Time for some dumb question - LOA 4 Accompaniment - Section 2 - Vocals with Fills
Working through LOA4, Accompaniment, Section 2 - Vocals with Fills, Example 2.1 Fills, "I Want You With Me",What is the chord one in this song? E, or E7, or something else, and how do we know that?I also noticed that in the third bar of the song one of the fill notes is 5+ (C#). This confuses me. C# is not a note that I would pick if I had to make up my fills. It does not belong to E (or E7) chord notes. (But I know that my thinking is wrong, because it actually sounds nice in this fill).
So what am I not getting? What s the criteria in picking which notes to play, except the ear, for a beginner like me?I haven't gotten to the music theory part of LOA4. Maybe I should look in there?
Thanks a lot.
Hello kvladdan, and thanks for commenting Rob.
For a beginner, the goal is not to construct licks, but grab licks from your study songs that sit over the I Chord. Since fills sit on the I Chord, it's a 1-to-1 match. For analysis (what you're doing now), the simple rule is that if you hold a note, it should be a note of the chord. You can hold a note not of the chord, but it will build tension, and should be resolved to a note of the chord.
In your studies you'll learn about passing tones, neighbor tones, scale tones, etc., so more will be revealed to you over your lessons. As Rob mentioned, the 6th is a very common note, especially in lighter shuffles (which we are using in that study). I like to call it the "honorary chord tone," because of its common use (you'll see it big time in bass likes... Studies 7 and 8).
Thank you both for your insightful comments. I knew I was jumping ahead of myself, but concerning myself with the stuff I didn't even know existed a year ago, amazes me. :) I'll go back to practicing now.
kvladdan:
Stepping in as a fellow learner, ahead of David's response. While your ear hears things that sound good, you're really going to enjoy putting that ear together with "harp geography" as you go through David's music theory stuff.
That C# works, even if used just as a passing tone. While it doesn't "belong" in either the E major chord triad (E-G#-B) or E7 (E-G#-B-D), it IS part of an E major 6th chord (E-G#-B-C#), a nice jazzy-sounding chord. And a nice way to lead into that D for an E7 chord.
Just don't play that C# if someoone else in the band is playing or singing the next-door D. Folk'll think you're trying to emulate mid-20th-Century atonal classical music.