Musicality World

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/think-cant-sing-ask-10-questions/
Recording yourself is a powerful tool to improve your voice. We all sound funny to ourselves at first. Go ahead, record yourself singing and listen back. No one else has to hear it!

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/think-cant-sing-ask-10-questions/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/what-is-kodaly-and-how-does-it-relate-to-ear-training/
There are almost as many approaches to learning music as there are musicians! Let’s dive into the Kodály method, which combines several powerful techniques for developing the core skills of musicianship. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/what-is-kodaly-and-how-does-it-relate-to-ear-training/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/consonance-dissonance-music/
Have you ever heard a song that just felt sort of “off”? If so, you’ve already experienced the drastic difference between consonance and dissonance. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/consonance-dissonance-music/

This week, we examine the places where genres meet and mingle by interviewing a special podcast guest whose inspirational musical career spans a fascinating array of styles and instruments, looking at the science that will serve you best in learning every style from jazz to metal, introducing you to a scale that has inspired musical innovation and experimentation by countless greats across genres, and preview a new Resource Pack that will help you play both the Blues and the styles influenced by them.

But first, a reminder about a very special event happening tomorrow…

A Masterclass with Music Entrepreneur HQ

To wrap up the month of May, we’re once again putting on a free online masterclass! Learn about music entrepreneurship with David Andrew Wiebe of Music Entrepreneur HQ.

Music Entrepreneur HQ provides musicians with the information they need to succeed in the industry – everything from marketing and promoting yourself, to getting paid, to connecting with your audience through social media and your peers through networking. If you’ve got the music part nailed down and are looking for tips on how to make sure it reaches as many ears as possible, you won’t want to miss this!

This live event will be on Saturday, the 26th of May at 3 PM UTC (Click here to see that in your timezone). Register to be a part of this special event!

Getting the Blues

Not only are the Blues powerful and expressive in their own right, but they influenced and spawned so many other styles that it’s hard to overstate their significance in modern music.

This month, Musical U brings you Resource Packs to give you the theory and specific instrument techniques needed to understand and play the Blues. This covers everything from the form, phrasing, and chord progression behind this style, to the tools you’ll need to start improvising and composing your own licks and riffs.

Head to The Blues: Resource Pack Preview for a peek at what our Resident Pros in piano, bass, and guitar have in store to help you play this improvisational and deeply emotive style.

When you think of the Blues and guitar, you are probably imagining an iconic blues solo from B.B. King, Eric Clapton, or one of the other legendaries. As these guitarists exemplify, there are some stylistic qualities of Blues guitar that are unique to the genre. Best Blues Guitar Lessons Online shows you how to take a short lick and “bluesify” it.

While the guitar player is soloing away, what is the rest of the band supposed to do? The Blues are fantastic for bass players as well, and a bassist has a lot of freedom to add their own harmony and color during a solo. Become a Bassist demonstrates some of the unique licks that a bass player can add to make the solo section even more full and musical.

When we think of the Blues, the 12-Bar Blues progression and walking bass are two things that typically come to mind – after the melancholy lyrics, of course. But don’t be too sad, piano players, you have a starring role in the genre as well! Music Motivation uses the 12-Bar Blues to show how to add a walking bass pattern on the piano.

A Musical Life

As many musicians with a rich, lengthy career will tell you, a musical journey often involves unexpected surprises, revelations, and a whole lot of shifting gears.

From playing classical piano, to touring the world in a reggae band, to discovering the Native American flute, to studying and playing Klezmer and Mariachi music, Andrew’s never-ending thirst for discovery of new genres, instruments, and musical traditions has fuelled his rich career as a multi-instrumental musician, educator, composer, and author.

In The Musicality of Sitting on a Rock, with Andrew Bishko, he discusses his incredible collection of musical experiences and how they have informed his student-centric teaching method, and shares a plethora of wisdom and insight that could only come from a decades-long career fuelled by an immeasurable love and curiosity for music.

For all that he has accomplished, it was surprising to learn that Andrew started off struggling on the flute. No matter where we end up, all musicians start out at the same place… and that can be comforting! For the aspiring flautist, flute embouchure mistakes are common when first picking up the instrument. The Flute Coach discusses six embouchure mistakes to avoid.

When he was young, singing was a physical impossibility. But Andrew has grown to love singing! At Musical U, we believe that the voice is our natural instrument and singing is a very important part of becoming a musician. Yes, even for non-singers! Sing Like You Speak has a fantastic lesson for bringing out the natural singer within you by using your natural abilities to breathe and speak.

It’s always inspiring to hear Andrew talk about his experiences with the Native American flute, and even more inspiring to hear him play. For Native Americans, the flute isn’t just a musical instrument – it is a means for deeply personal expression, used in ceremonies and spoken of in legends. Carolin Nobles gives a beginner lesson on getting started on this wonderful instrument.

The Science of Learning

Memory is funny. You’ll learn a piece to perfection, perform it for an examination, then take a little bit of time off – and poof, it’s gone.

What if there was a way to apply the neuroscience behind memory to your musical learning, and make things really stick?

In The Magic Number and How to Use It to Learn Anything, music educator Suzan Stroud explores the concepts of working memory, learning in threes, and musical mastery to show you how you can learn as much as possible, as fast as possible – without any mental fatigue.

We at Musical U often mention that learning to play music has many benefits beyond just becoming a musician. These benefits have been extensively documented in several scientific studies, and one of the most intriguing things about playing music is its positive impact on the brain. Smart Piano offers a look at what happens to the brain while playing an instrument.

Suzan talked about three major types of memory involved in the process of learning music. Many musicians rely on muscle memory to “get the music under their fingers” and will be able to play difficult passages with confidence. Maui Music School examines the concept of muscle memory.

You may be familiar with certain sayings that music teachers and musicians have developed to help remember the notes on the staff. In many ways, finding memorization tricks can be very useful. Musicians Inspired recommends that you use the Landmark System to speed up memorization of the notes.

The Lydian Chromatic Concept

In Western music, we often think of the major scale as the “base” scale – the one that we compare all other scales to.

However, there’s another scale that is more balanced, tranquil, and centered than the major scale – the Lydian mode.

In About the Lydian Chromatic Concept, Musical U’s Andrew Bishko discusses the fascinating theory that places the Lydian scale at the center of the Western equal-tempered system, and showing the far-reaching influence of the concept tonal gravity.

What an amazing concept that Andrew discussed – there is much that even the experienced musician can learn in this episode. If you found that you needed some visual aids to help further your understanding of this subject, check out this great lesson from Arthur Fox Music that illustrates the tertian order explained in the episode.

George Russell, the man behind the Lydian Chromatic Concept, was indeed a revolutionary, and his legacy lives on with his students, like Andrew. Another follower of The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization is pianist, teacher, and composer Andy Wasserman. Learn more about Andy in his interview with Jazz Monthly, in which he discusses the musical revelations brought on by his discovery of the Lydian Chromatic Concept.

In a previous Musical U blogpost, Andrew taught how you can start modal improvisation easily on the piano. The Lydian mode has its own unique characteristics that make it perfect for this exercise. Get started with the London Piano Institute’s great beginner lesson on improvising in Lydian.

From Genre to Genre

After you have a good grasp of your instrument, a great avenue to explore is to switch things up and learn a style or tradition outside your primary genre of study.

Are you a classical piano student? Try incorporating jazz or the Blues into your repertoire. Do you play lead guitar in a metal band? Add some rhythmic interest to your playing by taking cues from math rock. Is reggae your jam? Why not learn to play in the similarly groovy styles of funk and soul?

The post Getting the Blues, A Musical Life, The Science of Learning, and The Lydian Chromatic Concept appeared first on Musical U.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/majoring-in-music-choosing-a-school-thats-right-for-you/
What’s the best path to achieving your musical goals? Music schools can provide an intense and concentrated learning experience to boost your musicianship to the level you desire. With MajoringInMusic.com https://www.musical-u.com/learn/majoring-in-music-choosing-a-school-thats-right-for-you/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/patterns-playgrounds-4-ways-approach-improvisation/
If you want to improvise music you are eventually going to have to confront the fact: learning to improvise is hard. Learn some insights and approaches to help make this an easy and natural part of your musicality. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/patterns-playgrounds-4-ways-approach-improvisation/

The major scale may get all the attention, but have you been introduced to its close relative, the Lydian scale? In this episode, Musical U’s own Andrew Bishko discusses the Lydian and the associated Lydian Chromatic Concept – a theory that may change the way you think about the major scale forever…

Listen to the episode:

Links and Resources

• Interview with Andrew
• The Lydian Scale: Seeking the Ultimate Mysteries of Music
• The Lydian Chromatic Concept, by George Russell
• Tension and Release in Music

Transcript

Christopher: On today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about something which came up in our recent interview with Andrew Bishko, from the Musical U team. It was mentioned in the episode, but we didn’t really dwell on it because I knew I would want to have Andrew back to talk about it in much more detail. That topic is the Lydian Chromatic Concept, which I have to confess I didn’t really … I don’t think I’d even heard of before Andrew started working with us at Musical U. It was fascinating to learn from him all about this way of thinking about music.
He wrote a fantastic two part article for us, a while back, which was entitled “The Lydian Scale: Seeking the Ultimate Mysteries of Music.” If that doesn’t whet your appetite for what might be in store, I don’t know what will. Welcome to the show, Andrew. Thanks for coming back to share a little bit about this fascinating topic.

Andrew: Great. It’s great to be here, Christopher.

Christopher: Get us started from the beginning. What is the Lydian Chromatic Concept, and where did it come from?

Andrew: Well, the Lydian Chromatic Concept was originated by a guy named George Russell. He was hanging out in the forties and fifties with all the great jazz innovators of that time. He was himself a French horn player, playing some jazz French horn; but he was very interested in theory and in the new movements in jazz. One day he was talking with Miles Davis, and he asked what his goals were.

Miles said, “I want to play all the changes.” George was fascinated by his response because if anybody knew the chord changes inside out in that time period, it was Miles Davis.

He pondered in what would it be to play all the changes? He came up with a different kind of a music theory. Most of music theory that we have right now explains how … Musicians will do something. They’ll invent something. They’ll come up with something. Then, the music theorists come in and say, ‘Okay. That’s how it works. That’s how it fits.’ They’re talking about how it works, but George wanted to know why it worked. He came up with this concept, the Lydian Chromatic Concept, based on a new picture of scales and chords.

Christopher: I think to me, as a scientist, I think of it as a “model”. I don’t know, the word ‘concept’ to me can mean just an idea, but really it’s a whole model for how music is put together, I think, and how to think about things like melody and harmony.

Andrew: Yes. George called it a unified field theory of music, which is something that…

Christopher: Nice.

Andrew: Yes. Something physicists have been after right now to try and unite quantum physics with Einsteinian physics, and make one theory that explains everything.

Christopher: Well, certainly I think you can see it as the one model to rule them all. We better dive in and talk about what exact this Lydian Chromatic Concept is. What does it have to do? Maybe that’s sort of a good place to start. What does it have to do with what some of our listeners may already be familiar with, which is the Lydian mode?

Andrew: Okay. Well, the Lydian mode is a very particular scale, and a lot of times we learn the Lydian mode in reference to the major scale.

So if you have a scale like we usually think of a scale, like a C major scale. C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. Going up and down in steps, but of course those notes can be played in any order. You can skip things like you could play a C major scale in what we call Tertian order, in all thirds; … where I’m just going up in the air. There’s the last one. Going up and skipping up in thirds. Similarly, you can play them with fifths.

Now, if you look at the circle of fifths, … the fifth is a fundamental interval in nature. It’s created with a pure mathematical ratio of two to three. What that means is that it’s a very strong sound. You hear a fifth, it has that hollow kind of resonant sound to it. This isn’t by accident or random. It’s because the fifth is the purity of the mathematical ratios. The circle of fifths is organized in this way according to this interval. If I play … a scale in the order of fifths, if I went all perfect fifths going from C. I’d go C … G … D … A … E … B … F sharp. If I sandwich all those notes down, I would get a scale starting on C … where instead of F being the fourth degree, it’s F sharp. That’s how the Lydian mode is derived.

Christopher: Interesting, so let’s pause for a second there and make sure that’s clear.

Andrew: Yeah.

Christopher: So what you did was you started from the note C, and without any regard to key signatures, or scales, or anything like that, you just took this fundamental interval of a fifth. You went up a fifth from a C to get to a G, and then you did it again from G to get to a D, and so on, until you had seven notes to build your scale with. You put them all within one octave. You just collapsed them down into one octave, and that produced your Lydian scale. Is that right?

Andrew: That’s correct. Our present harmony system, in many ways, it’s called Tertian harmony. It’s based on intervals of thirds. Like if you go back in time, back like in the Middle Ages, in the Renaissance, a third was actually considered a dissonance. The consonant intervals were the ones that were these pure mathematical ratios, which were octaves and fifths. Then, a fourth, which was the inverted fifth. They have that resonant quality. If you’re basing things on that, then you come up with a Lydian scale, rather than a major scale.

Christopher: As you pointed out there, the one real difference between those two is just one note. Even though it’s built in this quite different way, you end up with a scale which is the same as the major scale, except one note is changed, right?

Andrew: That’s correct. The only difference between here’s a C major scale. … The C Lydian … is that note. … The fourth note.

Christopher: Just play up and down those first four notes for us, if you would? I think that creates a real mood that does not sound like a major scale.

Andrew: This is the major scale … and the Lydian. …

Christopher: I think we’re immediately transported into quite a different musical … a flavor to come back to our previous episode about scales and their flavors. There’s that Lydian flavor jumping out at us. This leads on, I think to one of the big concepts that we just briefly touched on in our interview related to the Lydian Chromatic Concept, which is “gravity”. The idea that there is a tonal gravity wrapped up in all this. Can you tell us what that is and how it relates to this fourth note changing?

Andrew: Absolutely. We talk about … A lot of times, we talk about the tonic. The tonic is, in any scale, is usually the first note. It’s the note that everything is gravitating towards, or resolving to that note. … That’s an example that we’re all familiar with in terms of tonal gravity, that idea of resolution. In any interval, if you really listen carefully. This is a great ear training exercise. There’s a tonic of even an interval, and not just a scale. For example, if I play … a second, just going from C to D, and then I come back … it resolves back down to the C. It resolves to the lower note in the interval.

If I look at a major scale, I mean at a Lydian scale, rather. If you go through this, I’m not going to do the whole thing right now, but every interval resolves back down to the tonic. Every interval in this scale. It has a very restful quality and feeling to it, the Lydian scale. It’s kind of space-y [plays]… It’s very restful… There’s not a lot of tonal gravity. There’s not a lot of conflict in that scale. So it has this very space-y, relaxed thing. If you play this for people, a lot of times they’ll just, ‘Oh, it’s time for the spa. It’s time to… It’s time for a massage,’ or something.

Now, if we look at the major scale, we have that interval of the fourth. … Perfect fourth. Now the fourth … resolves upward. It’s really just an inverse of a dominant/tonic relationship, but it’s resolving upward to the fourth degree. All the other intervals are resolving down, except that fourth. It’s a very strong resolution upward.

Christopher: Cool, so I’m going to … Sorry to interrupt, but I’m going to just jump in and make sure everyone’s with us when we’re talking about “resolving”. I remember when I was first learning music, that sounded like such a music theory word. For a long time, I didn’t really know what people meant when they talked about resolving. It sounded like complex Roman numerals, and classical music analysis. All we’re talking about here is that music tends to create tension and release. We have a module on this in Musical U, because it’s so fundamental.

When you hear even just a pair of notes, like Andrew demonstrated, often it sounds musically like we’re coming home with one of them, or we’re coming to rest with one of them. One of them’s creating a little departure, and then the other one brings it home. What Andrew was saying there was that in the Lydian scale, any pair of intervals from the root note are going to resolve back to that bottom note. It’s always the bottom one that’s the tonic; whereas in the major scale with its fourth note a bit different from the Lydian scale. Actually, that one sticks out and it has an inverse tonal gravity, meaning it’s the top note that sounds like its being resolved to. Andrew, maybe you could just demonstrate that perfect fourth and augmented fourth comparison for us, so we can hear that resolution in one direction versus the other.

Andrew: Yes, yes. Very well said, Christopher. If I go to … the fourth, it resolves up. There’s a long of songs that start with that interval. Ba-dum, makes this a real solid beginning to a melody. Now, the … when I come down, it wants to go back up to that F. It doesn’t want to stay there. It wants to come back up and resolve to the F.

Now, with the augmented fourth, or tri-tone, … It’s a interesting interval because it’s symmetrical and can go both ways, and it kind of doesn’t really want to resolve anywhere. It just hangs out there. In general, it’s more of a downward … That’s more of a resolved feeling going back down to the tonic. It certainly doesn’t have that strong pull upwards like the fourth does.

Christopher: Great, and I loved a point you made in your article, which was that this is where the word ‘diatonic’ comes from that people might have heard of. Can you explain that a little bit?

Andrew: Yeah. Diatonic simply means two tonics. The diatonic scale has two strong centers of tonal gravity, which is the root and then the fourth degree. What happens is that the major scale is a very restless scale. It’s always feeling like it wants to resolve, and it can’t quite get there. That’s why you have … You could have a Beethoven coda where it’s going … I don’t know, that wasn’t played very well, but you get the idea. It can just can go on forever, this idea of tension and resolution, tension and resolution, tension and resolution.

You have this kind of a … thing in Western music. It’s interesting that the major scale wasn’t really the major scale until around the year 1600. That’s when it really solidified. Until then, there was all these various modes that were used. Just around the time, and if you look at what’s happening around 1600. You have the age of exploration. You have the Renaissance. You have the Reformation. You have this huge expansion in Western culture, this restlessness that was perfectly portrayed in the restlessness of the music in this motion forward, that’s this perpetual motion; especially if you listen to a composer of the 1700s like Bach and Handel, that there’s this motion, this incessant energy. It’s this … This is reflected in the music of that culture and in the diatonic scale.

Christopher: Fantastic. Well, I know that when I first learned about this stuff from Andrew, it blew my mind a little bit. If you’re listening to this thinking, ‘Wow, that’s kind of crazy,’ you’re not alone. I think a lot of us take the major scale for granted, as kind of the base scale that everything else comes from. But as we’ve unpacked here, arguably the major scale is a bit of an odd one. The Lydian scale is a lot more balanced, and tranquil, and has that single tonic. I hope this has set off some new thoughts in your heads and sparked some inspiration maybe. Andrew, what should people do if they’re curious, and excited, and want to do something with the Lydian scale and the Lydian Chromatic Concept, or want to learn more about it?

Andrew: Well, my first suggestion is just to explore it. Explore the Lydian scale and all the modes by … it’s really easy just to improvise; even on the piano. If you don’t know how to play piano and you just play an F with your left hand. Then you play on the white keys, you’re playing a Lydian scale. … To explore the sounds and the gravity of the scale … Then you can do that with the other modes as well, which gives you the contrast where you can feel different kinds of … of tonal gravity.

I do want to point out that George Russell wasn’t saying that the Lydian scale was better than other scales. It’s just a … It’s more the center. The Lydian scale is the center rather than the major scale. It’s the center scale that we could base everything out of to get a true picture of the range of possibilities available in music, from … more ingoing, what he called, to more outgoing.

I’m just side stepping your question. How can you learn more about it? The first thing is just to play with it. Then, go online, do some research about it. Get one of George Russell’s books … and explore it in your own music, and what it sounds like to you.

Christopher: Terrific. Well, we’ll certainly have a link in the shownotes to Andrew’s article on the topic, as well as other useful resources if you want to explore this further. If it’s good enough for Miles Davis and George Russell, it’s certainly worth some of your time and attention. I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief introduction, and thank you again, Andrew, for joining us to share this.

Andrew: Thank you, Christopher. It was a lot of fun.

The post About the Lydian Chromatic Concept appeared first on Musical U.

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Even though it might seem magical when someone sits down at the piano or picks up the guitar and seems to know every song, with a little chord ear training, you can do it too! Get started with the Musical U team. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/chord-ear-training-101-2/