Musicians, help.

I'm trying to compile a list of things that any musician worth his or her salt should have memorized.

I will be using this list to warm up before practice, and to learn as much theory as i possible can.

So, what can you think of?

So far, I've got:

Scales: Major, Minor...what else?

Chords: Major, Minor, Dim, Aug. pretty soon I will be adding on 7ths so it'll be Maj7, Min7, and Dom7. Got any more?

Progressions: Good ol ii-V-1, gimme some mo

Diatonic Chords. C-Dmin-Emin-F-G-Amin-Bdim-C in each key etc. etc. etc.

I don't really know where to go from here and I need more to learn.

P.S. "things that any musician worth his or her salt should have memorized". Please post the most glaring omissions from my list above!!!!

thank you

for scales... pentatonics

but my overall stance is once you learn the basics you can throw it all out the window and play by ear and do what sounds good to you... music theory is confining

  On 8/18/2011 at 1:09 AM, ghOsty said:

for scales... pentatonics

 

but my overall stance is once you learn the basics you can throw it all out the window and play by ear and do what sounds good to you... music theory is confining

I agree to some extent. playing exercises over and over will just make you faster, if you're not playing musically and focusing on what you're playing it's all for shit. but, and i wish i could put this in my own words, "In the end the deeper musical knowledge and skills acquired, greatly expand the musician's creative and imaginative horizons" (http://www.jazclass.aust.com/im1.htm). imo.

i don't agree with ghosty, music theory can be very liberating as long as you use the information in a selfish manner, purely for more expressive control. you're not subscribing to a new religion when you learn music theory

circle of fifths

fifths, 7ths, 9ths, maybe 11ths & 13ths, augmented and diminished chords

more scales than that, come on; melodic minor, harmonic minor, double harmonic minor, phrygian, locrian, lydian, mixolydian, dorian, blues

drill exercises does nothing for me as a musician, when it comes to intervals and chords however, there's no such thing as too much.. even seemingly useless scales can teach you about intervals that add zest in a composition that uses something completely different

What instrument do you play? If you play a chordal instrument you should definitely learn about tritone substitution and how you can fit that into playing chords. You should definitely learn how to use inversions to minimize the movement of chords whilst comping over chord changes. Learn about chord voicings and what you can do with them. Try a bunch of jazz standards that use the classic diatonic chord progressions. Learn about quartal and quintal harmony. etc.

  On 8/18/2011 at 2:21 AM, chimera slot mom said:

circle of fifths

fifths, 7ths, 9ths, maybe 11ths & 13ths, augmented and diminished chords

more scales than that, come on; melodic minor, harmonic minor, double harmonic minor, phrygian, locrian, lydian, mixolydian, dorian, blues

 

drill exercises does nothing for me as a musician, when it comes to intervals and chords however, there's no such thing as too much.. even seemingly useless scales can teach you about intervals that add zest in a composition that uses something completely different

thanks!!!!!!

  On 8/18/2011 at 2:34 AM, Salvatorin said:

What instrument do you play? If you play a chordal instrument you should definitely learn about tritone substitution and how you can fit that into playing chords. You should definitely learn how to use inversions to minimize the movement of chords whilst comping over chord changes. Learn about chord voicings and what you can do with them. Try a bunch of jazz standards that use the classic diatonic chord progressions. Learn about quartal and quintal harmony. etc.

thanks to you too. i am currently teaching myself piano, and actually just began to fiddle around with chord inversions this week. I inherited a ton of old Magnus organ country songbooks (along with a wurlitzer organ) a couple years ago, and I've been going through those practicing sight reading and figuring out the most efficient chord inversions. It's amazing how you can jump to almost any chord just by moving 1 or 2 fingers!

The ability to identify all intervals and chords by ear.

  On 8/18/2011 at 3:42 AM, Ricky Downtown said:

thanks to you too. i am currently teaching myself piano, and actually just began to fiddle around with chord inversions this week. I inherited a ton of old Magnus organ country songbooks (along with a wurlitzer organ) a couple years ago, and I've been going through those practicing sight reading and figuring out the most efficient chord inversions. It's amazing how you can jump to almost any chord just by moving 1 or 2 fingers!

oh yeah, certainly. You are pretty much doing very well if you can read melody lines and stick smart comping underneath it. You can pretty much start gigging once you got dem jazz phrasin's down.

Great suggestions so far.

Experiment with different rhythms. For instance, play all triplets on the left hand while playing straight on the right and vica versa. Get used to syncopated rhythms. I've met a lot of musicians who are extremely knowledgeable when it comes to chords, but once the rhythms get a little more unusual they get thrown for a loop. Get used to switching from one key to another and back. Try creating new harmony parts to the main melodies of the pieces you're playing --that's a very useful skill for composition.

the powers of two up to at least 2^32

yeah i suppose there is a certain level of theory that should be learned... hence why i did suggest learning pentatonics. I have taught myself on the guitar and bass over the years but I suppose I have inherently learned to apply certain rules of theory to my playing

can't tell you how many times it's saved my chestnuts when i've been able to be all mixolydian*2^16 i might not be a musician if not for memorizing those

Interesting thread. Perhaps "practice" would be a better word than memorize, given that most of these things are all concepts that you use to improve your ability to think on your feet and stuff.

As someone whose only formal musical training was on percussion instruments (before then moving on to other stuff on my own), I agree that practicing / getting informed about rhythm is just as important as the harmonic / melodic stuff. It's pretty striking how many otherwise good players have very undeveloped or mediocre senses of rhythm. Get mad solid on that shit

Have fun!

  On 8/18/2011 at 6:01 PM, Ascdi said:

It's pretty striking how many otherwise good players have very undeveloped or mediocre senses of rhythm. Get mad solid on that shit

This is very true.

I've noticed a lot of players have a tendency to speed up when dynamics get louder in a song, or slow down when parts get quieter, so be weary of that. Louder doesn't = faster. Of course with some pieces you'll want that, but not as a general rule. Playing with a metronome from time to time can help a lot.

My advice as a singer (so totally useless) is that you should apply these drills within things you'd just play because you like to play them. For instance, with a myxolydian scale, after you've done some drilling, find a song with lots of stepwise motion composed in a myxolydian scale and learn that, giving special attention to the fluidity/dynamics of the scale runs. This way you learn songs and drill simultaneously, and you're less likely to get bored with the monotonous movements.

Any musician should know how to play a C major scale and an a minor scale on a keyboard instrument.

Cmaj / Amin amirite

i know a bit of theory but i find it helps me more to just listen to different music. like a really different kind of music. try listening to some tabla music, extremely old music or just random shit.