# How does jamming (guitars not electronic warfare) work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2018, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-jamming-guitars-not-electronic-warfare-work/813888 "2018-05-10T01:26:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-jamming-guitars-not-electronic-warfare-work/813888/61 "2018-05-11T21:32:43Z")
Play along with some good, simple songs to get these concepts across. Here’s a good one: [Me And My Arrow](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1n9QTkrkP0) by the great Harry Nilsson. [Here](https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/harry_nilsson/me_and_my_arrow_chords_1201538) is the chord chart. Good, easy, simple song…just noodle around with that song on whatever instrument you want, and chances are you will come up with riffs that sound good. When you do, try to think about what the actual notes are that you’re playing and where they fit into the chords in terms of what interval they are (i.e. where’s the root, where’s the third, where’s the major seventh, where’s the dominant seventh, etc.) Don’t overthink it, just have fun with it. This is all you need to do, to get good at music. Just play, play, play. Play along with stuff. The vocabulary is entirely secondary to the ear. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-jamming-guitars-not-electronic-warfare-work/813888/62 "2018-05-11T21:50:42Z")
I know I’ve yakked a lot at you, but there’s one more point I think it’s very important to remember. No matter WHAT instrument you play, know how to play the melody of whatever song you’re playing. I play both bass and guitar, but my primary instrument is the bass. But whenever I am playing a song, whether I’m recording, jamming, or just practicing along with songs, I get my head around the melody before experimenting with anything else. That means I play the melody of whatever given song it is, ON the bass. As I do this, I get a sense of how the melody follows the chords and what intervals are utilized by the main vocal. Even if you’re primarily focused on rhythm guitar playing, know how to do this. You don’t need to read music, you don’t need to know what key it’s in, just know the melody by ear. If you can do this, it will build your chops like nothing else. More than practicing scales. More than practicing chords. More than practicing in time with a metronome (pointless, in my opinion). Play play play. By ear. All the time. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-jamming-guitars-not-electronic-warfare-work/813888/63 "2018-05-11T21:50:49Z")
> [@Temporary\_Name](#): > > Alright, okay, I think I am getting this: dominant is as opposed to Major. A Major seventh is a half step below the tonic, a dominant is a full step below the tonic. The V7 is a dominate seventh because it is flatted by the key signature, and then as **Pulykamell** explains, it applies to any seventh that is flatted. > > Have I got it? Yes. A dominant seventh chord, in casual parlance, need not mean the V7 chord of a key. It just usually means a major chord with a minor seventh on top of it, as opposed the major seventh chord (ETA: or, to be complete, as opposed also to the diminished or half-diminished 7th). It doesn’t have to function as the dominant (V) chord in a key. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-jamming-guitars-not-electronic-warfare-work/813888/64 "2018-05-11T22:08:50Z")
> [@Jacquernagy](#): > > This is all you need to do, to get good at music. Just play, play, play. Play along with stuff. The vocabulary is entirely secondary to the ear. This is essentially it. You can even start with just playing one note, then adding a second, and then a third, etc. The rhythm, spacing, articulation, and phrasing of the notes is just as important. I mean just check out Neal Young’s solo to “Cinnamon Girl,” as an example of a famous (essentially) one-note solo. ---
**Author:** ![Temporary\_Name](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Temporary\_Name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Temporary_Name)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2018, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-jamming-guitars-not-electronic-warfare-work/813888/65 "2018-05-12T02:02:35Z")
> [@Jacquernagy](#): > > If you have to suffer from a brain condition related to the name Bundy, you could do worse than that one. I had missed this comment the first time through, funny! (and true) ---
**Author:** ![Temporary\_Name](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Temporary\_Name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Temporary_Name)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2018, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-jamming-guitars-not-electronic-warfare-work/813888/66 "2018-05-12T02:30:39Z")
> [@Jacquernagy](#): > > You’re right on the money there. Don’t even think of it as “flatted by the key signature”. Just focus on those first two sentences you wrote. > > ANY TIME you want to “dominate” a chord, just throw in whatever note is one whole step back from the root. Some people call it a blue note, some people call it a kaiser blade…I mean, some people call it a flat seventh, I just call it badass, because that’s what it sounds like. > > A dominant chord also makes a good “passing chord” to transition from one major chord to another, but we’ll get into that later. You’re getting it. You already KNOW this stuff intuitively, you just need the vocabulary to discuss it. > [@Jacquernagy](#): > > Play along with some good, simple songs to get these concepts across. Here’s a good one: [Me And My Arrow](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1n9QTkrkP0) by the great Harry Nilsson. [Here](https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/harry_nilsson/me_and_my_arrow_chords_1201538) is the chord chart. > > Good, easy, simple song…just noodle around with that song on whatever instrument you want, and chances are you will come up with riffs that sound good. When you do, try to think about what the actual notes are that you’re playing and where they fit into the chords in terms of what interval they are (i.e. where’s the root, where’s the third, where’s the major seventh, where’s the dominant seventh, etc.) Don’t overthink it, just have fun with it. > > This is all you need to do, to get good at music. Just play, play, play. Play along with stuff. The vocabulary is entirely secondary to the ear. > [@pulykamell](#): > > Yes. A dominant seventh chord, in casual parlance, need not mean the V7 chord of a key. It just usually means a major chord with a minor seventh on top of it, as opposed the major seventh chord (ETA: or, to be complete, as opposed also to the diminished or half-diminished 7th). It doesn’t have to function as the dominant (V) chord in a key. > [@pulykamell](#): > > This is essentially it. You can even start with just playing one note, then adding a second, and then a third, etc. The rhythm, spacing, articulation, and phrasing of the notes is just as important. I mean just check out Neal Young’s solo to “Cinnamon Girl,” as an example of a famous (essentially) one-note solo. I want to thank all of you. I believe this thread has been a huge step forward for me as I managed to understand something important-- and dispelled a misconception that was blocking forward progress. I also have enough conceptual structure to jump in and play-- to try and to be willing to fail. It is okay to experiment because all of you together have helped me grasp the basics and it has reduced the choices from 88 to less than a dozen. I am not sure if you helped the OP or not (it is very likely this discussion is at a more simple level than he (or she?) may have needed – but you have added to my understanding and given me the concepts I needed to take next steps. Figure the slowest learner you know, then multiply by two. However long that is, I should be halfway through my learning curve by then. At some point I am likely to be back with more specific questions. And lastly, the recommendations to play, play, play are very beneficial for me. Now that i have better guidelines to follow-- I can actually do that. In my case, repetition moves information from short term to long term memory where problems in the brain often disappear. (Trial and error are very difficult techniques when there are too many options; I would have had to painstakingly learn options that then would have to be ignored or avoided. Now I can noodle around in a range of options that is along the lines of more optimal to less optimal-- that I can and have done. Sincere thanks ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2018, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-jamming-guitars-not-electronic-warfare-work/813888/67 "2018-05-12T02:33:08Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I know, right?! Like they think Piano Face\* or Bass Face\*\* could ever beat Guitar Face\*\*\*. Ha! I say. > \*studied intensity, raised-eyebrow lightness through the romantic bits > \*\*no expression whatsoever, fingers a blur. > \*\*\*do I really need to describe it, orgasm and all? 😉 One of my favorite upright bass players in this area has some _serious_ Guitar Face. Cracks me up every time, though sometimes I get weird looks when I make that observation to fellow jazz fans/musicians (because they have no idea what I mean). ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2018, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-jamming-guitars-not-electronic-warfare-work/813888/68 "2018-05-12T03:00:51Z")
No, if you watch Jaco Pastorius - who I think most people would agree was the _Ne Plus Ultra_ of bassists, by the most objective standards possible - he is perpetually grinning and grooving as he plays. And why wouldn’t he be? He was completely in love with music and with all the other musicians he played with. That, to me, is the sign of the greatest musicians - they _look like they’re having a good time_ while they play. Even near the end of his life, when he was in the grip of horrific mental problems and alcohol abuse, whenever he was able to pull it together enough to perform, [his face radiated love and enthusiasm.](https://postimg.cc/image/7m0rytvor/) So yeah, if a bassist is emotionless and cold as he plays, IMO he is not enjoying himself, and that’s a shame. Because music is meant to be enjoyed. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2018, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-jamming-guitars-not-electronic-warfare-work/813888/69 "2018-05-12T03:16:29Z")
Why not play just songs you love, the chords, and sing if you want, until you want to hear someone else play along with you, or you think someone might want to play along? You got to snatch the songs you need out of your memory. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-jamming-guitars-not-electronic-warfare-work/813888.md?page=3)