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Guitar Technique Sessions Number 40Updated July 14, 2005

Okay, someone emailed me (actually three people) and asked why all this stuff about lute tab? Some of

them didn't read standard notation. One wanted to know if I was some sort of musical 'snob' who had to

"show off" just how many notation systems I could read!

Well, let me tell you a short story. Long before man wrote music down with lines and dots, people made music. Thelines and dots only came about as a method of saving what the performers and composers did for posterity -- soothers could attempt to copy their performances. Notation is a tool -- a wonderful tool that everyone should use if atall possible. Earth moving equipment and concrete are great indispensible tools as well -- not having them didn'tkeep the Egyptians from building the pyramids, did it?

Notation is the same. There are great musicians -- like Rory Gallagher -- who didn't and don't consider themselves'readers.' Does this render their artistic efforts null and void? Of course not! So all this talk of mine about reading isnot intended to diss all those musicians who don't read. Reading is simple. Simple enough that even musicians cando it!

Here is a fifteen minute crash course in music reading -- standard notation. Next week we'll transcribe that Dowlandpiece. For now, it's MSL -- music as a second language. Relax, it all makes sense.

Basics of Standard NotationBasics of Standard NotationBasics of Standard NotationBasics of Standard Notation

I feel it is essential for the student-guitarist to learn how to read standard musical notation. Although much of therepertoire is available in guitar tab, so much more isn't. [It is also a very wise endeavor to learn the various forms oflute intabulation. Much lute music is made available as scholarly researched editions, transcribed to standardnotation—but to pitch, not in a format readable to guitarists, but it is much easier to find lute music in originaleditions and work from that to generate unique transcriptions. This topic is outside the scope of our discussion atpresent.] Guitar tab is great for new players, but a solid understanding of standard notation is more valuable in thelong run. There are no concert-quality classical artists who do not read standard notation.

Pitch and Rhythm

All forms of musical notation deal with two factors. These two factors are pitch and rhythm. The notation of rhythmis basically identical in lute and lute tablature and standard notation. It is where pitch is concerned that the twodiffer. Tablature tells us where we are to place our fingers on the fingerboard. Standard notation tells us whatpitches we are to produce on the instrument. Tablature is a much more precise system for stringed instrumentssince there are certain ‘duplicate' notes that can be played on different strings (and different positions) but would bewritten as the same note in standard notation. However, they are represented by different symbols in tablature.Tablature's major drawback then is that it cannot be directly read from on another instrument. You cannot sit downat the piano and easily read from lute tablature unless you have an intimate knowledge of the lute. However, apianist can read a piece of violin music on the piano with no difficulty at all. This is because both instruments usethe standard musical notation.

Notation of Rhythm

Musical time is divided into equally spaced units of time called pulses, or beats . These beats last from thebeginning of the first beat until the beginning of the next. When written as music, these beats are organized intogroups of beats. Vertical Bar lines divide the staff perpendicularly, dividing the staff into measures . The measurescontain predetermined numbers of beats.

Measures mean nothing unless weknow how many beats are contained in them. For this reason we call certain rhythms meters , which aredesignated by time signatures .

All meters can be reduced to two basic meters known as Duple and Triple meters. Duple meter uses groups of

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two beats. They are organized as strong and weak beats, which are like marching feet. The foot placed forward firstis the strong beat, the other foot the weak follower.

V = strong, — = weak.

V - V - V - V - V - V - etc.

Triple meter is based on a unit of three beats and is basically a dance rhythm. The waltz is a triple meter.

V = strong, — = weak.

V - - V - - V - - V - - V - - etc.

The most common Duple meter is 4/4 time. (It is sometimes called Common time .) 4/4 is a symbol known as atime signature . It represents:

4 — beats to the measure

4 — the quarter note receives the beat

In the meter known as 4/4 , there are four beats in the measure (Or one whole note, or two half notes, or fourquarter notes or eight eighth notes.) In 4/4 time, the Duple meter is arranged:

V - v - V - v - V - v - etc.

Beats one and three are the strong beats. One is the strongest beat. Beat three is stronger than two and four is theweakest. That brings us to notes and how they tell us what durations they have.

This is a Whole note. It has a duration of four beats.

w

This is a Half note. It lasts half as long as a Whole note, it has a duration of two beats

h

This is a Quarter note. It lasts half as long as a half note, one quarter as long as a whole note. It has a duration ofone beat.

q

This is an Eighth note. It lasts half as long as a quarter note, one quarter as long as a half note, one eighth as longas a whole note. It has a duration of one half of one beat.

e

TIME SIGNATURES ARE NOTATED AS FRACTIONS AND ARE REFERRED TO AS (PER EXAMPLE) ‘FOURFOUR', ‘THREE FOUR' AND ‘TWO FOUR'. THERE ARE OTHER TIME SIGNATURES SUCH AS 6/8, 12/8…

In 4/4 time, there can only be one whole note in a measure, two half notes in a measure, only four quarter notes ina measure, and only eight eighth notes in a measure. Of course, any combination of half, quarter, and eighth notescan occur, as long as they don't exceed or fall short of having four complete beats in the measure.

TIME SIGNATURE


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We have shown how pitch duration is notated. However, music is made of silence as well as sound. Rests notatewhen and how long the silences in the music last. Rests show beats or parts of beats that remain silent inperformance, where no pitches are assigned to a beat. Rests correspond exactly to note values in duration:

So heavy it hangs below the line

The whole rest

It sits up on the line

The half rest

The quarter rest

The eighth rest

The whole rest represents four beats of silence, the half rest represents two beats of silence, the quarter restindicates one beat of silence and the eighth rest divides the beat into two equal parts and represents one half beatof silence.

The Tie

These six samples show correct use of whole, half, quarter and eighth notes, ties and rests in 4/4 time.

Notation

of Pitch

Pitches


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are notatedon the staff—astructureconsisting

of five lines withfour spaces.Each line andspace indicates

a singlepitch.

Fifth

line_________________________________________________

Fourth Space

Fourth line_________________________________________________

Third space

Third line_________________________________________________

Second space

Second line_________________________________________________

First space

First line_________________________________________________

The spaces spell the word ‘face' ( F , A , C , E )


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Remember the names of the line by thinking: E very G ood B oy D eserves F udge

These are the pitchnames of the lines

on the bass clef: 1 = G, 2 = B, 3 = D, 4 = F, 5 = A

Remember the names of the lines by thinking: G ood B oys D on't Forget A nything

1 = A, 2 = C, 3 = E, 4 = G

And Cows Eat Grass

Bass clef is not of primary importance to the guitarist aside from the fact that it is useful to have good workingknowledge of this clef fro transcribing keyboard music (Albeniz and Scarlatti spring to mind.)

Accidentals (Sharps and Flats)

The c major scale is composed of the following pitches: c, d, e, f, g, a, b, and c. Even though the note names follow


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in complete alphabet sequence, there are still gaps.

These gaps are where the accidentals are located. To understand the logic of this, we must first look at how thediatonic major scale of Western music is formed.

C D E F G A B C

(Whole) (Whole) (Half) (Whole) (Whole) (Whole) (Half)

In this chart, the term “Whole” refers to a Whole step and “Half” to a Half step. A Whole step is made up of two Halfsteps. There is no smaller interval in Western music than the Half step. The guitar fretboard is fretted in half steps.In other words, to make a Whole step, one must skip a fret from the original tone to the next tone forming theinterval. The interval from the c fret to the e fret is a whole step. The interval from the c fret to the d fret is a halfstep.

In order to make major scales starting from pitches other than c, we have to use sharps and flats to insure that theintervallic relationships between each step of the scale is correct.

Here is a g scale without any accidentals:

G A B C D E F G

(Whole) (Whole) (Half) (Whole) (Whole) (Half) (Whole)

This scale is not a correct major scale because the last two intervals are transposed. To make the scale correct, wemust add an f sharp to the scale. The symbol for the sharp is:

G A B C D E F # G


Now the Intervals are in the proper order.

Rather than continually writing f # 's throughout a piece that is in g major, we put one # at the beginning of thepiece, right after the clef, and before the time signature. We call this the key signature, as it tells us what key thepiece will be in. F # 's are then just written as f's in the piece. We understand them to be f # 's from the keysignature. If the piece should require an f in its natural form due to a transposition, etc., a symbol called a “natural”is placed before the note. It looks like this:

As far as flats are concerned, they are the same pitches as sharps, that is to say c# is the same pitch as d flat (d b), d # is the same pitch as e flat(e b ), f # is the same pitch as g flat(g b ), g # is the same pitch as a flat(a ), and a #is the same pitch as b flat(b ). Flats are used when a sharp would obscure the true nature of a scale. Observe thefollowing f scale.

F G A B C D E F

(Whole) (Whole) (Whole) (Half) (Whole) (Whole) (Half)

The intervals are out of order. We could straighten it out by spelling the scale as F G A A # C D E F. This scale iscorrect as far as pitch in equal temperament is concerned, but how could we possibly have a key signature withboth an “a” and an “a # ” in the scale? Instead of this awkward spelling, we use a “b” flat instead.

F G A B b C D E F


Now we can use a single flat as the key signature for the key of “f” major. Of course, like a sharp, a flat can beremoved by a natural sign.

The intent of this section has not been to teach the student everything there is to know about standard notation, but


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to allow him to figure out and understand what is being presented to him in this graded format. Other aspects ofnotation will be discussed when they present themselves.

What's New? The The Two New Albums!

Hey, the new albums are out! That's right, finally afollow-up to the reissue of my old album from thelate 1980's and its sequel as well.

Reflecting Pools is a departure for me as it is totally keyboard. Well, the guitar did show up on one track...Reflecting Pools is an ethereal journey into the realm of relaxation. In That Zone is a more classically structuredexploration of mood and personality.

Available through www.BATHTUBMUSIC.com...

...And containing nine tracks that are relaxing, inspirational -- sounds like a snooze. Not really, this is great stuff tolisten to on a rainy afternoon, while with your significant other (nudge, nudge, know what I mean?) Please visit theRelfecting Pools page on this site or www.bathrubmusic.com.

LOW END

What's new with the bookthat came out over a yearago? After being onback-order at Amazon.comfor what seemed like acentury, it is myuinderstanding that copiesare once again shipping.Barnes and Noble'swebsite stocks new coipiesof LOW END in an onagain/off again mode.

DEEP END, the exciting sequel, is beingshopped by my literary agent even as we speak.

The Guitar Sessions:

Weekly tech tips and exercises to help the guitarist

improve.

This feature has really taken off. Each week a new page isposted with either an exerices to get the left and right handsmoving more efficiently andeffectively or an interestingpice from the standardrepertoire , demonstrating anecessary technical ability.Judging by the hits thesepages receive, you guitarplayers love this feature!

The page is updated every Thursday. Visit the 2004 Archive aswell!

My Mission, My Policy

In my opinion, the murder mystery genre reachedits zenith in the 1930's and 1940's. The novelspenned in those decades were taut, no nonsensestories of people in life and death crises, peoplewho did not flinch when confronted withoverwhelming odds or overwhelming emotion.Some of these tales could be hard-edged andhard-boiled, but the heroes invariably had a softside as well.

About My Site:

This site is a way for me to commemorate and celebrate a lifeand lifestyle that is now extinct. Why extinct? Is it that ThomasWolfe " You-can't-go-home-again " thing? Is it because life is somuch different now that what we experienced in the Bronx inthe 60's and 70's is no longer relevant? Yes. No. Yes and no?Definintely maybe ! Why do I always start these little essayswith questions?

At first, the main thrust of this site was to promote my book. It is


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I believe that over the years, in an attempt tomimic real life, the writers of murdermysteries--and most other literature, for thatmatter--have lowered the standards of excellenceset by such authors as the gritty RaymondChandler and the sophisticated Dorothy Sayers.Many authors misinterpret smut for romance andbrutality for strength.

My novels aspire to the standards set by the1940's mystery writers. My tales are as real andgrimey as the mean streets that spawned them.Even so, and though they deal with modernissues, you will not find gratuitous sex in mycharacters' relationships. Sex may be alluded to,but it is never allowed out from behind closeddoors. You will find that my books areentertaining to a broad audience--I have hadpositive comments from teens to grandmothers.One reader was surprised when I told him thatthere were no obscenities in the book he'd justfinished. He hadn't missed them! A good storydoesn't need such unnecessary 'embellishment.'

I have conducted book signings at churches,country clubs, libraries and even a street corner(don't ask!) and I've never been called to task for,or ashamed of, my work. Pick up a copy of mylatest novel and see if it isn't a good read!

Harry Pellegrin

As a native New Yorker

and an American, I am still

angered by the cowardly

attacks of 9/11. Unless we

restore New York City's

skyline to its condition

prior to September 11th,

2001, the miserable scum

who attacked us will have

won! Visit

www.makeNYNYagain.com and rebuild America!

a worthy goal; the book tells a good tale and eveyone who hasread it finds it entertaining and thought-provoking. With thatsole goal, I went live with this site back in August of 2003. Whathappened next is what makes this site truly valuable.

There are people I grew up with, attended school and withwhom I played in bands -- neighbors, friends, good family --who I hadn't seen since I moved from the Bronx in 1986.Divorce had forced me into exile, time and distance conspiredto seemingly turn this into a life sentence. Thank the muses forthe internet! This site wasn't live for more than two monthsbefore I was reunited with Paul Silvestro , a childhood friendwhom I hadn't seen in seventeen years. His brother Larry , theguy who had turned me on to playing guitar and taught me thethings about music that matter the most, now with him I had nocontact since 1983. Twenty years! Too long. I felt as if a part ofmy soul had been restored -- a part that had been missing forages and had long ago been written off. But more was to come.

Anthony Pernice, Art Clement , Mike Moretti -- all reunited tome.

The 1960's weren't good to a number of us -- many of us hadour personal demons to exorcise, be it substance abuse or theinsidious hedonism of the times. but through it all, we wereinstilled with a vibe, cast in an artistic mold--call it what youwill--but unless these same environmental stimuli are exactlyreproduced, there will never be another crop of people quite thesame.

This page delves into what we experienced and how weincorporated these experiences into art, music, literature andlife . I've paid tribute to my neighborhood, the Wakefield sectionof the Bronx. The Discords -- Larry Silvestro and ArtieClemente's first band in the early mid-sixties-- they're here withtheir matching outfits, Fender, Hagstrom and Gretsch guitarsplus those impeccably precise five part harmonies.

Of course, there is an homage to Leo Fender and hismagnificent designs, the Telecaster © and the Stratocaster©. I officially declare C.L. Fender an honorary Bronxite. Theseinstruments have literally changed my life and the way we allhear music. Check out this page on my site.

Rory Gallagher, whom I saw play in 1973 and who hasinfluenced me ever since--he has a page here as well. He hasgone on now, but the impact he made is still rippling outwards,changing how we interpret the blues.

Untermyer Park in Yonkers and Woodlawn Cemetery in theBronx are included on this site. We were kids interested in agood ghost story and both these places were terrific forproviding a few innocent and fun goosebumps. Of course thiswas during the same period of time that Son of Sam was usingUntermyer and Pine Street in Yonkers for his own uses... Andwe didn't know!!!

...and of course, my book!

Please enjoy this site. Nose around. Anyone can findsomething here to read and get a chuckle.

Thanks!


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