Who said...

[@nthony]

It's not the notes you play its the spaces in-between them?


I think I've finally worked out what this means. Correct me guys if I'm wrong but does this mean all music is just how the ear and the brain interprets the interval between any given two notes played?

If this is the case then this is pretty interesting stuff for me

What is a good way of learning intervals and training the ear?

And probably more fundamentally how do you work out what intervals work over what chords? Is it as simple as I think it is? i.e. Say an A minor chord, I'd highlight the root note, the minor 3rd and maybe the 5th, as stopping points along a riff or lick? because minor chords contain those scale notes?

Sorry for all the questions I realise some will be easier to answer than others. I feel like I'm approaching a musical epiphany, only can't quite hit the climax!

:beavisnbutthead:

 

[Robert]

Yep, you are on the right track!

Focusing on chord notes is a good idea. It makes your playing sound less scale-based and more melodic. 1, 3, 5, 7 are all good intervals to hit, for most chords. [But for a chord like for example E7b9, you could focus on the minor second (the b9) to better fit with the chord. This is a bit more jazz oriented perhaps, but good to know.]

I wrote a bit about intervals in this post - http://www.dolphinstreet.com/blog/fretboard-visualization.php have a look and see the resources I listed.

http://www.good-ear.com/ is a good start for ear training.

 

[Tig]

I think Robert covered it well, but I have to embed this from Amadeus, just for fun!



:notme

 

[R_of_G]

i think the quote has as much to do with phrasing as anything else

for instance, each of us could play the exact same melody line and yet no two of us would sound exactly the same, and not just tonally, but in the way we phrase the melody and much of that has to do with how much space we leave between notes

more than one player has said that it's not the notes that matter but the silence between the notes

then again, you guys know me enough by now to know to me phrasing is everything

 

[Rampant]

Supercalifraj

Although the intervals concept is important, for me it's the other interpretation of "spaces in between" that's crucial. The silences. The tension



Mark H

 

[marnold]

Reminds me of a Monty Python skit where a man is interviewing a great Shakespearean actor.

Q: How many words did you have to say as King Lear at the Aldwitch in '52?
A: Ah, well, I don't want you to get the impression it's just a question of the number of words, um, I mean, getting them in the right order is just as important. Old Peter Hall used to say to me, "They're all there already--now we've got to get them in the right order." And, er, for example, you can also say one word louder than another--er, "To BE or not to be," or "To be OR not to be," or "To be or not to BE"--you see? And so on.

I'm pretty good at writing a clever turn of the phrase (despite what my posts on here might indicate), but I have a much harder time on guitar. To extend the metaphor, I'm still learning how to speak.

 

[oldguy]

I think Robert covered it well, but I have to embed this from Amadeus, just for fun!



:notme

That prob'ly explains why I've always preferred some violinists to banjo pickers, and some blues players to shredders.......:what

 

[NWBasser]

It's not the notes you play its the spaces in-between them?


I think I've finally worked out what this means. Correct me guys if I'm wrong but does this mean all music is just how the ear and the brain interprets the interval between any given two notes played?

If this is the case then this is pretty interesting stuff for me

What is a good way of learning intervals and training the ear?

And probably more fundamentally how do you work out what intervals work over what chords? Is it as simple as I think it is? i.e. Say an A minor chord, I'd highlight the root note, the minor 3rd and maybe the 5th, as stopping points along a riff or lick? because minor chords contain those scale notes?

Sorry for all the questions I realise some will be easier to answer than others. I feel like I'm approaching a musical epiphany, only can't quite hit the climax!

:beavisnbutthead:

I think it was Duke Ellington who said that music is the space between notes.

Or something to that effect, and it's a pretty important concept to understand.

 

[GreenAsJade]

I guess the OP has worked it out, but just to be sure: the original quote was _not_ referring to intervals between notes (IE the different pitch of notes) it was referring to phrasing.

And probably more fundamentally how do you work out what intervals work over what chords? Is it as simple as I think it is? i.e. Say an A minor chord, I'd highlight the root note, the minor 3rd and maybe the 5th, as stopping points along a riff or lick? because minor chords contain those scale notes?

These are of course important things to understand. They just don't happen to be the topic of that quote. I think the person who said that quote was kinda assuming you already knew about the basics of intervals, and were wondering how to use them to best make _music_

GaJ

 

[@nthony]

Thanks to all that have contributed.

I'm getting there now.