Learning Notation--Part 2

Last week we learned about easy ways in which a guitarist or keyboard player can convey their music so that others can learn it, or they can play it themselves at some later time. Now let's look at another way in which musicians can write their songs and play along with them, or accompany other musicians more effectively.

GET OUT YOUR CHORD DICTIONARY

If you don't have one of these wonderful books, get one. They are available at most music stores or online. Once you have created a basic chart of the way you placed your fingers on your instrument to create that wonderful new sound, look it up in your chord dictionary. Chances are, it is a typical chord, or a slight variation or inversion of one that already exists. Write the proper technical name of your creation above your chord box, and after a while, you will find that you can just see that name and go to the correct fingering.

While you are there, you will probably notice that there are a huge number of ways in which you can play this same chord in various places on your instrument. Now you also know other possible methods you can attain this same sound if you want to use this chord somewhere else in your composition, or come up with an accompanying part for another instrument alongside what you just played. If you look at your circle of fifths, too, you also know all the other chords that will sound good with the chord you wrote and this will give you more options where to go with this musical figure if you decide to build on what you've just written. If you look at your chord dictionary, too, you can also see all the variations of these accompanying chords, too.

Sure, you can just keep to the basic fingerings, and that is just fine, but if your basic song could use a little spicing up, you now have a huge number of variations of how to play your new song, simply because you now know the name of the group of notes you are playing. Have a little fun, at least, and learn some new fingerings for your basic chords, and you may find a whole new world to explore musically.

Sure, some of the world's best known and loved songs were created from some of the simplest chords and basic fingerings, but others were created when someone had the nerve to crawl their fingers up their guitar neck a little. Make it a choice to try this in the new year, and I'm sure you will find your music will be all the better for it.

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