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Paleto

Posts: 243
Joined: Jul. 29 2003
From: San Diego, CA

Useful site for musical growth

From time to time, I search the internet for new books to read on creativity and music.

I found a web site that may be of interest to a few people here.

The web site was created by a musician to sell his book on scales, chords and arpeggios, some of the basic building blocks of music.

This book seems to have a very comprehensive discussion of these fundamentals, applies them to guitar in helpful ways, and then seems to have diagrams for hundreds of arpeggios and scales. Below is a link to some pages with diagrams which are accompanied by text, which rather clearly explains the diagrams and their utility. The cube diagrams show scale degrees and relative harmonic relationships to other notes within each scale. By learning these all over the fretboard and in variuos keys, one can learn some powerful tools for improvisation, hence their possible utility for flamenco guitarists, especially those interested in modern playing.

While some people may not care for theory, and may not see how this information is relevant to playing flamenco, anyone who understands basic theory knows its always relevant, and the more one knows, the more tools they have at their disposal for improvising and composing.

I think by learning this stuff, one can apply it it novel ways, and I think to varying degrees modern players are doing just this.

If one can learn a variety of arpeggios and new chord types in a few keys, perhaps trying it out in keys most relevant to flamenco ( E major, E minor, A major and minor, perhaps D major and minor, then in the phrygian modes/ or Anadlusian cadence [if you prefer]) I think it's utility would start to become clear.

I personally have been learning arpeggios in a variety of positions up and down the neck, mostly in a vertical position playing mode, but also in horizontal fashions with shifts and I can see that this will be very useful once my hands have been trained to work efficiently in these new ways.

I have noticed that my ear is also developing as a result. I can see a lot of useful things that this activity will reward me with. I can also see that this is a pretty long commitment. I also know that some of the best musicians especially in jazz, have done this and have an encyclopedic knowledge of the fretboard. They can play any key in any position. And while this is a burdensome task, those who would like to be really strong musicians will grow immensely by utilizing techniques implied by learning the fretboard this way. There are no short cuts as far as I know. One suggestion from a book I have been using is to sing the notes as you play them (singing E, G, B, D, E and so on) which reinforces the inner ear to recognize the intervallic change as well as recognition of those pitches. I think training the ear is also something that is of immense importance if one wants to be a professional player.

Food for thought.

Click here to see a pdf file with a sample of 20 pages.

Below is a link to the main page of the site.

http://www.mamimusic.com/

Don't be confused by the repeating text in the pdf file, keep scrolling down and the text starts to get more interesting.

You can download and print sections of it as pdf files for only $6.95 so it's pretty cheap if you do that and have it bound at your local Kinko's or print shop.

Anthony

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 26 2004 19:13:21