My ol' pal Sam came around the other day for a quick lesson. I don't ordinarily give one on one lessons, but Sam lives up here on Tamborine Mountain too, so I said sure, come on over. He used to be lawyer in California but retired here to Queensland and decided to take up guitar. He's doing alright at it too. He's obsessed.

I realized from his questions and comments that he's still under the impression that there are trillions of chords to learn. I used to think that too. I remember a book called "1001 Chords for Guitar", and I remember the terror it instilled in me, wondering if there were enough days in a lifetime to learn and remember them all.

I can't recall when it dawned on me -- many years ago -- that really there is only one chord out there. That's right, just the one. It's an abstract chord with no name, and you won't find it on any instrument. It's more of a recipe, a template.

This is the formula: One -- Three -- Five.

That's it. That's all there is to remember.

All chords, whether they're minor, major, diminished, augmented or suspended can, and should, be viewed as mere variations of the master template.

Let's go back to basics for a minute. Chords, which set the rules for any piece of music, emanate from the major scale, that "do, re, mi" thing. This series of intervals is the mother of all (western) music. It's formula is:

Tone Tone Semitone, Tone Tone Tone Semitone.

You'll notice that it's not even. There are tone intervals (2 frets) and semitone intervals (one fret). It's that unevenness that creates such a wealth of music. Notice too that I haven't mentioned notes here, just intervals. The exact notes of the scale depend on where you start counting. There are twelve starting places, therefore twelve scales slash keys. All twelve are exactly the same.

Back to chords: The One-Three-Five recipe I refer to is simply the notes you pick from the scale to combine into a chord -- the first (tonic, root note, 'one'), the third and the fifth. Play them together and you've got yourself a Major chord. If you're thinking "when I play a big E chord I'm playing six notes, not three" you're actually playing three repeat notes in your chord. An open E contains (from the bass string up) One, Five, One, Three, Five and One.

Now, if you can get to the point where you can instantly see the ones, threes and fives of any chord on your fretboard, you'll be able to adjust them according to the song you're playing. Once you know that minor chords are just like major chords with a flatted three, that an augmented chord sharps the five, that a major seventh chord contains a flat one, that a sus four chord sharps the three to a four, etc. etc., you will have cracked the code. Know where the ones, threes and fives, you know where everything else is.

Easy.

With this kind of thinking you can view chords like this:

Major: One / Three / Five minor: One / Flat Three / Five Major7: One / Three / Five / Flat One Dom 7: One / Three / Five / Double Flat One Sus 4: One / Four / Five Aug: One / Three / sharp Five

where "flat" means lower the pitch by one fret, "sharp" means raise the pitch by one fret, "double flat" means lower the pitch by two frets. I'm sure I'm raising the shackles of music teachers by calling the major seventh as 'flat one", but that's what it is. I find it easier to locate by looking for the next fret down from the One than thinking 'seven' and counting up from who knows where. If you know where your One is, you know where your Sevens are.

I know to many of you, this will all sound so mathematical and complicated sounding, but it becomes second nature after a while. Your ear, eyes and hands merge into a single thing. You get to know exactly where you are within the twelve notes at all times, each 'time' being ruled by the chord of that time. As the chord changes, so too does your vision of the musical anchor points for the next time block. Your hand then simply* moves according to the new locations of the anchor points. The way of identifying playable notes is not by thinking of their names -- like 'G sharp' or 'F'-- but rather by seeing them as Ones, Twos, Threes, Fours, Fives, Sixes and Sevens of the chord of that moment.

(*I say 'simply'. It's not, as we all know. After 38 of years of playing, my left hand can do almost anything that comes up, but there are still times that I have to make it. I have to really force it... stare at it while make the moves slowly and deliberately, keeping track of the numbers. This is OK. This is good. Once it's learned, it's learned. You add it to your ever growing list of moves. 'Practice' I see as updating and maintaining your moves.)

If asked 'What's the most important thing to know if you want to play an instrument?' I would have to say, unequivocally: Know at all times what it is you're playing. Never, ever, play anything without knowing what you played in terms of the numbers. Each moment is ruled by a chord. You must instantly know where the Ones, Threes and Fives are. The Twos, Fours, Sixes and Sevens will fit around them.

I'm giving it away now. Gotta go.

Some reminders. http://listen.to/web-music is my new site. If you know anyone who might want a web site, send them my URL.

http://www.thatllteachyou.com/sgwr.htm is where you can join the Slide Guitar Web Ring if your site qualifies.

I've got some beautiful brass slide for sale at my site http://www.onthenet.com.au/~kirkclan/Slide_Lesson.htm

There is an ongoing contest on at my site for a copy of PlaneTalk (which reveals the trick to keeping track of all music on the guitar as described above), and my CD 'Still No Apostrophe". Go to the home page http://www.lorange.kirk.net. Anyone entering is forced to listen to my MP3.com tune, generating a couple cents per play that MP3 pays. What the heck? Every little bit helps when you're a guitar player.

All the best 'til next time.

Come visit if you're ever on Tamborine Mountain.

K i r k
http://www.lorange.kirk.net