When I was a kid I had a very good french teacher. He gave me very good tools to learn how to write well in french...(sujet, verbe, complément)...or subject, verb, complement. Of course, when you undertand the basics and then you make some text analysis, you reach a point where you become an ananlysis lover for writing or reading texts.

Many years later I met another teacher but this time it was in english. I had only three months with him but he had the same pattern in mind...texts analysis...He was so good. I'm not perfect in english but I learned a lot from him.

On top of that I started to learn spanish and, because I learned a lot from these 2 teachers, I found that it was easier for me to learn a new langage. Today I can say that I'm quite proud of this realisation.

Why all of this? Because I wanted to know if you look at a musical progression like a normal text, something you can analyse and understand like if you were reading a book or a newspaper. Is it the case for you? It is for me. I analyse and then I can improvise the right way with the right scales, etc...I find it so simple. Because I look at it not as strange but just normal phrasing. Ok, sometimes there are some chords substitutions or passing chords, etc...but I can see it right away. If it's not clear, I just stop, analyse, and then I continue because I understood what was going on.

Are you in this path or if you are afraid when you look at some chords progressions? Are they friendly to you or a mountain of problems? Just want to know...please be welcome to share your impressions.

Good topic! I definitely do, and i find great enjoyment out of analysing and learning exactly what i like so much about a certain song. It really helps when I'm arranging and learning a piece to know it that intimately. It also helps with my own writing because i learn new composition techniques the same way

Good subject.

As a person with multiple learning disabilities, I do not know what a pronoun or an adverb or adjective is or does. I have no ability to understand language in this way. Yet I can speak it a bit and write it a little. (American English). My ability to learn new languages does not exist (Auditory processing disorder) I speak and write by ear alone.

In music it is much the same for me. although I have extensive theoretical training and understanding as well as trained ears, I will always struggle through any chart or notation reading. For me all songs must be learned anew even the chords within the songs are usually a new mountain to climb. Ask me to play a G minor chord.... I cannot, yet I can play it within a song I have learned in any inversions and voiceings.

So for me there is almost no transfer of knowledge when learning new things, this is true in all areas of learning. I don't analyse I have no accesasble information stored, I just play by ear. and practice for 3 hours per day for 32 years.

Brett

I have played a number of instruments. But I never played them for more than a year or two. I sang for 3 years in high school. That's the extent of my musical background.

Two years ago, I became fascinated with the Stick. A ~year ago, I finally purchased one. I have learned more about music theory in the past two years than I have with any other instrument. Music itself is now interesting and I listen to it on a different level - considering base line, chords and vocals, where as before I just liked it and maybe learned the words / melody.

I don't play the Stick well. I have had a number of set backs, and I don't practice as often or as long as I should. But even if I never learn to play well, the Stick has taught me more about music than any other instrument I've tried.

I am a theory junkie. When improvising on trumpet (I solo a lot on big bands and jazz combos) I see where I need to go. I see all the guide tones and passing tones and weave my way thru the changes that way. When arranging I harmonize horn charts as if I were doing number puzzles. Thery is fun for me and gives me more options. Of course great ears work but as I have hearing aids and can’t hear as well as other musicians I’ve learned to compensate.

My favorite topic.
To get the most out of your Stick, theory and its application is crucial. Cycle of fifths? Stick is tuned for this. Complex chords? A breeze with polychords,
Dot or line markers every 5 frets is ingenious and makes musical sense.
Everyday theory is usually hypothetical. Music theory is actually law.
I recommend making it a large part of the learning experience to lessen the mystery.

Steve Adelson

I have thought about music as language for a few years, but I could never spare the energy to explore the concept with my former Railboard (three years ago). Though I intend to explore that concept with my forthcoming Alto Stick, I recently started to think about music in terms of Go's spacial relationships (some here may recall that I once wanted custom inlays with a Go motif, as seki became an important principal in my thinking).

More concretely, I plan to work with the book which Mad Monk recently linked.

...well, and good luck...
...the oeuvre contains much more then 300 pages...
...tell me, when you are through...

...btw. Mad Monk's offer is very broadminded and noble, indeed...

I spent about 40 years on the bandstand in nightclubs on guitar, mandolin and primarily pedal steel, but sometimes all three. At least half of those gigs were with musicians who I'd never met or played with prior to the first note of the first set of a 5 set gig. Many I never saw or played with again and some I played with on and off for decades. That's how big and dense Southern California is. One night it was guitar in a rock & roll oldies show with a guy from Sha-Na-Na, the next night steel in a hard country band with a girl singer in a gay bar, the next night keyboard parts on a guitar synth in a 9 pc R&B, reggae & soul review at B.B. King's, then bluegrass/Americana on mandolin at a beer joint in North Hollywood. I had to develop huge ears and right quick. I had to fish for keys and changes on stage in real time by sliding the bar up the strings and when I got to a note in the chord being played, turn it into a lick. You develop an instinct about when and how to play fills behind a singer without playing in the same octave, etc. and how to share those duties with whatever musicians were on the bandstand from night to night without stepping on them.

I played with one guitar player for a summer who played augmented and diminished chords anywhere he could possibly insert them into every song. After that, I knew everything you could possibly know about the role of those 2 chords. Sometimes a band leader would hold up 2, 3, 4 or 5 fingers if you were going to a II, III, IV or V chord. Another bandleader would do the same thing except he was signaling the key signature by how many sharps it had and you have to catch on or suck out loud. One time I was singing close harmony in a cowboy song in a Mexican restaurant in Burbank and realized Brian Wilson was sitting up front staring at me. Another time, another band, Billy Gibbons wanted to jam and was too drunk to play.

You gig like that long enough and you get thick skin and grace under fire. You must identify any chord in a given key in an instant and play something over it. You learn how to clam and own it. You learn to tolerate assholes - on and off stage. You put a lot of miles on your car. You learn a thousand songs. Apart from a few formal lessons on the instruments I play, that was my schooling. That and playing with better musicians than myself, listening, watching, picking their brains and digging deep to keep up.

Respect!