Discussion
Bear with me on this.
I’m in my early 50s and I play the bagpipes. I’ve been playing since I was 9 and while I’m not amazing, I’m OK. For any pipers reading this I played in a Grade 1 band when I was 19-22 yrs old and then promptly gave up for 15 years. Grade 1 is the pinnacle of the pipe band world and I’d had enough. I started again in 2007 (aged 36) and our band came 2nd in G3A in the Worlds - I played for 2 years and gave up again! I started again in lockdown and I now once more play in a different G3A band and I think/hope we’ll be back in G2 in 2025 after a season of consistent prizes in the 2023 majors.
That’s the background, which will mean nothing to most people on here. Like 99.999%. The summary is that I’ve been playing lots of music at a reasonably competent level for a very long time. However bagpipe tuition tends to be about the bagpipes, not about the music theory. I can do the basics - I can sight read really well and I know what different time signatures mean but there ends my competence. Scales? Not a clue. We have 9 (ish) notes and one scale. Key? Nope. We play in the same key all the time - sort of. Chords? Nope. I can play harmonies that other people have written but I can’t write them.
I want to know more about theory. I’ve just bought a book on grade 1 (how ironic) music theory so I can start to learn. Any other good resources for beginners? How can I learn about what works in harmonies? I’ve been messing about with GarageBand and have been recording some stuff but it’s exposed my utter uselessness in really understanding what’s going on, and there is only so far you can go with trial and error.
Any good websites or YouTubers I can watch? Thanks.
I’m in my early 50s and I play the bagpipes. I’ve been playing since I was 9 and while I’m not amazing, I’m OK. For any pipers reading this I played in a Grade 1 band when I was 19-22 yrs old and then promptly gave up for 15 years. Grade 1 is the pinnacle of the pipe band world and I’d had enough. I started again in 2007 (aged 36) and our band came 2nd in G3A in the Worlds - I played for 2 years and gave up again! I started again in lockdown and I now once more play in a different G3A band and I think/hope we’ll be back in G2 in 2025 after a season of consistent prizes in the 2023 majors.
That’s the background, which will mean nothing to most people on here. Like 99.999%. The summary is that I’ve been playing lots of music at a reasonably competent level for a very long time. However bagpipe tuition tends to be about the bagpipes, not about the music theory. I can do the basics - I can sight read really well and I know what different time signatures mean but there ends my competence. Scales? Not a clue. We have 9 (ish) notes and one scale. Key? Nope. We play in the same key all the time - sort of. Chords? Nope. I can play harmonies that other people have written but I can’t write them.
I want to know more about theory. I’ve just bought a book on grade 1 (how ironic) music theory so I can start to learn. Any other good resources for beginners? How can I learn about what works in harmonies? I’ve been messing about with GarageBand and have been recording some stuff but it’s exposed my utter uselessness in really understanding what’s going on, and there is only so far you can go with trial and error.
Any good websites or YouTubers I can watch? Thanks.
I'm unsure whether this will help or not, but anyway.............
I started playing guitar 35 years ago, but largely could only follow guitar tabs (i.e. simple sheet music for guitar) and improvise using a minor pentatonic scale.
Then, in 2018, I stumbled across a YT channel "Signals Music Studio". Jake specialised in music theory for guitar and, since then, a whole new world of music opened its doors. I now understand key signatures, borrowed chords, secondary dominant chords, and can improvise solos over a given chord progression.
Worth a look, IMO.
I started playing guitar 35 years ago, but largely could only follow guitar tabs (i.e. simple sheet music for guitar) and improvise using a minor pentatonic scale.
Then, in 2018, I stumbled across a YT channel "Signals Music Studio". Jake specialised in music theory for guitar and, since then, a whole new world of music opened its doors. I now understand key signatures, borrowed chords, secondary dominant chords, and can improvise solos over a given chord progression.
Worth a look, IMO.
This is another one I used to view:-
Music Theory for Guitar
This is deeper than Signals Music Studio, and examines stuff like Chromatic Mediant chords and the Neapolitan scale and such like. One of my favourites from Zillio was the Byzantine scale, which is perfect for soloing over a droning bass note and creating a trad Indian sound. The intervals are root / flat 2nd / maj 3rd / 4th / 5th / flat 6th / maj 7th. So, in the key of A, it would be A / Bb / Db / D / E / F / G#.
Music Theory for Guitar
This is deeper than Signals Music Studio, and examines stuff like Chromatic Mediant chords and the Neapolitan scale and such like. One of my favourites from Zillio was the Byzantine scale, which is perfect for soloing over a droning bass note and creating a trad Indian sound. The intervals are root / flat 2nd / maj 3rd / 4th / 5th / flat 6th / maj 7th. So, in the key of A, it would be A / Bb / Db / D / E / F / G#.
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