[billywhitebread]

ever noticed how the most popular and usually the most requested songs are mostly just 3 chords....seriously, most bands i have listened to that do cover music and top 40 or jeez even the oldies stuff....its 3 chords.

here is my music theory.....(get it?! music theory! ha i crack myself up)....sorry i digress....i think we as musicans make music complicated and its not...and its not math either...it is an art form, a feeling of emotion expressed through the vibration of the inner soul...and its fun....really fun...and so fulfilling....

i lead worship in my home church and for other orginizations and for congregational singing, group singing or audience participation the 3 chord songs work the best....

ok i'm done now....sorry i had to get that off my chest and my dog looks at me funny when i try to explain it to him....

[Aunt Doty]

We're good listeners here......rattle on! One of the first things I learned was that if you can play those 3 chord songs you can always jam along. It may just be rhythm but it's music and it's fun.

[lorispencer]

almost everything can be broken down to 3 or 4 chords. Some friends of mine make a living doing '3 chord country and other stuff'. As Aunt Doty said, you can jam with anyone by know the key and the root, 3rd, 5th, and possibly 6th chord of the scale.

[eddiez152]

Thank goodness for this, I don't know more than three chords. Ok maybe 8

[6string]

good news, that means I have just 2 more chords to learn

[Lcjones]

**

Originally Posted by billywhitebread

.....

i think we as musicans make music complicated and its not...and its not math either...it is an art form, a feeling of emotion expressed through the vibration of the inner soul .....

I appreciate your humor. Refreshing.

I think musicians over-complicate music to impress. Theory, tunings, harmonics, method, madness, what-have-you.

The most meaningful music is the simplist music. And I, for one, relate extremely well to simple.

Or ..... it is cymatics!

Clan MacEwan rocks ..... which has no bearing in or on this thread ...

**

[eddiez152]

LC,
Now that was interesting indeed

[Stratrat]

Funny that this thread pops up at this particular time. In a somewhat similar thread on another forum, I read this post from one of the members last night:

I was in a jam situation on Friday evening. There were five guitar players in the room, one of whom is a fantastically talented multi-instrumentalist with a particular talent for song accompaniment, one is a singer whose rhythm is spot on, then there was me, one of nature's sidemen. On the other side of the room were two folksingers with guitars (and electronic tuners which they consulted contantly). I felt a real divide in the room between the "players" and the guys who spent a lot of time honing their arrangements of obscure songs. When a fiddle playing friend turned up and started churning out her quite wonderful range of tunes it got even more divisive. The folksingers were staring at their tuners and wondering which tuning they ought to use (concert, DADGAD, open C?) while the "players" were churning out rhythm parts on guitar/banjo/mandolin, whatever came to hand.

On the whole, an instructive evening, I'm very happy to be a functional guitarist and, for the record, I spent the evening playing my little L'arrivee Cherub parlour guitar which never sounded outclassed.

More power to the people who play what's needed and no more!

Sounds to me like being a "player" is a lot more fun than being a "thinker"! I'd be having a lot more fun jamming my heart out on a simple 3-chord rhythm than sitting there trying to decide if it's Locrian or Aeolian, and whether I should be in open-G or double-drop-D. I want to feel music in my heart and my guts - not 'think' it in my head.

Originally Posted by lorispencer

...almost everything can be broken down to 3 or 4 chords. Some friends of mine make a living doing '3 chord country and other stuff'....

Then there's hope for me yet!!!

[Fong]

Each has their place tho to be honest.

Sure Status Quo made a living from playing the same 3 chords over and over again in different ways, but then listen to a Bach piece on the guitar and its amazing, no repetition, up and down the fret board constantly and I don't think there are many that will claim that Status Quo has more "feeling" then J S Bach.

I think being able to do both is what makes a great guitarist.

[eddiez152]

In every piece of music, there is a special spot that captures the sole. Ah! the beauty of it all.

[krissovo]

Cool thread, I have been doing a lot of "listening" recently and a lot of my favorite bands use 3 or 4 chords. At the moment they are Oasis, Niel Joung, Snow Patrol, White Stripes and a lot of blues to name a few. In my mind what they do well is to create the mood of the piece by playing basic rhythms by with a lot of skill and by changing the dynamics at certain parts of the song. The dynamics being Palm muting, pick agression (light during vocal part more aggressive for intros bridges etc). Snow Patrol are great at creating the mood just look at chassing cars, if you listen to that its a very simple song but the mood the music creates is very emotional.

My plan is now to focus on what I have learnt so far and not try to learn anything new, its time to work on quality to really nail down the simple things like making a "C" chord really ring out or to be consistant when I palm mute.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Fong

Each has their place tho to be honest.

Sure Status Quo made a living from playing the same 3 chords over and over again in different ways, but then listen to a Bach piece on the guitar and its amazing, no repetition, up and down the fret board constantly and I don't think there are many that will claim that Status Quo has more "feeling" then J S Bach.

I think being able to do both is what makes a great guitarist.

what he said.
I find my interest and taste in music changes over time. Right now I'm really into sambas and bossa novas - the Brazillian musicians. I just love the ambiguity of all those, what?, half-step chords? You know, the diminished, nineths, sixths and stuff. And the little surprizes that come when you're expecting one chord and another is played. I don't think all the nuances would remain if it was boiled down to three chords.

[wcostley]

It must be wonderful for you guys who have a real gift of music running through there souls, I could never accompany someone singing, just don't have the gift of of knowing or feeling when or which chord to switch to at the proper time, I keep hoping something will click inside but I really doubt it ever will, I can't help feeling that some people are just born with a special feeling for music. I still love what I can do though.
Skip

[Aunt Doty]

I would love to be able to do it all!!!! But I'm going to play no matter what happens and if I learn to read music along the way( I can but in slow motion!) and become accomplished in Kirk's Planetalk method that's just icing on the cake! BUT .I've got to make music...even if it's not ever professional sounding. I plan to keep trying to improve because I love it so much!

[Fong]

Originally Posted by wcostley

It must be wonderful for you guys who have a real gift of music running through there souls, I could never accompany someone singing, just don't have the gift of of knowing or feeling when or which chord to switch to at the proper time, I keep hoping something will click inside but I really doubt it ever will, I can't help feeling that some people are just born with a special feeling for music. I still love what I can do though.
Skip

Nah I don't have a musical bone in my body, no one in my family plays an instrument, no one in my family even listens to 'real' music.

I have absolutely no talent whatsoever for music. I can't sing a note, and a tutor at the British Academy of New Music in London once told me 99.9% of people CAN sing, they just don't think they can, but he admitted that I was that 0.1% that just can not and will not ever be able to sing.

I don't 'hear' music in my head like other people do, I can't replicate music that I hear, the thread entitled "what chord am I feeling?" I feel nothing.

Yet, I spent 6 hours in a rehearsal room the other day with a drummer and a singer and I wrote 5 completely new songs, which I didn't go in with, had no ideas going in, nothing to practice, me and the singer have completely different tastes.

The thing is, now my music knowledge is strong enough, and I just about know enough, so that if someone says, "Hey I like that bit, develop that a little" as the singer did each time I chucked together two chords that they liked, I was able to deduce which chords would sound good and then just messed around til they were happy.

So you can get there, god I wish I could hear music like other people do and I wish I could sing and I wish I could hear music in my head to play on the guitar.

Just doesn't happen for me, doesn't stop me playing, doesn't stop me enjoying and doesn't stop me being a productive and useful guitarist for singers and other band members.