DannySnyder
Joined: Mar 02, 2006
Posts: 11050
Berkeley, CA
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Posted on Jul 16 2006 11:47 AM
Hi everyone,
I stumbled across this little article espousing one man's opinions of basic chord theory. I think it serves as a great introduction to how basic rock and roll songs get structured in very simple terms. Its written by Göran Tångring, who maintains an excellent Shadows tribute website full of all kinds of great information.
Many of you know all this, but I'm hoping some of our neophytes will feel inspired with the information to write some new surf songs. 
http://goran.tangring.com/chords/Chord%20theory.txt
— Danny Snyder
"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo
Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta
Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party
Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF
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mom_surfing
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 5299
the outer banks of north carolina
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Posted on Jul 16 2006 01:37 PM
there's a really cool book called 'fretboard logic' (volumes 1 and 2 combined). it's described as the reasoning behind the guitars tuning plus chords, scales and appeggios. most helpful to those of us who haven't been playing for 'years'.
— www.surfintheeye.com
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DannySnyder
Joined: Mar 02, 2006
Posts: 11050
Berkeley, CA
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Posted on Jul 17 2006 11:48 PM
I should clarify why I thought this was interesting. He goes into detail about how different chords in the same key create tension and release, and speaks to the natural order of chords in a given progression. It's not technical at all really and very intrinsic information. More experienced musicians have internalized these guidelines and apply them without conscious thought, but newbies may gain new insights by reading them.
That's enough about that...
— Danny Snyder
"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo
Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta
Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party
Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF
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SurfBandBill
Joined: Mar 15, 2006
Posts: 1487
San Francisco
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Posted on Jul 18 2006 05:32 AM
I always find that stuff confusing, no matter how clearly it's laid out for me.
I guess I've been playing so much of my life, I do it intuitively, as was mentioned before. Hell, half of my song writing is just constantly playing random stuff over and over and seeing what I like in the end. Kind of the old addage of throwing sh#t against the wall and seeing what sticks.
But as I always said in my jazzier days of playing, "I know enough theory that I don't need to use it".
~B~
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PolloGuitar
Joined: Feb 26, 2006
Posts: 5092
San Francisco
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Posted on Jul 18 2006 12:45 PM
I agree with Bill, I was never very good at math, and music theory makes my head spin. I did like this guy's attempt to describe the feeling that every inversion might give. Most of those feelings are relative, in that the feeling ascribed to the particular note comes from our previous association of how those were used when we first heard them. An example of this is the melodic minor (maj 7 with a minor chord) is usually associated with the James Bond theme. So here is my overly simplified attempt to go through the scale:
Major- happy
Major w/2 (or 9)- uplifting
Major w/4- suspended, waiting for resolution
Major with dim 5- evil
Maj with 6- mellow
Major with natural 7- blues
Major with maj 7- jazz
Minor- Mystery
Minor with maj 7- spy
The point of this, as it relates to songwriting, is that if you are trying to invoke a mood with your song, you might want to start with the appropiate chord, or use that chord in your structure.
Another thing that relates to this, and drives me a little nuts, is when you hear a song, for example, with a middle eastern scale but has a title with "Go-go" in it. I think it is important to remember the cultural associations that specific chords or scales have, and title your song appropriately. I guess for some, anything that comes out of the surf grab bag is all interchangeable.
--ferenc
— Buy Speed of Dark @ Bandcamp
Buy Spin the Bottle @ Bandcamp
My Blog- Euro Tour Blog
Pool Boys on Spotify
INSTAGRAM
Frankie & The Pool Boys on FB
Pollo Del Mar on FB
DJ Frankie Pool Boy on North Sea Surf Radio
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voodoodentists
Joined: May 21, 2006
Posts: 62
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Posted on Jul 18 2006 01:00 PM
PolloGuitar
Major with dim 5- evil
This just happens to be Interval Diabolic the "Devil's Interval" 
'twas banned many years before surf. ( pre the '63 / '64 debate )
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DannySnyder
Joined: Mar 02, 2006
Posts: 11050
Berkeley, CA
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Posted on Jul 18 2006 01:14 PM
Ferenc is right about the feelings being relative, for instance to me a Maj7 sounds 'soft rock' ala Bread, probably because that's my first experience hearing it. Maj6 sounds country, heard a lot on pedal steel.
The important thing is to not be reluctant to explore these chords, so as to make your own songs more interesting. You may think it's all been done before, but there's no limit to the variations one can come up with. I've found that by substituting one chord with a not so obvious one, it leads the song into a whole different direction. Sometimes the wrong one, but also sometimes really unique and interesting. Just like we've all capitalized occasionally on mistakes that ended up being cooler than playing something "right"
— Danny Snyder
"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo
Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta
Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party
Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF
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PolloGuitar
Joined: Feb 26, 2006
Posts: 5092
San Francisco
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Posted on Jul 18 2006 01:17 PM
Here is a little something that might help songwriters break out of using familiar structures. As I talked about in that post which is in the News section somewhere, there are many ways to approach songwriting, all of them equally vaild. If you choose to come up with your melody first, finding chords to support it, then this trick might be helpful to you.
Let's say you're whistling your melody, and the first note of the second bar is an A, and you want to find a chord to change to at that point. If you are in the key of E, you could go to A (the IV chord) which is the obvious choice. But what are your other options? Well, here is a skill you can work on- find an A note in every possible chord:
A major
A minor
Bb maj 7
Bb minor w maj 7 (melodic minor)
B 7
B minor 7
C 6
C# aug 5
D (major or minor)
D# dim
E sus 4
F
F# minor
G (major or minor) 2 (or 9)
G# add #1 (this chord shape could have lots of names)
After that there are all kinds of odd inversions with flats and sharps that are painful to think about.
Here's how to use this: Hum your melody, and keep repeating it while trying different chords under it. Notice how a different chord will invoke a different feeling, or pull your melody in a different way. After you find the perfect chord for the second bar of your melody, move on to the third note, and start over, looking for a completely different chord. FUN!Hopefully this will help you write more original songs.
-ferenc
— Buy Speed of Dark @ Bandcamp
Buy Spin the Bottle @ Bandcamp
My Blog- Euro Tour Blog
Pool Boys on Spotify
INSTAGRAM
Frankie & The Pool Boys on FB
Pollo Del Mar on FB
DJ Frankie Pool Boy on North Sea Surf Radio
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dan
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 60
southern ontario
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Posted on Jul 20 2006 06:54 PM
Ferenc, that reminds me of a Joe Pass exercise. Take any note on one of the bottom strings and put any chord under it. Keep the same note on the same fret that you started with and form a completely different chord under it. Keep doing this using as many chords as you can come up with, eventually resolving to the chord you started with. All the chords you mentioned can be played with the A note on the 5th fret bottom E string which made me think of this.
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