Musicality World

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/the-5-minute-guide-to-set-and-achieve-your-new-years-music-resolutions/
The New Year 🎉 is a great time to set new musical goals 🎶 But, we know that New Year’s Resolutions normally fail 😞 We’ve compiled 6 mistakes that people make when setting their goals, and how to avoid them. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/the-5-minute-guide-to-set-and-achieve-your-new-years-music-resolutions/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/learning-to-listen-harmonies/
What is your favorite melody? One way to add to a melody is through harmonies. We explore this topic in this article https://www.musical-u.com/learn/learning-to-listen-harmonies/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-set-and-achieve-your-new-years-music-resolutions/
It’s hard to believe that 2018 is nearly upon us! This coming year, have you thought about making music resolutions as well? And how can you make sure that you are successful in keeping them? https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-set-and-achieve-your-new-years-music-resolutions/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/10-ways-to-find-more-time-for-music-this-year/
How can you make more time for music this coming year. Musical U has compiled some tips to help you find more musical moments in your life. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/10-ways-to-find-more-time-for-music-this-year/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-learn-to-sing-a-roadmap/
Want to learn to sing this coming year, but not sure where to start? You need a roadmap to help you get there 🗺🎶 https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-learn-to-sing-a-roadmap/

We’re here to help you get a head start. We think the last week of the year deserves some special posts, something a little extra to shine a light on the possibilities that open up when you think (and play) outside the box of your regular music practice.

In that spirit, we bring you the following:

• A music teacher that doesn’t limit her students to one instrument only, but encourages them to try out and switch between multiple in order to build their musicality
• A way of improvisation that goes beyond just major and minor keys, venturing into the exciting waters of modal playing
• And lastly, one of the most famous and oft-used major chord progressions in modern music with an extra minor chord thrown in there for interest and a little bit of extra learning

Making A Musician

How do you empower a just-beginning music student and give them the tools they need to succeed early in their music education?

By helping them develop their musicality, something that will aid them with everything from hitting the right notes to playing expressively to being able to recognize chords.

Nobody knows this better than Casey McCann, who founded Eclectic Music and The Little Middle School with the aim of promoting each musician’s personal growth and teaching these core skills right from the get-go.

In Turning Ordinary People into Musicians, with Casey McCann, she takes us through her beginnings in music, her unique way of teaching musicality at Eclectic Music and The Little Middle School, and her take on the hot-topic debate of talent vs. training. She even shares an incredible anecdote about how she dazzled a room full of musicians with her ability to play by ear, back when she did not yet know how to read music!

We were delighted that Casey was able to share her amazing story on the Musicality Podcast. She discussed how a great deal of her learning occurred before she was ever able to read sheet music. When she finally had to learn to read the music, it was a matter of translating the theory and musical knowledge that she had into the written music. Whether you are just getting started or are already seasoned at playing by ear, Best Piano Method can show you how to play any song on piano without needing the sheet music.

When she finally started to learn the theory behind the songs that she had been learning, it all fell into place for Casey. At Musical U, we have heard the same from many of our students, who knew how to place songs but were unaware of how the theory worked. Hear and Play recently explored this topic, and made some fascinating observations about how popular chord progressions work and why they are so attractive to our musical ears.

When Chords “Click”

As a guitar player, Casey quickly learned about chord shapes and how she could play songs just by remembering what shape to form. This was usually without any regard to what notes were actually in the chord, but with respect to the muscle memory of the shape itself. This is a great way to get the notes under your fingers and enjoy playing while learning the art of your instrument!

There are many different instruments that this same type of thought can be applied to. Ukulele Mag talks about three movable chord shapes that will unlock millions of songs in your fingers, for a quick-start that will take you to beach-pickin’ happiness in only a few minutes!

In our modern era, there are so many interactive tools that can show you the chord shapes that you need to remember. 8 Notes’ tool shows you numerous common inversions that will increase your ability to move freely about the piano keyboard.

Finally, some instruments, like the guitar, lend themselves to interesting sounds through the natural structure of the instrument. In this case, the ability to add an open string to a chord shape can completely change the character of the chord that you are playing. FretJam has compiled the best chord shapes for creating a dark, tense, and dramatic song.

Beginning Modal Improv

Modal improvisation tends to put many musicians off because of its associations with extremely complicated jazz guitar.

Though it’s true that modal solos can get mind-blowingly intricate, all you need in order to understand modes and build unforgettable licks, riffs, and solos out of them is a little bit of chord theory and a good ear.

In Beginning Modal Improvisation, with Brian Kelly from Zombie Guitar, master guitarist Brian gives an incredible beginners’ guide to playing in modes, discussing the difference between keys and modes, when to use each one, and how to understand modes using music theory you already know. Best of all, he helps you hit the ground running by introducing and demonstrating two modes that you can easily start soloing with right now, even if you don’t know how to read music!

Hats off to Brian for creating such a practical and easy-to-follow lesson that introduces modal improvisation. Why do modes work, and why can’t we stop talking about them? Fretello explores the fascinating world of modes, and explains why they add depth and colour to your musical creations.

There are so many fascinating musical sounds that can be created using modes. Though many musicians believe that this is a difficult concept that is impossible for them to wrap their heads around, the truth is, once you can understand some of the basic theory, you’ll be on your way to applying modes in your practice. Jazz Guitar Online has compiled a fantastic comprehensive lesson on all the modes.

Learning all the modes and how to play them on your instrument is one thing. When it comes to play in a live setting, how can you know which mode is the best fit for the song? You may have learned that you can play multiple scales over a chord, but this lesson from the Jazz Piano Site delves deeper, going into great detail about how to wisely select a scale to solo with.

Once you have become comfortable using modes, it’s time to put it all together and make your own musical creation. Courtesy of Effective Music Practice, see how one musician combines a Lydian chord progression with improvisation to create a beautiful piece of music.

Four Magic Chords

Most musicians have at one point (whether unconsciously or on purpose) played the famous I-IV-V progression, a staple of blues, rock, pop, folk, and country music.

This week on the Musicality Podcast, we take a peek behind the curtain, answering the questions of just what makes these chords sound so good together, what exactly those numbers mean, and how to take this progression from one key to another.

To add a little something extra, we’re including the very useful vi (minor) chord in our lesson, a chord second in popularity only to the I, IV, and V. If you want to be able to recognize these chords in action, and even get yourself writing music based around the beautiful progressions built on these chords, look no further than our lesson About the I, IV, V and vi Chords.

At Musical U, we like to stress that being able to hear chord progressions is a very important part of your musicality. One way that you can practice this skill is through ear training quizzes. EW Guitar Lessons’ educational quiz will help you internalize the relationship between the I-IV-V chords in a progression.

This episode of the Musicality Podcast talked about the Nashville Numbering System for chords, and how it is slightly different than using Roman numerals. While neither system is “the right way”, it’s important to understand that different musicians use different musical languages to essentially say the same thing. Singer-songwriter Kate Rockey explains how the Nashville System greatly improved her ability to recognize chords.

Why do songwriters need to know and understand chord progressions? Because it’s no secret that some of the most popular songs of all time tend to have a similar structure! Learning how to use the power of chord progressions can give your songwriting a boost and help you to understand which tones will work best in your songs. American Songwriter explains how to build unforgettable chord progressions in your songwriting.

While we all know that some of the most famous songs of all time have been written using this basic chord structure, it is so refreshing to hear new sounds as well. Rick Beato is no stranger to pushing musical boundaries, and he shares four simple yet effective chord extensions you can use to add interest to your music. You won’t want to miss the amazing sounds he creates!

Pushing the Boundaries of Your Practice

You can see how something as simple as adding one more chord to a standard progression, soloing outside the confines of major and minor, or teaching yourself musicality using an unconventional yet effective technique can bring new interest and dimensions to your playing.

The post Making A Musician, Beginning Modal Improv, and Four Magic Chords appeared first on Musical U.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/whos-ear-training-team/
It’s great to make musical goals, but have you thought about creating a team to help you along the way? If you don’t have a team, there are many people within Musical U that can provide help, accountability, and motivation for your musical training. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/whos-ear-training-team/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/beauty-for-my-ashes-inspired-songwriting-with-alicia-whitney/
When we set our heartaches, triumphs, and spirituality to music, we have the opportunity to transform our personal experience and reach out to others. Learn more about the musical journey of Alicia & Whitney https://www.musical-u.com/learn/beauty-for-my-ashes-inspired-songwriting-with-alicia-whitney/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/musical-confidence-boost/
We all deal with moments of self-doubt in our musical journey. Musical U has compiled 6 tricks that have helped us and our members boost their musical confidence and achieve their goals. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/musical-confidence-boost/

Chords sometimes referred to with numbers, and chord progressions as a series of numbers, such as I-IV-V or 1-4-5. Find out what these numbers mean, how to build chords on any note in any key, and how you can use this to write unforgettable songs!

Listen to the episode:

Links and Resources

• Turning Ordinary People into Musicians, with Casey McCann (interview)
• Note2Self: “I Love This!”, with Lisa McCormick (interview)
• Making Ear Training Fun, with Steve Myers (interview)
• Finding the Notes Yourself, with Sara Campbell (interview)
• Seriously Enjoyable Music Learning, with Shelle Soelberg (interview)
• A Toolbox of Musical Understanding, with Scott Sharp (interview)
• I-IV-V Chords in Major Keys
• The vi-IV-I-V chord progression
• The Circle of Fifths
• Podcast Episode: The Power of Solfa

Transcript

In several past episodes the same topic has come up: a way of thinking about chords that makes it much easier to play by ear, improvise, and get an instinctive feel for what’s going on in the music you hear. Steve Myers, Sara Campbell, Shelle Soelberg, Casey McCann, Lisa McCormick, Scott Sharp – all these guests have mentioned the “one, four, five and six” chords.

The band Blues Traveler even start one of their hit songs by declaring it’s “Just another 1, 4, 5”.

So what are those chords and why do they matter?

This is one of the most valuable things to wrap your head around in music. And if you don’t play chords on your instrument, please don’t tune out! Understanding how harmony works can help you improvise melodies, it can help you write your own music, it can help you decipher music notation and sight-read more easily. It’s that fundamental.

What are the 1, 4, 5 and 6 chords?

Simply put, when people talk about chords using numbers like this they are just referring to chords relative to the key, the tonic note. It’s a shorthand for the role that each chord plays in a key – and the things people say about chords using numbers are true in any key.

In a recent episode we talked about finding chords in scales – and that’s exactly what we’re doing when we talk about the 1, 4, 5 and 6. It’s taking that number note from the key’s scale and building a chord on it.

Let’s get concrete for a moment. The power of this system is that it abstracts away from the particulars of any one key – but that can also make it a bit confusing at first.

Supposing we’re in the key of C Major. Note 1 in the scale is C. Note 4 is F, note 5 is G and note 6 is A. As covered in that previous episode we can build a three-note chord called a “triad” starting from each of those notes.

When we do this from the note C we get the C major chord, and that’s our “one” chord. From the F note we get an F major chord and that’s our “four” chord. From the G note we get a G major chord and that’s our “five” chord. And finally from the A we actually get an A minor chord, and that’s our “six” chord.

Can we build chords from notes 2, 3 and 7 too? Of course! But we’ll talk in a moment about why those aren’t the ones we’re focusing on right now.

So we can build these four chords from the scale, and we can do that in any key.

If we do it in the key of G Major instead of C Major we end up with G major as our “one”, C major as our “four”, D major as our “five” and E minor as our “six”.

We’ll definitely be talking about the Circle of Fifths in a future episode because that’s a terrific way to shortcut this process of figuring out the chords in any key without needing to count through notes of the scale. But for now just know that you can figure out what these one, four, five and six chords are in any key. The one, four and five will always come out as major triads and the six will always be minor.

So what’s the point of all this?

Why the 1, 4, 5 and 6 chords matter

In our episode on The Power of Solfa we talked about how naming or numbering the notes of the scale relative to the root note is helpful because it gets us away from all the letter names and sharps and flats that vary in every key, and gets us directly to the way we actually hear music. We interpret notes relative to the key’s tonic, and so naming notes in that way makes it far easier to start understanding what’s going on in the music you hear.

Exactly the same is true of chords. When we abstract away from any one key and talk in terms of these chord numbers we get straight to the heart of how harmony actually works and how our ears are interpreting the chords we hear.

Here are a few questions you might have found yourself asking about chords:

• Why do these chords sound good when I play them after each other but those other ones don’t?
• How can I know what chords to choose when I’m writing a song?
• If I want to play a song in a different key than the sheet music or recording I have, how do I know what chords to play?
• Why do so many pop and rock songs sound kind of the same even though they have different melodies?

All of these questions can be answered easily when we think in terms of chord numbers – but they all get very complicated if you only think about the literal names of chords in different keys.

For example: The one, four and five chords are the most commonly-used chords in almost every genre of music, with the six chord following shortly after. That means that a ton of music we hear each day is using just those chords.

If we only thought in terms of keys and chord names that wouldn’t be obvious. We’d be able to hear that the songs’ chord progressions sounded kind of similar but they’d all have different chords so it wouldn’t be clear why. When we translate those chords into this one, four, five, six naming system it’s immediately obvious: they are all using exactly the same chords, just in a variety of keys.

That is a massive shortcut if you want to train your ears to recognise chords. Because really what you want to learn isn’t “how can I hear a C-G-A minor-F progression?” – it’s “how can I hear a 1-5-6-4 progression no matter what key it happens to be in?” Your ears really don’t mind what key is being used and so you can quickly train them to hear that same pattern in any key.

So the one, four, five and six chords matter because they are the most frequently used in music, and thinking about them in this numbered system matters because it lets you focus on what’s actually going on harmonically and how your ears are actually interpreting the chords musically.

The next question we have to tackle is…

Rome or Nashville?

As I’ve been explaining this I’ve just been saying “one”, “four”, “five” and so on. But when it comes to writing the chords down there are a couple of different systems.

The first is the Nashville Numbering System. Super simple, we literally just write down the number. The number “1” for one, the number “4” for four, and so on. Generally the major/minor quality of the chord is assumed based on what’s normal for the key, so for the “six” chord you just write the number “6” and the musician reading it knows that’ll be a minor chord.

The second system looks intimidating but is just as simple. It’s to use Roman numerals for the chord numbers. We write a capital “I” for the one chord, a capital “I” followed by a capital “V” for the four chord, a capital “V” for the five chord, and a lowercase “v” and “i” for the six chord. That can look weird if you’re not used to Roman numerals but actually that weirdness is part of its advantage. We use numbers for lots of different things in music but we only use Roman numerals for naming chords like this. So when you see these symbols written down you immediately know that it’s referring to chords in the key. You still say them out loud as “one”, “four”, “five” and so on.

Start using the 1, 4, 5 and 6

So now you understand what the one, four, five and six chords are. You can start taking advantage of this immediately. Next time you’re playing a piece of music ask yourself what the numbers are for the chords being used. You might be surprised how often it boils down to just these three or four chords. That’s why you might hear people talking about “3-chord songs” and “4-chord songs”.

The next big step is to start learning to recognise these chords when they’re used. As I said before, you have a huge shortcut here because you know you’re just looking for the same patterns, no matter what key is being used. We have a whole Roadmap and set of modules for learning to recognise and play chords by ear in Musical U and it’s centered on this insight: that focusing on just the one, four, five and six chords actually covers a huge amount of ground.

Yes there are other chords that can be used, and yes the types of chord can go beyond just major and minor. But get your mind and ears wrapped around the one, four, five and six chords and you’ve got the best possible foundation for understanding and recognising each and every chord you hear.

The post About the I, IV, V and vi Chords appeared first on Musical U.