WHAT’S MORE IMPORTANT -- SCALES OR CHORDS?

Hope you all of you had a Happy fourth of July in the USA. I’m always reminded of a tune by Jackson Browne, a tune dedicated to Lowell George who died in 1979. The lyrics mention that date and I sing them mentally when I hear the words.

Have a listen to my tributes to Lowell George, who was probably the most quietly influential musician of the last few decades. He headed a band called Little Feat (who are still around) but he tragically excessed himself to death in 1979. If you like swamp blues, do yourself a favor and listen to everything you can that’s got his name on it. My versions of two of his songs were done using RealProducer and the crappy little microphone from my old computer. I played my Dobro and warbled a bit.

Click http://members.dingoblue.net.au/~planetalk/sailin.ram for SAILIN SHOES and http://members.dingoblue.net.au/~planetalk/fatman.ram for FAT MAN IN THE BATHTUB. You'll need RealPlayer. If you were then to go and stream all my tunes at http://mp3.com/kirklorange I’d be over the moon. There are some new tracks there too.

The winner of the book/video contest is Martyn Meelhu from the Netherlands. Congrats go to you Martyn. You will soon know the trick to having the entire fretboard at your disposal for ever more, Amen.

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I always get asked this question: What’s more important, scales or chords?

First off, the more you learn about music, the more you realize that it’s all just one thing. Scales, chords, melody, harmony -- they are all just different aspects of the same thing, and therefore all have equal importance. Your aim should be to come up with your own mental view of how all these elements fit together to form that unity.

Back to the question about scales and chords: As both are really the same thing, my advice is to give the study of chords priority in your thinking, and to fit the scales around them. Most teachers describe scales as giving rise to chords -- I’ve always seen the process backwards, in other words, chords generate scales. Never forget that when you look at a guitar chord, lets say a G major, you’re looking at a cluster of Ones and Threes and Fives of the scale. There may be six strings and you may think you’re playing six notes, but really you’re only playing three, with some repeated in other octaves. An open G chord (for example) stacks up like this:

G -- a One (or tonic, root, I)
B -- a Three (or major third)
G -- another One
D -- A Five
B -- another Three
G -- another One (being the bass note, you can definitely call this the root note

What I’m getting at here is that when you look at a G chord on the fret board, you’re looking at almost half the scale notes there are -- 3 out of 7. It stands to reason the other 4 will be lurking near that chord shape. If you really know your major scale formula (tone tone semitone, tone tone tone semitone), you’ll really know where these other notes COMPARED TO THE CHORD. That’s why I say that you should try learning your scales from the chord out. It really doesn’t take long for this to become second nature.

Here is another way of showing this way of thinking:

chord > one-three-five > scale notes

This clearly shows that the knowing the chord instantly leads you to the main notes of the chord which then point to the lesser notes for that chord, the subsidiary notes. Once you’ve mapped them out for the main positions, you will see how they link up for the whole length of the fretboard. Instead of knowing a couple of ways of playing an A chord, for example, you will be able to see your fretboard as an A fretboard. The whole fretboard. Lets say the chord changes to a Bm; instead of having just a couple of places to go, your whole fretboard will switch to a Bm fretboard. Just like that.

This mental approach should apply to all chords / scales. You will start to see how the one-three-fives (triad) alters to make a new chord. For example, an A minor chord differs from an A major chord in only one way: its Three is one fret lower. The scale will of course do the same -- you can see it right there in the chord. It doesn’t matter how tricky the chords get, they can all be stripped back their main elements in this way. They can all be viewed against the skeleton of the triad, and the associated scale will be there floating around it.

This is all stuff I’ve written about over and over again, but for good reason. It’s really all there is. The way music hangs together is quite simple to understand. Coming to grips with the way the guitar is tuned is the next hurdle -- as I often say, there’s nothing obvious about a guitar when you first pick one up -- the hardest part about music is explaining it.

I’ll keep on trying.

Meantime, check me out at http://www.lorange.kirk.net and read up on the book/video special which includes, for the next little while, two free cd’s. What with the weak Australian dollar and all, now is a great time to buy. The TRICK to it all will be revealed and you’ll never look back. Guaranteed.

All the best, and never stop twangin’

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