Chords rule

Hi twangers. It's mid autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, but you wouldn't know it here in Queensland, Australia. The day could only be described as perfect.

I'm a regular visitor to many guitar sites, and I always check out the discussion fora (OK, forums), and the questions most asked are always about scales. Why is that? What made scales such a popular subject? Why bother, when there's a much better way to understand music?

I guess my lack of respect for scales and modes (same thing) stems from the way I learned music. It was 1961 when I started playing, and I was a Canadian kid living in Belgium. The Beatles hadn't even started and there were no teachers or even books available for the kind of music I wanted to play. About the only thing that I could glean from outside sources were chords: photos of guitarists always showed them playing a chord (usually a pretty fancy, stretched out, show-offy chord). I'd figure them out and remember them, collect them, and I was always totally seduced by their magic. I still am -- there's nothing nicer than an in-tune chord, I don't care what flavor. There's something about the way those sound waves blend that gets me every time.

Scales, on the other hand, I was being taught at school in music class (in french, in a school that was 150 years old). Boring, relentless repetition, do re mi, crotchets and breves, strange notation -- everything but MUSIC! I was already making that on my guitar. I knew lots of chords, and my ear allowed me to figure out my own versions. I knew the shapes could move up and down the fret board, so I'd just keep poking around until I'd find something I liked, and add it to my collection.

I'd also started to insert some melody notes into the chord shapes where ever I could -- where ever I had a spare finger or thumb. This was a tedious procedure: I'd sit with the vinyl record playing at half speed (one octave down in pitch so I wouldn't need to retune) and I would figure out the chords from the bass up, then find the melody separately, then work out a way of doing both at once. I did the whole of The Beatle's Abbey Road like this.

I was finally learning my scales, but from the inside out. Had I listened more attentively in class, I would have found out that chords come from scales. I was now discovering the scale notes in all the chords I knew. The big breakthrough came when I stated to tag all my notes with a number. I gave myself a crash course in this when I started doing recording sessions. Producers were throwing this numerical terminology around that I didn't understand, so I knuckled down.

I learned that basic chords consist of the I III and V of the scale, the old one-three-five, and that other notes (numbers) can be added to the I III V to make fancier chords; I learned that it's the III which makes the difference between minor and major; I learned that the I and V are pretty well constant; I came up with a neat way to instantly "see" all these notes on the fretboard so that I could use and manipulate them.

In a nutshell: the chord IS the music. The musical moment is ruled by the chord that is being played, and if you know that chord (and the key you're in) very well, you'll know all the rest. Not only will you know and be able to use the other scale notes that surround the chord, but you'll be able to go to the bottom layer of music -- the chromatic scale, ALL notes. This knowledge is the key to improvising and being able to use the whole fretboard.

So, concentrate on chords and work your way out, is my advice. Rather than trying to assemble music from the bits and pieces via scales, just look at the chord. It IS the music. It's saying "We're the main notes for this moment, everything centres around us, all subsidiary notes are nearby". The bits and pieces will reveal themselves that way.

If you want to know how I tuned my brain to be able to "see" instantly all notes on a fretboard laid out in numerical context, have a look at http://www.lorange.kirk.net and read about my book PlaneTalk. Find out why it's sub-titled "The Truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction Book". It's been selling steadily from my site for over 5 years now, and the content is now available online. It describes the "trick" to it all.

I'll write about slide guitar next week. What was a fairly obscure form of playing when I started out has become very popular in the last few years. You can check out my style (I play in almost standard tuning: D A D G B E) at http://mp3.com/kirklorange

All the best,

Kirk