Can You Still Play Guitar if You are Tone Deaf

Author: ian Williamson

Having a disability should not be a hindrance nor keep a person from pursuing a goal. Though the task may be difficult, it is not impossible.

A good example is Beethoven. Though this composer could hear as a child, he gradually lost his hearing after many years of playing the piano. It did not stop this not stop him from creating many masterpieces that are still played and treasured today. The secret was being able to feel the vibrations each time the keys were depressed.

Being tone deaf means that a person is not able to distinguish various pitches. Though it does not occur often, a person who has this problem can still learn how to play a guitar.

Songs are made up of different notes and at various pitches. Since each note has a distinguishable tone, start by playing each note and listening to each one carefully. When the person has is able to distinguish the changes, he can start playing the song.

It takes visualization for this to happen he should look at the reflection in a mirror when striking each chord. Later, when he is confident, he can try playing it without any visual aid.

Making some improvements to the instrument will also assist the player. The inlay is one part of the guitar that needs to be modified. Usually, this comes in dots, diamond shapes and parallelograms. By adding lights to it, the person will know at what pitch is being played so that he can still know the tone of the music.

If the person is financially able he can have the guitar wired to a machine that will monitor the notes being strummed and comparing that with the notes of the song. By knowing where the mistakes are made when practicing on it, he will be able to correct them and play correctly. While this may be a costly issue it surely is worth the expense.

Tone deafness is something that may have been inherited at birth or may happen to a person later in life. Even though a person may have this disability, it should not hinder anyone who has the desire to enjoy playing music. Remember that here are others who have experienced this difficulty and it did not stop them from singing or playing a musical instrument.

Piano Playing is Easier than You Think When You Understand Musical Form

Author: Duane Shinn

Form is the key that unlocks the musical map of a song or a musical composttion. Like a house has rooms, so a song has rooms or sections.

Chord progressions come in sections, like one room in a house. You can put several different rooms together to make a big house, or you can live in a one room house. Just like people. In most 3rd world countries people live in one room houses -- which means, of course, that much of the world lives in one-room houses.

Those of us who live in the West generally live in multi-room houses.

But there are also musical houses -- we call them songs -- that are built out of several different rooms -- several different chord progressions. Some of them, like mansions and castles, go on and on and get quite involved.

But most songs are like many modest houses -- they have 2 or 3 rooms, sometimes 4 -- built using 2 or 3 or 4 different chord progressions.

Each "room" in a musical house is called a theme, or a "motif". The first theme is always called "A". The next theme is called "B", the next theme is called "C", and so on. Most songs only have 2 or 3 themes, but these themes often repeat.

For example, let's say we have a chord progression that goes like this:

C Am7 Dm7 G7

...and then it repeats those same 4 chords...

and then we have another chord progression that goes like this: Gm7 C7 F Fm7 Bb7 Eb G7

...and then the first chord progression is used again as the song ends.

This song would have a musical form of A, A, B, A -- main theme, repeat of main theme, contrasting theme, main theme.

If a song went like this:

Theme contrast theme

-- it would be known as ABA musical form

If a song went like this:

Theme, theme, contrast, theme

-- then the song would be in AABA musical form

The "B" section of a song is sometimes called the "bridge", or the "release", or the "chorus". These terms usually mean the same thing -- depending upon the form used.

Can you guess what this might be called?

Theme - contrast - theme - contrast - theme - contrast - theme - contrast

Right you are! A B A B form.

This is also known as "verse-chorus" form.

Most popular songs fall into one of these forms:

A B A

A A B A

A B A C A

A B A B

Why should you care?

Because if you know songs are constructed this way, you can look at songs with smart eyes -- you know what to look for, and once you determine the form, you have a "mental map" of the song -- you're not just wandering from chord to chord anymore.

In addition, most songs are proportional. That is -- 4 bars of section A, then 4 bars of section B, then another 4 bars of section A, and so on. You will find TONS and TONS of popular songs that are 32 bars long in A A B A form -- 8 bars of theme A, 8 bars of theme A repeated, then a bridge of 8 bars, finishing with 8 bars of theme A.

Does that give you an advantage knowing that?

It gives you a HUGE advantage because you know what to look for, and you know that if you learn theme A you have automatically learned 75% of the song! All that remains is to learn the 8 bars of the bridge, and you've got it!

Keep playing and enjoy your newly found talent.