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Answers to Frequently Asked QuestionsTable of Contents
What is a By Ear Musician?Just about everyone is a "By Ear Musician". Most everyone has learned to sing a song by hearing it over and over. When it comes to instruments, the process is a little more complicated but is essentially the same. When you hear someone use the term "playing by ear" they are usually referring to someone that has learned to play an instrument through listening. Although a By Ear Musician may learn by observing others play or using chord diagrams from a song book, those that play by ear are dependent on "knowing" the tune. More significantly, most By Ear Musicians do not read music. Back to TopWhat is a chord ?Three or more notes played at the same time make a chord. Some teach that only two notes are necessary to make a chord. Two note combinations have not been named, so for practical purposes we assume the three note definition. What is a chord's definition ? The specific notes in a chord are said to be the chord's definition. One of each of the notes in the definition must be played to make the chord. You can play duplicate notes which do not change the chord definition, for example, 2 C's, 1 E and 3 G's - all combinations of C,E and G create the C chord. Back to TopWhat is a "position" of a chord? Every different way that the notes of a chord can be arranged on the fretboard is called a position. If a note of the chord occurs more than once (duplicate), each addition creates another position of the same chord. You might want to add duplicate notes for the sake of melody line, bass progression or richness of sound. The word open means to play a string without depressing it against the fretboard. The sound produced is determined by the instrument's tuning. Isn't a Position Cluster just a simple listing of the notes on an instrument.... ?No. Each Position Cluster shows the notes of a particular chord, leaving out unplayable notes. The purpose of the Position Cluster is to give only usable information. Back to TopWhy is a Position Cluster preferred ...?Several finger positions of a chord are represented on a single grid with the Position Cluster. Following the definition of the chord, the player chooses a position based on fingering ease, the sound or other criteria such as how a position might fit with other chords, melody or bass progression in a song. Back to TopWhat's an Open TuningThe term Open Tuning refers to the sound produce when all strings are played without depressing any string against the fretboard. This is achieved by tuning each string of the instrument to represent one of the notes of any particular chord definition. There are several open tunings that have come into popular use, among them Open D, Open G and Open A. In each case, the strings are tuned so that only the notes of the D chord, G chord, or A chord are sounded when all the strings are played unfretted-fretted. Some styles of music are often played in specific tunings. Blues players, for example, often open tune to a D chord. Jazz players may tune open to A or G. Usually this provides easier finger positions for the more difficult chords, richer or very specific harmonies and more flexibility when arranging or writing songs.Why are there blank grids in the Workbook version of Create-A-Chord?When you have found that perfect finger position, you want to remember it! Create-A-Chord is designed to give the user the maximum choice in what positions to play. A blank grid is provided next to each Position Cluster for a place to record your first chosen position. Why are there occasional blank grids in the Intermediate and Professional versions of Create-A-Chord?Occasionally, blank grids, besides those for recording positions in the Workbook, may also be found in other versions of Create-A-Chord and have a special meaning. It tells you what is not possible. Create-A-Chord will first give a position that spans 3 frets if it is available at that location. If not, it will give a position that spans 4 frets. If there is no 4 fret position at that location on the fingerboard, Create-A-Chord will then show a "blank" grid. Including this information is important for several reasons. One is that, as a "spacer" it makes Create-A-Chord books uniform across tunings and instruments. If you wanted to compare different tunings for a particular instrument, you could easily trace the changes within the Position Clusters because chords of the same name would be on the same page and location within each version of the Create-A-Chord books (these comparisons can be made from Workbook to Workbook or Intermediate to Intermediate, and Professional to Professional versions). Secondly, it tells you that a particular chord is not available in that area of the fretboard. This is important when arranging and writing and might indicate that you need to transpose the piece to a different key or change to an Open Tuning of your instrument. Every song has a melody and a supporting group of chords in a specific sequence. These factors determine the key of the piece. The sequence of chords is determined by the sequence of notes which make up the melody. Usually the first chord in a song is made from the beginning note of the melody. Some people find a particular song causes them to have to sing too high. Others find they have to sing too low. When any of the notes of the song are too high or low, all of the notes have to be lowered or raised. This means that all of the chords which support that melody are going shift up or down with the changed desired. The "shift" up or down reflects the transposing of the piece of music. It is sometimes done for instrumental music for ease of fingering. Email
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