Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Why Burl Ives Didn't Give Chords for All Keys


What are Open String Chords? · Arpeggi Jumping One String · Summing Up the Use · Why Burl Ives Didn't Give Chords for All Keys

The obvious answer is, the Cowboys whose music he wrote down didn't use all keys.

But there is a more profound answer.

A guitar can be tuned in even temperament. Third fret will be the square root of the square root of 1/2 the string lenth, and first fret will be the cube root of that.

But it can also be tuned in some kind of pure temperament, Pythagorean or Just - the first has pure fifths "all along", the other has pure thirds.

This means, they will not work equally well for all of the keys. There is an enharmonic "fifth" which is not a pure fifth in either case - and you don't want that one into your tonic!

So, I think the keys he explores are eight keys - one flat to two sharps in the signature, major or minor.

F - C - G - D and Dm - Am - Em - Bm.

I have only given four common chords for the key of G major. There is in fact a chord progression, called the "Anatole" in France, which you can't do with only these, to the "Anatole" in G major, you need ...

/: G Em Am D7 :/

And as you can see, I left Em out. And I am leaving it out. I am not giving, unlike Burl Ives, chords for all they keys, and I only provided these as a service for beginners.

If you learn the strings and frets for the notes, and if you learn the notes of chords, you will be able to make similar "open string chords" for the chords I did not provide.

Rock bands (at least those closer to metal) typically instead have guitars played with touching frets fairly far down, perhaps around 12th fret or so, and not arranged in chords always, and chords made by arranging notes of them between different guitarists ... another thing I am not showing.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
Octave of St. Lawrence
17.VIII.2022

Monday, August 15, 2022

Happy to Hear Rose of Tralee from the Kelly's


The Kelly Family - Rose of Tralee & Clavelitos (Zum doppelten Engel SRF 09.06.1979)
14 Aug. 2022 | WeGotKellyLove
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_EFSZYi3d4


1979, they sing Rose of Tralee - seven years later, 1986, I get to go to Tralee. I took the latest night train from Dublin, which was going to Tralee, I was hoping (Irishmen will laugh) to get to Tralee in the morning. I arrived at midnight and was taken into the kitchen of a couple coming home from the bar. After Tralee I go to Killarney, where I buy a boyscout rosary and a booklet about the Rosary and somewhat later, in Salzburg, Elisabeth-Kirche while waiting for Das Gauklermärchen on Elisabeth-Bühne, I pray my first rosary.

The other song, Clavelitos, highlights my competence and incompetence in Spanish : "clavelitos de mi corazón" means "little keys to my heart" but apart from "poquito" I could not make out much of the verses. I probably could if I saw it written.

While my Classic Music owes much in the form (Sonata form etc) to - music theory of Classic music - its melodic and rhythmic choices probably owe some things to Cowboy songs, Irish songs, Spanish songs or more often Latin American ones, German and Swedish folk music (a very failed song of mine, the melody of which I relegated posthumously to guitar accompaniment, with sung melody to be improvised, was an inversion of "summ, summ, summ, Bienchen summ herum, ei wir tun dir nichts zuleide, flieg nur raus in Wald und Heide, summ, summ, summ, Bienchen summ herum" ...). That and some Church music of Swedish Church, Salvation Army and Catholic Diocese of Stockholm by far outnumbered the complete scores I could read in Classic music - while Die Forellquintette was certainly one of them .../HGL

Friday, August 12, 2022

Summing Up the Use


What are Open String Chords? · Arpeggi Jumping One String · Summing Up the Use · Why Burl Ives Didn't Give Chords for All Keys

First, I'll give you another version jumping two strings, not two between the two lowest pitched strings, but alternating, so both low to lower mid and lower mid to higher mid voice are larger spaced.

 E A D G B E
 
C 0 X 3 X 1 3
Am 0 X 5 X 1 0
Am 0 X 5 X 1 5
G 3 X 0 X 0 3
D7 2 X 0 X 1 5


Why would the big gap be either between two lowest voices or two voices lowest and two voices midmost, in a four voice setting? Because that is good voice leading.

Now, one thing more. Just because two chord variants are on the same one of these seven tables doesn't mean they are the ones you have to alternate when playing a tune or accompaniment.

You try it out, between G - Am - D7 - G, G - Am - G, G - C - D7 - G, or any other sequence you want, which versions of each chord, irrespective of on what table, fit best with each version of the other ones.

If you had got the book by Burl Ives, Songs for Pickin' and Singin', he would have given you more or less. He would already have tested out which versions of G - Am - D7 - G go together best, so you wouldn't have need to test it out, and he would be giving such chords for lots of other keys than G major as well, that way, he would be giving you more than I did. But I have given you more versions than he did, that way I give you more of a choice - within G major./HGL

PS, there are lots of other styles than that of Burl Ives that use four chord arpeggi on the guitar. See for instance, Elvis Presley, "Wise men say 'only fools fall in love' but I can't help falling in love with you ..."

PPS - if you want to be an expert guitarist, putting all of your effort or even a good portion of it into open string chords is arguably lousy advice. Veritasium did a video on four things it takes to be an expert - apart from 10 000 hours. One of them is "deliberate practise" known also as pushing your limits. For this purpose, the hard on your fingers fully classical G chord for strumming all six strings is very ideal as a start. Burl Ives' in his "Songs for Pickin and Singin" taught guitar to people nearly only using it for keeping the key while you sing ... for people putting their main effort into singing and keeping the guitar slightly amateur or even very amateur. But one thing is sure in music : even amateur level preformances can sound good - unless you stay too long and start noticing the lack of variety. But even that can be mended, for instance if something else (the singing) adds sufficient variety./HGL

Tuesday, August 9, 2022

Arpeggi Jumping One String


What are Open String Chords? · Arpeggi Jumping One String · Summing Up the Use · Why Burl Ives Didn't Give Chords for All Keys

If your chord jumps one string, it is five strings wide, and only one, lowermost or uppermost E, is outside.

This means only two versions, higher and lower, are possible.

  E A D G B E
 
Lower
C  3 X 2 0 1 X
Am 0 X 2 2 1 X
G  3 X 0 0 0 X
D7 2 X 0 2 1 X
 
Higher
C  X 3 X 0 1 0
Am X 0 X 2 1 0
G  X 2 X 0 3 3
D7 X 3 X 2 3 2


It can be noted, I love both Classic music and Cowboy music - but I know more about Classic music, that's why I write it more often./HGL

What shall one say about jumping two strings. The thing I come up with for D7 lacks the root, it doubles the third, and so I recommend omitting one occurrence of the third:

  E A D G B E
 
C  0 X X 0 1 3
Am 0 X X 2 1 0
G  3 X X 0 0 3
D7 (2) X X 2 1 (2)

Monday, August 8, 2022

What are Open String Chords?


What are Open String Chords? · Arpeggi Jumping One String · Summing Up the Use · Why Burl Ives Didn't Give Chords for All Keys

Burl Ives gave some of those for his "Songs for Picking and Singing" - may God forgive him his having been a freemason, as much as possible, but the idea is good.

Back when I was not yet Catholic, not even Lutheran, but loosely Evangelical Church Hopper, I was volunteering to learn some instrument to play in the Salvation Army. I first thought of guitar, but got stuck on a Classical G chord. Both the low E at one end and the high E at the other end are pushed down on fret three, and some chords in between higher up. This is a very uncomfortable and straining position for the left hand, arguably some barred chords are even worse, but the chord as such is a "strainer" between those who "pick up" the Classical guitar and those who don't.

In German - we were in Vienna, Austria, "anstrengend" both means "taking an effort" and "straining" - while "Anstrengung" is mainly "effort." I was complaining on how the chord was "anstrengend" (straining!) and the Salvation Army officer said about any intrument taking "Anstrengung" (effort).

I replied about a guitarist I had seen in the US, a friend of the last family we were staying long with, perhaps a suitor to one of the two daughters (at 9 I was obviously not his rival), and said I had seen him being "careless" - I should better have said "carefree" - and definitely effortless about where he put his left hand fingers and it sounded good. Picking on the "careless" part, the Salvation Army officer told me she didn't believe that.

I ended up with a tuba instead, and was too small to blow that very well, but even so ...

What was that guitarist in Anaheim doing? He was doing open string chords. One chord I am sure he didn't use was a Classic, full six strings, chord of G major. The one that strains the fingers so much.

I will here give three versions of open string chords in G, never mind if Burl Ives used or didn't use all of them. I'll give subdominant, C, subdominant parallel, and in major keys this is also called minor double-dominant, Am, I'll give the tonic, G, and I'll give the dominant, D7.

But first I will explain what is different. A Classic chord needs to be useful for quick strumming (and that is done pretty often in Salvation Army String Concerts), but the music style Burl Ives catered to was - not so much Country Western as in Dolly Parton, but more like Cowboy songs or Hillbilly. He often used some bluegrass type arpeggio.

If you strum, you need a good aim to avoid hitting all six strings. If you pick arpeggi, you can do very well with four strings. I'll give versions for the four lower, four midmost and four upper strings with each chord.

 Four Lower
 
C  0 3 2 0 X X
Am 0 3 2 2 X X
G  3 2 0 0 X X
D7 2 3 0 2 X X
 
 Four Midmost
 
C  X 3 2 0 1 X
Am X 0 2 2 1 X
G  X 2 0 0 0 X
D7 X 0 4 2 1 X
 
 Four Higher
 
C  X X 2 0 1 0
Am X X 2 2 1 2
G  X X 0 0 0 3
D7 X X 0 2 1 2


If you look at first and last versions of G, you will see how, taken together, they involve that combinations of two outermost fingers both on 3rd fret, and fingers between higher up, which stumped me so.

Rock musicians who do electric guitar actually avoid all open strings, as much as possible. How do they avoid this? Well, usually they have more than one guitarist, and each takes only part of the chord ... but this wasn't rock, this was a style that is much more relaxed - and not strained for the fingers of a Classic G chord bent.

I wonder if there aren't Classic musicians who have another version of G, all six strings, with fingers in between further down instead?

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
St. Severus of Vienne
8.VIII.2022

Viennae, in Gallia, sancti Severi, Presbyteri et Confessoris; qui ex India, Evangelii praedicandi causa, laboriosam peregrinationem suscepit, et, cum ad praefatam urbem devenisset, ingentem Paganorum multitudinem verbo et miraculis ad Christi fidem convertit.