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Road notes: stage interaction and the pitfalls of live sound

October 24, 2017 By Dave Isaacs Leave a Comment

Today’s post is a new category, Road Notes…thoughts, stories, and lessons for the performing musician.

We’ve just had the first three performances of our first extended tour with Renfree Isaacs, the acoustic trio I perform most steadily with. We are three vocalists, all sharing leads, two of us playing guitar and one playing hand percussion. You would think this would be a simple setup on stage, and it ought to be except for one important factor. An acoustic ensemble needs clear sound onstage, and every performer needs to be able to hear the others clearly.

Wooden boxes.

We rehearse in my living room, a nicely reverberant space with a wooden floor. The ambience of the room makes it very satisfying to sing in, and we sit in a semicircle with the guitars more or less facing each other. If you’ve ever seen a bluegrass band or a classical string quartet perform, this setup should be familiar to you. It allows all the players to hear each other and maintain a level of both direct and peripheral eye contact.

One of the greatest lessons I learned from my years studying classical music was the level of fine musical interaction within a good acoustic ensemble. Playing strictly acoustic instruments changes your dynamics compared to an electric group, but it allows you to extend your dynamic range DOWN. In other words, if you can’t make loud louder, you can make soft softer. The semicircle setup allows everyone to hear everything clearly, and react to each other accordingly.

You would think that this would require amplification for these dynamic subtleties to come across to an audience in a room of any size, and that’s often true. But amplification can create its own set of issues.

The challenges of amplification

With this particular lineup there are three balance factors to consider:

1. Balance of the three voices with each other
2. Balance of the guitars with each other
3. Balance of the guitars with the voices.

In a group focused on vocal harmony, the blend between the voices is essential. Every singer needs to be aware of the overall sound as well as whether their part is primary or supporting. In our case, the three voices are sometimes equal while sometimes two support a primary lead. This can change within the course of a song. So we need to be as reactive to each other as any fine jazz group, and that depends upon all three of us being able to hear the same thing. Unfortunately, adding a sound system can make this more difficult.

First, consider your stage layout. Can you make eye contact? Does your performance rely upon it? Of course, so much of your reactivity depends on what you hear and not what you see. But until you’re so well-rehearsed that it’s all automatic, the visual contact is really helpful. It adds to the level of interaction onstage for both you and the audience. No matter how well you know your parts, there will always be variables the group needs to respond to as a whole.

What you hear vs what the audience hears

Consider the placement and balance of stage monitors. Most small venues will have a separate monitor speaker for each vocalist, or place them in between the mics. If the system allows for separate monitor mixes, each performer can hear different things in their own speaker. Some people prefer this, but I don’t. I want the sound on stage to be just like the sound we hear in rehearsal, just bigger. Most importantly, I want the blend I hear to be the blend the audience hears! As a reactive ensemble, we are going to be adjusting our vocal and instrumental dynamics as we sing and play. For example, if I’m singing a supporting part I will either sing more softly, back off the mic, or both. When I switch between strumming and lead I’m going to alter my attack and approach to either blend or stand out. (There are specific techniques I use for this that are worth a post in itself, and I’ll follow up with that down the road).

It’s essential for any performing group to be able to react to each other onstage the same way you would in rehearsal. If the placement of the monitor speakers or the monitor mix interferes with this, your performance will suffer. If your sound tech insists on raising and lowering faders while you’re making your own adjustments onstage, what the audience hears will suffer.

For groups performing in top professional venues, these often aren’t issues. For the vast majority of musicians, it’s a crapshoot. Some conditions are perfect and some are tremendously challenging. Here are a few tips to help you through the challenges.

What about soundcheck?

First of all, you won’t always get a soundcheck. If you do, try to play segments of different songs with different dynamics so the sound tech understands your range. If you have multiple vocalists, make sure the tech knows that. If possible, set the monitor levels as close to equal as possible unless the performance dictates otherwise. For instruments, make sure the sound tech hears both your softest and loudest dynamic. If you use a boost of some kind, they need to know it’s coming. I prefer to rely on my hands and attack as much as possible, but again that depends on the sound onstage being as close to the sound in the house as possible.

If you don’t get a soundcheck, be prepared to fly blind. The best strategy is to do what you do and let the sound tech hear and see it. They’ll generally catch on. After your first or second song you can ask for adjustments, but be aware that every adjustment affects every other dynamic onstage. And most of all, remember that sometimes making something louder won’t let you hear better. It’s better to ask for the louder things to come down than to just start cranking individual channels.

When possible, chuck it all.

As an acoustic group we sometimes have the opportunity to perform in venues with wonderfully intimate sound. We’ve played two house concerts this week with no amplification at all, and it was a joy. Try this if and when you can…completely unplugged or minimally amplified. You might be amazed at how much it opens your ears. Don’t rely too much on the equipment to get your sound, even if your sound relies on electronic or digital processing. After all, everything returns to pure analog when it comes down to just sound waves moving through the air. Hone your sound in rehearsal at low volumes. Focus on interaction and reactivity! Then if you can, practice with a sound system, with the goal of simply amplifying what you’re already used to hearing. Know your needs and be able to communicate them to the sound tech in the venue. If you find a certain stage layout serves you best, insist on it unless you absolutely can’t. Provide a stage plot and equipment list whenever possible. And when things just can’t go the way you want them, grin and bear it. I’ll repeat the very important idea that it’s often better to adjust onstage levels down than up, and that everyone onstage needs to be equally reactive.

What does this mean to the beginner?

If you’re not a performer or not at the level yet where you’re comfortable getting out in front of people, this is still important information for you. There’s a level of comfort in playing that’s very hard to reach when you haven’t been tested in front of an audience or with a group. Both of these things should be goals for you, at least as a part of your musical journey. For me as a player, there are few things more satisfying. As a teacher, I see the difference between those who have and those who haven’t. That difference is in your ability to be a fully reactive musician, completely connected to what’s going on around you. And THAT is a goal everyone should be striving to attain.

The Perpetual Beginner: 3 things you probably aren’t doing when you practice

October 16, 2017 By Dave Isaacs 4 Comments

For all of you out there that might be struggling with motivation, frustration, and plain old time management, I have good news.

Practicing works! When you practice properly, you get better.

I also have a less optimistic thought for you, though. Most people don’t practice and never will.

Fortunately, you have a choice. You don’t have to be “most people”: you can choose to be exceptional. And exceptional in this case doesn’t mean “exceptionally gifted”. It means being one of the few that set a goal and really do what it takes to reach it. And the fact is, most people either don’t fully understand what it takes or are unwilling to follow through and do it. It’s not for lack of desire, or even willingness to try. It’s because it’s hard work that requires a leap of faith. You need to accept that you may need to suffer today to succeed tomorrow, no matter how lousy today might be.

No one questions that in the gym, or training for a marathon. Athletes take that leap of faith every day. And playing an instrument is ultimately an athletic endeavor: you are training muscles to respond on command. The additional challenge we face is that we’re training muscles that we don’t use in the same way for anything else. Aside from touch-typing or video games, there’s not much you might do in your everyday life that requires the same degree of fine motor control as playing the guitar. This means guitar practice requires a specific approach.

For many people that approach is more challenging mentally than physically. But if you apply these three things in your daily practice over the long term, you will see the results you’re looking for.

1. Slow down!

If you’ve spent any time at all playing the guitar, there’s a good possibility you may have developed some habits that are getting in your way. These habits are ways of using your muscles that actually interfere with your ability to play well. They’re ingrained in what we call “muscle memory”, which is actually a result of series of neuro-electrical impulses that trigger the muscles. The impulses follow a specific “path” through the nervous system, called neural pathways, and make the muscles move in response.

The problem with breaking these habits is that you really can’t beat muscle memory. The impulses move at the speed of electricity, so the muscles respond to the thought before you have a chance to directly them differently. The solution is to move slowly enough that muscle memory doesn’t kick in! Over time, the repeated slow movements create new neural pathways, bypassing the old habit.

Even if you don’t have bad habits to break, slow practice allows you to be more controlled and accurate from the beginning when learning something new. This way, you can maintain the same degree of control as you increase speed. The reverse is never true…sloppy speed will never lead to greater control, but greater control will eventually allow for greater speed.

This idea leads us very neatly to point two.

2. Get clear and break it down.

When I was in graduate school, I had a 90-minute commute each way that involved a drive, a train, a walk through Grand Central Station, and another train. That meant three hours out of every day that I couldn’t get any work done…until my teacher pointed out and important fact. Playing the demanding music I was studying included a LOT of detail, and I needed to have an hour’s worth of solo guitar music memorized. So I started practicing on the train by reading the music and visualizing the movements of my hands: first just the left hand, and then the right. Then I would try to visualize the playing the entire piece from memory without the music.

As you can imagine, this took tremendous concentration. But when I sat down with the guitar, I knew exactly what I needed to do to execute each passage. That concentrated study let me really learn the music in detail. Combined with slow practice, this routine helped build the relaxed accuracy and control I needed to perform the music well.

Not all mistakes come from a technical deficiency. Often, we miss things because we’re a little fuzzy on the details! You might know what chord you need to play, but you might not notice that one finger is consistently missing the mark. Your picking hand might be getting tangled up or just missing the strings. There are any number of problems that could resolve themselves if your mental picture were clearer. In other words, detailed awareness leads to accuracy! And of course, the best way to keep track of all those details is to break down the music into short segments and practice each one slowly until you can nail it three times without a mistake. If you can’t accomplish that, break it down further. You really can’t be too detailed or practice too slowly.

The big challenge here is mental, not physical: it’s hard to stay that focused for long. It’s easy for this kind of work to feel tedious. But the fact is, there’s so much to pay attention to that if you’re getting bored you’re probably overlooking something. When the mind wanders, refocus. If you can’t maintain your concentration, shift gears and practice something else. Think of it as a form of meditation, a way to clear your mind and practice focus and clarity.

3. Put the pieces together.

Of course, slow practice has its limits, and being able to play a measure at a time is not the final goal. Once the small pieces start to come together, the next step is to integrate them into the bigger picture. The way to do this is to start with the trouble spot and work your way outward in both directions. Practice getting into the challenging part, then getting out of it, then playing straight through. From the tiny segment you started with, gradually add more on and make the segments longer.

This way, we move from the very detailed “micro” approach to practicing into a wider, “macro” view. At the same time, we’re also moving from practicing mechanics to practicing flow. “Flow” is the goal of all practice: to be able to play smoothly without mistakes and without overthinking. So we use the slow, methodical approach to develop accurate muscle memory, and we use the “additive” approach to put that muscle memory to work with fluidity and confidence.

This three-pronged approach to practice is very powerful, but most people don’t take the time to apply it. The beauty of this approach is that it works for everything, from very simple things like beginning chord forms to the most technically challenging music. But it does require a great deal of focus, patience, and that leap of faith that the work will pay off. And as I said at the outset, there’s good news: it always does.

The Perpetual Beginner: powerful practice tips

September 5, 2017 By Dave Isaacs 1 Comment

Let’s face it, practicing is hard work.

It’s hard enough just to get yourself started. It’s no different from all the other things we know would be good for us but never do. But if you would like to play better than you do, it’s essential. So let’s look at how we can get motivated, and how to get the most benefit from the time we put in.

First of all, it helps to recognize that there are different types of practicing. Not just different things to practice, but the different approaches we can take and the different goals they serve.

Mechanics and control

This is the one that most people avoid, or don’t pay enough attention to. No matter what or how you play, you need to be able to cleanly hit the notes you mean to hit. That takes control and a certain level of precision. You can develop those things by playing a lot, but you’ll probably find that repetition only takes you so far.

It’s helpful to look at control as an end in itself. When you practice specific things, your goal is not necessarily to just “play it right” but to make sure your fingers land where and how you want them to. This usually requires two things: absolute clarity about what you’re trying to do, and enough control of be sure you can execute it.

The solution is simple. Just. Slow. Down.

Simple, yes. Easy, no. It’s very challenging to move slowly, but the benefits are immediately clear. For one, you’ll learn how well you really know the notes. It doesn’t take long to start to absorb a passage or chord form into “muscle memory” so that you can have the thought and the fingers simply form the shape. The problem is the level of accuracy you’ve “memorized”. When you slow down, it becomes very clear whether you really know what you’re trying to do. There’s a lot of information! Which finger are you using? Where should it land? HOW should it land? If you take a look at practically anything you play you might find there are parts where you can’t answer these questions. This is what slow practice is for: to clearly identify the problem, and be able to deliberately execute in way that solves it. This is a level of paying attention many people never reach.

This might sound like boring or tedious work. It’s slow and deliberate, yes. But if you’re bored when you practice this way, I guarantee you’re not paying attention to the degree you should. There’s just too much to notice to be bored. Now, if your mind wanders, that’s something else. Some people use practicing as a kind of meditation: a way of focusing the mind on a specific task. That’s a great way to look at it.

Baby steps.

Another way to deal with the “tedious” challenge is to set very small, attainable goals. Say you have an exercise to practice. You might decide to focus in on one very small section, maybe a single measure or even less. Break it down so you know every note and specific fingering and play it slowly. If you break things down far enough, you can make real progress in just a few minutes. Don’t worry about getting up to speed, just concentrate on getting to know what you’re doing. It helps to use a metronome to keep yourself in time and also to measure your progress. Establish a tempo that allows you to execute the part accurately. Then slowly raise the tempo in very small increments. Your practice goal for one week might be to learn just one line of music, or memorize one chord sequence. If you set these goals so that they’re modest and attainable, ten minutes of daily focused practice will let you see improvement every day. In a single day, that’s not much progress. But in a week, you’ll see a lot more.

So if the big challenge in practicing is motivating yourself to do the grunt work, just remember these tips:

– choose very small goals
– allocate short bursts of time – no more than 15 minutes
– move slowly enough to control the fingers accurately
– use the time as a focusing exercise, and move on when the mind starts to wander too much.

A little bit of this kind of work goes a long way! But you’ll find that the mind will start to drift after a little while. When it does, that might be a signal to move to the other side of practicing: what I call flow.

Let it flow.

Flow is the ability to play without thinking about it. (At least, not too much). When you practice flow, you’ll be playing different things than when you practice mechanics. Now, we’re looking at things you CAN do smoothly. What we’re working on is the ability to maintain a smooth performance. And there’s more to that than just getting from beginning to end without a mistake!

Flow also means reacting to what you’re playing in real time. This can include the dynamics of the song, interaction between your guitar and voice or other instruments, memorizing, or simply being able to stay “in the song”. Essentially, you’re practicing performance. Here are some tips to focus on:

– be dynamic….the music shouldn’t feel the same all the way though
– if you sing, be aware of the relationship between the rhythm and your vocal
– don’t stop if you make a mistake – keep smiling and keep on playing
– don’t overthink your form and mechanics, but do notice and feel what you’re doing

Check!

I find that “check-ins” are very useful when practicing flow. Every so often, quickly scan your body for signs of tension. Notice if there are parts you consistently miss, and make a mental note to work on those during technical practice. You should be able to redirect your attention as you play. Part of a pro’s skill set is to stay in the performance even when there are distractions.

If you’re starting to take lessons, or committing yourself to improving your skills, then regular practice is going to make success much more attainable. Commit to a daily schedule of at least thirty minutes EVERY day. Ten to fifteen minutes of mechanical practice, fifteen to twenty minutes of flow. You’ll find that shifting gears mentally helps keep you focused. You’ll find that those short bursts of intense focus let you see improvement quickly. And most of all, you’ll find that practicing becomes fun as soon as you begin to see and feel the results.

The video below is a good example of an exercise you could use for both mechanics and flow. Watch the video and notice the specifics of the hand position and the slow tempo. Play along if you can, or choose your own tempos for both aspects of practice: one slower, one faster. Remember how much there is to pay attention to. And above all, remember that concentrated effort always gets results.

The Perpetual Beginner – what are color chords?

August 29, 2017 By Dave Isaacs 1 Comment

Chords come in a wide variety of flavors or “qualities”. Each one has a distinctive feel or “vibe”, an emotional association that goes with the sound. A simple example would be the contrast between bright, happy major chords and darker, sadder minor chords.

When we learn chords on guitar, we usually start with the basic majors and minors. For a beginner or rudimentary player, there actually aren’t that many chords that make up this basic vocabulary. (For a fuller exploration of this idea, see my earlier post on the subject).

Color chords

We can add a lot to your palette by adding in “color chords”. These are variations on the basic major and minor sounds that can make things more interesting and unique, and sometimes easier to play in the bargain!

One of the most common types of color chords is the add9 (pronounced “add nine”). You might be familiar with this one, it’s a common substitution for a simple C:

Compare this with the more familiar C and you’ll notice than the add9 is a little more atmospheric…there’s a little more interaction between the notes. This one works well in the keys of G and E minor, but be careful. A color chord CAN be a cool substitution, but it can also make something straightforward sound a little off. Use your ears and your artistic judgment.

Another variation

This is another variation on the simple C, in which we remove one note and double another on the high E string:

Play this one with the ring, index, and pinky, allowing the ring finger to mute the 4^th string. It’s called a “C5” because it’s really only made up of two notes, C and G, which are the first and fifth tones of a C scale. So low to high, the notes are C-G-C-G. This one can be used any time as a substitution for the more familiar C, but notice how it brings a completely different flavor.

Seventh chords

You’ve probably learned some “7” chords. Many of them are easy to play and are part of the basic beginner vocabulary. The most common are what we call “dominant seventh” chords, which are indicated by the number 7: A7, D7, E7. But there are other types, all formed the same way: take the scale that corresponds the the root note of the chord and add the seventh note. Here is an Am7 or “A minor seventh”:

This one makes a cool substitute for the more familiar A minor. It can also be played with an open E string instead of the 3^rd fret note shown in the diagram.

Suspended chords

Suspended or “sus” chords are a common part of the basic vocabulary: listen to Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin” for a familiar example. Suspended chords are formed when we take the “third” of the chord – the third tone of the scale – and replace it with the second (sus2) or fourth (sus4). Here are two less common but easily playable examples:

Tom Petty uses the suspended chords in “Free Fallin’” to create a melody, but these chords create atmosphere. Play the following chord progression:

Am G C F

Then substitute the following:

Am7 Gsus4 C5 Fsus2

See how different it sounds? You might also notice that the two highest notes never change, which makes for a nice ringing sound throughout the progression. Here’s an example of what this might sound like with a strum pattern added. Note that this example has a capo at the second fret. So you will use the shapes we’ve introduced, but the chords sound a step higher: Bm7 Asus4 D5 Gsus2.

There are many more possibilities of course, this post is only meant to scratch the surface!

The top 3 challenges for singers learning guitar, and how to conquer them

August 21, 2017 By Dave Isaacs 1 Comment

Living and working in Nashville, I meet a lot of singers who want to learn to accompany themselves. Even in a music town like this one, where competent guitarists are easy to find, there’s a lot of value in being able to play for yourself. First off all, it makes you independent – you can perform anytime and anywhere without having to rely on someone else. Second, it adds another dimension to your performances. Third, if you write songs it gives you another musical tool. And last, (I believe), it will ultimately make you a better and more musical singer as you learn to think like an instrumentalist as well as a vocalist.

There are three main challenges that I find most singers encounter when they start learning to play. Here are the big issues, and some tips on how to get past them.

1. Getting comfortable with the guitar.

If you’re used to being unencumbered onstage, having a box hanging around your neck can be distracting and uncomfortable. So the first step is to make sure you’re physically comfortable with the instrument. There are several aspects to this, but the most important one is the guitar itself.

Guitars come in a variety of shapes and sizes, just like people. You want to find an instrument that fits your body. The most common acoustic guitar style is called a dreadnought; this is probably what you picture when you think of an acoustic guitar.

Dreadnoughts were designed to project a full, strong sound. In order to create enough bass, though, they need to be fairly deep and somewhat wide across the bottom of the body. For someone with a smaller frame, this can make things uncomfortable.

You should be able to sit holding the guitar and be able to bring your strumming hand to the strings without putting any strain on your shoulder. See if you can swing the forearm back and forth, from just above the strings to about the end of the pickguard (almost to the bottom of the body).

Try standing and using a guitar strap. The guitar should sit more or less in the center of your chest: you should be able to easily bring the fretting hand to the strings, and be able to swing the strumming hand easily back and forth without feeling like the guitar body is in your way. To play good rhythm (essential for accompanying yourself), your strumming hand needs to be able to move freely and naturally. This may take some adjusting the strap to find the best height, but if you need to pull your strumming hand up beyond a slight angle the instrument might be too high. The power in strumming comes from the downward swing, so you should be able to move the forearm down so it extends some. Not so much that the arm is straight, but at a greater angle than on the upward swing.

Experiment with this a little. If you can’t get comfortable, you may need to find a smaller instrument. There are many body shapes and styles to choose from: orchestra (OM), 000 (triple-o), 00 (double-o), parlor, mini, and numerous others. As you practice and learn more about what feels right, you’ll have a good idea of whether the guitar you’re playing will work for you.

2. Creating the rhythm instead of reacting to it.

As a vocalist, you may have a different sense of rhythm than an instrumentalist. That’s not to say you can’t keep time, but rhythm is a physical thing. When you sing a song, you certainly feel the beat, and most of us move our bodies to the music in one way or another. But to play a percussive instrument – something you hit – gives you a different feeling, because of the concrete attack you get from striking a string, piano key, or drum head. Because of this, singers tend to have a more fluid sense of rhythm. This is a good thing from a phrasing and interpretive standpoint, but to be a good accompanist your time needs to be as solid and grounded as any drummer. After all, if you accompany yourself alone, you ARE the drummer!

If you’ve never practiced with a metronome, start. If you’re able to practice to drum loops or beats, that’s also really useful. Here are a few key things to listen for and try.

First, find the pulse (the steady beat) and move to it. Start by just feeling it, and then either tapping your foot, your hand, or nodding your head. Some people find it easier to move the upper body in time than to tap. Then try playing a single note or chord in time with the steady beat. Try this sequence:

– First, play steadily on each beat, counting fours.

– Play every other beat (ONE rest TWO rest). These are the downbeats.

– Try reversing the pattern by waiting for the second beat (rest TWO rest FOUR). These are the offbeats, or “backbeat”.

– Try subdividing the beat in twos (ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and). If you can manage it, try playing this on a single note with repeated downstrokes, then moving to a strum with either repeated downstrokes or alternating down and up strums.

Even if you can already play strum patterns, this is a really useful exercise. Your sense of rhythm can always be fine-tuned, and if you’re new to the guitar than this work is very productive and powerful.

3. Coordinating playing and singing.

This is the most difficult thing for most people to master. Part of the challenge is that we learn to sing songs fairly easily by ear…just hear it enough times and if your voice can reach the notes, there it is. Learning guitar often needs to be a little more deliberate. There’s coordination and control to develop, patterns to remember, and a certain amount of repetitive work that’s unavoidable. So many singers find the guitar distracting, which leads many to give up.

The best way to deal with this challenge is to start very simply and slowly. Learn simple songs with just a handful of chords. Two or three at the most, maybe four. Start off getting the patterns under your fingers. When you can reach the chords in time, try singing the song and only striking each chord once. Take the opportunity to feel the rhythm in your body, noticing how the chord changes line up with the lyrics. This sets up a framework for the song. Then you can practice the rhythm and strumming separately before you try to put all the pieces together. Remember that accomplished musicians learn to keep track of many musical elements at once, and that process takes time. But if you start off with songs that are easy to sing with just a few chords and a simple beat, you’ll learn to work through the process of learning any song.

Above all, remember that it’s going to be frustrating to pair something you do really well with something that’s much harder and unfamiliar. Accept and embrace the challenges, be prepared to do the work, and commit yourself for the long game. I’ve seen it work over and over, and it’ll work for you too.

The Perpetual Beginner: what Bill Withers can teach you about harmony

August 14, 2017 By Dave Isaacs Leave a Comment

I’ve become a great fan of soul singer Bill Withers in recent years. His songs have always been familiar, but as with many things I’ve come to a new appreciation lately. There’s the voice, of course, and the songs, and the delivery. But most of all, I love the simplicity of the songs. The arrangements are sophisticated and cool, and groove like nobody’s business. But the songs themselves break down to very simple patterns, and it struck me today how one of his best-known songs makes a great primer for understanding basic harmony.

Lean On Me

The brilliance of “Lean On Me” is in its simplicity. A universally relatable lyric paired with a melody as simple as do-re-mi. Which, in fact, is what it is. The verse melody walks up and down the first 4 notes of a C major scale:

If you don’t read music, it’s ok…I bet you know the tune. Besides, except for the last chord of each line, the chord above each note corresponds. C chord with a C note, D minor chord with a D, etc.

This is a great illustration of two concepts:

1. How a melody can be harmonized with a chord to match each note.
2. How one chord can be substituted for another.

The first concept is easy. As we’ve already observed, for most of the melody the chords match the notes. Listen to the piano intro and you can hear the chords moving up and down the scale, just like the melody does. If we number the notes according to how they appear in the scale, we get both scale tones AND an illustration of the Nashville Number System:

Note: 1 1 2 3 4 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 3 2
Chord: 1 1 2m 3m 4 4 3m 2m 1 1 2m 3m 3m 5⁷

Note: 1 1 2 3 4 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 7 1
Chord: 1 1 2m 3m 4 4 3m 2m 1 1 2m 3m 5⁷ 1

The Nashville Number System names the chord by its relationship to the corresponding scale tone. This should be very clear in the example above. But you might also notice that the penultimate chord of each line doesn’t match the melody note. This is an illustration of the second concept, the way chords harmonize a melody.

Simple chord theory

A basic major or minor chord is made up of three notes: the first, third, and fifth notes of the scale that corresponds to the root note. In other words, a simple C chord or C triad is made up of the first, third, and fifth notes of a C scale: C, E, and G. (This should be easy to see – just count up the letters of the alphabet from C, with C as number 1). That means that the chord will fit with any of those three notes. So a C chord can be used to harmonize a C, E, or G note. We would call those three notes the “chord tones”, and while they aren’t the only options they would be the most common ones.

Looking at the end of each line, you’ll notice a “5⁷” chord. A “seventh chord” has four notes: the root (first), third, fifth, and seventh tones of the corresponding scale. The 5 chord in the key of C is build on the fifth note of the C scale, which is a G. We then re-number with G as note 1, and proceed with the 1, 3, 5, 7 formula from there. So a “G7” chord is made up of G, B, D, and F.

Here’s where things get a little confusing, because the numbers are being used two different ways. When we build the chord, the numbers relate to the root of the chord. So in a C chord, the note C is 1, while in a G7 chord the note G is 1.

But when we calculate the number for a Nashville Number chart, the numbers relate to the key or scale: so in the key of C, the note C is 1 and so the C chord is a 1 chord. That makes the note G number 5, and so the G chord is a 5 chord. To avoid confusion, just remember that the numbers in the chord formulas relate only to the chord, not the key.

Walkup, walkdowns, and resolution

This one little passage also illustrates one more essential concept in music, the idea of a chord progression. We can think of the tonic chord (the 1 chord) as our musical home in the key of C: the place we begin. When we “walk” up the scale, we feel a sense of movement. When we walk back down, we feel a sense of return. But when we finish the first line on that G7 chord, the music feels unresolved: it’s clear that there’s more coming. This is what a 5 chord does: it creates a need for resolution back home to the 1. You can hear this again at the end of the second line, when the G7 resolves back to C. The “progression” is a sequence that begins at home, moves away to a point of tension at the halfway point, and then repeats the movement again in a way that resolves that tension at the end. This is Western harmony in a nutshell.

Thank you Bill Withers for making it so simple!