Hey Emily, I had it pounded into my thick, unhairy, skull. Mostly, I thought of chords in terms of shapes, the shapes my fingers made on the grid of strings and frets. Gradually, it got to the point where I could hear the majors, minors, diminsheds, augmenteds and on to the ninths. I can fairly well hear up to "garden variety" thirteenths, or simpler nine flat fives, but those clusters give me fits.

Sam, some folks hear them easier than others. You can train someone with a decent ear, but some folks hear them right off the bat. I vividly recall trying to figure out the chords to a song on the radio that had me stumped. I sat with my guitar and pencil and couldn't get it. Nowadays, I rarely use a guitar or piano when I chart chords, just listen to the songs and write. Once in a while I'll hit a song (not mentioning any names....LINDA) that takes a little work, but again, I wasn't born that way, just had it whipped into me.

Lyle. You're exactly right. When Sam hits a note, he's either using "sense memory" or he's tuning into the infinite. Think about whistling. When folks whistle tunes, they aren't using frets or note names or electronic tuners, they're just whistling. I fully agree, the rules are up to us.

Good Stuff All,
Mike

You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way. -Johnny Cash

It's only music.
-niteshift

Mike Dunbar Music