4 Chords and the Truth

It never fails to amaze me that there are so many amazing (and not so amazing) songs written with just four chords. When you start really thinking about it, what's more astounding is that new, individual songs are written every day with the same four chords.

Yet they don't all sound the same. You can even play the same four chords, in the same order, at the same tempo, however, if you put a different melody on top, change the rhythm or move the accents and it'll sound completely different.

There's no better online example than this funny and very entertaining video by 'The Axis of Awesome', an Aussie musical comedy trio. Sure they've transposed some of the songs to make their point, but it pretty clearly demonstrates that there are a lot of possibilities with 4 simple chords (I, V, vi, IV - or more simply put in G major - G, D, Em, C).

Then there are some songs don't bother with even four chords. Off the top of my head, here are some famous tunes with three chords ...

- Abracadabra - Steve Miller Band (Am, Dm, E7),
- Rock Around the Clock - Bill Haley (A, D, E)
- All Along The Watchtower - Bob Dylan/Hendrix (C#m, A#, G#),
- Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival (A, D, G),
- Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol (A, E, F#m7)
- La Bamba - Los Lobos/Richie Valens (C, F, G)
- Breakfast at Tiffany's - Deep Blue Something (A, D, G)
- Red Red Wine - Bob Marley, UB40 (C, D, G)
- Wild Thing - The Troggs (A, D, E)
- All Shook Up - Elvis Presley (A, D, E)

And then two!

- Eleanor Rigby - Beatles (Em, C)
- Jambalaya - Hank Williams (G, D7)

And then only one chord....

Get this party started - Pink (Bm)...

Now, go try them out!

How do you remember all the chords?

My wife Amanda is a extremely talented singer, musician and songwriter.  She writes a great blog all about music too... She wrote an absolute cracker today, and it applies just as much to learning songs on the guitar as to remembering lyrics, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Check out her blog at amandaeaston.blogspot.com.au and her website at www.amandaeaston.com.

How Do You Remember All the Words?

Hi there,

Remembering all the lyrics to a tune, in the right order and attached to all the right notes can be a challenge! Over the years I've developed a technique that works for me and now, depending on the complexity of the song, it can take as little as half an hour to get a song into my noggin. Although I do believe it takes two performances of the song to get it to really stick. You have to break its cherry before a real live audience and then bed it down, so to speak. 

Anyway, I recently read something to suggest some scientific justification for my technique so thought it was worth sharing. I am reading 'The Talent Code' by Daniel Coyle. 
Through his study of 'talent hot spots' around the word, he has come up with some of the secrets to effective learning. He comes to the conclusion that talent is more grown that born. 

We all know that repetition is important when we're learning something but that's not the sneaky little key. It's all about making mistakes. Hey I'm good at that! Your mind needs to be tested on what you're learning, making errors and fixing them. If you just sing along to the voice on the original track you're not ever truly being tested and it will take quite a long time to get the song words to stay put. 

Here is my technique:
1. Get a recording of the song you need to learn 
2. Get a backing track of the same song, in the same arrangement (itunes or www.karaoke-version.com are good)
3. Put the two tracks on a CD, playlist etc
4. Press play and repeat as necessary. You'll learn the song by listening to the original singer and the backing track will be testing you each time.
5. When you're comfortable, sing it for your flatmate (without looking at the lyrics of course)
6. Then sing it for the postman.

If you can do numbers 5 and 6 without any mistakes, then it's in baby!


The Talent Code also talks about a sweet spot. What you are striving for has to be only just out of reach - not miles away. It might be too big a task to do the whole song at one time. Break it into manageable bites - verses, choruses, 'la la' bits etc. 

Like that smart ancient guy once said 'The longest journey starts with a single step'.
Cheers,
Amanda"

It's all in the......timing....

Timing has an enormous affect on how good you sound as a guitarist. Just like other aspects of musicality, timing is a skill that can be learned and improved with practice!

In order to improve your timing, it is important to understand that every beat can be played in three different ways:

• before the beat, 
• right on the beat, 
• after the beat. 

This following simple exercise will help you recognize your timing pattern. It is very simple, yet very effective. If you want to get the most out of this exercise, you should record yourself and analyse the results.   There's a vioce record on most mobiles

1. Set your metronome to 60 BPM and start your recording device 
2. Pick up your musical instrument 
3. Play 60 short notes (or up and down a scale), try to hit each note exactly on the beat 
4. Play back the recording and mark how many beats you hit exactly on the beat, how many before the beat and how many after the beat. 

You will soon notice your tendencies. Some musicians tend to rush, when others tend to drag. The more you will focus on this simple exercise the better awareness to timing you will have and it will naturally be reflected in your playing. I recommend spending 5-10 minutes every day practicing this exercise.

Practice, Practice, Practice

The first post hey?  I thought we'd start with what'll be an irregular theme in the blog, practice tips.  It is the most fundamental thing about learning the guitar.  Regular, focussed, efficient, methodical, fun, rewarding practice.

I remember how much my fingers hurt after getting my first steel stringed guitar, but loving the sound of it.  I remember sitting downstairs at home when I was a kid, going over and over Stairway to Heaven until I could play along with the cassette.  And I certainly remember the eureka moment when instead of shutting the door to avoid the sound of my 'playing', Mum walked through the room and left it open!

It's unfortunately true that no matter how much money you spend on gear and lessons, time spent obsessing over tone or perfecting your guitar face (check out B.B. King nailing it), unless you spend time practicing, and practicing deliberately, you won't improve.

http://egotvonline.com/2011/08/10/30-awesome-guitar-faces/ 

So here's your new practice regime, try it see how you go.  Each practice session is made up of 3 sections, a technical exercise, your newest song and finally repertoire.

The best way to practice these things in is...

1. Technical exercise (10 mins)
2. Newest song (20 mins)
3. Repertoire (as long as you like)

There's a reason behind the order....  If you run a technical exercise first (let's say a major scale exercise), it's going to act as a warm up for your fingers, this then gives you a greater ability to tackle the new song you are learning.  As a reward for being a good student you get to practice your repertoire - that is all the stuff you can already play.  Practicing in this order means you leave the practice session feeling good and are more likely to want to practice again!

Now, let's imagine you start with repertoire, that goes well and then you try the new song.  It doesn't go so well because you haven't warmed up all your fingers.  You end up getting frustrated and put the guitar down and watch TV - and you didn't even practice your scales!

An even worse scenario is that you start with the newest piece, get frustrated, give up, watch TV and don't feel like picking the guitar up as regularly.

So, I hope that helps.  Love to hear what you think!

PS ever hear about 10,000 hours?  Well, check it out....