My sincere apologies and a heaping bowlful of embarrassment. I was testing some website styling and sent this out to you all by error. --Steve Horn … [Read more...]
Scarpology Testimonials from Seasoned Pros
Two Yaaaays and One Maaaay-be In case you haven't already heard, I wrote a book entitled Scarpology: a Mapping of the Fretboard and an Introductory Method for Improvisation on Mandolin or Other Instruments Tuned in Perfect Fifths. This is what has taken most of my writing time for the past year or longer. It was a huge amount of work and before I went public with it, I wanted to get some feedback … [Read more...]
Scarpology Book on Improvisation: a look into the book
Here are some pieces extracted from the preface of Scarpology: A Mapping of the Fretboard and an Introductory Method for Improvisation on Mandolin and Other Instruments Tuned in Perfect Fifths Who is this book for? This book is written to be read by novices or by well-versed musicians who want to increase their playable range to include the entire neck of their instrument* and to be able to play … [Read more...]
About Chords for the Mandolin
Mandolin has a pitch range that starts from G below middle C and spans 3 octaves or more. It's short string length means a person's hands can spread over more frets than larger instruments. Moving up the neck, the player will notice a greater ease of reach counteracted by cramped spaces, crowding fingers into miniature shapes to play chords that are easier down low on the neck. This necessitates … [Read more...]
Scales, Modes & Tonality
Modes have been around even longer than the mandolin. The illustration here is from the 1500's, from a manuscript of Spanish vihuela music. You can read for yourself, if you understand early Spanish and if you understand early Spanish music theory, that this music is for Vihuela in A (fa) using the second tone, or Dorian mode (I think!). So as cool and as new to some ears as this may seem, … [Read more...]
Gravity and Levity in Music
Readers please note that the purpose of this piece is to offer food for thought more than to define an element or draw a conclusion and your comments are welcome. This is a discourse in music theory although scientifically very soft. The point is simply to better understand the complex nature of what we hear in music. What is Gravity and Levity in music? Gravity/Levity, or the Gravity/Levity … [Read more...]
Jazz Chord Theory
This area of this fledgling website is, itself, a work in progress at this time. There is a lot of information online about jazz chords and music theory. What is planned for this site is to offer a beginning reference to accompany other articles on the site to help with a better understanding of that content. This will never be an authoritative source on the subject of music theory or jazz but … [Read more...]
Major and Minor Tonalities
Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine in Major Key followed by the same in a minor key. (Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine in Major Key followed by the same in a minor key.) We hear nearly all tonal music (particularly Western tonal music) in either a major or minor key. The home base of any key is the tonic triad made up of scale degrees 1, 3, and 5. What makes the key sound major or minor is whether the … [Read more...]
Density/Expansivity in Music
Sound can be dense or expansive, relatively speaking. In fact, any element of sound or of music can have its own density/expansivity attributes that contribute to the overall density/expansivity of a sound, of a piece or music, of an ensemble, or any element of music or sound. This will be referred to as the Density/Expansivity Factor or D-E Factor. Every musical instrument has it's own D-E … [Read more...]
Diminished and Half-Diminished Seven Chords
The diminished seven (1-b3-b5-bb7) and half diminished seven (1-b3-b5-b7) chords are built upon a diminished triad. Despite this similarity and despite the tendency of some musicians to treat these chords the same, the two can function very differently. Each can serve in a dominant function and resolve to a major or minor triad whose root is a half-step higher. However, the half diminished seven … [Read more...]
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