Guitar Decomposed: 5. Mutating the Third
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Guitar Decomposed: 5. Mutating the Third
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Re: Guitar Decomposed: 5. Mutating the Third
#2> The first such transformation is to lower the third by one step to obtain a minor triad. For some reason, we perceive minor chords as sad or melancholy, sometimes a bit whiny.
I'd love to hear more on "some reason." In a way, it's so arbitrary, and maybe it's a cultural bias, but so sad. And the minor iv chord, so sad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQFtvAfHndE, right when he sings "when September ends," but there's are so many other examples.
Re: Guitar Decomposed: 5. Mutating the Third
#3> The first such transformation is to lower the third by one step to obtain a minor triad. For some reason, we perceive minor chords as sad or melancholy, sometimes a bit whiny. I'd love to hear more on "some reason." In a way, it's so arbitrary, and maybe it's a cultural bias, but so sad. And the minor iv chord, so sad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQFtvAfHndE , right when he sings "when September ends," but ther…
> Minor chords? In pop and rock? They're used all over the place. It's more rare to not find one in a song. Minor chords with added sevenths, yeah, less common.
Yeah, exactly my first thought, pick any Beatles, Pink Floyd or Radiohead album for the most mainstream, off-the-top-of-my head examples.
Re: Guitar Decomposed: 5. Mutating the Third
#4> The first such transformation is to lower the third by one step to obtain a minor triad. For some reason, we perceive minor chords as sad or melancholy, sometimes a bit whiny. I'd love to hear more on "some reason." In a way, it's so arbitrary, and maybe it's a cultural bias, but so sad. And the minor iv chord, so sad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQFtvAfHndE , right when he sings "when September ends," but ther…
> Minor chords? In pop and rock? They're used all over the place. It's more rare to not find one in a song. Minor chords with added sevenths, yeah, less common. Yeah, exactly my first thought, pick any Beatles, Pink Floyd or Radiohead album for the most mainstream, off-the-top-of-my head examples.
I deleted that part when I realized the author might have meant altered minor chords (like the minor iv in a major key), not just a generic I–V–vi–IV.
Re: Guitar Decomposed: 5. Mutating the Third
#5> The first such transformation is to lower the third by one step to obtain a minor triad. For some reason, we perceive minor chords as sad or melancholy, sometimes a bit whiny. I'd love to hear more on "some reason." In a way, it's so arbitrary, and maybe it's a cultural bias, but so sad. And the minor iv chord, so sad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQFtvAfHndE , right when he sings "when September ends," but ther…
> I'd love to hear more on "some reason."
Modern science has no idea! I've researched a fair bit. We don't know how the brain intreprets frequency combinations or why different ones sound good or bad together or evoke certain moods. Math can explain harmonics and the circle of fifths and how to assemble keys and modes, sure, but no one knows the Why or How of the internals between the ears. It is just cultural bias and repetition that we intrepret some note and chord combinations a certain way or is there something more fundamental going on with the hardware? Good question! Nobody knows.
All we have is anecdotal evidence and the trial and error of the musicians and composers who make it. Music is still a mystery.
Re: Guitar Decomposed: 5. Mutating the Third
#6> The first such transformation is to lower the third by one step to obtain a minor triad. For some reason, we perceive minor chords as sad or melancholy, sometimes a bit whiny. I'd love to hear more on "some reason." In a way, it's so arbitrary, and maybe it's a cultural bias, but so sad. And the minor iv chord, so sad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQFtvAfHndE , right when he sings "when September ends," but ther…
> I'd love to hear more on "some reason." Modern science has no idea! I've researched a fair bit. We don't know how the brain intreprets frequency combinations or why different ones sound good or bad together or evoke certain moods. Math can explain harmonics and the circle of fifths and how to assemble keys and modes, sure, but no one knows the Why or How of the internals between the ears. It is just cultural bias a…
I get a little annoyed at this notion of minor vs major. It's not binary. Subtle changes in tonality can shift back and forth between minor and major and diminished and augmented and so on. Most listeners will interpret a passage as "minor", but that doesn't mean it's so. Complex harmony can be reduced to minor or major but it robs it of all of its nuance.
Re: Guitar Decomposed: 5. Mutating the Third
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'd love to hear more on "some reason." Modern science has no idea! I've researched a fair bit. We don't know how the brain intreprets frequency combinations or why different ones sound good or bad together or evoke certain moods. Math can explain harmonics and the circle of fifths and how to assemble keys and modes, sure, but no one knows the Why or How of the internals between the ears. It is just cultural bias a…
I get a little annoyed at this notion of minor vs major. It's not binary. Subtle changes in tonality can shift back and forth between minor and major and diminished and augmented and so on. Most listeners will interpret a passage as "minor", but that doesn't mean it's so. Complex harmony can be reduced to minor or major but it robs it of all of its nuance.
I mean if you move down 3 notes from any Major key you have your Minor key with the same exact notes, like C Major and A Minor.
I usually compose with a Major or Minor key in mind, but it's kind of a reference and not a be all end all. I like sharp 4's which work great usually and don't fit in either key. A flat 7 sounds great in a major key too, usually. I agree with you mostly, and i am annoyed by people who are adamant about the rules of a key, but it helps me to have a key in mind to both play and compose, even if i break the rules of it.
I find improvising on piano / guitar is nearly impossible if you don't know the key, even after many years of playing both.
Re: Guitar Decomposed: 5. Mutating the Third
#8> The first such transformation is to lower the third by one step to obtain a minor triad. For some reason, we perceive minor chords as sad or melancholy, sometimes a bit whiny. I'd love to hear more on "some reason." In a way, it's so arbitrary, and maybe it's a cultural bias, but so sad. And the minor iv chord, so sad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQFtvAfHndE , right when he sings "when September ends," but ther…
> lower the third by one step to obtain a minor triad
But it's lowered by a half step...
Re: Guitar Decomposed: 5. Mutating the Third
#9From the first post in the series:
> We now use the so called equal temperament system...
Unless I'm playing a piano, no, I don't. And since I have an electric piano, I have been known to set it to meantone, but I accept that I'm a freak.
Even on a guitar you have a fair amount of variation in pitch based on pressure and position of the left hand fingers relative to the fret. Not as much as on old instruments with gut frets, but it's there.
Re: Guitar Decomposed: 5. Mutating the Third
#10> The first such transformation is to lower the third by one step to obtain a minor triad. For some reason, we perceive minor chords as sad or melancholy, sometimes a bit whiny. I'd love to hear more on "some reason." In a way, it's so arbitrary, and maybe it's a cultural bias, but so sad. And the minor iv chord, so sad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQFtvAfHndE , right when he sings "when September ends," but ther…
> lower the third by one step to obtain a minor triad But it's lowered by a half step...
Depends on your language use - hrs talking in terms of semitones throughout the article, so thats correct; you're thinking in terms of whole /half steps (so you would be correct if the article was written in those terms).
I think talking in semitones helps clear up any misunderstanding over the explicit intervals present in a chord (and I've found that very useful when talking to guitar pupils who only know guitar and want to understand theory, particularly because the guitar neck is made of semitones), but if someone knows more scale theory (or plays piano), then talking in scale steps makes more sense.