ROOTS 6.6.13

"I heard there was a secret chord

that David played and it pleased the Lord,

but you don't really care for music, do you?

"It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth,

the minor fall, and the major lift--

the baffled king composing Hallelujah."

- Leonard Cohen

Music describes relationships of all kinds. Music tells stories in a universally native tongue. Music is math, and math reveals to us G-d’s secrets.

In Western music theory there are 12 notes to choose from, including all the sharps and flats (e.g., F sharp, B flat). There are 7 natural notes in all. Using the C major scale as an example, they are C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. After B, the pattern repeats and we come back to C, but now an octave higher. If you can sing “do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do,” then you’re familiar with the C major scale.

A chord is made up of the first, third, and fifth notes of a scale. Therefore, a C major chord is composed of C, E, and G. In this case, C is the root. The root provides the chord's name and its companion notes provide the structure--determining whether it's minor, major, diminished, etc.

A typical song consists of three chords, usually based on the first, fourth, and fifth notes of the key you're playing in. In the key of C, those chords are C, F, and G. If you know three chords you can play, literally, thousands of songs. Just choose a favorite key and run with it. In the key of D, you’d use D, G, and A. In the key of E: E, A, and B. 

Get past the theory. Just play. Just sing. It’s regenerative. It’s grounding. It’s humbling and inspiring.

The more I play music and the more I sing, the more I understand not only the numerical relationships between notes and chords, but the emotional ones as well. When you stray from the root of the key, you long to come back to it. It feels, inexplicably, like home. 

In a well structured song, there are dips and rises. Your heart falls into the song, and you trust the progression of its chords. From the root chord of the key to the fourth, it’s just enough of an adventure, just enough tension to provide a thrill, and a return to home feels that much sweeter. 

There are different feelings for different progressions. I know this not from theory but from practice and experience, from quiet mornings with coffee and raucous campfire nights.

I am guilty of over-thinking in my life. I wish to understand the workings of my passionate pursuits. But these yearnings are only means to an end. I wish only to deepen my experiences, to speak and understand in more elegant ways, to find the simplest solutions--which are often the most beautiful.