If you are learning an instrument, you need to practice. I hope that is obvious, but if it isn't, now you know. Learning a musical instrument requires practice in the same way that learning to play a sport, to speak a new language, or to juggle requires time and effort to improve.

How much should I practice?

I often tell parents of my students that you can't get too much practice, which is mostly true. Obviously you don't want to play until your fingers bleed! And you want to avoid doing anything really destructive while practicing (anything that causes injury to the hands, arms, shoulders, etc.), which is why we need to learn proper form and technique for playing our instrument.

The point of practice is to learn how to do whatever it is you want to do with your instrument.

So with that in mind, the amount of time you will need can vary. A guitarist that wants to strum simple folk songs and learn a few chords won't need more than six months to a year of practicing maybe an hour or two a week. But a bass player that wants to be the best in the world? He or she would probably need eight hours of practice everyday for at least ten or fifteen years to even have a chance at claiming that title.

Your goals as a musician will determine the amount of time and practice you need to accomplish those goals.

Let me give some guidelines for an appropriate amount of practice:

New guitarists: 1 hour a week (10 minutes a day 6 times a week, 15 minutes 4 times a week)
Serious guitar students: 30 minutes to an hour or more a day
Aspiring professional musicians: 3 hours a day minimum.

These guidelines are vague, but they give a good starting point. There are always exceptions. Famous pianist Glenn Gould allegedly only practiced an hour a day. As you practice, you will start to get a better idea as to whether or not your practice schedule is moving you towards your goals. Just make sure that you do find time to practice (there really is no excuse for not practicing, which I've written about more here).

I play piano, ukelele, bass, guitar, and sing, and try to practice all of these instruments everyday. Due to my teaching schedule, and responsibilities as a husband and father of three, I don't always get to practice as much as I'd like, but my goal is to practice about two hours a day (I often play more than that everyday, but a lot of that is with students, and is not "focused" practice).

The amount of practice I get is enough to make progress on all of my instruments, and I'm happy with my progress as a musician. The amount you practice should do the same for you.

Practice!

Wednesday Weekly Progress Update - January 11

Well, this has been by far my least productive week of late. My whole family was feeling at least a little under the weather, so I made very little progress. Here's what happened over the week.

1) This blog - ongoing:

This has been the one project that has still seen consistent progress. I've added at least 5 new posts this week, improved the table of contents, finished the series on tuning that I've been meaning to finish for awhile. Progress has been great here.

Progress so far: 5.5%

2) Songs For Ghosts (my 2nd album):

I managed to solve the problem of how to record vocals (I think), but due to my throat bothering me most of the week, I didn't actually do any recording. I will resume recording either tonight or tomorrow.

Progress so far: 52% - still starting on vocals (but I think I know how to record them now!)

3) Poster for my office:

I've improved the order of the poster ideas and made a post or two on the blog about them.

Progress so far: 38% - still working on putting all of it in order with the proper wording

4) Other repertoire - ongoing:

No changes. Was not feeling well this week.

This coming week promises to be at least better than this one. Never give up, even in the face of obstacles!  One thing I did well this week was to keep powering through the blog - I actually did a bit more work on it than usual - without worrying about the delay in other projects.

Keep it going!

Notes on the Bass Fretboard

These are the notes of the bass fretboard, from the open strings (labeled "fret 0") all the way to the 12th fret. At the 12th fret, the note names repeat themselves, which is why I didn't include any frets higher than that. The 'E' string is the one closest to your head, the 'G' string the one closest to your feet.

Why learn the bass fretboard

As a bassist, unless your only interest is playing other people's songs, you will need to understand how to accompany others. For this you'll need to know some theory, including scales, and the names of the notes on the fretboard.

How to learn the notes of the fretboards

Scales are probably the easiest way to start learning notes on the fretboard. Here's a sample bass scale to get you started:

Simply name the notes (CDEFGABC) as you play them, and you'll start to learn the names of the notes on the fretboard.

Be grateful

Music is one of the most wonderful things in the world. It is a form of communication, an outlet of expression, and a wonderful way to entertain others. Music is a gift. You should be grateful for the existence of music, in its many forms and styles.

Learning to play music is a gift. Whether you share that gift with others - be it just a few friends or family members, or an arena filled with thousands of adoring fans - is up to you. I encourage you to share it with others.

Regardless, you should be grateful for the process of learning music, every step of the way. There are times when learning to play an instrument or sing isn't "fun" and seems like "work". But those moments are what allow for the more enjoyable times. You can't play anything until you've practiced enough.

You can learn to love practice, as I have. I like playing scales. I like using the metronome while practicing. I even like brushing up on my theory. The reason I like all of these things is that I know and have accepted that they make me a better player, and I am grateful for it. If you are grateful for the gift of being able to learn music, even the scales, theory, and other practice that you might now think is "boring", you will learn to enjoy every step on your path to becoming a better musician. 

Be grateful.

How to Tune Your Guitar, Step 3: Alternate Tunings

Other posts in this series about tuning the guitar:
How to Tune Your Guitar, Step 1: Using a Tuner
How to Tune Your Guitar, Step 2: Tuning the Guitar to Itself
This is a blog post about how to tune your guitar to alternate tunings. You can skip this post if you're not planning on using a non-standard tuning (I.e. anything other than EADGBE).

If you've come this far and read the first two posts about tuning (and if you haven't, check out the links above), you should have a decent understanding of how to tune the guitar. You know now how to use a tuner. You know how to tune the guitar to itself. Now let's talk alternate tunings.

Many Different Alternate Tunings

There are a variety of tunings available to us as guitarists. We aren't stuck only playing EADGBE. I'll list a few of the more popular tunings below, and then I'll give you some ways to tune to them.

DADGBE: Commonly known as "Drop D" tuning, this is one of the most popular alternate tunings. One distinct advantage of playing in Drop D is that power chords require only one finger. That makes this tuning popular for genres like hard rock and heavy metal.

Examples of songs in DADGBE: "Freak" by Silverchair, "Dear Prudence" by the Beatles

EbAbDbGbBbEb (sometimes written as D#G#C#F#A#D#):

This tuning is basically standing tuning dropped down a fret (semi-tone) in pitch. Some bands use this tuning rather than standard tuning. Why? In some cases the singer may find it easier to hit the correct pitches when the tuning of the guitar is lowered a little (I have on occasion tuned down for a performance when my voice wasn't feeling 100%)

Examples of songs in EbAbDbGbBbEb: "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns 'n Roses, "More than Words" by Extreme

DADF#AD: Often known as "Open D" tuning because the open strings are just the notes of a D major chord. You can get some very pretty sounding chords using a tuning like this, with very little effort from the fretting hand.

Examples of songs in DADF#AD: "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell, "Place to Be" by Nick Drake

[Some of my examples of songs I found on Infogalactic, a wikipedia-like database, which you can check out here: Infogalactic.]

How to tune to an alternate tuning

Tuning to an alternate tuning is not that difficult with a tuner (if you don't have a tuner, we'll talk about that in a moment). In the case of drop D (DADGBE), for example, you simply tune your low-E string (6th string, closest to head) down to D, and the other five strings tune as normal (to ADGBE).
With other tunings, follow a similar procedure, but keep the following thing in mind:

You usually tune up or down in pitch depending on which takes less time and effort

In other words, for DADF#AD tuning, compare it to EADGBE:

E to D (lower)
A to A (same)
D to D (same)
G to F# (lower)
B to A (lower)
E to D (lower)

Two of the strings are the same, the others are all tuned lower, and definitely not higher. Why? Because tuning up to a D from an E would break the string (strings don't like being tuned too tightly). In general, we tune down, but there are exceptions, like EBEG#BE (which is an open E tuning):

E to E (same)
A to B (higher)
D to E (higher)
G to G# (higher)
B to B (same)
E to E (same)

In this case, we tune them all higher or leave them the same, but again, it makes sense if you think about it. Tuning those same strings down would take a lot more time and effort.

All of this makes more sense if you know the order of notes and are familiar with the notes on the fretboard (and it really helps if you've read step 1 and step of How to Tune Your Guitar). But in general, just remember this:

With alternate tunings, we usually tune down, unless it's much easier and less-time consuming to tune up.

As with all tuning, when in doubt, tune down to the pitch, and if it sounds weird, you probably tuned the wrong way.

Tuning without a tuner

If you don't have a tuner, you can follow a similar procedure to the one we outlined in step 2 (How to Tune Your Guitar, Step 2: Tuning the Guitar to Itself). But now you need to think a little harder. If you're tuning a string to a D instead of an E, you're tuning even lower, so now you need to think about what the fretboard would look like with the new, alternate tuning.

Huh??? Allow me to give an example. If you're tuning to open D tuning (DADF#AD), you're changing 4 strings: both E strings, the G string, and the B string. So for the E strings (which are getting tuned to D), when you're done you should have an A note on the 7th fret of your 1st and 6th strings. When tuned to E, the A is on the 5th fret. Make sense?

If you think carefully as you tune, it shouldn't be much harder to tune to an alternate tuning without a tuner than it is to tune to EADGBE without one.

If you've already read my first two posts about tuning (the ones linked at the top of this post), you can ignore the rest of this post below. If you haven't...

Two important things to keep in mind while tuning:

1) STRINGS CAN BREAK IF YOU TUNE THEM TOO TIGHTLY
Listen carefully: make sure you don't tighten the string too much, because doing so might break a string. If a string is supposed to be tuned to an E, but you accidentally try to tune it to the A above that E, you run the risk of breaking the string. Strings don't like being too tight, so tune carefully.

Not sure which way to tune? When in doubt, tune down (loosen the string) until you're confident you're going the wrong way, then tune it back up. If you've loosened it too far, you'll figure it out eventually - the string will get very loose and will sound very strange.

2) Always end by tuning up!

When tuning down a string that is sharp, always make sure to tune slightly lower than the actual pitch, and then tune up to the correct pitch. Why? If you end by loosening the string, the string can still be a bit loose in the head-stock of the guitar (where the tuning pegs are), and the string can un-tune from that pitch slightly. Always end by tuning up!

Songwriting Sessions: Writing the music before the lyrics

Some musicians believe that a song should always have lyrics before the music is written. Others disagree. Personally, I sometimes write the lyrics first, and other times I will start with the melody. I don't really think lyrics are so sacred that they absolutely must be written first.

This post is all about writing the music first. My last post was about writing lyrics, so if you'd like to learn more about that, go here (you can always come back to this post after).

If you're going to write the music first, you need to start somewhere. Here are a few ways to get started on writing the music first:

1) Come up with a chord progression: If you play guitar (acoustic or electric), or piano, this is often a good way to start. Start throwing some chords together, find a progression you like, add a little bit of rhythm. and boom! You've got the start of a song.

2) Come up with a melody:  If you're not keen on starting with some chords, why not a melody? Grab your instrument of choice and start plucking (or plinking, picking, etc.) away until you find something you like. You could always sing it, too!

Having trouble coming up with a melody? Might I suggest you start by using a scale? Scales are often the backbone of songs, solos, and melodies, so you really should learn some scales if you don't already know any. (You can learn some scales here if you don't know any.)

3) Come up with a riff (lick/vamp/etc.): This is kind of similar to coming up with a chord progression, but some songs are based on a particular musical idea that isn't necessarily a chord progression. Examples that come to mind are the opening riff to "Walk this Way" by Aerosmith, or the opening riff to "The Man Who Sold the World" by David Bowie.

Whether it's a guitar lick that sounds really cool, or some programmed drum beat or electronic sample, find something that sounds like it could be the main background or musical idea to the song. Then write the lyrics!

Are there other ways of coming up with the music to a song before the lyrics?

Probably, but those are the three ways that I've used. If you come up with another one, let me know and I'll add it!

Happy writing!

Bohemian Rhapsody in Minor

Here's a neat one.

Take Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", which is already a pretty somber song (at least in the beginning), and then turn it from Bb major to Bb minor. This is what you get:

It sounds a little strange in some spots - but talk about depressing! But very cool to hear nonetheless. While the original song is in a major key and still a bit on the sad side, the minor version is, I think, even sadder - which tends to lend credibility to the idea that we associate minor with "sad" and major with "happy" (although, as I've argued on other posts, I don't always think that's the case).

Let's not get too depressed... we'll end on a happy note: Darth Vader's Redemption! AKA the Imperial March in A Major.

May the force be with you this week!

Play Through Your Mistakes

Every musician makes mistakes. Yes, even giant rock stars mess up on occasion. But the best of the best don't make them often, and when they do, they play right past them as though nothing happened. Why? Here are two good reasons to play through your mistakes:

1) Most people won't know you've made a mistake.

Oddly enough, most of the time people can't hear your mistakes. Most people aren't musicians, and even the ones that are don't often know the song you're playing as well as you do. So just play right through your mistake and no one will be the wiser!

2) It's better for your musical brain and your body.

The real problem with stopping and starting every single time you make a mistake is that you are literally training your brain to stop playing anytime you think you've made a mistake. One of the problems with doing this is that musicians often start to feel like they can't play their instruments very well. Thoughts like, "I always make a mistake", and,  "I'm not a very good musician" start to enter the mind. This negative mindset tends to make us paranoid of making mistakes. It can even add to the physical tension of our playing! Extra physical tension is a no-no when playing music - it can keep from realizing your true musical potential.

Relax, and allow your mistakes to happen. Correct your mistakes after you finish going through the passage or piece of music with more practice. Accept that everybody makes mistakes when playing music - perfection is the goal, but we should love all of our journey towards it, including our mistakes.

Wednesday Weekly Progress Update - January 4

Happy New Year!

Here is my weekly progress update for the first week of January:

1) This blog - ongoing:

I've been keeping up pretty well, adding about 4 pages a week (not including this one). I'd like to ramp it up to at least 5, but progress is still good here.

Progress so far: 4%

2) Songs For Ghosts (my 2nd album):

Three steps forward, two steps back. There have been setbacks aplenty, but progress is being made. I've started trying to solve the problem of getting good and consistent sounding vocal tracks recorded, and it's going well so far.

Progress so far: 50% - starting on vocals

3) Poster for my office:

I made a post about visualization (which you can and should read by clicking here); gradual but good progress here.

Progress so far: 35% - still working on putting all of it in order with the proper wording

4) Other repertoire - ongoing:

No significant changes to my repertoire since last week. Holiday plans definitely slowed me down this week, but I'll look forward to more progress here in the coming weeks.

Keep at it!

Warm Up With Scales

(This post is part of an ongoing series about the importance of learning scales, which started with this post here: Why You Should Learn Your Scales)

A great way to start your practice sessions is by practicing your scales. Why? They're a great warm up for your fingers, and your brain. They not only get the circulation (blood flowing) in your fingers, they get you thinking about how music sounds and how it is structured.

I usually run through a set of seven "scale forms" for one particular key, but it doesn't matter too much what scales you use as long as you keep the following principles in mind:

1) You should be relaxed.

Don't push too hard with your fingers or over-exert yourself in any way. Try to make your playing as precise, but relaxed, as possible. Don't force any movements while going through your scale(s). Correct your movements if needed, but do it in a very deliberate way.

2) You should make sure to use all of your fingers.

As I said, use whatever scales you'd like, but ideally you should use one (or more) that uses all four fingers on your fretting hand (in particular one that uses the pinky, as it is often neglected by students).

3) You should use your brain.

Name the notes of the scales occasionally as you play. This will help you learn the fretboard. If you don't know the note names, you can look it up on one of my pages about the note names:

Notes on the Guitar Fretboard
Notes on the Bass Fretboard
Notes on the Ukelele Fretboard

The point is that you should be learning something new about how the guitar (bass, uke) works. Ideally you should know all of the names of the notes on your fretboard. Why? You will actually learn songs more quickly because you'll know what it means for a song to be in a particular key. In other words, you will understand music more easily and learn it more quickly because you'll be able.

Warm up with scales!

Start with a scale or two every time you play your instrument. Your fingers and your brain will thank you!

Some sample scales:

Here's one for bass:

 This second scale is for guitar:

Lastly, a scale for ukelele: