Some Music Aphorisms

1 By knowing just 7 chords one can play most of the music written on our planet. These are derived from the C major scale, ie all white keys from C to next C. When bass is C and using the 1,3,5 relation the first chord is C E G, ie C major. With bass D the second chord is D F A ie minor, with Bass E ... Etc


2 it is not that we have to be composers to be able to compose. We just have to be human. It is as natural as breathing.


3 Melody comes from the expression of our being. We jam along and if something interesting turns up we notice. The relation (distance) of bass to melody is very important too, (see Ray Conniff interviews).


4 we do not compose to play. We play to compose.


5 the best composers on our planet learned from other composers and by a book. Bach learned the secrets from a book by engineer (Niedt)(see other euroelectron posts), by studying Vivaldi etc, and by playing...


6 the "dissonant" intervals are much of the beauty of music. Examples:
Hey you - Pink Floyd (9th intervals from bass to melody)
Close to You - Caroenters (9ths)
Qui Tollis, Mass in B minor - Bach (9ths)
Just Hold Me - Maria Mena (9ths)
Pour un enfant - Ravel (9ths)
Stepping Stone - Daffy (9ths)
Chi Mai - Moriconne (9ths, 7ths, 6ths...)
Prelude in C from welltempered clavier - Bach (6ths, 7ths,...)
endless list


7 it is important to teach ourselves and understand physics and other disciplines of life like exercising in order to play or compose music. Reference: Richard Feynman on YouTube, Berstein lectures on YouTube, Shelly Yakus interviews


8 much music is composed from our interaction with the instruments. They show to us, we do not show to them.


9 serious music has nothing to do with genre or type of music.


10 music loves us


We learn from the best and they learn from us too!


Less is more


What we eat (quality of raw ingredients), and on general anything that goes inside us, is most important.


We cannot be better musicians than we are human beings.
Nadia Boularger to Juicy Jones


References:


Instructions for playing figured Bass from Bach to his scholars in music (other titles: The art of Music, Percepts and principles) - J.S. Bach (it can be found at the appendix of Bach's biography by Spita)


Harmony - Walter Piston (Piston was teaching Leonard Bernstein at Harvard University)


Interview of Quicy Jones on YouTube