I firmly believe that the ‘joke’ was no doubt created by a male intended to poke fun at a female - so, yes, sexism.
BUT
What if a female were to proudly claim ownership of the concept and come out of the situation as the smart cookie.
A person able to look at an object and recognise its potential for use as a tool to perform an entirely different job to that it was designed for.
Like the coke can and the shim.
Wouldn’t that female be having the last laugh?
Would the sexism within the joke dissolve and cease to exist?
I hope so.
And I hope that my little journey into sexual politics can be forgiven and excused.
And wouldn’t that fall nicely within the a paraphrasing of Justin’s mantra?
If it (the object being used for a non-assigned purpose) works good, it is good
I have found this to be my experience over the last 4+ years, having started Justin’s great PMT course very early in my journey.
I think this theory course, highly practical, is the pinnacle of Justin’s many works. Couple that with someone @Richard_close2u 's calibre, and we’re all on a winner here.
It has however, also been the bedrock of my practical development. Sure, I’ve put in hard work, lots on practice on technique, chord, scale work like everyone has to.
But it has been the theory I believe that has progressively allowed me to spend greater QUALITY time on guitar; and in certain ways become my own teacher. Stick with it. It will reward you exponentially. I am starting to realise I am only yet scratching the outer surface.
Moi aussi.
Although I’m a mono-linguist (we English speakers are not so good at learning other languages sadly) so can only explore in my mother tongue.
Inspiring indeed
Yes, I started with PMT early on as well, then I found Richard’s articles, and I agree the combination is great.
What makes me most happy, is that my “lightbulb”-moment is based on a usecase over in the “beginner songwriter” group. Practice and theory compliment each other beautifully for me at the moment.
Richard, there is certainly a lot of food for thought here in part 1. I think I was unconsciously picking up a little bit of the 2 connected sequences of half octaves in the scales that overlap when working on the major scales exercises a few times, but I had not seen it organized so clearly. I think that I was also unknowingly laying the groundwork in my mind for the overlapping scales when counting out the notes for the circle of fifths on the five fingers of my hands, but never considered how the two halves overlapped. You have done a marvelous job on this first part.
@Richard_close2u Richard, I had to look it up my book SRV bio “Caught in the Crossfire”, but on page 34, it tells of SRV playing briefly early in his career in a Jazz-rock ‘Blood Sweat and Tear” or “Chicago Transit Authority” cover band in Austin, TX, first as a bass player, then as a guitarist.
So he must have learned to play in the flat keys then.
Richard, part 3 was just amazing. I was blown away by the aha moment of seeing the notes of all the keys grouped together with the sharps and flats clearly listed. I knew about the IV I V chord groupings in the circle of fifths and for a while I thought that was the only use of the circle of fifths diagram. This revelation has really opened by eyes to the relationship to scales and keys. I printed off the circle of fifths with the added enharmonic equivalent sharped notes. This is a brilliant addition to our musical knowledge.
Richard, part 4 of the circle of 5ths series is another enlightening lesson. I had seen figures of the circle of 5ths in guitar books with a concentric circle of minor chords, associated with the nearest key in the circle, but I didn’t know how they organized the chords. I didn’t realize that the minor chords were already next to the major chords, just like I didn’t know about the 7 scale notes from the earlier lesson. I remember Justin demonstrated in the lesson on chords in keys the harmonisation of the C major scale on the piano and the major and minor chords and the odd scale degree 7.
It is so interesting to see the 3 major chords (the IV I V grouping) then the 3 minor chords (that I also think of as the IV I V chords of the relative minor scale) and then the lone odd 7th scale note at the end of the scale notes in the circle.
Richard, nice work illustrating and explaining this in part 5. I see i got ahead of myself in my part 4 comment, but your complete illustration of the relationship between the major key and the relative minor made this next lesson readily apparent. I thought wow, if you repeated the circle of 5ths in an inner concentric circle and just rotate counterclockwise 90 degrees, every key would line up with its relative minor. Does anyone except really old dogs remember the slide rule I had a physics professor that had a circular slide rule that reminded me of this.
Richard, part 6 on chords and the circle of fifths, is another well organized, clearly explainers and illustrated. I’ll admit that i never looked at the left side of the circle of 5ths so this has been eye opening and will really help me some day when I get to the blues in 12 keys lessons.
@SteveL_G99 Thank you for your diligent reading and chaptered review of each part. I’m really pleased that it has all made senes to you as you have gone along and given a fuller understanding and appreciation of the Circle of Fifths.
I watched Justin’s Video about the CO5 and i read and documented your amazing word, meaning now i have a solid knowledge where the CO5 comes from. How deep should i go in this at my stage?
I see from your previous posts you’re in Grade 2.
You won’t need to go much deeper than this topic for a while though you could also gain from looking at the off shoot I created on borrowed chords … Using borrowed chords - introduction + examples
I had a physics professor that had a circular slide rule that reminded me of this.