White Ripple Community Band February 1st, 2016

It's not January anymore! I don't know why that puts me in such a good mood-- we have a couple more months of winter weather no matter what the groundhog says, but turning another page on the calendar means warmer days are coming.



Last class we warmed up with Roadhouse Blues before going into Wild World by Cat Stevens. Rich chose it because it goes around the Circle of Fifths, pictured below:

We start at Am-- Am is the relative minor of C. Then we move to D. From D we go counter-clockwise around the circle.

Am, D, G, C, F, Dm*, E, G

Going around the circle counter-clockwise turns the Circle of Fifths into the Circle of Fourths. It's weird, it's confusing, but it'll make more sense the deeper you go and the more you get into the theory of it. The chorus is C, G, F, G, F, C-- do that two times, then back to the verse.

We finished up with Don't Pass Me By by The Beatles, written by Ringo Starr. The song is in the key of C and uses 3 chords: C, F, G. The interval from C to F is a perfect fourth. The interval from C to G is a perfect fifth. In music there are exceptions to just about everything, but a good rule of thumb is, when you know a song is in the key of C, you can safely assume that you're going to run into F, G, and the relative minor, Am, at some point. It's because those tones, perfect fourths and fifths, they sound good to our ears.

Next week I made a request for kid's songs because playing for anklebiters is fun, darnit. There may be whales, ducks, and dragons in store for you all...


*F is a good substitute chord if you want to play that instead.