Composer
Member
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2026
- Messages
- 18
- Reaction score
- 5
- Points
- 3
- Location
- USA
- Gender
- Male
- Country
- United States
My Music History:
I'm retired in my 70's, but I still take time to study music theory on a high level. I just haven't done anything with it career-wise. I have a Specialist Certificate in Orchestration For Film and TV from Berklee School of Music (online). I studied music theory mainly from Peter Alexander's college level music theory texts. Peter was a Berklee grad in music composition for film. His theory books are still available.
I taught myself how to play guitar when I was 17, back in the early 1970's, using old Bob Dylan and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young records, and the guitar books bought for those specific albums. I saved my money working part time jobs and bought my first acoustic guitar, a Suzuki made by Suzuki Violin co. in Japan. That guitar had great tone, even a semi-pro guitarist I was stationed in the USAF with also said so. Folk was the first music style I learned. That's what my older brother started out on also, and he couldn't sing worth a hoot, which I believe he thought was cool for that style (Bob Dylan memories).
When I was a young boy, Mom would take us to town on Saturdays (I'm from a small Southern town near Nashville), and I go to the Ben Franklin five & dime toy store. Outside the entrance was always this Black bluesman playing Blues on an acoustic, and doing some slide also. I'd stop and listen for a while, and pitch nickels in his hat, then go into the toy store. That guy was my version of Curtis Lowe (song by Lynyrd Skynyrd on their Second Helping LP). I would also go to sleep at night listening to a stack of Frank Sinatra records of his 1940's -1950's hits my brother bought for my Mom's birthday. Needless to say, I developed a triplet 3/4 time feel, I had the swing groove down. And you could still hear it in my lead guitar playing later in life (I no longer play because of arthritis in my hands). Mom said the Glenn Miller orchestra was her Beatles. Dad was all Country Music.
When I was about 9 or 10 years old, the Nashville Symphony came to our Grade School and played Classical music in our gym. I was hooked. Soon after I asked Mom for the world's greatest masterpieces Classical LPs advertised on TV. One would think by my show of love for music to that level would have got my parent's attention to get me some music lessons. But they were basically just country folk, never finished high school because of the great depression and WWII. I asked for a banjo when I was 12, never got it, as they said I'd never really learn to play it. They were quite expensive I recall, so I think that was the real reason.
I then heard Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced LP, and was hooked on his cover of the song All Along The Watchtower, particularly with his electric guitar sound and playing. I wanted an electric guitar. It would be years before I got one. Stationed in USAF at Guam, the big Navy base at the other end of the island had a BX (base exchange) where you could order a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar. I put down a deposit and ordered one, it never came. My first electric I bought after my Guam assignment, and was a Gibson ES340 semi-hollow body with a Bigsby tailpiece vibrato, and a phase toggle switch for the pickups, and it was a stereo guitar. You'd use a Y-cord to go to two separate guitar amps. Wish I still had that thing. I later got a used 1970 Fender Stratocaster, and 1983 Eric Clapton Elite Straocaster with active pickups powered by a 9-volt battery (Fender's early development for the later Lace Sensor pickups). And then finally a Fender Telecaster Plus with Lace Sensor pickups.
Then I got into electric Blues, real big. That was a few years into the Allman Brothers Country Blues-Rock style. I also had a healthy study of Black electric Blues, like B.B. King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters, Albert Collins, Bo Diddley, Lowell Fulson, John Lee Hooker, Freddie King, etc., etc. I even got to sit in playing Blues at Beale Street in Memphis where Elvis used to go, an old general store where B.B. King got his start also; Big Mama's it was called when I went there for the Blues festival in May.
In 1985, I got offered to audition for Holly Dunn's Country music band that was getting ready to go on the road. I told them I don't play Country music, that I'm basically a Blues-Rock guitarist, and they said that is exactly what they were looking for. I turned on some Nashville Country music radio the next day, and heard most of the Country songs play a Country Blues-Rock style. I couldn't believe it! That was not the Country music I grew up with, nor what Dad listened to. I still turned them down, because I had a long, hard consideration about the music industry, its involvement with drugs and alcohol, and I didn't want any part in that (drug use in the military in the Vietnam era was really bad.)
All that time I was learning music theory and playing on the side as a hobby, because my main job was as an aviation mechanic. When I finally settled down and had children, that pretty much is when I put the guitar down and devoted most of my time to taking care of my family, and studying God's Word. I got asked to join many bands, but I worked night shift on Friday nights and weekends, so that didn't work out. I would only get asked to sit in occasionally if I stopped after work to hear bands that I knew. Same old hat of music played by most of those bands, ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, BTO, Doobie Brothers, Eric Clapton, Allman Brothers, some Country Rock, stuff to get up and dance to. I guess they call that the Classic Rock era.
Next I got into Blues-Fusion Jazz, stuff like John Scofield played in the '80s and '90s. I had a guitarist friend from New York whose wife was around where I live in Tennessee. They had a farm near me. He would invite me over on a weekend for jam sessions, and he had one rule. You can only play something you wrote, otherwise you jammed over what music progressions we'd all come up with on the spot. No playing covers allowed. These guys cut their teeth (including his bass player friend from NY) on Jazz-Rock in New York. It was a great learning step, as you really had to know some music theory on the guitar fretboard to hang with them. If they say, OK, jam over Em, and that's it, what are you going to do, just keep playing the same old Em chord all the time? No, you had better know several voicings up and down the guitar neck for that Em chord, and also substitute chords for Em, and lead positions that go with them. These guys were also used to playing 'outside' the key to create musical tension, and then with coming back tonally into the key. They would substitute scales like Scott Hendersen of the Tribal Tech Jazz-Fusion band of the '90s. And the bass player, whose father was a violin maker in Europe, could play like Jaco Pastorius. They really had to just put up with my level, because I really wasn't even close to their level. They just said they liked the certain 'feel' I had for playing slightly ahead or behind the beat, which is something John Scofield does. To me, it just means I couldn't play in time that well! But that's what some feel in Jazz is like.
I got into Jazz chord-melody playing next, for solo guitar. That's about playing a tune on solo guitar in 3 parts, the bass line, the melody line, and the chords all at the same time. Chet Atkins was a Country solo-guitarist of that chord-melody style. For Jazz, there are many, but I like Pat Metheny and Tuck Andress the best. John Scofield when he does a solo guitar piece has a cool way of doing it. I got to the level where you could pick a Pop tune, with the music of the melody and chords given only, and I could arrange it for solo guitar chord-melody. I had learned the 12 main chord voicings up and down the guitar neck for the Major, Minor, and Dominant, and 7th, 9th, 11 and 13th chords. That allows that wherever you are at on the 1st and 2nd strings with playing the melody line, you can easily find the chord in that same spot on the middle and bass strings that you need.
Then I developed arthritis in my hands, and I had to put the guitar down.
I never quite studying music theory though. I got the Certificate for Orchestration For Film and TV from Berklee, but after a while I noticed I sounded like everyone else doing basic film and TV work. Diatonic music theory actually is limited, believe it or not. I got interested in Interval music theory, which covers a whole... lot more territory. It's a pretty deep method, simply because of being so used to Diatonic theory, the standard that all the music conservatories teach. Interval theory is a much different level, not that difficult once you understand its basics. And it fits perfectly along with Diatonic theory. It just uses a greater number of intervallic combinations to get more sound colors than the Diatonic system of 7 chords. It's because you use all 12 tones of the Scale, the #'s and the b's.
Here's a link to some of my homework I did at Berklee in orchestration posted at SoundCloud. I think I only have a couple of pieces that I used some Interval Theory on:
soundcloud.com
I'm retired in my 70's, but I still take time to study music theory on a high level. I just haven't done anything with it career-wise. I have a Specialist Certificate in Orchestration For Film and TV from Berklee School of Music (online). I studied music theory mainly from Peter Alexander's college level music theory texts. Peter was a Berklee grad in music composition for film. His theory books are still available.
I taught myself how to play guitar when I was 17, back in the early 1970's, using old Bob Dylan and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young records, and the guitar books bought for those specific albums. I saved my money working part time jobs and bought my first acoustic guitar, a Suzuki made by Suzuki Violin co. in Japan. That guitar had great tone, even a semi-pro guitarist I was stationed in the USAF with also said so. Folk was the first music style I learned. That's what my older brother started out on also, and he couldn't sing worth a hoot, which I believe he thought was cool for that style (Bob Dylan memories).
When I was a young boy, Mom would take us to town on Saturdays (I'm from a small Southern town near Nashville), and I go to the Ben Franklin five & dime toy store. Outside the entrance was always this Black bluesman playing Blues on an acoustic, and doing some slide also. I'd stop and listen for a while, and pitch nickels in his hat, then go into the toy store. That guy was my version of Curtis Lowe (song by Lynyrd Skynyrd on their Second Helping LP). I would also go to sleep at night listening to a stack of Frank Sinatra records of his 1940's -1950's hits my brother bought for my Mom's birthday. Needless to say, I developed a triplet 3/4 time feel, I had the swing groove down. And you could still hear it in my lead guitar playing later in life (I no longer play because of arthritis in my hands). Mom said the Glenn Miller orchestra was her Beatles. Dad was all Country Music.
When I was about 9 or 10 years old, the Nashville Symphony came to our Grade School and played Classical music in our gym. I was hooked. Soon after I asked Mom for the world's greatest masterpieces Classical LPs advertised on TV. One would think by my show of love for music to that level would have got my parent's attention to get me some music lessons. But they were basically just country folk, never finished high school because of the great depression and WWII. I asked for a banjo when I was 12, never got it, as they said I'd never really learn to play it. They were quite expensive I recall, so I think that was the real reason.
I then heard Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced LP, and was hooked on his cover of the song All Along The Watchtower, particularly with his electric guitar sound and playing. I wanted an electric guitar. It would be years before I got one. Stationed in USAF at Guam, the big Navy base at the other end of the island had a BX (base exchange) where you could order a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar. I put down a deposit and ordered one, it never came. My first electric I bought after my Guam assignment, and was a Gibson ES340 semi-hollow body with a Bigsby tailpiece vibrato, and a phase toggle switch for the pickups, and it was a stereo guitar. You'd use a Y-cord to go to two separate guitar amps. Wish I still had that thing. I later got a used 1970 Fender Stratocaster, and 1983 Eric Clapton Elite Straocaster with active pickups powered by a 9-volt battery (Fender's early development for the later Lace Sensor pickups). And then finally a Fender Telecaster Plus with Lace Sensor pickups.
Then I got into electric Blues, real big. That was a few years into the Allman Brothers Country Blues-Rock style. I also had a healthy study of Black electric Blues, like B.B. King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters, Albert Collins, Bo Diddley, Lowell Fulson, John Lee Hooker, Freddie King, etc., etc. I even got to sit in playing Blues at Beale Street in Memphis where Elvis used to go, an old general store where B.B. King got his start also; Big Mama's it was called when I went there for the Blues festival in May.
In 1985, I got offered to audition for Holly Dunn's Country music band that was getting ready to go on the road. I told them I don't play Country music, that I'm basically a Blues-Rock guitarist, and they said that is exactly what they were looking for. I turned on some Nashville Country music radio the next day, and heard most of the Country songs play a Country Blues-Rock style. I couldn't believe it! That was not the Country music I grew up with, nor what Dad listened to. I still turned them down, because I had a long, hard consideration about the music industry, its involvement with drugs and alcohol, and I didn't want any part in that (drug use in the military in the Vietnam era was really bad.)
All that time I was learning music theory and playing on the side as a hobby, because my main job was as an aviation mechanic. When I finally settled down and had children, that pretty much is when I put the guitar down and devoted most of my time to taking care of my family, and studying God's Word. I got asked to join many bands, but I worked night shift on Friday nights and weekends, so that didn't work out. I would only get asked to sit in occasionally if I stopped after work to hear bands that I knew. Same old hat of music played by most of those bands, ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, BTO, Doobie Brothers, Eric Clapton, Allman Brothers, some Country Rock, stuff to get up and dance to. I guess they call that the Classic Rock era.
Next I got into Blues-Fusion Jazz, stuff like John Scofield played in the '80s and '90s. I had a guitarist friend from New York whose wife was around where I live in Tennessee. They had a farm near me. He would invite me over on a weekend for jam sessions, and he had one rule. You can only play something you wrote, otherwise you jammed over what music progressions we'd all come up with on the spot. No playing covers allowed. These guys cut their teeth (including his bass player friend from NY) on Jazz-Rock in New York. It was a great learning step, as you really had to know some music theory on the guitar fretboard to hang with them. If they say, OK, jam over Em, and that's it, what are you going to do, just keep playing the same old Em chord all the time? No, you had better know several voicings up and down the guitar neck for that Em chord, and also substitute chords for Em, and lead positions that go with them. These guys were also used to playing 'outside' the key to create musical tension, and then with coming back tonally into the key. They would substitute scales like Scott Hendersen of the Tribal Tech Jazz-Fusion band of the '90s. And the bass player, whose father was a violin maker in Europe, could play like Jaco Pastorius. They really had to just put up with my level, because I really wasn't even close to their level. They just said they liked the certain 'feel' I had for playing slightly ahead or behind the beat, which is something John Scofield does. To me, it just means I couldn't play in time that well! But that's what some feel in Jazz is like.
I got into Jazz chord-melody playing next, for solo guitar. That's about playing a tune on solo guitar in 3 parts, the bass line, the melody line, and the chords all at the same time. Chet Atkins was a Country solo-guitarist of that chord-melody style. For Jazz, there are many, but I like Pat Metheny and Tuck Andress the best. John Scofield when he does a solo guitar piece has a cool way of doing it. I got to the level where you could pick a Pop tune, with the music of the melody and chords given only, and I could arrange it for solo guitar chord-melody. I had learned the 12 main chord voicings up and down the guitar neck for the Major, Minor, and Dominant, and 7th, 9th, 11 and 13th chords. That allows that wherever you are at on the 1st and 2nd strings with playing the melody line, you can easily find the chord in that same spot on the middle and bass strings that you need.
Then I developed arthritis in my hands, and I had to put the guitar down.
I never quite studying music theory though. I got the Certificate for Orchestration For Film and TV from Berklee, but after a while I noticed I sounded like everyone else doing basic film and TV work. Diatonic music theory actually is limited, believe it or not. I got interested in Interval music theory, which covers a whole... lot more territory. It's a pretty deep method, simply because of being so used to Diatonic theory, the standard that all the music conservatories teach. Interval theory is a much different level, not that difficult once you understand its basics. And it fits perfectly along with Diatonic theory. It just uses a greater number of intervallic combinations to get more sound colors than the Diatonic system of 7 chords. It's because you use all 12 tones of the Scale, the #'s and the b's.
Here's a link to some of my homework I did at Berklee in orchestration posted at SoundCloud. I think I only have a couple of pieces that I used some Interval Theory on:
waveheavy
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