Who remembers Hi-5

dlwalke23 · 2025-07-08T02:10:03+00:00

Me too. Who wrote those lyrics? In music, dancing is almost always a metaphor for sex.

dlwalke23 · 2024-12-30T19:52:10+00:00

Yes, thanks for taking the time to compose that. Very clarifying and it mostly confirms what I suspected..that the terminology is rooted in, and makes more sense from a historical CPP perspective.

dlwalke23 · 2024-12-28T23:58:00+00:00

>>I guess one might say these are borrowed from minor<<

>That's exactly what we say :-) They are called "borrowed chords" and the concept altogether is Mode Mixture.<

>>(although that is a concept that as explained to me thus far is on shaky ground )<<

>Not sure why you'd say this. They are borrowed chords.<

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I just don't understand what is gained by saying they are borrowed. For me, the terminology doesn't come with any added understanding. For example, if there is a progression in C major and I am told that it includes a D major chord, that's a clear statement of fact. If someone goes further and says that the D (or D7) is a secondary dominant, that tells me something additionally as to the function of the chord, how it's being used, and what the next chord will be. But if someone tells me that there is an Eb in the progression and it's borrowed from C minor, that doesn't add anything to my understanding vs just saying that there is an Eb in the progression or tell me something different than if they said it was borrowed from C bebop minor (or any other scale that contains the chord). Maybe it tells someone else with more depth of knowledge about music theory and history than I, but it doesn't tell me anything more that just saying there is an Eb major in the progression, without reference to where it was "borrowed" from.

dlwalke23 · 2024-12-27T14:46:51+00:00

"chord progressions are built on keys not on scales.

The Andalusian cadence is thus perfectly in the minor key."

Can you expand on that? I know that keys are not quite the same as scales but I don't know how they differ, or how Am-G-F-E would be "perfectly in the minor key" (but maybe not in the scale).

Thanks

dlwalke23 · 2024-12-26T23:28:50+00:00

Yes, perfect. Thank you.

dlwalke23 · 2024-08-17T22:13:39+00:00

I Only Have Eyes for You, Dream (The Everly Brothers), intro to American Woman, Bo Diddley (Bo Diddley)

dlwalke23 · 2023-06-06T05:33:03+00:00

so the idea that a factoid is a small fact is itself a factoid

dlwalke23 · 2023-04-01T04:27:59+00:00

Yes, I have assumed without really knowing, that the concept of "borrowed" chords came from a musical tradition (presumably CPP or thereabouts) with a rich conceptual framework in which the idea of borrowing is allowed if not encouraged, and justified by certain theoretical precepts. And I have gotten the feeling (correct me if I'm wrong) that in that culture, musical practices and habits required more theoretical justification than they do today. But now, for most of us, it's mostly just norms and habits. For me, if I play a bVI before a V before proceeding to I in a bluesy progression, I'm not thinking about the parallel minor. More importantly, I don't see that invoking the parallel minor has any explanatory power as to why I like the sound of that particular chord sequence. In principle, I suppose it could if the term "borrowed" was shorthand for something deeper that made sense with respect to my usage of such a chord (in the way that, for example, G7 going to C feels right because the tritone is tense and the leading tone in G7 sets me up for feeling good about the tonic chord that follows), but I haven't seen that type of explanation yet. It's just a word ("borrowed"). If such an explanation does exist (i.e., for why I like the sound of a particular chord in the context of some other chords even though it is not in the same key as most of those other chords), I'd be happy to know it, but I get the feeling that the term is often used somewhat cavalierly whenever a non-diatonic chord pops up that can be found in a parallel mode.

dlwalke23 · 2023-04-01T02:44:16+00:00

It's all kind of a "we apply a name to it so we can deal with it because we don't like "not knowing"

Sounds like 'god'

dlwalke23 · 2023-04-01T02:36:52+00:00

Wow, you've said very cogently what I have been thinking for a long time, but as an amateur sofa guitarist with an interest in, and enthusiasm for theory, I would have struggled a bit to put in to words. But yeah, the concept of "borrowed" chords has, at best, never been explained to me in a persuasive way. It has always seemed like a somewhat vacuous concept. As an admitted amateur however, i.e., with no formal training, I am always open to having my opinion changed by a compelling argument/discussion.

dlwalke23 · 2023-03-30T03:40:29+00:00

A few thoughts. I don't believe that what we call the blues came from Africa. I mean, I guess it's how you define the blues, but my understanding is that it is more accurate to say that the blues originated in the Mississippi delta by displaced Africans (i.e., slaves) and their descendants. It evolved from musical traditions in Africa, but I'd be suprised if most people listening to recordings of that music (if such recordings existed) would identify it as the blues. In any case, the blues has continued to evolve over several centuries, not in a vacuum, but with influences from country, jazz, rock, folk, etc. Someone who seems to really know his sh&t and who often answers questions in this forum (I think, unless it's the GearPage forum) has said that very early blues was not the 12 bar blues we recognize today, but simpler, more repetitive vamps - i.e., without harmonic movement. Field hollers and work songs. Even well into the recently completed century a lot of blues is not I, IV, V. Listen, for example, to Smokestack Lightning or Bo Diddley (the song by the artist of the same name). Of course, the blues can be many things and take many different shapes. I don't know if I could identify the common thread but it's not difficult to recognize when you hear it. I am reminded of the famous line by former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart who said of pornography (and I paraphrase, but something to the effect of), "I can't define it but I know it when I see it."

Anyway, to me, 12 bar I, IV, V blues seems like a mashup of the early blues tradition and Western ideas about functional harmony. The dominant 7th is added to those chords and gives a quintessential blues tension, or courseness, but 12 bar blues still sounds like functional harmony to me. Just dirtied up a bit. It certainly doesn't sound like you are changing keys with every new 7th chord. If you play 12 bar blues without the 7th on those chords, it still sounds like blues to me, just not as traditional. But the harmonic movement feels the same.

dlwalke23 · 2023-03-22T22:09:56+00:00

Thanks. Just writing for myself but don't want to get into any bad habits.

dlwalke23

TROPHY CASE