>NOTE: To learn ALL the techniques and strategies that you’ll need to start learning songs on your own, sounding flavorful, and being comfortable playing anything you want, go here:
https://www.hearandplay.com/products
In reading through some of my recent e-mails, I found a message from someone who REALLY gets it.
***Comment From A Reader Who GETS IT***
Jermaine, doc, where have you been all my life? Since I purchased your GospelKeys 202 and have been reading through your online blog lessons and resources, they have really opened my mind up to the whole world of “numbers.”
I was one of those folks who thought music was about letters. I thought chords used letters. UNTIL God led me to your website. And now everything I thought I knew about music has been challenged and I’ve gotten to the next level because now I know how to think in terms of numbers.
I don’t think about a C major 7 chord going to an F major 7 chord anymore (well I still do but it’s not the dominant thought like it used to be). Now I think about the 1st tone of the scale going to the 4th tone of the scale if I’m in the key of C or the 5th tone of the scale going to the 1st tone of the scale if I’m in the key of F major.
And when I do this, I find that I can take the same patterns to basically any major key because I’m not stuck thinking about C going to F liked I used to be. Now I’m thinking a totally different way and with the numbers I can just fill in the blank as the cliche goes and be free to play anywhere I want. It’s really changed the way I do “thangs” and I gotta give you the credit for it.
Keep it up man. I’ll see you at the top.
Terrell S.
>>> My Comments (and explanations):
Well Terrell, it looks like you TRULY get it.
You’ve stumbled on to one of the greatest secrets of “playing by ear.” It’s numbers.
When most people think about music, they think about “creative” stuff like notes and letters and sharp “(#)” signs and flat “(b)” signs. But music is highly mathematical too.
NUMBERS rule in music and when a musician truly “GETS” this, their playing explodes.
I remember one of my earlier students – Royzell – and how fast it took him to start learning real songs on his own. I mean this guy was up and playing in like 6 weeks. He was hungry for it, YES, but one thing I made sure he understood out the gate was the number system (i.e. – taking every major scale and learning each tone as numbers… “C” is 1, “D” is 2, “E” is 3… and so on).
Then I taught him how to play chords using the same numbers (i.e. – “combine tones ‘7’ + ‘3’ + ‘5’ to play a nice-sounding major 7 chord in ANY key”). No, that isn’t the “regular” default way to play a major 7 chord. We were killing two birds with one stone by learning nicer voicings of the chords using the numbers so that we could literally take the same voicing to all 12 keys in minutes.
Then we naturally did patterns and chord progressions next (i.e. – “6-2-5-1 chord pattern” … very common pattern). It’s the same numbers at work but this time entire chords are moving from one to the other using the numbers. Songs came easy after that.
Fast forward several years and let’s just say he’s passed me up! And I don’t mind. He realized just how IMPORTANT numbers were in the beginning and now there’s virtually nothing he can’t pick up in minutes (and take to a new key without practicing). He’s even played for celebrities and filled in at West Angeles, the mega church where the hit producers and musicians, Jason White and Michael Bereal, play. And to think, it all started with NUMBERS (I don’t want to discount him either because he had a lot of drive and passion and was serious about his craft).
>REMEMBER – You can do almost anything by understanding the number system. And most importantly, it’ll allow you to play in any key because you’re essentially not memorizing any of the specific chords of a song… you’re not really memorizing ANYTHING. You simply understand that a pattern, for example, is a chord off the 1st tone of the scale moving to a chord off the 3rd tone of the scale… then to the 6th tone, then 2nd tone, then 5th tone, then back home to the 1st tone again.
AND GET THIS — once you realize that about 1 in 3 songs have that same pattern occuring in some way, shape, or form, then it really gets easy to learn and play songs off the top of your head because they all use the same patterns. Numbers allow you to do all this… and “then some” as mom would say.
To learn other unique techniques and strategies you can use to take your playing to the next level, go here:
https://www.hearandplay.com/products
Talk soon,
Jermaine
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