A Musical Sorbet: Newmarket Polka

The far-off sound of cackling that you hear in the murky distance is me, experimenting, switch-flipping, strumography. It's nice to be in the lull zone and, you know what they say; I'd rather be in a lull zone than in a null zone. Because you know, they say that, you know.

Thanks for being the test group for some new music methodology that I've been conjuring. I am proofing as I go, so if something sticks out that ain't right, more than likely it's some forgotten setting in Tab|Edit.

As a sorbet separating that first sumptuous course of diatonic-friendly key studies and the inevitable divide that begins the second course, I present a happy little polka. This one caught my ear, and it goes much faster than the recording, but first - we play; then, we shred.

Newmarket Polka.mp3

Newmarket Polka.pdf

I'm working on a book of these tunes, which will focus on very accessible-yet-challenging pieces that are fun to play and sound incredible when you get them up to speed. Other tunes from the book include "A Boy's Lament For His Dragon" and "Johnny Don't Get Drunk."

Lots of recording going on right now - a great, rainy week for that! Bring the spring. Have fun and thanks again for visiting Nowhere, Nevada.

Peace!

Bing

Minor Chord Leading

We're leaping right into it with a look at the minor side of A Major.

A    B    C#    D    E    F#    G#
I   ii    iii   IV   V    vii   vii°

Each one of the seven notes is given a scale degree. Uppercase Roman numerals denote Major and lowercase represents minor (lowercase with ° is diminished.)

When songwriting, certain intervals of chord changes have deeply resonant effects of conflict and resolution. Certain chords just "feel" like they need to go somewhere in particular.

I chord leads to any chord
ii leads to IV, V, vii° chords
iii leads to ii, IV, vi chords
IV leads to I, iii, V, vii° chords
V leads to I chords
vi leads to ii, IV, V, I chords
vii° leads to I, ii chords

Beginning the A Major scale on the sixth note gives us the F# minor scale and through our scale degrees remain one through seven, those numbers change from Major to minor and vice versa. The notes maintain their intervals within chord structures:

F#   G#   A   B   C#   D   E
i   ii°  III  iv  v    VI  VII

i leads to iv, VI, VII, III chords
ii° leads to III, iv chords
III chord leads to any chord
iv leads to VI, VII, and ii° chords
v leads to iv, VI, i chords
VI leads to III, v, VII, ii° chords
VII leads to III chords

Each scale degree has a name that describes its distance from the root chord or tonic. You don't need to memorize them, though it always helps. What's more important is hearing the cadences, distinct movement in the music, that result from different chord progressions.

The TONIC is the first note of the scale, whichever key you're in. We're in A Major, so let's call it A. Think of the TONIC as 'home.' No matter where you take a song, always bring it back home.

The SUPERTONIC (literally "above" TONIC) is from the second note of the scale. B minor.
Goes well to the fifth note of the scale.

The MEDIANT is the third note of the scale and shares two notes with the TONIC. It can resolve anywhere. C# minor.

The SUB-DOMINANT is the fourth note of the scale. To the TONIC or to the LEADING TONE. D Major.

The DOMINANT is the fifth note of the scale. It wants to pull the most towards the TONIC. E Major.

The SUB-MEDIANT is the sixth note of the scale. Most naturally flows towards the second or SUPERTONIC, but also goes to the DOMINANT. F# minor.

The LEADING TONE is the very pivotal seventh note of the scale. It pulls towards the TONIC. Remember, this is a diminished scale and a G# diminished chord, so strange things are afoot anyway.

There are a few different schools of thought on building chords off of the natural minor scale versus the harmonic or melodic minor scales. I promised I was going to bring that up at some point and I see no better time and place than right now and right here.

I swear, I'm not trying to murder you. Really. This stuff makes sense in context. I have to rub my brain all over it every day to make it stick - so you're going to suffer with me, yeah? Okay. We move on.

Minor scales and other harmonizations

Since this has already been hinted at in the worksheet material for this study, I'll get it out of the way first. It's been hanging over my head now for about a week and it just needs to get out there.

We talked about building chords (triads) by stacking them three notes apart.

A    B    C#    D     E     F#      G#


Just skip every other letter, starting with the TONIC of A:

I = A - C# - E = A Major
ii = B - D - F# = B minor
iii = C# - E - G# = C# minor
IV = D - F# - A = D Major
V = E - G# - B = E Major
vi = F# - A - C# = F# minor
vii° = G# - B - D = G# diminished

There you have your chords - now, remember that each of these scale degrees have a personality, from TONIC to LEADING CHORD. While keeping their personalities in tact, we re-arrange the order of the notes to create the relative minor scale, also known as the natural minor. Same chords, different order. Some would suggest rather using the harmonic and melodic minor to generate chord progressions, but as a modal instrument, the diatonic dulcimer was made for this approach (and it's easier.) Fundamental. There's a better word.

Here, the 'b' represents flat, down a half-step.

Major Scale


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0ctave


minor scale (also called descending melodic minor scale)

1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 Octave

harmonic minor scale

1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7 Octave

melodic minor scale (also called ascending melodic minor scale)

1 2 b3 4 5 6 7 Octave

Chords and other scales can be built from each of these notes and, combined, the incredible treasure of combinations begins to evolve. Let's talk about seventh chords and how to build them from a Major scale.

A    B    C#    D     E     F#      G#


Once again, skip every other letter but do it four times. 

I = A - C# - E - G# = AMaj7 
ii = B - D - F# - A = Bm7
iii = C# - E - G# - B = C#m7
IV = D - F# - A - C# = DMaj7
V = E - G# - B - D = E7
vi = F# - A - C# - E = F#m7
vii° = G# - B - D - F# = G#m7/b5

Whammo! Instant jazz chords! To review the building of each kind of chord:

Major

Root - Major 3rd - Perfect 5th

minor

Root - minor 3rd - Perfect 5th

diminished

Root - minor 3rd - diminished 5th or flat fifth or b5
(in other words, the 3rd and 5th are both flat.)

augmented

Root - Major 3rd - augmented or raised 5th.

Dominant 7th or Seventh

Root - Major 3rd - Perfect 5th - Minor Seventh or Flat Seventh (or LEADING TONE)

Major Seventh

Root - Major 3rd - Perfect 5th - Major Seventh

Majorminor Seventh

Root - minor third - Perfect 5th - Minor 7th

To play some of these chords, it's helpful to know your scales, arpeggios, across the fretboard so you can see (and hear) where the various parts of the chord are lurking.

Then, we drop out the root, in most cases, and leave the other three parts of the chord, which register in most cases as an honest-to-goodness seventh chord of some complexity.

I know, we're losing some of the diatonics here. This stuff is all covered in the chromatic hand=outs.

Going To Tra-La-La in F#m



Great - now all I can hear is that guy.

Here's some movement for F#m:

F#m - Bm - G#° - A - D -- F#m -- Bm

Bm - C#m - D - F#m





http://darkstudios.com/KeyStudies/Majesty%20In%20F%23minor.tef.pdf

http://darkstudios.com/KeyStudies/Majesty%20In%20F%23m.mp3

What I've done is just plotted the path of least resistance in seeking out "home" and passing through sequences of changes. You can clearly hear just how extraordinary a diminished chord can be when used in a certain progression and this is a diatonic transcription - all of this is possible on neo-standard mountain dulcimer (and I mean 6+ fret.) Any chromatic players out there who can't figure out the transcription, e-mail me and I'll send it to you.

I'm toying with the idea of writing out a solo. Maybe. After I live with it for awhile, yeah? There's nothing like throwing some chord changes into Band In A Box and just improvising over them in loops. It's the best way to find out what things work and what don't, without having to do all of the math. Ultimately, music theory is just putting to words what you are already putting into practice. Hearing and feeling the music is the key.

Have fun with the chord studies and mp3 file! We're going to do some different things for the next few key studies, so hang in there diatonic players - we'll have stuff that you can work on as well!

Dulcimerica 186 - "Kesh Jig"

Studies in A for Diatonic and Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer

[For a reference starting point to this series, please visit the link for Studies in C for Diatonic and Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer.]





A Diatonic Scales.pdf



A Chromatic Scales.pdf


A Chromatic Scale Harmonizations.pdf

As we continue our study of the 15 Major keys and their relative minors (30 keys in all!) this year, I'd like to point out that the traditional Appalachian mountain dulcimer is not stuck in the key of D Major like some folks think. In fact, when tuned to dd-A-D (also written DAD or known as 1-5-8 tuning), performers of mountain dulcimer can easily play in six different keys without ever re-tuning or applying a capo. Beyond that, some fudging is necessary (such as barring and bending to omit or find missing notes.) In creating the worksheets for each of the keys, I was hesitant to include some of the more difficult-to-attain notes, chords and scales for diatonic (standard) mountain dulcimer, but decided to do so anyway. On the diatonic dulcimer scale sheet for each key, I show both Major and minor scales plus some scale harmonization. You'll notice that with the minor scales, there are some half-frets that you probably don't have on your instrument. For instance, in the A minor scale tablature, you'll find a 4+ to indicate the F natural. Whenever you see a + next to a fret number, you can bend that particular note to get the tone that's missing from your fretboard. It'll sound funky, but at least you'll be able to still join in on the studies (and bending notes is a good technique to have in your toolbox.)

In fact, diatonic players, it's not a bad idea to go ahead and download the chromatic worksheets as well, as they are chock full of extra information.

For example, harmonic minor scales are listed with the chromatic sheets as well as ascending and descending melodic minor scales. I figured that might be a little too much information for diatonic students, which is why that's not covered in the diatonic materials.



As we begin exploring the key of A Major, I'll give a rundown of the characteristics of each scale here. First off - the key of A Major has three sharps: F, C and G.

A  B  C#  D  E  F#  G#

Remember how to build chords from these notes? Begin with the root (A) and skip every other letter to form triads. Some chords will be Major, others will be minor and one chord will be diminished:

A C# E = A Major

B D F# = B minor

C# E G# = C# minor

D F# A = D Major

E G# B = E Major

F# A C# = F# minor

G# B D = G# diminished

In any Major scale - chords or scales built from the 1st, 4th and 5th degrees are Major. Chords or scales built from the 2nd, 3rd and 6th degrees are minor. Chords or scales built from the seventh degree are diminished.

Begin the Major scale from the sixth note and use the same notes (just in a different order) and you've got the relative minor scale. In this case, that scale would be F# minor. This is also known as the natural minor.

F#  G#  A  B  C#  D  E

Same chords are formed when skipping every other letter.

Now, what happens when we keep the same root and switch to a minor scale? Let's go from A Major to A minor. What's the difference? We take the 3rd, 6th and 7th notes of the Major scale and flatten them; take them down a half step.

A  B  C#  D  E  F#  G#

becomes

A  B  C  D  E  F  G

If you've been following along with our studies since the beginning of the year, this scale should look familiar to you. Why is that? Because A minor is the relative minor scale to C Major, which is the very first scale we took a look at! (No flats and no sharps.)

This is an important distinction to make: relative minor scales are the same as natural minor scales, no matter what. However - when you are comparing a Major scale and its relative minor, none of the notes change - only their order changes. When you are comparing Major and minor scales that share a root, then three of the notes will be flattened. Does that make sense? Let's recap what keys we've looked at so far:

Major keys and their relative minors:

C Major -> A minor (no flats/sharps - both share the same notes in different orders)

G Major -> E minor (1 sharp - F# - both share the same notes in different orders)

D Major -> B minor (2 sharps - F#/C# - both share the same notes in different orders)

Major and minor keys that share a root:

C Major (no flats/sharps) - C minor (3 flats - Bb/Eb/Ab)

G Major (1 sharp - F#) - G minor (2 flats - Bb/Eb)

D Major (2 sharps - F#/C#) - D minor (1 flat - Bb)

So now, we're at A Major - the relative minor is F# minor. Both have three sharps. F#/C#/G#. When changing A Major to A minor, the result is no flats or sharps. Do you see a pattern here?

Each time we've added a sharp, we've removed a flat. I won't go into detail on this yet (in fact, I'll save a look at the harmonic minor scale and melodic minor scale for two posts from now), but how in the world can you keep track of it all without having to memorize every single key? That's where the Circle of Fifths comes in.



The Circle of Fifths shows all of the relationships between the 12 notes of the chromatic scale. It can be quite handy as a visual or mental tool (which is why I highly recommend memorizing this simple version of it and then discovering what it's good for along the way.) At the top of the circle is C, with no flats and no sharps. Then, as you move clockwise around the circle, you are moving in fifths; each of the notes around the edge of the circle are a distance of a fifth as you travel clockwise. What's more, beginning with G, you add a sharp for each note name (up to seven sharps total.)

Now, if you move counter-clockwise around the circle, let's start from C again, then all of those notes are a fourth apart. In addition, beginning with F, you add a flat for each stop around the circle in a counter-clockwise motion, up to seven flats. Some people call this image the Cycle of Fourths but it works out to be six of one and a half-dozen of the other!

So, someone calls a tune in the jam that's in the key of A. Flip around the circle in your head clockwise until you come to A. Remember not to count C, since it has no flats or sharps. Counting G, that's three total "clicks" around the circle. So, three sharps are in the key of A.

Also, notice the interior of the circle. There, you have all of the relative minor keys right next to their relative Majors. There's another way of finding this. First, choose the Major key on the outside of the circle and then move "fifteen minutes" (four total note names) clockwise around the circle. The note you arrive at, simply call it minor and there you have it! See how that works counting from D Major (you arrive at B - so call it minor.) Remember to count the note that you start with.

A couple more things to mention. This is a simplified version of the Circle of Fifths, but I wanted to introduce it to you (if this is, indeed, your first encounter with it) without it being too terribly intimidating. One thing that you'll need to know about music theory is that some notes, intervals and key signatures are exactly the same as other notes, intervals and key signatures but spelled differently. For example, take a look at the Circle of Fifths and find Db. That's D flat Major. It's the same thing as C# or C sharp Major. We'll get more into that later on.

Also, it's not a bad idea to memorize the order of sharps and flats as they appear on the musical staff.

Sharps = F, C, G, D, A, E, B

Flats = B, E, A, D, G, C, F

If you look at the Circle of Fifths, you may see some patterns emerging. Look closely.

This is where it gets interesting.

I know that there are many musicians out there who have been studying along with us and they play other instruments besides diatonic and chromatic mountain dulcimer. This broad overview of music theory applies to the general musical language. However, diatonic instruments are somewhat limited by design, so after this particular pair of key studies, I'll be taking a slightly different approach to materials for the mountain dulcimer. You may have noticed in the initial workshop materials for each Major key, I've presented the scales and harmonizations in a straightforward manner, although sometimes I've switched up a chord shape or two here and there. For diatonic, that has been necessary to make up for the lack of available notes within immediate range, so you'll see a little zig or a zag instead of a perfect staircase of notes, in the case of harmonization. Also, with the chromatic worksheets, I have been using a couple of different general chord shapes. Some, as you can see, are tightly bunched together. Some are spread out with spaces in between the next closest note. These are alternately known as closed voicing and open voicing. Again, we'll get more into that as we go along.

It's my sincere wish that you'll plug along with me in this general study of keys. Along the way, there are lots of music theory bits and bites that will come into play. What I've discovered in my years of study is that what seems confusing at first will slowly begin to fade into understanding, light bulbs will go on, patterns will emerge and once you've got a toe hold there - the world of music unfurls itself before you and you simply cannot get enough. Thanks for taking the journey with me!

Dulcimerica 185 - "Loch Lomond"

Go Ahead: B minor.

I hope you hung out in the key of D Major for awhile and had some fun exploring! I've been exploring the joys of spring cleaning here at the studio (and in the guest room and in the bedroom.) So sorry about the delay in posting the follow-up to our Major key study by delving into the relative minor key:

For every Major scale there is a relative minor or natural minor scale that shares the same notes, albeit in a different order. To find it within the Major key, simply begin on the sixth note of the scale and play the seven notes in sequence:

Major

D  E  F#  G  A  B  C#
1  2  3   4  5  6  7

minor

B  C#  D  E  F# G  A
1  2   3  4  5  6  7 

Though we keep the scale degrees the same, the character of each tone remains the same as it was in the Major scale.

  

Major

D    E    F#    G    A    B    C#
I   IIm  IIIm  IV    V   VIm  VII°

minor

B    C#    D    E    F#   G    A
Im   II°  III   IVm  Vm   VI  VII 

This is as good a time as any to talk about more complex scale harmonization. As discussed in the last post, one of the foundations of harmony is taking a Major or minor scale and then adding a second note and then a third note on top to form a chord. For each note of the scale comes a full three notes played at the same time or a triad. You play one chord for each scale note and this creates harmonies all the way up the scale. To get the chord tones, just look at the scale and skip every other note.

Based off of the 1st minor scale degree, a B minor chord would be B (skip a letter), D (skip a letter) and F# as the notes. G Major would be G, B and D. See the pattern?

I'm going to write something in B minor, just to play with some chords a bit:

i - iv - VII - III

VI - iv - III - VII | ii°

which translates into:

Bm - Em - A - D

G - Em - D - A | C#dim

Okay, there are the changes. Eight measures with that final measure being three counts of A and then one count of C#dim as a passing chord. Passing chords can be viewed as "filler chords" to assist you in getting from one chord to another. Chords built off of the Major seventh scale degree (the same as the minor second in this minor scale) carry an inherent tension that leads naturally to the roots of these two scales. (6 1/2 - 6 - 8 will form a C#dim chord for you. Try playing that and then going to Bm. Then play the C#dim and go to D Major. Hear the resolution?

Quick review on chord building:

Major chords consist of a root - Major third - perfect fifth

In the case of D Major - skip every other letter from the root:

D - E - F# - G - A - B - C#

D - F# - A = D Major

Minor chords consist of a root - minor third - perfect fifth

In the case of D minor - skip every other letter from the root.

D - E - F - G - A - Bb - C

D - F - A = D minor.

Another way to do that is to use the Major scale and simply take the Major third (F#) down a half-step (F).

Diminished chords are like minor chords but you also take the perfect fifth down a half step as well.

If you have a 8+ fret on your dulcimer, you can play a 6+ - 6+ - 8+ chord, which is C# Major. Then flatten, lower the third and fifth a half-step. What was C# - F - G# becomes C# - E - G. C# diminished!

In this exercise, play through the above chord progressions and then work out a melody that will fit neatly over the top. Generally speaking, when writing melodies, you should select notes that can be found within the scale of each chord. For example - melody notes for Bm should come from the B minor scale. Melody notes for A should come from the A Major scale and so on. Some of your melody notes will obviously be found in many different scales, which makes it easy to sustain melodies through the chord progressions. When you're ready to end your song, be sure to end it on the root of B minor.

For my tune, I've chosen a 3/4 time signature:

Go Ahead, B Minor.tef

Go Ahead, B Minor.pdf

Fun With 7th Chords

As promised, we'll have a quick look at 7th chords, of which there are a few. Please refer to the .pdf for D Scale Harmonization.

So, we've got Major chords and minor chords plus the odd-sounding diminished chord. What else is there? The answer to that question is "plenty." But for starters, we'll look at the different types of 7th chords.

When you see D7 - you're looking at the fundamental 7th chord, known as a dominant seventh. Is it bossy? Perhaps a little. I don't want to get into all of the scary music theory terms too early here, but suffice it to say that each of the scale degrees have names associated with them that are descriptive of their strengths and weaknesses. The fifth note of any scale is often referred to as the "dominant."

If you build a major triad starting with the fifth note of the scale and add a fourth note to the mix, you'll get a naturally occurring dominant seventh. Let's do this with D Major:

D - E - F# - G - A - B - C#
    *        *   *       *

So, we're skipping every other letter, beginning with A, which is the fifth note of the D Major scale.

A (skip) C# (skip) E (skip) G

So, take A - C# - E - G and play them all simultaneously, you've got an A7 chord. Another way of thinking about this: take a Major chord and add the seventh note of the scale, flattened a half-step. In the case of D7 - we'd build a D Major chord:

D - F# - A and then add the seventh note of the D Major scale, which is C#. Then take that down a half-step to C. D - F# - A - C is a D7 chord.

As dulcimer players, we are often playing on three string courses, so how do we add a fourth note? By playing a rootless voicing. That is, taking the root out of the picture and playing only the remaining three notes. Believe it or not, it still works! Let's play an A7 chord this way.

Play 1 - 2 - 4 on your diatonic dulcimer. Now drop the A on the melody string down to the third fret, which is G. You're now playing, from bass to melody, E - C# - G which is enough to play the A7. Cool, huh?

Now, let's suppose you see this note: GMaj7. This is a Major seventh chord. Begin the same, with a Major chord. But now add the seventh note of the Major scale. In the case of G:

G - A - B - C - D - E - F#

Skipping every other note: G - B - D - F#

Try this - Play a 3 - 1 - 0 chord, your G Major in diatonia. You're playing, from bass to melody, G - B - D. Now, on the melody string, replace D with F# at the second fret. Voila! You're playing a GMaj7! It's got a distinctly jazzy sound and a great chord substitution for G Major.

A minor seventh chord takes, you guessed it, a minor triad and adds the minor seventh to it. Let's take a look at Em7:

Beginning with the E minor scale which has, remember, one sharp (F#) - 

E - F# - G - A - B - C - D

Skipping every other letter we get E - G - B - D

Play 8 - 6 - 5 and you've got E minor. Now play 8 - 6 - 7 and you've traded the B on the melody string for the flat seventh (D) and you've got an Em7! Remember that when the number 7 is there by itself, always use the flat/minor seventh.

So, what happens when you see AmMaj7? You play a minor triad and add the seventh note of the major scale, in other words, the Major seventh.

A minor scale

A - B - C - D - E - F - G

A Major scale

A - B - C# - D - E - F# - G#

Play 6 - 7 - 8 and you've got your A minor chord. (A - C - E) Now, switch out the root (A) for the G#. 6 - 6+ - 8 (A - G# - E) and you've got an AmMaj7 chord. Sort of mysterious sounding, isn't it?

Of course, not all of these chord options are going to be available for diatonic dulcimer players, but it helps to know how to build these chords. If you're looking down at your fretboard asking "what are my options?" The best way to proceed is to know what scales you can play from every root spot on the fretboard. And once you know those scales, you can build chords and begin working with extensions, "color chords", etc. If you're playing four-string equidistant, you'll get even more benefit out of these exercises.

Okay then! We've explored the key of D Major and its relative key of B minor. Coming up next, we'll get into the key of A Major and I'll introduce the Circle of Fifths as a way of keeping all of this stuff together. Happy Playing! And thank you to all who have been donating through PayPal. I appreciate it very much!

Studies in D for Diatonic and Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer

[UPDATED: If you've already downloaded the .pdf for D Diatonic Scales, please download the correct version for D Diatonic Scales again. Inadvertently left the setting on CAPO 3, which effects fingering. Thank you!]

For a reference starting point to this series, please visit the link for Studies in C for Diatonic and Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer.




• Download the .pdf for D Diatonic Scales



• Download the .pdf for D Chromatic Scales



• Download the .pdf for D Scale Harmonization

As we continue along on our journey through the 15 Major keys (and their relative minors), we reach the key of D - D for dulcimer. Since most mountain dulcimer players begin playing the instrument with a tuning of DAD (dd-A-D) this should be fairly familiar to many. Once again, chromatic players need not retune for any of these explorations.

Where the key of C had no flats (b) or sharps (#) and the key of G has one sharp, which is F# - we now add to that one sharp for the key of D. In addition to F#, we've also now got C#. Remember, flats and sharps effectively mean to lower (flatten) or raise (sharpen) notes a half step. Following the seven-note pattern, the D Major scale looks like this with its corresponding scale degrees:

D  E  F#  G  A  B  C#
1  2  3   4  5  6  7

A note by itself is simply that: a note.

Two notes comprise an interval: the measured distance between two notes.

Three notes officially becomes a chord or triad. You can also have more than three notes in a chord, but more on that later.

Begin building chords out of each note in the D Major scale by first choosing the root note and then skipping every other letter in the scale like this:

D  F#  A = D Major
E  G   B = E minor
F# A  C# = F#minor
G  B   D = G Major
A  C#  E = A Major
B  D  F# = B minor
C# E  G  = C# diminished

Major = root, Major third, perfect fifth
minor = root, minor third, perfect fifth

diminished = root, minor third, diminished fifth (or "flat fifth" or b5 or 5b)
augmented = root, Major third, raised or "augmented" fifth (or #5 or 5#)

Remember that even though we are dealing with seven-note scales, there are notes in between some of these steps that can be found by raising or lowering the notes a half-step.

According to Christian Schubart's "Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst", published in 1806, D Major is the key "triumph, of Hallejuahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing. Thus, the inviting symphonies, the marches, holiday songs and heaven-rejoicing choruses are set in this key."

The key of D is certainly a preferred key for mountain dulcimer players, Old-Time performers and Celtic session musicans.

For every Major scale there is a relative minor or natural minor scale that shares the same notes, albeit in a different order. To find it within the Major key, simply begin on the sixth note of the scale and play the seven notes in sequence:

Major

D  E  F#  G  A  B  C#
1  2  3   4  5  6  7

minor

B  C#  D  E  F# G  A
1  2   3  4  5  6  7 

I know I'm repeating things quite a bit, but that's one of the fundamental rules of learning - repeat, rinse, repeat (okay, maybe not the rinse part) until it's locked into your memory.

Speaking of repeating, you'll notice in the Major and minor diatonic and chromatic studies that are available for download on each of our key studies blog posts, I have not touched upon the relative (or natural) minor for each of the Major keys. Rather, I've dealt with Major and minor scales coming out of the same root. (C Major - C minor - G Major - G minor, etc.) This is to help you with playing Major and minor examples in the same areas of the fretboard. Nevertheless, the construction of both types of scales is the same:

Major

Whole Step - Whole Step - Half Step - Whole Step - Whole Step - Whole Step - Half Step

minor

Whole Step - Half Step - Whole Step - Whole Step - Half Step - Whole Step - Whole Step

(Did you figure out what the relative Major key of G minor was? How about the relative Major key of D minor?)


Scale Harmonizations

I figure now's as good a time as any to begin covering some of the extra materials in the .pdf files you're hopefully downloading. Along with Major and minor scales (and there are a few different types of minor scales, which we'll get into with the next post) for diatonic and chromatic fretboards, I've also included scale harmonizations. Scale harmonization can be described as using each note of a scale as a root note for a chord and then adding other notes within that scale to form a chord.

So, instead of playing a scale of seven notes, you're playing a scale of seven chords in sequence. This can be effectively viewed as a chord progression and it's the foundation upon which most music in the western world is based.

By the way - notice how the term "notes" is an anagram for "tones"? Cool, huh? They are one and the same.

Also, notice how I've been capitalizing the term "Major" and spelling "minor" with a lower-case letter. This has been by design, leading up to a better understanding of reading scale degrees.

Let's take our D Major and minor scales with their Arabic numerals (1-7):

Major

D  E  F#  G  A  B  C#
1  2  3   4  5  6  7

minor

B  C#  D  E  F# G  A
1  2   3  4  5  6  7 

Now, let's replace the Arabic numerals with Roman numerals (I-VII)

Major

D   E   F#   G   A   B   C#
I  II  III  IV   V   VI  VII

minor

B   C#   D   E   F#  G   A
I   II  III  IV  V   VI  VII 

Now, remember, when we build chords off of each of these notes, skipping every other letter, the result is a mixture of 3 Major, 3 minor and 1 diminished chord. That's just the way the math works out.

For Major scales, you can always count on 1, 4 and 5 being Major chords (or scales), 2, 3 and 6 being minor chords (or scales) and the 7th being a diminished chord (or scale.)

For minor scales, you can always count on 1, 4 and 5 being minor chords (or scales), 3, 6 and 7 being Major chords (or scales) and 2 being a diminished chord (or scale).

If we use all uppercase Roman numbers, then we just add a lowercase "m" to those scale degrees that are minor. We then add a degree symbol "°" (like what is used to denote temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit) to the degrees that are diminished. Nothing is changed with the Major degrees. So we get this for the Major and minor scales:

Major

D    E    F#    G    A    B    C#
I   IIm  IIIm  IV    V   VIm  VII°

minor

B    C#    D    E    F#   G    A
Im   II°  III   IVm  Vm   VI  VII 

Notice how in either scale, the characteristics of each scale degree don't change between Major and minor scales. D remains Major, B remains minor, C# remains diminished, and so on. The order changes, but that's it.

Though this method is perfectly acceptable, there is also another way of going about this, and it's considered easier to read by many. You simply make the minor and diminished scale degrees lower-case. But be sure to keep the degree symbol on the diminished:

Major

D    E    F#    G    A    B    C#
I   ii   iii   IV    V   vi   vii°

minor

B    C#    D    E    F#   G    A
i   ii°   III   iv    v   VI  VII 

WHY is this important? Well, by using the scale degrees, we can talk about the progression of chords without having to specify the key.

For example, one of the most popular chord progressions of all time is:

I - IV - V

What does that mean? Well, at first glance, we can see that they are all Major chords. So, let's assign a key: D.

If we're using a D Major scale, that means that:

D  -  G  -  A
I  - IV  -  V

The chords built off of the first, fourth and fifth scale degrees. Try playing it on your mountain dulcimer (or whatever instrument you've got with you.) Sound familiar?

So, what if we see this?:

i  -  VII   -  VI

Our first clue that something is different is that our root chord is minor (lowercase.) So we're dealing with something in a minor key, even though it has Major chords as well. If we are in the key of Bm (B minor) then:

B  -   A    -  G
i  -  VII   -  VI

Of course, you can also write it out as Bm - A - G, but our focus now is on identifying Major, minor and diminished chords by looking at the scale degrees.

Next up: we'll get into the relative minor key from D Major and also dip into a look at chroma or extended chords.

A GEm of a Key

Howdy and welcome back!

The focus now has been on the key of "G." It has one sharp, which is F#. As mentioned in the previous post, we're now going to look at the minor side of this key.

We begin by assigning a number or scale degree to each note; seven notes total. For every Major scale, there is a relative minor scale that shares the same seven notes, only in a different sequence. If you begin the Major scale on the sixth note and then run in order for seven letters, you get a minor scale that takes its name from that sixth scale degree.

Major

G A B C D E F#
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

minor

E  F#  G  A  B  C  D
1  2   3  4  5  6  7 

In this case, the sixth note is "E", so if we begin with "E" and run through seven notes - we get an E minor scale. This one's easy to remember because the Major scale is G and the minor is Em. That spells "GEm." Not all Majors and their relative minors spell something cool, but you may want to play some word games like that to memorize a handful of them (with C Major and its relative minor of A, I sometimes think of a cam-shaft or "CAm.") You can always simply count six notes from the root, which is G. Or, you can go backwards two notes from the root, which puts you at six as well. There are a lot of little tricks that will help you to recall this stuff.

Quick recap: The order of notes has changed, yet it is still the same seven notes of the G Major scale. When played in this new order, beginning with E, the steps between notes become altered slightly, which gives minor chords and scales a darker, more somber tone. Now remember - the point at which we begin on the scale has changed, so the notes have not. Which means that each of those notes retains its Major/minor/diminished quality. You'll just encounter them in a different order like so:

Em -  F#dim  -  G   -  Am   -   Bm   -  C   -   D
i  -   ii°   - III  -  iv   -    v   -  VI  -  VII

Remember that, in the case of a Major scale, each of the seven notes can be used to build a chord or a scale. Because of the relationship between notes, scales/chords built from the 1st, 4th and 5th notes are Major; scales/chords built from the 2nd, 3rd and 6th are minor. The 7th note yields the mysterious-sounding diminished chords and scales.

But, if you begin this scale on the sixth note and use all of the same notes as the Major scale, you get the relative minor scale (also known as the natural minor or Aeolian mode.) So now, chords and scales built off of the 1st, 4th and 5th notes are minor, the 3rd, 6th and 7th now present Major scales and chords while the 2nd is the location for the diminished chords and scales.

To explore the key of Em in diatonic dulcimer land, here is an arrangement of "The Star Of The County Down." Tuning is dd-A-D (DAD) with a capo at the 1st fret. By using the capo, we are first putting the dulcimer into a tuning of ee-B-E (EBE) and then we are also using the E minor scale which begins at the first fret and continues through the 8th fret without using the 6 1/2. Below is the sheet music, the Tab|Edit file and a mp3 of the tune played one time through.

Star of the County Down.pdf

Star of the County Down.tef


The Star Of The County Down.mp3


So G Major has one sharp - F#. That means that E minor also has one sharp - F#. Remember that to go through your scales, you simply repeat the first seven letters of the alphabet, A through G. No matter where you start, whether it's on C or G or A or E, you'll always get to G and then start over again with A. There is no H, I, J, etc. Then, it's just a matter of knowing which flats and sharps are in each key. Once you know that, you simply add the appropriate symbol to one of those seven letters. Right now, we're going through the sharps and after that, we'll be exploring the flats. Not all of these are going to be suitable for diatonic mountain dulcimer, but it doesn't hurt to know all of the keys. This knowledge will assist you in playing other instruments as well. In fact; the more you know about music theory, the more inclined you are towards understanding how to play music in more ways! For chromatic mountain dulcimers, of course, this study will truly help you understand your instrument better.

Next up: probably the most popular key for mountain dulcimer players - that's D. D for dulcimer!

Dulcimerica 184 - "The 1 1/2 Fret Pt. 2"

Dulcimerica 183 - "The 1 1/2 Fret Pt. 1"

Studies in G for Diatonic and Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer

For a reference starting point to this series, please visit the link for Studies in C for Diatonic and Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer.



• Download the .pdf for G Diatonic Scales



• Download the .pdf for G Chromatic Scales



• Download the .pdf for G Scale Harmonization

The next stop on our journey through the 15 Major keys (and their relative minors) takes us to the key of G, which is an easy one for diatonic mountain dulcimer players. For this exploration, you'll need to be in DAD (dd-A-D) tuning with a capo at the third fret. Chromatic mountain dulcimer players will not need to use a capo, of course. If you don't have a capo - get yourself one quickly! It's an invaluable tool for switching keys without retuning.

Where the key of C had no flats (b) or sharps (#) - the key of G has one sharp, which is F#. Remember, flats and sharps effectively mean to lower (flatten) or raise (sharpen) notes a half step. Following the seven-note pattern, the G Major scale looks like this with its corresponding scale degrees:

G A B C D E F#
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 

Off of each note in this scale, you can build either a chord or another scale. If we simply start anywhere on the scale and add every other note, we'll build a series of triads:

G  B  D = G Major
A  C  E = A minor
B  D  F# = B minor
C  E  G = C Major
D  F# A = D Major
E  G  B = E minor
F# A  C = F# diminished

Major = root, Major third, perfect fifth
minor = root, minor third, perfect fifth

diminished = root, minor third, diminished fifth (or "flat fifth" or b5 or 5b)
augmented = root, Major third, raised or "augmented" fifth (or #5 or 5#)

As we move through these 15 keys, we'll be adding sharps and, eventually, flats to the scale. According to Sir James Jeans, "Every additional sharp in the key signature is supposed to add to the brightness and sparkle of the music, while every flat contributes softness, pensiveness, and even melancholy."

The key of G is certainly a preferred key for many session musicians from Celtic and Old Time music traditions.

To review, out of each Major scale comes a relative minor scale that shares the exact same notes and chords, but in a different order. By starting on the sixth note of the Major scale and playing through all seven notes, ending an octave above where you began, you will then be playing the natural minor scale, which in the case of G Major ends up being E minor:

Major

G A B C D E F#
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

minor

E  F#  G  A  B  C  D
1  2   3  4  5  6  7 

Same notes, different order.

You'll notice in the Major and minor diatonic and chromatic studies, I have not touched upon the relative (or natural) minor. Rather, I've dealt with Major and minor scales coming out of the same root. (C Major - C minor - G Major - G minor, etc.) This is to help you with playing Major and minor examples in the same areas of the fretboard. Nevertheless, the construction of both types of scales is the same:

Major

Whole Step - Whole Step - Half Step - Whole Step - Whole Step - Whole Step - Half Step

minor

Whole Step - Half Step - Whole Step - Whole Step - Half Step - Whole Step - Whole Step

(By the way - if your fingering exercises are coming out of G minor - then what is the relative Major key?)

Use the tablature above for fingering exercises, working out of the "boxes" to get familiar with the patterns. The scale harmonizations exercise take the various scales and stacks chords at equal distances apart, much like we've built triads out of the root notes of each scale note. Skip every other letter in the scale and, for each note, you'll have built a triad. Notice how certain "spellings" result in Major chords (bright and happy sounding), minor chords (somber and pensive) or diminished chords (quizzical, odd). For chromatic players, I've also included harmonizations for the harmonic minor, melodic minor and four-tone (seventh) scales.

Diatonic players take note: without a Bb or F, you'll need to bend in order to play the G minor scale listed in the tablature. Bends are a good habit to get into, so I'll be including all of the proper minor scales for each key that we explore.

Next post: we'll look more at the relative minor of G Major.

Dulcimerica 182 - "Build Me Up, Buttercup"

Gear In Action, Not Inactive Gear

So it's been a whirlwind since my last post, heading down to Key West and putting on our second annual Key West Dulcimer Fest: an easy-going gig if there ever was one. I took the Bose L1 Model 1 down there as our P.A. system for the instructor concerts and also ended up using it to amplify Butch Ross during his stint at the Key West Food and Wine Festival wine stroll on the first Thursday night. Armed with extra cables, I got intimate with the system fairly quickly and in the moment as I began to understand what it was capable of doing.

I also took delivery on my latest mountain dulcimer from Folkcraft Instruments, this one with the Fishman Aura Pro pre-amp built into it. Truthfully, I've not had much time to mess around with the Aura (it involves some downloads - and I've been without wi-fi for a while now) but the dulcimer is absolutely gorgeous and has a magnificent sound; great tone and volume. Last night, I performed my first solo show with the L1 and honestly don't know why I waited this long to get the system. It is like night and day - being able to hear yourself clearly, project out into a room (in this case, McWell's back bar) and, with only one of the B1 bass modules, still had enough bass to support the drum loops and bass pedal tones. I decided to go with one bass module as a test and will probably use both next time for added push.

The next few weeks will be spent experimenting in the lab with the new gear, seeing just how far I can push the system and changing my flow of operation. There are some things that I'd like to see improved and other things that have that taste of "yes, finally!" Of course, as things progress, I'll report here, just in case you're on a similar gear discovery of your own.

Living In The Future or What They Can Do With Sound Nowadays

Sucks to have missed NAMM this year. Still, the Anaheim Convention Center could scarcely hold back the pure flood of new inventive gear on the market for today's musician. Again, sort of swinging between two very distinctly different approaches to sound: the pure preservation of natural acoustics versus jack your signal into something other than what it actually is. The twain do meet, which makes for wonderful tonal contrast. The primal versus the chordal capitalist.

The solo show has evolved from the keyboard-and-backing-tracks whimsy of the 90's to something that's more organic, yet still very much wired-in. As an 80's kid, there was this huge embracing of synthetic music, with subsequent rejection as the next decade welcomed shabby, dirty rock as the new mainstream. I've discovered that while audiences unfamiliar with mountain dulcimer take to it very quickly - it's lacking the same kind of full-spectrum sound that a guitar puts out. With fewer strings of a lighter gauge and a smaller sound box, the dulcimer sounds typically quaint when on-stage. My approach was to get something to boost and function as the voice of a bass guitar (Octave pedal), a delay for creating tight acoustic sequences and a loop pedal to orchestrate it into parts. Along with drum loops and live percussion samples, this is a multi-layered approach to creating music. It's like the music exists beside itself in a parallel universe. You lay down eight or sixteen measures of chord changes, then start the loop, adding chops, a melody and maybe a harmony. Then, lay down a bass track and then pick up another instrument and solo while all of that is going on.

It's like tap-dancing. As if it isn't hard enough to play an instrument and sing with focus; then all this gandy-dancing going on.

And each little gee-gaw has its own instruction manual, software and little twirly knobs with levels to be set. By the time you factor that into a P.A. system (with or without monitors) and begin to play your set, you just never know how well you'll hear anything. Sometimes you go an entire set, tweaking things on your end to get it right. If you can't hear well, it's a block between you and the music, not to mention you and the audience.

Gee-Gaw #1: Gee-Whiz!

As part of the next phase of evolution for the solo show, I've been using more chromatic dulcimer as a way of keeping the road paved ahead. The modal structure of diatonic dulcimer is not something I'd gladly give up, but taking the same approach and applying it to a chromatic scale serves up multiple layers of benefits, from giving you a foundation based on chord shapes and scale to training you how to recognize chromatic patterns on the standard dulcimer. More mountain dulcimer players should give it a try - it's really not as hard as you might think.

So, Folkcraft has built me a new double with one side diatonic (with a 1+ and 8+) and the other side chromatic. This will be a 29" VSL, which should be interesting, stretch-wise for the fingers, but the tone should be fantastic.

Installed as the pre-amp is the Fishman Aura Pro. The Prefix Pro has been what I've been using and it's been incredible having that control over sound and tone right there on the instrument. Guitars have had it for awhile, why not mountain dulcimers? So many different tones for so many different rooms and surfaces. Shiny floors and glassy windows, wide open tile or tight wooden bunkers, they all change your sound. Being able to adjust the sound of the dulcimer in each different space is invaluable for performers. Not long after, Fishman debuted a pre-amp called the Prefix Pro Blend, which included the under-the-saddle pickup along with an actual microphone inside, which allowed you to blend the signals together.

With an ear towards replicating and amplifying the natural sounds of a gentle wooden instrument so that the original tone is pure and fresh (which makes even better source signal for all the crazywacky effects that you can channel it through - acoustic guitars make for the best distortion - it's true!) the Aura Pro takes that concept a step further. Dulcimers have been hooking up with USB computer ports for some time now, but are increasing in number. The irony is, the closer we get to preserving and projecting natural acoustic audio, the more goo-gads it seems to involve (at least they're getting lighter.)


Gee-Gaw #2: Good-God!

The first time I ever heard a Bose system it was like walking into the path of a bolt of lightning, struck in awe, left standing there thinking that it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard. Many years later, a friend and I went to a Bose home theater demonstration and actually left with tears in our eyes. Bose has got a very interesting history. I'm convinced that there is more than meets the eye with them, but in the meantime, they can keep making cool stuff for us gear heads.

Like the L1 System.

By putting the speakers behind you, getting rid of the need for monitors and distributing the sound in a tightly packed configuration of speakers that send sound forward, not up and down, you get a cleaner, purer sound without needing to be loud. It doesn't need to be loud to be heard - it just needs to be clear.

The L1 Personal Amplification System blew my mind when I first heard it demoed and it's been a lusty number of years. After socking away savings and a massive fire sale in December, I chose not to settle for anything less than the Legend. Two bass modules give me support in the bottom end for drums, percussion and bass, one stand. Pedals and microphone, clear space, clear sound. After assembling the parts (the instructions literally are illustrated with pictures), Jae's eyes went wide as I put in a Peter Gabriel song and slowly began to crank it up. At low level - everything can be heard. At medium level - it's putting out a solid amount of sound, yet we're still able to have a conversation standing just feet from the speakers. Getting into more aggressive levels, slowly, the two subwoofers begin pushing more air and the room begins to pump. Extraordinary clarity.

The quest for tone and the communication of sound is something that performers must dance with for all of their careers. If it's not plugged in and demanding adjustment, it's unplugged and needing setting up or redesigning. We're hard wired as humans to push for perfection, however unattainable. The journey that we take while on the quest for anything is part of the training for enjoying those moments when everything becomes clear. With your music, which is close to the bone and next to the heart, you want to present it in the way that you hear it first. And when they come out with the consumer-level tech that allows music signals to be beamed right into the vibrations of your skull, you can count me out on jumping that bandwagon but I'll sure as hell be there for the demo.

Stompin' In The Garden and Barkin' At The Moon

There's always been stomp-box-loving people around me. Stomping. Looping. One-man-banding. I've done a little tap-dancing in my time, but never so much as to necessitate an actual "pedal board."

Well, they make a lot of sense, actually. And I knew exactly what pedals would be right for the job.

The mountain dulcimer is a magical, feathery instrument that has no problem capturing the attention of informal audiences. Its sound spectrum, however, is much narrower than that of comparable instruments that might be up on a stage with a solo performer. When not performing dulcimer in the traditional style, I opt for incorporating the instrument as a controller for this wild array of stuff. At the heart of the operation (for right now, anyway) is the Boss RC-20 Loop Station. I pre-load it with beats and bits, leaving some tracks empty for laying in multiple tracks of dulcimer; leads, rhythms, harmonies, sound effects, whatever comes to mind. Not only can you record your main instrument, you can also plug in a microphone or MP3 player and sample from other sources. Awesome sauce.

After weighing several options, I went with a Boss OC-3 Super Octave. Es chocolate polifónico, you can choose between mono and polyphonic modes and work multiple octaves of deep, fat bass. I kick this in and play on the bass string to lay in foundation on loops or live as a lead. It supports full chords with an earth-shaking pedal tone that, with proper E.Q., can turn your three strings into a seven-string, drop-D monster.

Finally, as a long-time owner of the classic Boss DD-3 Digital Delay pedal, I traded up into a DD-7, which includes a tap tempo feature for matching beats and routing for true stereo effects.

Create a beat on the drum that's being recorded into the loop pedal, now stop recording and switch on the octaver - hit record and play bass string on the dulcimer, switch octaver off and then layer in some normal dulcimer while tempo matching on the delay pedal - activate delay and you've got a shimmering, sparkling echo of your dulcimer playing, locked in to the rhythm track that you've just created. Of course you can see where this would allow for no sleep at the most crazed phases of the moon, it is simply an absorbing experience. It's you as the orchestra.

Anywhoo - there's a couple of Danalectro pedals in the picture up there - a tuner and a Daddy-O distortion pedal. I think I gave the tuner to Stephen Seifert. I don't remember. What I do remember is that I never did like tap-dancing. It has been a learning experience and for the bottom line question: has it accomplished what I was going for? It sure has. And probably in ways that I haven't even run into yet.

Is There Anybody In There?

We live next to an interstate, a fire station and a gentleman in a giant 4x4 who's fond of music with deep bass and, at the most horribly unexpected times, his real McCoy Amtrak air-horn. Floor space is at a premium, so building isolation booths never even entered the equation. After seriously considering giving up a chunk of the studio floor space in order to create a vocal booth, I ran across the VoxGuard.

In order to get that rich, open sound - we needed to be using condenser mics, which are notoriously good at recording everything in a mile radius. Still, with perhaps some more reflection and sound focusing (and post-production E.Q. tweaking on the occasional Silver Meteor) it could be pulled off. After reading several reviews at TweakHeadz, I settled (and why is that?) for the Studio Projects B-1.

This is all great gear, make no mistake about it, but in most of these upgrades, I'm stopping way short of pie-in-the-sky dreaming in the quest for the most excellent set-up. Money is usually the deciding factor, followed quickly and exuberantly by specs and word-of-mouth or good reviews. If people are generally digging it, you know? I'd love a studio pair of AKG-414 mics. At my bracket, 't'ain't hap'nin'.

Doesn't matter though, there's no jadedness here. The first real tests of the mic with VoxGuard have been extraordinarily good (and with that Tube Pac shaping the sound - it gets back to that "preserving" the audio side of things.)

Next Up: Living In The Future

Let Me In The Sound

When it comes to music, sounds as a general sort of array, you're either trying to preserve and present the sound with fidelity or you're attempting to change the sound in one or many ways and create something that's hopefully unique as much as it's familiar enough to resonate with the listener. Most folk musicians are in the former camp, keeping gentle company with acoustic music without amplification or amplified in such a way that it retains as much of its natural quality as possible. I'm down with that. When it boils right down to it, nothing beats the sound of an instrument au naturel.

But face it - sometimes, it's helpful to plug in so that you may be heard. Proper amplification takes whatever it is that you are doing and presents it to the listener as you intended it to be heard. Anything less and you might be settling, but there are many fine reasons for that too.

Take, for example, Audio 2000's AWP6040. I got this from Mike Clemmer at Wood 'N' Strings after he told me about how he uses it when teaching workshops.

It's a little 25 watt battery-powered wireless P.A. system that comes with both a lavalier and a lapel mic plus inputs for guitar cable both 1/4" and 3.5" - aux MP3 player jack - you can get one of the mics on you, clip the transmitter to your belt, plug your instrument directly into the box or splitter into the pack, set the tone, individual channel volumes, add a little slapback to the voice and, if you're strolling - you've got 100 feet to wander while you play and sing or speak.

I use this when I teach workshops at festivals and also in the past for ceremonies, house concerts and, tonight, a birthday party. It's truly surprising just how well this unit punches the sound out there. Better still: I don't know what Mike's selling these for now, but last summer, it was a steal at under $100. Right?

This is the *gear* post, so it's going to get tweaky in here real quick. It'll all end with the story of why I'm expecting a delivery in about twelve hours. Here now, the beginning of the past four month's deeper trip to get into the sound.

Let me in the sound
Let me in the sound, now
God, I’m going down
I don’t wanna drown now
Meet me in the sound - Bono

Is It Warm In Here?

If you haven't seen them already (and you can always access these kinds of posts by clicking on the "gear" label in the label cloud on the right) the Tube Pac probably started this whole move to upgrade, so this has been over the course of a year then. Recording mostly with dynamic microphones (Shure SM-57, SM-58Beta) left me wanting to capture more depth and richness in the studio, which led to this single-channel tube pre-amplification and compression unit. Right away, the difference in sound quality was amazing.

Then came the Digitech Vocalist 4, which is really quite funny to sneak into tunes and watch as people try to figure out where your other singers are.

Finally had to break down and get another audio interface. With one fried channel, the PreSonus Firebox was only half useful, not to mention glitchy. After a horrible side-trip into the world of M-Audio, I settled (a-ha, that word again) for a PreSonus Firestudio Mobile because they didn't have the Saffire Pro 40 at the Guitar Center near the house. Let's not chalk this up to impatience - album deadlines dictated that a glitching interface needed replaced, like, right then. And so you do.

There's still the occasional glitch - but nothing that harms recording quality. Just quality of non-frustration levels while waiting for Apple's Audio/MIDI program to connect the dots. No big. Play a round of Words With Friends. Right?

By the way, that P.A. pictured at the top of this post? That was mine - Fender Passport PD150. Nice unit - 4 channels (well, 3 channels and a stereo auxiliary), great for vocals and light duty work, but don't try and put anything that resembles bass through it. Nuh-uh. And unfortunately, that's exactly where I was attempting to go through all of this tone building and developing performance additions. As much as there is a time to strum the mountain dulcimer unaffected and free of cables, there is also much rejoicing to be had when you can really throw it through a heap of processors and turn it into the paintbrushes of your musical dreams.

Next Up: Stompin' In The Garden and Barkin' At The Moon

The Pursuit of Tone and A Minor Event

Good week to you!

The focus has been on the key of "C." It's the only one out of fifteen keys that has absolutely no sharps and no flats. It's all the white keys of the piano, pure and uncomplicated. To a point. As promised in the last post, we get to the dark side of things now.

Quick recap - we number the seven notes of the Major scale, beginning with the root note or tonic, which is "C".

C D E F G A B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7


C - Dm - Em  - F  - G - Am - Bdim
I - ii - iii - IV - V - vi - vii°

Each of the seven notes can be used to build a chord or a scale. Because of the relationship between notes, scales/chords built from the 1st, 4th and 5th notes are Major; scales/chords built from the 2nd, 3rd and 6th are minor. The 7th note yields the mysterious-sounding diminished chords and scales.

It's because of this particular sequence of distances (or intervals) between notes that the Major scale has its up, happy and bright sound. Now, change the sequence and watch what happens.

If you begin this scale on the sixth note and use all of the same notes as the Major scale, you get the relative minor scale (also known as the natural minor or Aeolian mode.) Since the sixth note of the C Major scale is "A", then this will be known as the A minor scale (note the lowercase "minor" - this is important.)

A B C D E F G
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

The order of notes has changed, yet it is still the same seven notes of the C Major scale. When played in this order, the steps between notes become altered slightly, which gives minor chords and scales a darker, more somber tone. Now remember - the point at which we begin on the scale has changed, so the notes have not. Which means that each of those notes retains its Major/minor/diminished quality. You'll just encounter them in a different order like so:

Am -  Bdim  -  C   -  Dm   -   Em   -   F   -   G
i  -   ii°   - III -  iv   -    v   -   VI  -  VII

Leading the way...

Chords have an interesting relationship with each other. Some lead to one another in a natural, expected way while others have a prickly sort of chemistry that seems forced and rough. It's the push and pull of these elements that creates musical tension. Our ears are attracted by (and spirits moved by) certain types of musical conflict and a good road map for that is this charting of chord progressions:

I chord leads to any chord
ii leads to IV, V, vii° chords
iii leads to ii, IV, vi chords
IV leads to I, iii, V, vii° chords
V leads to I chords
vi leads to ii, IV, V, I chords
vii° leads to I, ii chords

These rules were made to be broken, of course, and there's more down the road about borrowed chords and note replacement, but generally speaking, when moving chords through a piece of music - the above standards for western music apply.


So, in crafting a look at the world of the natural minor, I went totally overboard and composed a three-part arrangement for mountain dulcimer ensemble called "A Minor Event." Tuning is CGC. The file has individual pieces for the chords, lead and counterpoint as well as the .tef file for TablEdit users. Even if you don't have the registered version of the program, you can download the free TEF Viewer to listen to the piece.

First off - go to Play > Relative Speed and set it for 62. Experiment with different tempos and see how it sounds to you. If you're not familiar with multiple modules with TablEdit, take a look at the top right hand corner of the main screen when you open "A Minor Event." You'll see three green tabs with numbers. Each one of those represents a part of the arrangement. You can click each one to bring the tablature to the front (unfortunately, no way to watch all three at once, unless you print it out, but then it's not moving and scrolling and playing music, is it? No fun there.) Slowing down the playback will allow you to practice difficult passages.

The arrangement is a demonstration of chord progressions in A minor, how to grow melodies and harmonies out of those chords. A song should be like a little adventure that takes the listener on an exciting journey. Where did that come from? Where are we going next? The twists and turns with each new emotion draw us further into the journey and then, at the end, a logical conclusion, a resolving of conflict and tension to reach the root; our home. Just as long as this trip brings everyone back home, allow your song to roam the hills. Keep melodies moving in nearby clusters of notes - make it easy to hum.

Think of the root note as home. As you begin to chart your way from that root - certain paths will work better than others until you finally bring it home. Once you lay down the chord progressions - weave your melody out of the scales associated with each chord. When the chord changes to C, pick notes out of the C Major scale. When the chord moves on to D minor, concentrate on notes picked from the D minor scale. Of course, some notes will overlap between keys, but this is a good road map for creating melody, rules made to be broken again, of course.

This was written for an orchestra of mountain dulcimers, with several playing each part, but it can be done with just three instruments. With the chords - I've just indicated the fingerings for each one in whole notes. You can either play it just like that, one strum every four beats, or you can apply a bit of rhythm in the form of quarter notes, maybe arpeggiate through the changes. I've tried to create movement mostly with the other two parts - so the whole notes, while not entirely interesting, allow those chords to breathe. Play the tablature as written - so the lead part is sometimes played on only one string at a time. The lead harmonizes with the counterpoint, which also serves as bass for this piece. None of these parts played by themselves is much of a head-turner - it's how they interweave, dance and pronounce the movements of the chords, as mirrored by melody and harmony.

If you don't have two other people to play this with - try recording it! (They have an app for that. And if you're reading this blog you probably do have some kind of digital audio workstation. If you don't, you probably want one and know where to look.)


Instead of hanging out in the key of C and its relative key of A minor, we're going to travel through the different keys and continue to explore how it all works together. Next - we're getting sharp with a look at the key of G.

Tools Of The Trade-Off

I've been living in a cave on eBay for the past few months, carefully implementing a plan that would step up my game a bit here at the studio. Living in the city is hell on recording studios and my modified car port wasn't designed to be sound tight. Since we won't be moving to the country anytime soon, I decided to make a huge sacrifice and invest in a major upgrade for both my recording and live performance rigs.

Jae and I love to watch HGTV for all of the shows about people buying and selling homes, re-designing and decorating, adding on, etc. With an eye towards better space management in the studio, with the side benefit of fund raising for one of the upgrades, I began selling some of the mountain dulcimers from my personal collection. Dulcimers with names like Nikki, Bridget, Kamalani and Helen. Each with their own stories, sometimes caught in a moment and posted on a Facebook page somewhere, some of the instruments used to write and record albums, they went flying off the shelf to some eagle-eyed folks on eBay and now, I can almost see the chromakey blue of the walls.

A few people seemed surprised that I would part with a part of my musical history so easily. Taking a page from the great Pixar film "Toy Story 2"; great instruments were meant to be played and enjoyed. These instruments have now gone on to places where they will be a vibrant, living part of the melody of love instead of stored in a dark case for most of the time.

The money doesn't hurt either. Needed that.

Here, on many different levels of importance for doing the dance that is the dance with music, some of the gear-head stuff that I've been embracing to step it up.

Genius App



Music Theory Pro can be addicting and, for an application that is basically drilling pure music theory, that says a lot about its draw. A real bargain at 99 cents, this application is sort of like having a set of digital flashcards with you at all times (or as long as you've got your smartphone around.) Four areas concentrate on Note Names, Key Signatures, Intervals and Chords, allowing you to set certain parameters to customize your learning experience (include just triads or other chords as well?)

The fifth area focuses on ear training in the areas of Tempos, Intervals, Scales and Chords. Right answers are greeted with approval ("Great Work!" "Keep Going!" flash at you like electronic cheerleaders) while incorrect answers are gently corrected ("You guessed Bb I'm sorry the correct answer is E" Polite, even.)

While you wander through the various pop quizzes, seconds whiz by at the top right hand corner. A gauge in the top left corner keeps track of how you do. Accuracy and speed pay off in high scores that can then be posted on a global ranking viewable through the app and on the website. Cool. Whoever added the competitive angle was a genius. Nothing like seeing someone else's score and thinking "I know C# in bass clef better than them!"

The customization aspect is also great. Play speed rounds of ten questions or marathons of five hundred. Drill on major and minor keys or add sevenths, diminished and augmented. You'll find yourself running through the quizzes whenever you've got a spare moment. The repetition is fantastic for putting into practice what you've just learned - so much so that you can jump in without knowing your way around and then begin to figure the rhyme and reason as you continue to play. Great all-around music theory app - I use this even more than Karajan now, though that app is far superior in terms of keeping data on your strong and weak points (!)

Even though you may not know what you're doing with it right away - ear training is an invaluable tool for playing and understanding music more fully.

Next: Let Me In The Sound