THE CONTEXT.

Finally -- the video is finished, strangely enough on the first day of this millennium, January 1st 2001.

What a project! 57 minutes, every second of which divided into 25 frames, each of which I can to account for. I couldn't be happier with the results -- I actually managed to put onto video what my brain has been doing for decades now, the simple visualization technique described in PlaneTalk The Book.

Shot from the players point of view, using the overlay and slow motion options of the editing program, all described and explained by my voice-over... what can I say? It leaves no mystery. If you've ever wondered what the underlying 'template' was that some players seem to follow so they never get lost, you will wonder no more once you've seen this. Details at http://www.lorange.kirk.net/video.html

Enough with the promo. 'The Context' is the subject of this this article, a topic I've written about many times but one which deserves repetition, for the simple reason that music IS context.

And what do I mean by that?

I mean that the system we call Music is based on specific relationships between sounds, ones that our ears find pleasing, relationships that together form a context which we all recognize, whether we're musicians or not. There are plenty of non-players out there who love their music and who will instantly know when the context is wrong. We all know the sound of someone singing "off key". "Out of context" would be another way putting it.

If music consisted of one note... we'd all hate it after a while. The best we could do is apply rhythm to it -- play it mute it, play it mute it -- boring to the extreme.

Two notes? Well, we'd be better off, no doubt about it, but still utterly limiting.

Three notes? Now we're getting somewhere. If the context between the three was, by some strange quirk, the I, III and V of the major scale, we'd be delighted at the sound of a major chord.

The fact is that there are several usable octaves of twelve notes to play with, contexts all over the place, many built right into the structure (like the major scale, keys, related chords etc.) and an unlimited number of 'sub-contexts' ready for the making.

Here are some examples of what I mean by context:

Take any note, say an F#. On it's own, that's all it is. A lonesome old F#. But within a piece of music it can be twelve different things:

The One of the key/scale of F#
The Two of the key/scale of E. Different context, different function.
The Three of the key/scale of D. A crucial note to keep track of in the key of D.
The Five of the key/scale of B. The turnaround chord if you're thinking chords in B.
The Six of the key of A. Chord-wise, the relative minor, very strong chord in A.
The Seven of the key/scale of G

etc., etc.

Chords are just as contextual.

A C chord can be the:

One chord of the key of C, naturally.
Four chord of the key of G or Gm.
Five chord of the key of F or Fm.

Am can be the:

One chord of Am
Two chord of G
Three chord of F
Four chord of Em
Five chord of Dm
Six chord of C

I realize how confusing this all must seem to someone just starting out, but this context does become second nature after a while, and once locked into place will never let you down. Learn your keys well, you should instantly be able to rattle off the seven related chords of all keys. Think of the 12 bar blues chords first (the I, IV and V chord), they're the three majors, then fill in the II, III and VI chords, the minors. Treat the VII chord as another V chord. Piece of cake.

Don't forget to enter the video giveaway contest. I've made up a separate guestbook for your entry, so make sure you go to right one.

Drop for a visit at my site, http://lorange.kirk.net there's lots more there, and also http://www.guitarforbeginners.com which receives up to 1000 visits per day now!

Until next time,

Kirk

http://kirklorange.com
http://lorange.kirk.net
http://guitarforbeginners.com
http://mp3.com/kirklorange

P.S. The other interesting news is that GuitarForBeginners.com is receiving up to 800 unique visits per day now and getting rave reviews in the guestbook. I thought it may be worth mentioning that the site is poorly named as it turns out as it goes way beyond the basics for those who are interested...