12 bar chords
Sun, 11/06/2016 - 18:54
Why in the song Temperature which is played in the key of E start with B. wouldn't the I chord (i.e. first scale degree) be E?
Mon, 11/14/2016 - 20:17
#2
12 bar chords
thanks much Brian. I believe I understand now. Any note within the root note chord (1st, 3rd, 5th or b7) can start the I chord. I also understand the keys in any harmonica are automatically transposed for us. To be honest, I asked David this question also and you explained this better than David did. (nothing against David of course, he does a great job explaining things in his lessons) thanks
Kurt
You are correct that on the I chord, E will be the first degree or more commonly known as your root note. On your harmonica this is the 2 draw. The three draw which starts the song is a G#. You do not need to always start on the root note. Any chord tone, 3rd or 5th scale degree is OK as well. In this case the G# is the 3rd.
On David's study songs he normalizes them on the staff to the G scale. So instead of the root being at the song key on a I chord, it is always shown on the G. He can probably explain this better, but instead of memorizing all the notes on every harmonica, one can just memorize the note layout on a C harmonica (2nd position). Whatever key harmonica you pick up is complimentary such that you pretend you are playing a C even though you are playing another key. By normalizing the song to G it helps you identify easier where you are on the harp by only needing the know the one layout on a C harp. David's later studies explain this and show you how to normalize the song to G. I think level 5 shows how to transpose any song to G. You might want to check it out for a more detailed explanation. Let me know if you are still a bit confused or feel free to ask David.
Brian