Hey. There's an awesome site I like to visit: http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/awp-alphabet.shtml that analyzes each of the Beatles songs. This might ruin it for some of you, but it's nice for an aspiring songwriter...
Anyways, is there any good books that would help me understand more of what this guy's talking about? Because he uses a lot of numbers, more than the regular Roman numerals like I - V, I - V - IV - VI.
Like, ii6/5... I had to search on the web what that meant... Dm/F [if in key of C] (Second Inversion, right?). Which, would be: x03231... Although, technically, that's root... so maybe, I don't know.
Anyways, this guy, Allan Pollack writes a lot of interesting things on the Beatles music. I wish I could better understand it.
Could someone check out the site and see how much music theory I need? Any book recommendations would be greatly appreciated. There's a ton of music theory books out there, so hopefully, they'll be a consensus of what to get.
I suggest Tom Serb's book (Music Theory for Guitarists). That will give you all the info you need to understand what is being written. Tom is a member here (Noteboat).
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def abs agree with the book thing.
The numbers like 6/5 and 4/3 etc are in reference to the way the chord is stacked.
If you had a V6, chord not car, for example, it would be a five chord in first inversion. The number 6 refers to the diatonic interval above the bass, but do not refer to which upper voice it must be placed. It's all to do with four part harmony.
A 6/4 means you would need a sixth and a fourth somewhere diatonically above the bass.
You know what, get a book because i suck at explaining these things in easy to understand ways
PS def abs= definitely absolutely.
Don't sweat it dude, just play!
Are you sure about that? If ii6/5 is Dm/A (using C as I) then how would you notate Dm6/A?
EDIT coz i was drunk and tired when i did the last one. This is revised and much more correct.
actually, ii6/5 is dmin7/F. ii6/4 is dmin/A. It's all very confusing. But lets take, for instance, Dmin/A. ii 6/4. the ii is referring to the fact that the chord must be the second chord diatonic to the key, in this case Dmin. The 6 and the 4 are referring to which intervals above the bass at least two of the upper voices must be. Starting with A in the bass, a fourth up is D. A sixth up is F. Then you can just double either the D or the A for the Soprano voice. There is your Dmin chord in second inversion. Now usually nobody really needs to go to the trouble of working out what inversion chords are in byy adding up the numbers or whatever. When you learn four part harmony/voice leading, you get taught, 6 means 1st inv triad, 6/4 2nd inv,
6/5 1st inv Dom7, 4/3 2nd inv 7, 4/2 3rd inv 7 etc, etc...
so for your dmin6/A, in the key of c major, you would need obviously your A in the bass.the 6th of dminor would be B so there would be a 2 involved. the D is implied so you would reference the 6 or the F. so a dmin6/A, I think, and this is purely logic because i haven't been taught how to do this yet, but logically with what I know, a dmin6/A would be a ii6/2.
Don't sweat it dude, just play!
four part harmony is really fun, especially trying to link up chords with proper voice leading.
Don't sweat it dude, just play!
Yes, Pollack's site is good. If you like reading about their songs from a songwriter's and theoretical point of view, you should also investigate the two books by Walter Everett, The Beatles as Musicians.
You could also start reading some of David's articles on theory on this site, for example:
Theory without tears, Scaling the Heights, or Augmented diminished dementia. Absolute Beginner Part 1: Chords is also great.
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