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Well, you'd have lost your bet with me! At the age of 8, I'd already been
studying classical piano for five years. My mother had proven, by having me
identify random notes she'd play on the piano, while my back was toward the
piano, that I had perfect pitch.
I turned 8 in Summer 1960, just in time to hear The Ventures Walk Don't Run as
it was making its precipitous climb up the charts. There was NEVER the least
question in my mind, then or in all the years since, that the opening chord in
the Intro was A MAJOR. In fact, I've never been able to understand how so many
guitarists I've met, can't hear that it's a MAJOR chord that Don Wilson was
playing! This was so obvious to my 8 year old ears, and I hear it the exact
same way today as back then. Maybe the difference is that most professional
musicians learn most everything from the sheet music, whereas, when I turned to
guitar, I learned strictly from my ear, and occasional reference to tablature.
Bruce D
unlunf <> wrote:
Brian,
As already pointed out, the melody uses the Am scale, and that
sounds pretty disharmonious against the Amaj chord. However, the
opening eight bars do use the Amaj (yes, I'm transposing here)
and again after the drum solo/bridge. For the rest of the tune
it's Am. Don was right (it was Don), the book (and I have it right
in front of me, as well as the original lp to check against) does
call for the Am. Indeed, the Learn Guitar with The Ventures Vol 1
album also shows Am as the first chord in the Rhythm progression.
And I'd be willing to bet shekels to kroners that no one in the
audience who hasn't played the tune his/her own self will ever know
the difference if you played all Am throughout the whole thing. <g>
BTW, I'd also lay odds that Johnny Smith's version is using Am
for the whole thing. Just the way it sounds to me.
unlunf
--- In , "Brian Neal" <bgneal@g...> wrote:
>
> A few years ago when I lived in Illinois, The Ventures appeared on
> Chicago celebrity DJ Steve Dahl's radio show.
>
> Anyway, I can't remember if it was Wilson or Bogle, but one of
> those guys made the statement along the lines of "most people don't
> realize the song starts in the key of A, not Am like most sheet
> music says". I must admit I don't remember all the details, and I
> can't remember if he was saying they play the intro A as A major
> versus A minor, or the whole song in A. It doesn't sound right to
> me in A, but what do I know. :-)
>
> I'm probably just adding to the confusion, but I do remember the
> Ventures being vehement about the opening A NOT being A minor.
>
> BN
>
.
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Bruce,
Nope, no contest. <g>
The bet I made was that no one in the audience who wasn't also
a player would be able to tell the difference between Amaj and
Am. Your perfect pitch almost forced you into a music career,
thus removing you from the betting pool. <lol>
And just for the record, my version of perfect pitch is to be
able to tell if the horn beeping in the driveway is the daughter's
car or someone else! <lol> No bets there either. <g>
unlunf
--- In , bruce duncan <wetreverb@y...> wrote:
>
> Well, you'd have lost your bet with me!
>
> Bruce
>
unlunf, dude,
you seem to be confusing a whole lot of things - but perhaps it's my
misunderstanding of terms, I'm not a native english speaker... but i
thought there is no such things as "minor notes" ... triads should
consist of three notes not two, to form your basic chord, an have
nothing to do with harmonic functions ... ?
your reasoning is circular - first it is a relative minor, and then
it has to be minor, in order to be relative, that reasoning falls
apart once you loose the unproven premisse that it is a relative
minor, right?
But the main point I guess is, ever since catholic dogma lost the
notion that a minor fifth interval called up Satan, musical theory
stopped being prescriptive. people just whack chords together, slam
some notes on top, and voila, beautiful music is born! nevermind
whether it's 'right'.
I don't get what the big deal is btw, because minor-major changes
happen all the time in music. Cumbanchera and cry me a river come to
mind because i heard those recently but there's got to be a million
more.
WR
--- In , "unlunf" <unlunf@y...> wrote:
>
> Richard,
>
> Theory is good. <g> Am is the relative minor of C, and when you
> stop to think about it, Am, G, F, and E are the relative minor,
> the dominant, the sub-dominant, and the mediant of the Cmaj
> scale. Expressed another way, the E and G are the 3rd and 5th
> tones of the scale, and form the basic triad we all know and love.
> The F is, of course, the 4th tone, and is always an acceptable
> tone to our western-trained ears. That's why that 6th note (A)
> has to be a minor, in order to be relative. And just as soon as
> you figure that out, they go and change the rules on you, for this
> one tune. <lol>
>
WR,
Nope, no confusion here. Just an understanding that, for all
the education we try to absorb, music just doesn't lend itself
well to an exact method of describing it on paper. All that
means is that for every school of thought about how to describe
a scale, a mode, a tonality, or whatever, there is an equal and
opposite school of thought. <g>
I realized as I was writing the message that I might not 'reach'
everyone, so I just took my best shot, and let it go. If it's
all the same to you, and if you are comfortable with what you
know, then I'd like to let it drop. I'm not here to convert
anyone, just to try and relate what I do know in the terms I
learned them in. You say tomato, I say tomahto..... <g>
Actually, I learned something here. One, never log on when
dudes in other hemispheres are gonna take you to task. The
urge to respond is too great, and I'm missing my bed time! <lol>
Two, I've made myself unclear to at least one person, and only
because that person already has a good understanding can I let
this drop. Othewise, I'd have to explain and explain and....
That tells me that I'd better pay more attention next time,
and not take anything for granted about what people might
already know on this list. Good lessons to learn, eh? Thanks. <g>
unlunf
p.s. Your 'second tongue' is a fair sight better than some others
around here! Pleasure to read your post.
--- In , "mono_tones_1" <rockverb@h...> wrote:
>
> unlunf, dude,
>
> you seem to be confusing a whole lot of things - but perhaps it's
> my misunderstanding of terms, I'm not a native english speaker...
> but i thought there is no such things as "minor notes" ... triads
> should consist of three notes not two, to form your basic chord, an
> have nothing to do with harmonic functions ... ?
>
> your reasoning is circular - first it is a relative minor, and then
> it has to be minor, in order to be relative, that reasoning falls
> apart once you loose the unproven premisse that it is a relative
> minor, right?
>
> But the main point I guess is, ever since catholic dogma lost the
> notion that a minor fifth interval called up Satan, musical theory
> stopped being prescriptive. people just whack chords together, slam
> some notes on top, and voila, beautiful music is born! nevermind
> whether it's 'right'.
>
> I don't get what the big deal is btw, because minor-major changes
> happen all the time in music. Cumbanchera and cry me a river come
> to mind because i heard those recently but there's got to be a
> million more.
>
> WR
>
> --- In , "unlunf" <unlunf@y...> wrote:
> >
> > Richard,
> >
> > Theory is good. <g> Am is the relative minor of C, and when you
> > stop to think about it, Am, G, F, and E are the relative minor,
> > the dominant, the sub-dominant, and the mediant of the Cmaj
> > scale. Expressed another way, the E and G are the 3rd and 5th
> > tones of the scale, and form the basic triad we all know and love.
> > The F is, of course, the 4th tone, and is always an acceptable
> > tone to our western-trained ears. That's why that 6th note (A)
> > has to be a minor, in order to be relative. And just as soon as
> > you figure that out, they go and change the rules on you, for this
> > one tune. <lol>
> >
>
