Friday, February 14, 2014

Music and the Soul - Learn Those Chords

Willie said to learn those chords when the Lightning Boy wanted to learn how to play but he didn't say what the chords mean.  He learned it on the road and Lightning Boy would as well.

There are classical thoughts on the feelings and thoughts that will come from each musical key and maybe this is one of the oldest streams of musical thought.  You can read the detail for each key at Characteristics of Musical Keys.  It's ironic as the page is written with such pragmatism but it is expressing the entire scope of music.

Each musical key is physically different from each other as the distance or interval between each note in the key's scale is not the same for different keys.  Going into the reasons for that requires deep physics but that's not needed for the concept.  For the purpose here, it's only important to know this is not hocus pocus as the keys really are different so there's a physical reason they would cause different things to happen, have different effects, etc.

What intrigues me (i.e. mindfucks all hell out of me) is that the association with F minor is deep depression.

Fark!!  What?

I really wouldn't have said I am deeply depressed.  I am not exactly satisfied with my circumstance but I wouldn't have said I'm depressed about it.  I've been playing F minor almost exclusively, tho.



My personal aspect isn't that interesting except insofar as what I hear when I play it as I find it deeply soulful and expressive.  The chords are ridiculously simple but there's a huge effect in going from F to D flat that's relieved a little in going to C but then it does it all over again.  This is close to the simplest musical structure that exists and yet it is immensely powerful or at least that's what I perceive from it.  (The bit starts from F sus rather than F minor but it comes out the same.  The A in the F major is effectively an accidental and that's part of what interests me.)

If this is to evolve, perhaps it takes a key change but to what.  Going up a third is predictable but we go to A flat anyway and find that one is the 'key of the grave' so it seems our depression gets worse.

Going into the detail of this as it goes would be like trying to do musical paint by numbers but I thought you might be interested in some of the reasoning that goes on in the background and it may apply to your own music as well.

Learn those chords, Lightning Boy.

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