Learning guitar

[NakedApe]

Thanks... I would need to break out the capo and play with it, because all I recall it doing is make the pitch higher the higher up you place it. Putting the capo on the first fret is equal go tuning all 6 strings up a whole step. I don't really care what note it is, it's all relative. It isn't that simple? 

Hey madscijr. It is that simple except that each fret up or down the neck is only a half step - not a whole step. Putting a capo on just below the first fret and playing a C chord just above it would make it a C# chord. The circle of 5ths on the simplest level tells you what the V chord (or note) of a key would be: C, Dm, Em, F, G, so G is the 5th of C. And when you're playing in the key of G the chords go:
G = 1, Am = 2, Bm = 3, C = 4, D = 5, so D is the 5th of G. A whole lot of rock music is basically I, IV, V chords or G-C-D. That's why The Rolling Stones manager called them his "Three Chord Wonders." 

[madscijr]

Interesting - but what's a "v-chord"? LoL

Three chord wonders! They certainly made the most of them. In his memoir "Life" Keith Richards tells about recording "Jumpin' Jack Flash" with a capo, to get the guitar sounding "tight". It sounds like an electric guitar, but did you know that was done with an acoustic? Cassette recorders were in their infancy and didn't yet have basic features like volume limiters, and he recorded his acoustic guitar on one with the input volume turned way up so that it distorted. Brilliant!

[OldMoses]

Interesting - but what's a "v-chord"? LoL

Three chord wonders! They certainly made the most of them. In his memoir "Life" Keith Richards tells about recording "Jumpin' Jack Flash" with a capo, to get the guitar sounding "tight". It sounds like an electric guitar, but did you know that was done with an acoustic? Cassette recorders were in their infancy and didn't yet have basic features like volume limiters, and he recorded his acoustic guitar on one with the input volume turned way up so that it distorted. Brilliant!

V as in Roman numeral for 5. The fifth chord in the scale series. The V chord of C major would be G major

I      C maj
II     D min
III    E min
IV    F maj
V     G maj
VI    A min
VII   B min diminished

[madscijr]

By the V chord of c major do you mean of the c major scale? 
Is the V chord of c minor different? 
What about other kinds of scales like penatonic or blues scales? 
Are there different chords for all the different scales? 
Is there a table somewhere that lists all these chords and scales?
(I think I found a mathematical method to determine them, but it might take some time to programatically figure out, let alone compute...)
I would like a machine-readable table of all the scales and chords in existence, including the microtonal ones like Indian ragas!  

Anyway, thanks for explaining what a V chord is, I actually had no idea.

[OldMoses]

Here's a screen shot of a C minor scale displaying the V chord Gmin notes in yellow. I haven't tried alternative scales, other than the modal stuff, but my scale algorithm should be able to accommodate them. The code uses a 12 element true/false byte array that I rotate in a manner similar to how bits are rotated with _ROL & _ROR. That happens in SUB RotArrayM. Each element of the array corresponds to a note in the chromatic scale. That way I just align the tonic notes in the note array and starting point depending on the mode, then iterate through the note array picking out those that align with true and rejecting the false ones. Just drop a couple of select trues from the byte array and you've got a pentatonic builder.

[madscijr]

Here's a screen shot of a C minor scale displaying the V chord Gmin notes in yellow. I haven't tried alternative scales, other than the modal stuff, but my scale algorithm should be able to accommodate them. The code uses a 12 element true/false byte array that I rotate in a manner similar to how bits are rotated with _ROL & _ROR. That happens in SUB RotArrayM. Each element of the array corresponds to a note in the chromatic scale. That way I just align the tonic notes in the note array and starting point depending on the mode, then iterate through the note array picking out those that align with true and rejecting the false ones. Just drop a couple of select trues from the byte array and you've got a pentatonic builder. 

Rotating an array - my vb6 guitar tab app worked similarly for transposing songs. I don't know what a tonic note is... jeez, I don't know what any of that stuff is, it looks really complicated, but it's impressive how you have that all worked out. 

Now here's a question, can that app be used to hear what these different musical concepts sound like? Because my main frustration with trying to learn music theory has always been that I can't go one sentence without some term or other coming up where I need to hear what they're talking about, since my orientation is purely by ear. If there were an app that just serves as a combination music dictionary / sound board for all those concepts, that would be useful for me.

[OldMoses]

My ap won't play "chords" per se, it will play single tones through the SOUND command, so it's nothing that sophisticated. I envisioned the ap to be a visual aid to the guy with a guitar in his lap for navigating the fret board. Oh, and a tonic (or root) note is the first note in a scale and the note for which the scale is named (i.e. C is the tonic of the C major scale). In my ap, the tonic is indicated by the solid color mark with the SIN gradient. The others are flat colored and pie sliced by their position in the scale progression.

[madscijr]

My ap won't play "chords" per se, it will play single tones through the SOUND command, so it's nothing that sophisticated. I envisioned the ap to be a visual aid to the guy with a guitar in his lap for navigating the fret board. Oh, and a tonic (or root) note is the first note in a scale and the note for which the scale is named (i.e. C is the tonic of the C major scale). In my ap, the tonic is indicated by the solid color mark with the SIN gradient. The others are flat colored and pie sliced by their position in the scale progression.

OK, gotcha. Now I know what a tonic note is. 
(How did these crazy names for things come about anyway?? LoL)
Thanks!

[bplus]

Talking about origins of music specially scales I happened to catch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cHHRXJRIAE

which of course blames math as the language of the divine as the origin

So 432 to you all!

[madscijr]

Talking about origins of music specially scales I happened to catch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cHHRXJRIAE

which of course blames math as the language of the divine as the origin

So 432 to you all!

I was reading about how they changed the frequency of the A note above middle C from 432Hz to 440Hz and there's a TON of debate, conspiracy theories and more on it. A real Pandora's box!