THE HIERARCHY OF MUSIC
Hello again. Been pluggin' away here on Tamborine Mountain, web site making, recording and marketing PlaneTalk - The Truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction Book.

I'm working on Guitar for beginners dot com, trying to know where to cut off. When does a beginner cease being a beginner? I can't remember, it was that long ago. The site should be up soon.

Andy Collins, an Australian singer songwriter I made a site for, tells me it's been nominated as best site in some country music online competition, so I'm happy about that. Check him out at http://andycollins.com and say hi in his guestbook. He'll like that.

Last night I set up my rudimentary recording system here and got back into some playing after a few days of neglect. The 4 or 5 days I've had off sure took their toll: my fingers had become sensitive again -- and stiff -- and my brain had lost the edge. You've really got to play a little bit every day if you want to stay on top of it. I found that my 'random access memory' had trouble finding all the bits and pieces of information that are usually right there for the asking. I had to think too hard to come up with anything. If you maintain that daily regime of playing, doesn't have to be hours and hours, you can keep yourself at the leading edge of your learning. A couple days off and you've got to go back a bit and refresh the memory banks. Sometimes it's just not possible, but I will try harder. That's why I always say don't keep your guitar in its case. If you've got a safe place to keep out in the open, do so. Then you can just pick it up any old time and have a quick refresh. I flew to Sydney last weekend and didn't unpack them when I came home. Out of sight, out of mind.

It all came good in the end though because I quickly reminded myself of the bottom line. What's important to keep in mind is the hierarchy of music and to zero in on the bottom line before getting too tricky. I've said all this before, and here it is again. It's that fundamental that I could mention it every week and not be doing a disservice.

I see music as being a system several layers deep. Here is their order of importance:
1. What key am I in? This is undoubtedly the bottom line to any piece of music. Your brain>eye>ear>hand should automatically adjust in readiness for the key you're in. Your brain should bring up the various chords of that key. All keys are the same, of course. All have seven built in chords, which have emanated from the mother scale, but each has it's own idiosyncrasies. G for example, has an open string triad you can fool around with. Great for hammer-ons and pull-offs. You'll find C# not so accommodating. There are twelve keys and your brain should be able to deal with each.
2. What chord is being played right now? Many of my articles deal with what I call 'the chord of the moment'. Each moment of any piece of music is backed by a chord. Know which it is. It's probably one of the seven, in fact it's probably one of the three major chords out of the seven. Know it and know it well in the context of the key. The reason you should really know it is that it is setting the parameters for that moment. If you're improvising a line over a chord progression and only thinking 'I'm in the key of A, I'll just play an A scale', you're not really making music. Each of the seven chords is home base for those moments it rules, and your lines should reflect this fact. They should come home. All phrases should come home to the chord of the moment - always. This layer is the one where your brain is dealing with the I, II, III, IV, V, VI, and VII chords of the key.
3. Which notes am I going to select? Once the chord of the moment is ascertained, you can then work through and around it. Home is the 1,3 and 5 of the chord. Your lines and phrases will sound strongest when these note are used to launch from and return to. Just like home. Imagine your lines are little forays out from home -- a trip to the supermarket perhaps. You leave home, take a route there set by the rules (left at the lights, down Main, can't turn right there -- it's one way -- I won't take that street, it's a dead end...) and come back home again. The traffic rules and possible routes there and back are set by the key, but within each key, there are seven homes you can live in. The composer decides which they will be and how long your stays will be.
So there you go. Now that I've really confused you with my gobbledygook, I'll just mention that you can hear a bunch of my music at http://Mp3.com/kirklorange. I'm sitting here at my desk these days putting all my ideas straight to hard disc and loading them up. I'm no flash engineer, but I will learn. Meantime, I'm having a great time knowing that there is somewhere I can store all these ideas and that they can be listened to. All are slide instrumentals and all are good examples of what I've been pontificating about all these months. I only load them up when I hear the X-factor there, that intangible, undefinable ingredient which seems to affect the listener physically -- like having goose bumps, or the pang of a heartache. If that ain't there, what's the point of its existence? Just another cluster of notes.

Oh, and I've redone my PlaneTalk site. Don't forget that the TRICK to finding your way through the maze that is the fretboard is revealed in the book, which I'm happy to say goes out to the world at the rate of several a day. For the price of a one on one lesson, you too could know the secret to understanding the fretboard.

Go to http://www.lorange.kirk.net. And if you do drop in, leave your mark in my guestbook and you'll be in the running for a free copy of PlaneTalk, to be randomly drawn by Neil Shedden, the editor of this GNW, at the end of July.

Until next time,

Best regards from Tamborine Mountain.

Kirk

http://kirklorange.com
http://www.lorange.kirk.net
http://mp3.com/KirkLorange
http://yourmusicontheweb.com
lorange@kirk.net