• How to Remember Large Extended Chords Part 2

    This lesson continues from where we left off in the last newsletter lesson on remembering extended chords.

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    Easy to Ways to Remember Large Chords

    As you know, there is a formula for everything! Nothing is random — even when playing by ear…   From the most basic triad (or three-fingered chord) to the largest thirteenth chord, there are easy, systematic ways to remember ALL chords, regardless of size.   Let’s start basic and then I’ll show you how to […]

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    What are chord progressions?

    “What are chord progressions” is a commonly asked question.

    A chord progression is simply a series of chords played in order. As you play more songs, you’ll see more and more chord progressions and patterns used over and over again in your favorite tunes…

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    Listening Effectively P. 2: Understanding How Music Works

    By now, you probably understand how important major scales are. I won’t discuss them in detail like I’ve done in previous weeks; but if you don’t know them, here they are:   C major C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C 1 – 2  – 3 – […]

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    How to Listen Effectively: The Basics of Relative Pitch

    When it comes to effectively listening to music to learn new songs, there’s different ways to do it: 1) Perfect Pitch 2) Relative Pitch Now, before we get started discussing what relative pitch is, let me briefly cover perfect pitch. Some think that you need perfect pitch to play by ear. This is not true. […]

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    The third and fourth steps to playing a song

    Step Three & Four: Altering Chords and Listening for Final Changes Depending on the style of music you are trying to produce, step three will allow you to alter the harmonizing chords used in step two. To "alter" a chord simply means to modify it. There are several ways to alter a chord: You can […]

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    The second step to playing songs by ear

    Step Two: Harmonizing the Melody Step two is a continuation of the first step. Once you have determined the melody, you must NOW find the right chords to accompany your melody. For example, if your melody was C – D – E – F – G, you’d need chords to accompany "C", "D", "E", "F" […]

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