The Language Of Music

Talkin’ Blues….

Fun fact for guitar players: musicians who don’t play guitar probably don’t know or maybe even care what a “chord shape” is, and probably even those who know have only a passing concern if a certain chord shape is easy or difficult for a guitar player! Only a few instrument groups are “chordal” in nature, meaning they can play the harmonies of a chord all at once. Guitars and instruments like them (instruments with strings and frets, usually - though some guitars are “fretless”) are chordal. Pianos and keyboards are chordal in nature, but chord “shapes” are few, mostly dependent on how far can fingers stretch or are played hand-over-hand. But most other instruments are melodic - meaning they are played one note at a time. Brass and horns, woodwinds, strings (violin, viola, cello, upright bass), even the human voice, produce (mostly) melodic sounds.

So when we play guitar with other musicians, it’s really important that when we talk with each other we speak in a common “language”, not just guitar chords and chord shapes and progressions, and that language is based on some knowledge of what we call “music theory”.

Let’s say we’re playing rhythm with other musicians and we’re strumming our guitar with a pick (common language tip: when we say “pick”, players from other countries/cultures may use the word “plectrum” - same thing). As a rhythm player, we’ll likely strum in a repeated strumming pattern, maybe as simple as up-down-up-down. What are the other players doing? The piano player is likely playing a combination of a chord or chords (harmonically, meaning depressing several piano keys at once), possibly followed by a melody (depressing one key at a time) to complete the bar or bars in the phrase. The bass player is likely playing a melody, possibly an arpeggio of our chord with some coloring notes and listening intently to the drummer. The lead guitarist we’re supporting is probably playing a combination of chords and flat picking arpeggios or color notes. The drummer is keeping a steady beat with a kick on 1 and a snare on 2 and 4, maybe with a break on the end of the phrase or section. The vocalist (maybe you!!) had decided how the lyrics were going to be phrased and sung melodically. The players vocally backing the lead vocalist had decided whether their backing vocals would be on the verses, choruses or bridge, or maybe on some, but not others, or maybe all, and whether they would sing harmonies or match the melody.

What did I just say????

It’s probably the things our musicians said to each other before we started playing, or knew because we had individually practiced the piece and knew how our song would all fit together because we knew the language of music based on music theory.

Our musicians in our imaginary band had to agree on those things, either because we talked it through if it was new, or we were playing a piece that someone else had decided for us. It doesn’t mean we couldn’t improvise a little where that fit, just that we would (or wouldn’t!!) because we had talked about how and when, if we did improvise.

We had decided collectively to play in a certain key (except the drummer - drummers just don’t care - drummer joke!!!), a time signature (drummer cares!!) and a tempo (drummer really cares!!!). We had decided if we were going to follow the “rules” of music theory or do our own thing a bit.

As we move along in future newsletters, we’ll talk about all the concepts behind the terms I used in describing our band’s conversation and agreement, but for now I want to leave you with the idea that knowing at least the basics of music theory isn’t a frightening thing, it isn’t something you can’t learn, and in fact it may be a lot of the things you already understand, but don’t have the “words” of the “language” of music to express yet. It’ll be fun!!!!

Yesterday’s Bonus Round: if you guessed/said Talk Talk’s song “Talk Talk” from their 1982 album “The Party’s Over” you were far more correct than I was, because the song in my head at the time was “It’s My Life” off of their 1984 album of the same name. I was watching a live version of that song where the primarily synth-pop band used an actual acoustic guitar in their performance!!

Bonus Round: “Talking Blues” is an actual sort of sub-genre, one example is Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant”. Name another Talking Blues song and Bonus Bonus points if you can name the style of guitar playing that most often backs Talking Blues songs.

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic