Music Theory Live Class #2: Chord Scale Relationships

Here’s the recording for the Music Theory Live Class #2 about Chord & Scale relationship.

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I’m about half way through watching this (as didn’t get to see it live) but have a question.

Justin talks about chords & the notes of the chord sounding good when played over the chord. Perhaps I have missed something but how do you play a chord and the notes at the same time?

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Stuart he means when a certain chord is playing in a progression, picking out the chord tones when playing say an impro, will sound good. Richard has a whole Teacher Tip thread on targeting chord tones. Think in the Key of C and C major is playing, all scale notes will work but C E G will sound best/better. Hope that helps.

:sunglasses:

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So someone else or a backing track is playing the chord progression. I think one of the issues was that Justin was using a keyboard when you can do both at the same time!

To be honest when I first started the video I thought that I had clicked the wrong link and was about to watch a piano tutorial.

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In my student’ s experience: you can play a chord melody and pick the melody notes within the chord and play the full chord as a “block chord” or “rolling chord” when it fits within the bar or … do a chord accompainement backing track (playing the chord progressions with strumming or fingerpicking patterns) and then play your melody notes over it. This last option is an exercise I’ve been doing a lot in the past month.

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The volume seems to be very low on the recording. I see the YouTube nerd stats show the Volume level is nearly -20db. So plenty of headroom to bump the volume going forward.

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I’ve got a knob for that :wink:

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Hello guys and girls…thought I would ask: how are you all doing with challenge 2? I’ve been humming notes insofar that sounded good against the chords, but not really able to find a melody…now since no “serendipity accident” seemed to occur I grabbed my guitar and tried to follow Justin’s advice “Listen more than think!”
I’ve almost completed the verse in one hour, only the last bar is missing, I’d like to work that out so that it leads nicely to the chorus.
Today it sounds like a pretty little thing, not sure I will like it tomorrow as well :thinking:
I’m not sure at all of what I’ve been doing to tell the truth :joy:

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@SILVIA Thanks for the little nudge. I had tried to work out a melody line but the ‘cool’ chord voicings I found for the chord progression were not being very helpful for writing a melody. I picked up my guitar now and recorded the first half of the verse on its own, just on my iPhone, then mucked about with that for a few dozen run throughs, then did the same with the second half of the verse added in. So now I do have a melody for the verse, and as you say I’ll see if I’m still happy with it tomorrow! And then I still have to do the chorus.

So thanks for the nudge, got me working on it! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Good to see you making some progress Silvia. I had a dabble over the weekend, just using the Guitar Pro version of my progression but just of the keys track which is one chord per bar (the guitar part was a fingerstyle pattern and just conflicts with creating a new melody).
Some rudimentary La La ing threw out something semi melodic but I really need to revisit the track and put a more meaningful, non fingerstyle rhythm on it, as I think we will be getting a bit of mileage out of the exercise one offerings. So hold the line caller, I’ll be back soon !
:sunglasses:

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That’s two new things I’ve not heard of before, and after checking Google still not fully understanding the difference.

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What is challenge 2, as only got so far in watching the video?

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@Mari63 @TheMadman_tobyjenner Happy to hear you’re also working on the challenge…

Mari, I also happened to think it would be more challenging for you to find out a melody, as your chord progressions were way more complex than mine, but Justin gave good input for you to find your way through it.

Toby what really confuses me is not the fingerstyle but working out the Rhythm and duration of notes…I guess Guitar Pro would be helpful in this…eh, this should be considered like cheating :wink::joy::grin:

Chat soon :wave:

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Do not bother about that Stuart, I didn’t mean to confuse you! Watch all the video and you’ll find out what challenge 2 is: Justin explains everything very clearly and gives suggestions about how to do it.

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Stuart use the seach on Justin’s webs site not Google https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/rolling-chords-te-705

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Not really. I played a revised progression - more doom and gloom :rofl: - on the acoustic, to get an idea of how I wanted it to go. Then I transposed that into GP with a Hammond Organ and Bass line to add more gloom. So its now a better foundation and I can play the GP BT while experimenting with melody line and loop sections until I am happy. I can then tab it out in GP, so it will be there after I’ve slept next !! :rofl:

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That must be fun! One day I’d like to try GP…maybe next summer when I’ll have some more spare time. I was just wondering: how do you do with notes’ lenght within one bar? Doesn’t GP correct you if something is wrong?

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It will tell you that you are wrong, for example an incomplete bar

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but you need to figure out how to fix it. Took me a while when I first started, with lots if counting, especially when 16th are involved but you get used to it. Like most things trial and error at the beginning, especially if you can’t read music.
:sunglasses:

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:heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes: I need it :tired_face: for my chord melodies!! It would be of huge help even if I can read music!

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One of the best features is both a keyboard view and a fretboard for adding notes. So for example today, when experimenting with some melody lines that were in my head, I tracked them down on the guitar, then used the Fretboard view to add them to the melody tab I am building. I did try just adding the notes to the stave but it quickly resulted in audio chaos :rofl:

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