Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Discuss the lesson: Intro to Music Theory Part 7- Let's Talk Notes

https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/intro-to-music-theory-part-7-lets-talk-notes-beginner

Let’s C what Mr. G has to say about A.

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Does this mean that there are 8,916,100,448,256 different chords that you’re able to play? Does that mean If you combine all octaves and have for example your base note on different octaves when you play, or is it only including what you can do with one specific octave?

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Octaves do not determine the chord, but the note in the base definitely does :slight_smile:

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A basic chord is primarily made up of 3 tones… the root (or 1st), the 3rd, and the 5th notes in a given scale or key. An Octave (Oct = 8) is the 8th note above a particular note rather than another component of the chord. Octave notes are rather more of a duplication of the particular tone being played - and therefore, do not specifically count as a part of that basic 1-3-5 structure (usually denoted in Roman Numerals (I,III.V).

In fact, Ben has a cool Banjo displaying Roman Numerals on the neck. How cool is THAT?

I’m just a beginner and I am no historian but if I had to guess why there are no black keys between b and c and e & f, the “dead monks” did that to help them remember where the notes are at the different scales.

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I use the dead monks rule for anything I can’t figure out. Hasn’t failed me yet! :rofl:

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Would love to have a copy of this scale exactly like he has it here.

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Hi @carlwells2535 Carl there’s a worksheet with the lesson, scroll down below the video and you will see the link to download the worksheet.

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At 5:50, notes on the black keys have two names cos you cannot use the same letter of notes in a scale, for example in the scale of D, (D, E, F♯, G, A, B, and C♯) we call the notes F# and not Gb cos we already have the letter G in the sequence, same with C#, not Db cos we already have the note letter D. In the key of F for example its F, G, A, B♭, C, D, and E, not F, G, A, A#, C, D and E.

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One thing concerning A sharp and D flat being the same thing: If you are writing music, you CANNOT have a note be a flat and a sharp in the same music piece. I’ll use the dead monk rule, because I have no idea why. If I wanted to have a piece use D sharp and D flat, I would have to substitute the D flat with A sharp. My piano teacher told me this, and it helped me a lot.

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They are not the same note…

A# = Bb

Db = C#

Take a look at how key signatures are built if you want to see why…

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hey, thanks for pointing that out! I meant C#, but I wrote A# instead, I don’t know why, but again, thanks for pointing that out! :slight_smile:

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