This introduction is to explain the purpose of my proposed theory lessons.
Some of the lessons will be written by others, and this introduction really
only applies to my lessons, although I hope other teachers will strive for
consistency.
Feb 2025
This set of lessons has been around for thirty years and is just now getting an incremental refurb with new diagrams, links with supplemental information (wow... links! the future is now!), and has a new home on github.
One thing you will notice is that the tuning specific diagrams are in 12 string matched reciprocal. whereas the original was in 10 string. Classic. I'll will be making a 10 string (or maybe 12 string) classic version some time after the matched reciprocal one is completed
If you have some lesson contributions/comments/questions etc.. You are welcome to contact me at mike.hoegeman@gmail.com
--mike
This introduction is to explain the purpose of my proposed theory lessons.
Some of the lessons will be written by others, and this introduction really
only applies to my lessons, although I hope other teachers will strive for
consistency.
I'm sure others on this list are more qualified than me to organize these
lessons, but they didn't volunteer (and I'm not quite sure why I did, other
than to get a better grasp on this stuff myself by writing about it.)
I hope these lessons
will give players of the
Free Hands Method a basic grasp of some theory concepts and how
they relate to Free Hands. I do not intend to cover everything
you need to know, and I strongly suggest you look into the bibliography
below for addtional resources.
These lessons will cover "Jazz Theory" as opposed to "Classical Theory" (or
in some circles, "Legit Theory") for one reason; it's all that I've
seriously studied. However, conversations with those who've studied both
lead me to conclude that Jazz Theory will be much more useful to the
average contemporary musician playing 20th century popular music, whether
it's jazz, rock, country, etc. (O.K., so maybe it's not that much help for
rap.)
Some theory about theory; my music teacher in college stressed that theory
is *not* a rigid set of rules that must always be adhered to. Rather, it is
an organization of how things are already played. People probably played it
that way in the first place because they liked how it sounded, without much
knowledge of theory. It now sounds "correct" to us because we've heard it
enough times. If you keep playing it that way, it will continue to sound
correct. However, innovation in music comes only when players depart from
the standard way of doing things. If you know the rules, you always have
the choice of adhering to them, or breaking them. If you don't know the
rules, you can't make a conscious choice. Pianist Misha Mengelberg once
said he went to a conservatory to learn which rules he had to break. I
believe it is in the player's best interest to understand theory no matter
what he/she intends to do with it.
"The Jazz Theory Workbook" by Mark E. Boling, ed. By Jerry Coker. 1993
Advance Music.
"The Jazz Language" by Dan Haerle. 1980, Studio Productions/recordings.
The Free Hands Playing Method page at Stick.com. Info on Method books, Articles, and other online resources.
Stick.com Has Greg Howard's wonderful Chord Compedia which is a concise chord collection for the free hands instrument method in various tunings.
The Fretboard Diagrammer. The Free Hands Friendly web applet used to make the fretboard diagrams you will see here on Theory on Tap
Simplifying Theory. A well organized , straightforward music theory web site.
A Jazz Improvisation Primer By Marc Sabatella. - and oldie that has been around since the early 90's but still has some useful information
Open Music Theory - an open-source, interactive, online “text book" for college-level music theory courses. The initial 'Fundamentals' section is approachable and generally useful for everyone.