Here are my music theory tweets for the week of October 17

Major and minor chords are built using the notes of a scale. A chord must have three or more unique notes.

A “power chord” isn’t a chord. But it functions like one. It is actually a root to 5th interval.

It there are more than two notes in a “power chord” they will be octaves of the root or 5th.

Chords are constructed by using only the notes of a scale. Each note of a major scale is identified by number: 1 thru 8. Non-scale notes are not counted.

Chords are built by playing leap-frog going up the notes of a scale. Choose a note, skip the next note, choose the 3rd note, skip the 4th choose the 5th = chord

The formula for building chords is root, 3rd, 5th. The root, the starting tone, is 1.  The 3rd and 5th are 3 or 5 notes up the scale respectively.

Any note of a scale can be a root note for a chord. Just follow the “leap-frog” method of chord building.

Chords build on the 1st, 4th and 5th tones of a major scale are major chords. Many songs are written using only the major chords of a key.

Chords built on the 2nd, 3rd and 6th notes of a scale are minor. The chord built on the 7th note of a scale is half-diminished commonly called a dominate 7th.

Anything that vibrates produces sound. Sound can be organized into music.

A Tone is a sound with a definable frequency.  Frequency is the number of vibrations per second.

The note for standard tune is A. It has a frequency of 440.

A musical interval is the distance from one note to another.

“I’m in the joy business. My job is to make people happy.” guitarist extraordinaire Tommy Emmanuel, Newark, Ohio 9/28/11

An octave is the musical interval which occurs when a tone doubles or halves its frequency.

“Show up for Life! Do your best and wonderful things may happen.”  Tommy Emmanuel, Newark, Ohio 9/28/11

The standard frequency of A is 440. The A note one octave higher has a frequency of 880. The A note one octave lower vibrates 220 times per second.

I have been avoiding joining Twitter for some time because I have long believed there are enough twits in the world. But at this juncture in the history of the world I find that to be a legitimate musician one must become part of the informational tidal wave. To deny followers even the most mundane details of my infinitely interesting life would be unfair, yes even cruel. (I’m eating a peanut butter sandwich …with jelly…right now. Thought you would like to know.)

After giving way too much thought to this sort of thing I’ve decided that my life, while general enjoyable, is not infinitely interesting. However, I do know a bit about something that is infinitely interesting: music, especially as related to the guitar. With that new found vision I’m going to try to tweet with some degree of regularity – things related to music and the guitar. If that sounds interesting feel free to “follow”. by clicking on the Twitter icon on my home page http://www.morganguitar.com.   No more messages about peanut butter.

Music Theory tweets week of October 10

The Western musical system is based on dividing the interval of an octave into 12 equal steps. 12 tones played in consecutive order are called a chromatic scale

Some cultures divide the octave into more or fewer intervals than 12.

It is difficult to write an enjoyable piece of music that uses all 12 tones of the Western musical system. That’s why there are keys.

Keys are a subset of the chromatic scale. They are a series of notes that sound good together because of the frequency ratio relationship to the tonic.

The Tonic is the main tone of a key. To use only notes of one key in a piece of music is call diatonic. Dia – through; tonic – the tone.

A scale is a series of notes based on a formula of half steps and whole steps.

The distance of one fret, up or down the same string, is a half step. The distance of 2 frets, up or down is a whole step.

Interval – the distance between two notes.

The intervals of  major scale, beginning on the tonic and ascending are: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. Ending on the tonic an octave higher.

There are four chord families: major, minor, diminished, augmented. Major and minor are “bread and butter”. Diminished and augmented are exotic spices.