This is a Chord (2016) | Hacker News Reader

This is a Chord (2016)

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76 pointsbrudgers74 comments

Reminds me of this poster:

http://www.southendpunk.com/html/damnadv.html

"The Damned can now play three chords. The Adverts can play one. Hear all four of them at..."

There is a line in How Music Works by David Byrne, of Talking Heads fame, talking about the album Remain in Light (IIRC) "While punk rock was celebrated for needing only three chords, we had now stripped that down to one."

I think this is a good way of approaching life. Learn the absolute basics, then start making things.

Trying to learn everything first will keep you in the consumer mindset. Be a producer.

Be a producer![0]

[0] https://youtu.be/a_0YDe1yZnY?t=36

I really like this explanation from Ira Glass on the gap between taste and talent and how you just need to do a ton of work to fight through it.

https://vimeo.com/85040589

This is amazing. Thank you.

Didn't have to click to remember this; no idea from anything that wasn't a book has stuck with me like this has, it's soooo good.

It's true, and doesn't hurt that it's very flattering ;)

I saw a post recently—a musician was asking for advice about how to set up some super-complicated one-person performance rig. They wanted guitar, bass, keyboard, synths, amps & pedals, mic for singing, etc. This would be for their first live performance, or something like that.

It’s so tempting to do a ton of prep and try to blow people away. I think it’s a flavor of procrastination or perfectionism that gets in the way of your real goals.

Cam Cole is my favorite in the "one man band" niche. He doesn't use that many instruments, and maybe isn't the most talented of the lot technically. But he's one of the few where I liked the songs just for the song itself, without caring it was a one-man-band setup. https://youtu.be/XnHT1nGJt78

Except with this strategy you only ever get a topical experience, and you only ever expose your customers to your topical experience. If it is a hobby to provide enjoyment in life, go for it; if not, don't be scared to put in a little elbow grease and learn something, otherwise you won't make a dent in the SAM/TAM of products that did put in the time.

> Trying to learn everything first will keep you in the consumer mindset. Be a producer.

Is this a quote from "Silicon Valley"? Sounds like something Bachman would say between bong hits.

"One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz." -Lou Reed

That reminds me of another yarn:

Rock Music: 3 chords played to 1000 people

Jazz Music: 1000 chords played to 3 people

The power of writing your music for people vs writing your music for musicians.

And then someone like Jacob Collier comes along and we don't know what to say anymore because language just does not apply to such a phenomenon.

had to look this guy up and watched the video for "All Night Long". with audio only, this is pretty much just a sample-heavy jazz-pop cover that would be indistinguishable from just a regular multi-track recording.

i'm assuming what makes him special is his video approach where all the "samples" are shown as video clips of the musicians performing them. i'd probably describe the approach as "an actually talented version of pomplamoose"

not really my thing, but definitely interesting. thanks for the mini rabbithole

Jacob Collier is a legit next level musician. He does a lot of overdubbing of himself but he does other styles also. His recordings like Moon River and Flintstones are incredible both in terms of arrangement and performance. In a very different style, his Piano Ballads record is great, Let it Be is great on that one.

Totally understand if none if it is your style!

Seconded, regarding his cover of 'Moon River'. The harmony in the final three minutes is out of this world.

Though I wouldn't recommend watching the music video. It's a bit corny and distracting.

Jacob Collier won a grammy for each of his first four albums, has a massive following, is known for pushing the boundaries of practical application of music theory, and is well respected by musicians of every kind. There's a bit more to what makes him special than what can be reduced to a single gimmick or reductive comparison.

He leaves me totally cold. IMO he's very unmusical, like a guitar shredder but 100000x worse.

Collier has an impressive knowledge of music theory but for me music is about emotion and expression, and I’ve never been able to find much of either in his compositions or performances. Just my 2 cents.

I'm with you -- I find his dozen layer vocals unenjoyable. However, it can play many instruments really well. Here is a video from a jazz trio rehearsal though that I keep coming back to every few months simply because I enjoy the sausage being made. Keep in mind he was 19 or so at the time.

Anacona: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIaL4Q1LnuA

I enjoyed that a lot, thanks. No doubt he’s massively talented. I do wonder if, just as it takes a certain amount of education to appreciate classical music, there might simply be a certain education or ear required to appreciate Jacob Collier that I lack.

an actually talented version of pomplamoose

I did not expect this at all.

He's clearly a musical genius and his ability to harmonise is beyond words.

However when I first listened to him, my reaction was "this is very impressive, but I don't know why, I just don't feel it". What struck me was that when I read up on him a bit more, that was a pretty common reaction among people.

I don't really have the words to describe any of this. There's just something missing there. Soul. Which is a strange thing to say, because he probably does pour his heart & soul into his songs.

I hear you - some pieces are overly… technical.

Some others however are full of emotion and definitely include soul.

His joy of music is infectious.

Modern indie music: three 7th chords and a chorus pedal played for 250 people

I play the classical guitar. My version for this line is: If you are a pop musician, you play a few chords for a hundred people; If you are a jazz player, you play hundreds chords for a few people; If you are a classical guitar player, you play thousands of notes for yourself.

Unless you are this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Segovia

That's a fine motto for land-based music making.

But with anything less than three chords you cannot generate sufficient lift to even get off the ground.

Every time I think that I'm not good enough at guitar to write songs, I leaf through one of my songbooks and find all the fantastic, catchy songs with three basic chords.

I just can't get into guitarists like Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, etc. I can't even get into John Mayer (though he can be more tasteful with his improv). It's all just a big dick-measuring contest. Believe it or not, this is not meant to be ironic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46qjDJ0lLdE

Give me Townes Van Zandt, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell - all fantastic *songwriters*. The Beatles have so many simple songs - eg Blackbird (simple two note chords), Twist & Shout (three chords), etc, but they're all beautiful and will live on forever. I cannot imagine people listening to Steve Vai in 50 years, because I can't imagine why people listen today.

That's quite an unusual collection of chords, maybe because B major chord is too hard for beginners. I-bIII-IV is some Bela Bartok-level shit.

I guess D would make more sense than E, but also G E A sound great in a progression

>I guess D would make more sense than E

Just learning to play the guitar myself and at least personally, have found D to be a pain in the ass of a chord shape. I can switch between A, E, and G all day long, but throw a D in there and I have to slow down and be a little more intentional. Muscle memory will happen, but for the combination of my brain and that shape, it happens more slowly. I don't think I'm the only one, either, because it was called out specifically by the guy who did the video lessons I'm using.

Are you playing the open D in the "bar plus one finger" style or the "3 individual fingers" style?

3 individual fingers. I haven't seen the bar plus one finger way of playing it, though I think I get that now. I'm going through some video lessons with a companion app and there have been zero bar chords so far.

Might give it a try later, though, thanks for the hint there.

It’s a pain at first but it will come in time. This is true for barre chords like F and B too.

The cool thing about the D shape is you can move it up the neck. Move it up 2 frets and its a an E, 1 more and its an F. And so on

Just sing an E blues scale over an E G A G progression. Sing a G over that E, and it's practically an E7#9.

Maybe change your E and A to E7 and A7 if you feel like it. They're easier for beginner guitarists to play anyway.

These are more or less the three easiest open guitar chords for a beginner to learn, all major, so not very unusual IMO.

The roots fall on a pentatonic scale which works well with basic rock music (see the referenced TNT song by AC/DC).

Idk. C, am, F and G are as easy, if not easier, and you can play with them a nice I-IV-vi-V instead of this modal interchange shit.

Maybe swap F for Em. Beginners aren't (successfully) playing F, no matter which variation.

sambapa must be a piano player

Nah, classical guitarist here ;)

That's assuming E is the root. The order it's listing chords is I-V-bVII, which isn't that strange. Pretty familiar sound in pop music.

I think it's best to begin at the beginning and learn to hear tonic, subdominant and dominant. After that you can pretend that you're Radiohead.

Music aside, I believe the first place I saw a copy of this old zine illustration was in the book "Getting Started with Arduino" by Massimo Banzi (page 10 if you're curious : https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-Arduino-Electronics-P... )

Obviously the authors of the Arduino book were reprinting it because they'd seen it somewhere else, where, in turn, it had been copied because someone else had seen it in another source, etc.

But I thought it was extremely poetically true to put that illustration in the Arduino book. That made sense to me.

Now form a band!

The real punk rock thing is: "here's a power chord, slide it around, NOW FORM A BAND"

Like 0-4-5, 0-4-6-5, 0-4-5-4-0? It may be off by a step or two, it has been years since I last touched a fretboard.

0-3-5, 0-3-6-5, 0-3-5-3-0

Duh duh duh, duh duh da-nuh, duh duh duh, duh duh

I thought punk rock was "here's a guitar, play it loud".

It's probably the first time I see a tumblr post on HN.

Makes me think of the second verse of "Joyride," from one of Built to Spill's first, punkier albums. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gncB-kQUUgQ&t=72s

"This part of the song is called the second verse

Sounds just like the first verse but with different words

But all it has is three chords and they are A D E and D

There are A D and E and D

There goes the Dm D A E D"

Am-E-G would have been ii-V-I, the everpresent faux-jazz progression (also common in actual jazz of a certain vintage).

That would be Am-D-G. This one is probably more like A major with a flat seven since G major has two tones in common with the ii.

D-oh. You're right.

Modern jazz doesn't use ii-V-I?

No sweat. G is really just another way to say Bm♭6, so G-E-A is a ii-V-I.

Or if you'd prefer, E is just another way to say D13 so E-G-A is a backdoor (v-♭VII-I) ii-V-I

Why didn't they put DOTs BETWEEN the frets?!? Arrrrrrgh!

I know it's not the convention, but I almost prefer it this way.

As someone who is self-taught (read: bad) on guitar, I spent literally years playing songs and suffering hand cramps before realizing that it takes a lot less pressure to fret the note closer to the fret.

All because I initially learned on tablature, and tablature typically shows it "wrong." (or I read it wrong for a long time -- feel free to blame me as much as you deem appropriate if you are fond of tabs)

You'd use a lined fretless bass this way, so it might have been a lined fretless guitar on that drawing!

Also, when you're pressing a fret, the pitch isn't coming from where you have your finger, but from the following fret which is making contact with the string. You can actually press the actual fret instead of the area between the fret and the one before it, and it should sound the same.

Now if the person that drew this knew that, I don't know.

This is from the era when guitar tab was not so ubiquitous…and I seem to remember a lot of the chords in pop song books printed with dots on the fret 45 years ago.

But it has been awhile.

I have music books I bought in the 1970s, and those all have dots behind the frets.

I think you are right, and I just checked out a preview of Mel Bay's Rhythm Chord Guitar Method, and it's dots between frets.

Maybe it was my guitar teacher who wrote tab that way when I asked him how to play something.

Which makes sense to me since it seems like it would be simpler to write tab that way by hand...as opposed to typesetting it where it would probably be about the same amount of work either way.

What I mean is dots on frets would almost certainly be how I would write down tab for myself...and it seems like it would be clear enough to anyone who had a guitar in their hand.

I first saw this in Sniffing Glue magazine - today I learned it first appeared in Sideburn.

> Why are the markings on the frets and not in between them?

Those aren't frets, those be strings.

I'm not sure how to word this, but he's not talking about the strings, he's talking about the frets. Usually these diagrams have the marking where the finger goes, not where the string hits the fret.

Yeah, if you put your fingers where the X's are you would mute (or buzz) the notes.

Bootstrap for life, yo.

Side-note: don't start a band with those chords.

Hot take: the third chord should be D, not G.

First draw two ovals.

Then draw the rest of the owl.

Love this... and I agree with it

those X marks are on the frets, they should be in the middle between the frets...

This is fine. The fret is the important part, it’s the part you want to communicate, the space between the frets is just where you touch the strings if you want a clear sound, and your guitar is fretted. You can place your fingers directly on the frets, it just makes a different sound.

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