The Book of Chord Tones - Major Chords

[Intenzity]

Sooo, I collected all the possible ways you could play the notes of a major 7 chord and put them in a book. It's been a slow summer, what can I say.

There are many fans of chord tones, obviously, Jeff Berlin has been a huge proponent of the juicy harmonic goodness that is contained in those four magic tones for a long time, and they are the backbone of his approach to soloing. His book about chord tones lists a lot of patterns, but it doesn't have all the variations. This book does (well for major 7 chords): 24 patterns per key, for all 12 major chords.

Future volumes will have Minor, Dominant etc. all the biggies.

They look a little something like this (click to see them larger):






You can hear what the first dozen exercises sound like here -

http://soundcloud.com/bassoridiculoso/sets/book-of-chord-tones-major

And there is some more info at the blog about it, here.

Basso Ridiculoso: Announcing: The Book of Chord Tones, Book 1, Major Chords

So if you are looking for some ways to play major arpeggios that you might not have stumbled across before, or you want some exercises to explore some of those pesky mystery keys like Ab or Db, well, take a gander at The Book of Chord Tones, here - The Book of Chord Tones - Major 7 Chords by Basso Ridiculoso in Arts & Photography. There is a pdf preview available of the first 12 or so pages.

[_chrispy]

Can you download it as a pdf?

[Intenzity]

Originally Posted by _chrispy

Can you download it as a pdf?

Nope.

Hard Copy only. Well, for now anyway.

Maybe electronic versions will come out in the future, but for now it is just old-school paper.

[GeoffT]

Kinda funny that you rip Adam Smales in another thread for his book saying there is nothing new about it, calling him a spammer, and not worth $19.99 when you have never seen the contents and just days later you post this.

So I'm curious, how is a book that covers just a single 4 note chord in various permutations and combinations worth $19.99 and Mr. Smales book which covers quite a bit more information is not?

[Intenzity]

Originally Posted by GeoffT

Kinda funny that you rip Adam Smales in another thread for his book saying there is nothing new about it, calling him a spammer, and not worth $19.99 when you have never seen the contents and just days later you post this.

So I'm curious, how is a book that covers just a single 4 note chord in various permutations and combinations worth $19.99 and Mr. Smales book which covers quite a bit more information is not?

It's not that funny really.

A) I am not claiming there is anything new here, not promising some "new technique" or special insight if you buy the book. It is just fundamentals of musicianship arranged specifically for bass.
B) His book isn't in bass clef, doesn't have bass tab, and isn't even for bass, it is for guitar. Real helpful for folks here.
C) Despite his claims, it is not clear his book covers anything new, or how extensive it is at all. Does he have sound files? I do. Does he have exercises in all 12 keys? I do. Does he let you see the preview of the book? I do.

He is spamming because he is saying he invented something new. He didn't, and no I don't have to read it to know, he just didn't or he would have ph.d after his name and be teaching at a university and we would all know his name. In fact guys that DO have ph.d's in music/compsition and teach at universities don't even make claims like that. For a reason. AND if you don't understand how ridiculous it is for someone to say they invented something new in music in the year 2011 you need to read a lot more. That is not how music education works there are no tricks blah blah blah. It just arent. There are no shortcuts, or magic tricks.

These major chord patterns are just parts of the foundations of music, they just exist on their own. They just are. And you are right, you can sit down and work all 24 patterns yourself, for each of the 12 keys and get all 288 different exercises all on your own if you want. In fact, I highly recommend it, it is great practice. Write em all out.

But, if your time is more important and you just want to have a reference to practice them from, here it is. Piano players have Hannon books, cello players have their excerpts books, here is one for bass around major chords.

My problem is not that he has self published or even with the content, it is how he pitches it, and how he insists on the fact that it is new. There may very well be valuable information in it, but the way he sells it is the very definition of spammy.

My book is not going to make you taller, reduce your mortgage, grow hair or show you a magical fretboard unlocking secret pattern or any other of the nonsense that people claim they can do for you. They can't. The foundations of music have been known for 200 years, people.

My book is a reference volume for all the possible ways you can play major seven chords, in all keys, on a four string bass. Simple as that. I even included tab.

If you think that is something that is worth knowing how to do, or would be a useful in your playing, buy it.

If you don't, spend your $20.00 on the next guy who promises to make you shred king and unlock the secrets of the fretboard for you.

Frankly the chord tone book is way way way beyond the level of musicianship and interest for most of the general populace of this board. The level of musicianship discussed in most (not all) of the forums up here is laughably mis-informed, mis-directed and just plain straight up wrong most of the time. You see that post at the top of this forum where the moderator had to finally say "if you don't know what you are talking about, then don't answer" ? Its because of the information content of this forum is so bad.

But, there are people who do want to improve and get a strong foundation in the basic principles of music that will never stop working, no matter what style of music or what year it is. They might be looking for books or other resources to help them do that. That's why I put this together.

Oh by the way, send me the link to your book. Okay?

[funkybass]

When do you expect the rest of the volumes to be done?

[GeoffT]

Your issue is clearly he used the word "new," that is fine, easy to see how that could draw some skepticism and frankly it should. My issue is that you claim the information in his book is not worth $19.99 based only on the word new, not by it's contents. You have never seen what is in his book and have absolutely no basis for making a judgement if it's contents are worth the money. NONE. Unless you actually know what is in the book and how he presents and can cite where that method has been taught before, you are only assuming that the fretboard has not been broken down that way before. If you had even taken 2 minutes to check out his site you would know that he does indeed have a preview. You didn't even do that.

I couldn't agree with your statement more, if a person thinks a book is worth the price they should buy it. They are really the only ones who can make the call if the information in it was worth the money to them. What convinces them to buy it really makes no difference in the end unless they don't think it was worth the money, something only each individual buyer can determine.

As far as spamming, he did not create the thread on here about his book, he only came to answer questions and then to defend himself when people like yourself attacked and ridiculed him and his method. When he was attacked by people who hadn't even seen his book, he remained calm, respectful, and professional. I made no judgements about your book and I didn't say it wasn't worth the money, I simply asked a question as to why your book was worth 20 bucks when his wasn't and not only did you attack me (no, I don't have a book and I'm fine with that, thanks) but you went on to insult the intelligence of most of the people on the board. Nice move, that is some great PR and marketing.

Good luck to you with your book.

[Intenzity]

Originally Posted by funkybass

When do you expect the rest of the volumes to be done?

2-3 weeks for the next ones to be available.

[Intenzity]

You have never seen what is in his book and have absolutely no basis for making a judgement if it's contents are worth the money. NONE. Unless you actually know what is in the book and how he presents and can cite where that method has been taught before, you are only assuming that the fretboard has not been broken down that way before.

This is what you don't get - I don't have to see it to know its not new, any more than I know that if you told me you invented a car that ran on water and sunlight, that, no, you haven't. Or if you told me you discovered a new element in your backyard, or can prove that e=mc² isn't true. There were many many folks on that thread calling out his claims for the very same reason.

I don't have to buy the car to find out, because I understand enough basic (very basic..) physics that unless it is steam powered and I have to burn coal to run the steam engine and make it all run, what you claim is just plain impossible. There is no "proof" or "exploration" needed, because the basis of how physics works has been figured out for quite a while and in order for your claim to be true, all of physics would have to be wrong.

It's the same for music. Exactly the same. It has all been figured out for a long long time, in all kinds of places, by all kinds of people over and over and over again. So when someone shows up and says "I made this new thing!", no you didn't. It's new TO YOU, maybe, but its not new or by implication, better or improved over the way people have already been doing it. It's just your way of looking at it, and so what? How is it better? How does it improve on the current proven methods that already exist? The bar is so extremely high for a claim like that, it is almost insurmountable. The fact that someone makes fantastical claims like that means they don't really know what they are talking about, or they would never make such a ridiculous claim in the first place.

If someone really understood, maybe via a classroom setting, how deep and vast the body of knowledge is about music and every instrument, (yes, even guitar) they would realize how silly it is to make a claim like that. The fact that he really believes he has invented something new tells me all I need to know. Just like the guy who says those pills will make my thingy bigger. Oh, I wish that it were true. Oh, how I wish.

And I didn't insult anyone, the forum content is what it is. I don't make the posts where people have heated debates about what strap length is best for metal or who is the better bassist flea or geddy. And it ain't just me, the board managers must feel the same way or they probably wouldn't have told people to stop posting stupid answers that were wrong all the time and made that new rule.

Those are all real posts up here, so yea, if the truth hurts about the state of valid, legit, musical information that gets passed around on these forums, don't blame me. Just read the posts. Someone who cares about their strap length and argues about how wearing their bass slung low is "better" than high, probably doesn't care and probably wouldn't even understand why cord tones matter. And there are lots of discussions like that up here.

But, like I said, there are also lots of folks that are trying to find the good stuff out there, and (of course!) I think this is part of that good stuff. No tricks, no promises, no magic formulas, just foundational musical information organized in an easily accessible way for our particular instrument, and for less than the cost of a single lesson.

[GeoffT]

First off let me be clear, I have nothing against your book and I absolutely agree that chord tones are the good stuff and most people overlook their importance. I actually think the stuff on your website is great, it has a lot of the good stuff.

My aim was just to demonstrate to you how much it might suck to have someone talk smack about something you spent a lot of time on and feel is valuable information especially when they had not even seen the information. I didn't even criticize your book directly and by the length of your posts it's pretty clear you didn't like it.

Do you know that Adam has a masters in music? I would guess that means he has done a bit of classroom study.

I'm glad you brought up science, it is something I have studied heavily in a classroom setting. The laws of physics are quite different from music actually (although there is a strong relationship between the two) but only a fool would believe that we currently know everything about either. This is what you don't get! People studied Astronomy for a few thousand years before someone suggested that the sun was the center of our universe. When it was first suggested, the people that knew the most about astronomy ridiculed the idea and it actually took about 75 years for Galileo to build a telescope and really prove it (did it in his back yard too). Point is, the experts thought they knew it all when they did not.

This process of advances in every field has continued throughout history and will continue for a long time to come. We know more now than people did 200 years ago and people 200 years from now will laugh as some of the things we believe today, just as we laugh at some of the things they "knew to be fact" 200 years ago. We will never know it all and to actually believe that we do right now is pretty ridiculous, there will continue to be breakthroughs in every field for a long time to come. They may be large, they may be small, and the number of them and the speed with which they happen will diminish but they will surely continue.

And by the way, there already are cars that run on sunlight, they have raced them regularly for almost 20 years and I actually worked on one. You can use the hydrogen in water to power a fuel cell which could power a car. Nothing commercially viable at this point but they do exist.

[Intenzity]

Originally Posted by GeoffT

Do you know that Adam has a masters in music? I would guess that means he has done a bit of classroom study.

If he does have a masters, and has spent that much time studying he should know way, way better to ever make claims like that.

He should know better.

He is either more clueless that I imagined, or just trying to fleece the unaware, and unless he slept through a lot of classes, it must be the latter. Especially with his choice of language when it comes to marketing.

I am not going to weigh in anymore on this, I think the guy is bogus, I am highly highly skeptical of his claims and I have listed the reasons why multiple times, I am sure that anyone who cares, gets it. If you really believe that this dude has a new thing, go buy his book. Like I said before in the other thread, its your money.

If you want to keep replying so my post gets bumped and stays on top of the forum, thanks. I appreciate it, but my points on this issue have been made.

[Fergie Fulton]

Originally Posted by Intenzity

Nope.

Hard Copy only. Well, for now anyway.

Maybe electronic versions will come out in the future, but for now it is just old-school paper.

Although books are great, we are living in an increasing electronic world so a download is a desirable option in this modern world and will see the info get out there further.
Great work and all the best with it.

[Pacman]

Closed for Mod review.