Music
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Recently I was approached by Michigan poet Robb Astor to provide a musical background for his written in Tanzania poem “Green”, here’s what we came up with:
green, how green
leaves of banana trees
fields
where crowned cranes danced
fields how yellow
dabs of yellow dappled fields
of african daisies
fireflies green with light
in darkness
shone stars i did not know
had never seen
rigel kentaurus
canopus
aldeberon
how we lay those nights
beneath the stars
show me you said
the southern cross
lost in interstices
of sky above the alleys
a green dress
satin shining in the shop window
your eyes in the glass
beneath old electric speakers
wired in the heights of marinets
the fullness of your hair eclipsing
clouds of magellan
how you danced
in midnight streets humming
that sappy bollywood music
the silhouette of you
beneath the screen and me
but oh how far from green i’ve wandered
how far
alcor
mizar
how cloudy my vision
all things colored
even the black mold
clinging to white stone
ruins where i used to sit
in forlorn grasses
drawing doorways in time-worn walls
This is a tune I wrote, arranged and recorded in 1998, with a lot of help from friends. Hope you like it.
This concept is very useful to guitarists regardless of any particular style or genre of music being played. My explanation will be as simple as possible to include as many players as possible and their varied levels of music theory knowledge. Yes, it is helpful to understand music theory when playing the guitar.
First it is important to understand that any chord that is played is in a certain key that is based on a certain scale and the chord is in a certain position in that key. The most common scale used in Western Music is the Major scale. The example that is going to be shown will the use an Am7 chord in the key of G Major. The Am7 chord is based on the 2nd note in the G Major scale and the G Major scale uses all natural notes except for an F#. The natural harmony of the G Major scale is: Gmaj7, Am7, Bm7, Cmaj7, D7, Em7, F#dim7, Gmaj7. For you theory beginners an Am7 chord is not always in the key of G, which is another discussion.
What we are going to do is to follow the notes of a G Major scale up the 1st string on the guitar placing inversions of an Am7 chord underneath the melody note using all of the notes in the key in the melody including the notes not found in an Am7 chord. Using this concept on the chords of the tune you are playing with the proper melody note will enable you to play melodies with chords on the guitar.
It is best to use 3 or 4 note chords when doing this and obviously you can use the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings for your melody note.
These kind of musical devices can be daunting for a person who hasn’t done them before, don’t let the difficulty scare you off. If you need to find a good teacher who knows his stuff who can take the time with you to explain what you don’t understand. Begin working. You can do it.