David Hodge

Hello to all

I’ll be taking part in two of the three FODfest shows this coming weekend – playing in the “back up band” and hopefully helping to make everyone sound their best. Not quite sure what instrument (s) I’ll be playing as it will mostly be determined by what everyone else is playing. Probably a lot of Tahitian ukulele is last year is any indicator.

Anyway, if you’re in the area of any of these musical venues, come on and see the show. They’re all free and they are all a lot of fun:

Friday, May 28 at the brand new Club Helsinki in Hudson, New York

Saturday, May 29 at the Colonial Theater in Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Sunday, May 30 at the Infinity Hall and Bistro in Norfolk, Connecticut

All shows start at 8:00. There’s going to be a “pre-show show” at the Colonial Theater in the lobby. I’m told we’ll be having some special guests. You can catch the artist line up for each show here.

And for those of you not in the area, some of us will be playing a local radio show tomorrow night on WCBR-FM at 8:00 EST. You can catch live streaming of the show here.

I’ll be at all three shows and would love to say hello to anyone from Guitar Noise. Come on by!

Peace

From a recent email:

Hi David,

 I have played guitar for forty-two years. My life evolved around major, minor, 7th and 9th chords. I am now learning to read and understand theory and dabbling in some jazz stuff. I seem to be doing alright however I am having trouble with diminished vs. diminished 7 vs. half diminished and so on. After speaking with a few others if seems that I am not the only one confused about the differences. Your fantastic lesson on diminished and augmented chords helped vastly however I was hoping you were going to touch on the “other” versions. My question is – is there a chance that maybe you could write a short lesson on this subject?

Thanks

Hello and thanks for writing.

Hopefully, we may be able to cut through your confusion without resorting to an entire article.  Let’s start with the diminished chord. As with all four of the very basic types of chords (major, minor, augmented and diminished), the dimished chord is built on the triad of root-third-fifth. However, both the third and the fifth have been lowered a half-step from what they would be if they were part of a major chord.

Major Chord:     Root     3rd     5th

Diminished Chord:     Root    flat 3rd     flat 5th

In jazz music, the term “full diminished” refers to the diminished seventh chord. To create a diminished seventh chord, you start with the diminished triad and then add the dominant seventh after it, too, has been lowered a half step. In other words, it’s the “flat flat seventh,” which is the same as the sixth position of the major scale.

A “half diminished” chord is a diminished chord (root, flat third, flat fifth) to which the normal dominant seventh (that’s the flat seventh)  has been added. Typically this chord will be labeled as “m7b5″ on a chord sheet.

Using the key of C as an example, here are your chords in question:

C Major – C  E  G

C Diminished – C Eb Gb

C Diminished 7 – C Eb Gb A (A being “Bbb” if you will)

Cm7b5 (or half diminshed) – C Eb Gb Bb

I hope this helps clear things up. Please feel free to write again if you need further (or better!) explanation. I look forward to chatting with you again soon.

Peace

Hello to all!

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that all the last bits of work on the upcoming Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar are all falling into place so that I can try to get myself back on a somewhat more regular schedule, especially in regard to Guitar Noise. If all goes according to plan, you’ll have a brand new song lesson up online today on the traditional tune In the Pines, which some of you may know better as Where Did You Sleep Last Night, which appeared on Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged sessions (as well as the accompanying CD).

Nick Torres at the Off the Beat 'n' Track Studio

This lesson also is a bit of a sneak preview for the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar as you’ll get to hear Nick Torres singing two verses of the song on the final MP3 file in the lesson. I am honored to have Nick’s participation in this book project. It certainly wasn’t easy! His task was to sing two dozen different songs (multiple versions of some of them!) in keys that I had picked for guitar teaching purposes, not to cater to his vocal range.  And he more than lived up to the challenge, often bringing an interpretation to the song that I couldn’t possibly hope to do myself.

Part of being a musician is giving of your abilities to make something beyond yourself, in this case a song. Working with Nick, whenever I have the opportunity to do so, constantly surprises me because more often than not it’s the subtle musical touches that end up making a song truly memorable. I’ve been very lucky to get to play with many musicians who have helped me become a lot better, as a guitarist and as an accompanyist.

Peace