Voicing Modes

Introduction.Modes are often at first understood in relation to a parent scale. While this can be helpful as a starting point and for developing muscle memory, in practice it doesn't always point the player to the right chord tones in relation to the sound. In other words, it doesn't help make the changes.To use modes to make the changes, one must be able to relate the scale shape to a chord voicing - a chord voicing that outlines the essential few tones in a sea of seven notes. These voicings can vary depending on the amount of color desired. The color desired is dependent on musical style/genre, and whether or not the chord is functional in a progression or static in its modality.These essential tones are not always 1,3,5,7 (tertian harmony - stacked in 3rds).While most chords in jazz and improv-based music are expressed in one of four tertian-voicing archetypes (Major, Minor, Dominant, or Diminished) - this is a false tetrachotomy. There are more than four.To capture some other sounds that many composers intend, especially in compositions written in the last 50 years (and in Classical music, 150 years) one must add a few other archetypes. While those indicated in this book are not exhaustive, they will open your ears to other ways of expressing harmony while still staying true to the key center.While exploring other ways to voice the modes, keep in mind that these are not just for comping and soloing. Feel free to use them as a starting point for composition and reharmonization. The use of "pivot voicings" instead of just pivot chords can open up your understanding of harmonic relationships in multiple ways. Enjoy exploring.-NoelP. S. This book is way more fun if you use a looper pedal.Second edition notes: Typo corrections, clarifications, TAB added to all edudesThird edition notes: Additional etudes, expanded modal subs section, added blues chapterMore more info, charts, videos, and free web app: http: //noeljohnston.com/voicingmodes.ph

(Note this has standard notation only. There is a version with standard notation and TAB available, also)From the Foreword: Guitarists around the world are faced with a common set of obstacles when learning their instrument. When distilled, the essence of these obstacles becomes knowledge of technique vs musical knowledge. While both are important, the balance of the two disciplines is the key to being able to freely express one's musical ideas and operate at their creative peak. Whether composing or improvising, it is necessary to cultivate a broad musical vocabulary with depth and variety. In theory, once accomplished, one can use their technical ability to decorate the spaces in time with all of the colors of their musical knowledge.Noel Johnston, a brilliant guitarist in his own right and the author of this book you are now reading, was clever enough to identify and organize some of the most useful strategies for learning the "colors" of the modes. He has pulled back the curtain on the often confusing topic of modes by systematically exposing their personalities with fresh sounding etude exercises and a game of rolling the "modal dice." He devised a sportive way to explore their sounds during practice while intuitively ingraining them into your playing and writing. When you roll the modal dice you enter a world not dissimilar to muscle confusion in physical training. To make gains in physical exercise one must vary their training methods in a way that promotes new experience for each muscle group. By rolling the modal dice you also train yourself to adapt to a new creative environment which leads to being better prepared in any improvisational situation. The combined elements of this modal practice approach also improves one's ear training and pitch recognition.Noel Johnston's modal dice method reveals all guitarists' strengths and weaknesses while simultaneously providing fun ways to improve their overall musicality. This is by no means an insipid "Life Hack" guitar book nor is it a judgmental "Theory Wizard" treatise. This is a comprehensive way to enhance your understanding and appreciation of the modes and what they offer you as a guitarist/musician. If you have ever found yourself saying, "I wish there was a way that I could identify and understand why I like the sounds I hear in music" then this book is for you. Use it to your advantage and make the best music you can make. Thank Noel when you see him!(Dweezil Zappa - 2019

How does popular music produce its subject? How does it produce us as subjects? More specifically, how does it do this through voice--through "giving voice"? And how should we understand this subject--"the people"--that it voices into existence? Is it singular or plural? What is its history and what is its future? Voicing the Popular draws on approaches from musical interpretation, cultural history, social theory and psychoanalysis to explore key topics in the field, including race, gender, authenticity and repetition. Taking most of his examples from across the past hundred years of popular music development--but relating them to the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century "pre-history"--Richard Middleton constructs an argument that relates "the popular" to the unfolding of modernity itself. Voicing the Popular renews the case for ambitious theory in musical and cultural studies, and, against the grain of much contemporary thought, insists on the progressive potential of a politics of the Low.

Summary Voice Applications for Alexa and Google Assistant is your guide to designing, building, and implementing voice-based applications for Alexa and Google Assistant. Inside, you'll learn how to build your own "skills"—the voice app term for actions the device can perform—from scratch. Foreword by Max Amordeluso. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. You'll find registration instructions inside the print book. About the Technology In 2018, an estimated 100 million voice-controlled devices were installed in homes worldwide, and the apps that control them, like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, are getting more powerful, with new skills being added every day. Great voice apps improve how users interact with the web, whether they're checking the weather, asking for sports scores, or playing a game. About the Book Voice Applications for Alexa and Google Assistant is your guide to designing, building, and implementing voice-based applications for Alexa and Google Assistant. You'll learn to build applications that listen to users, store information, and rely on user context, as you create a voice-powered sleep tracker from scratch. With the basics mastered, you'll dig deeper into multiuse conversational flow and other more-advanced concepts. Smaller projects along the way reinforce your new techniques and best practices. What's inside Building a call-and-response skill Designing a voice user interface Using conversational context Going multimodal Tips and best practices About the Reader Perfect for developers with intermediate JavaScript skills and basic Node.js skills. No previous experience with voice-first platforms is required. About the Author Dustin A. Coates is a developer who focuses on voice and conversational applications. He's currently the voice search lead at Algolia and is also a Google Developers Expert for Assistant as well as cohost of the VUX World podcast. Table of Contents Introduction to voice first Building a call-and-response skill on Alexa Designing a voice user interface Using entity resolution and built?in intents in Alexa skills Making a conversational Alexa skill VUI and conversation best practices Using conversation tools to add meaning and usability Directing conversation flow Building for Google Assistant Going multimodal Push interactions Building for actions on Google with the Actions SDK

From one of contemporary literature's most acclaimed and beloved authors comes this magnificent novel set in a small town in Ireland in the 1960s, where a fiercely compelling, too-young widow and mother of four moves from grief, fear, and longing to unexpected discovery. Tóibín's portrayal of the intricacy and drama of ordinary lives brings to mind of the work of Alice Munro. Set in Wexford, Ireland, and in breathtaking Ballyconnigar by the sea, Colm Tóibín's tour de force eighth novel introduces the formidable, memorable Nora Webster. Widowed at 40, with four children and not enough money, Nora has lost the love of her life, Maurice, the man who rescued her from the stifling world she was born into. Wounded and self-centred from grief and the need to provide for her family, she struggles to be attentive to her children's needs and their own difficult loss. In masterfully detailing the intimate lives of one small family, Tóibín has given us a vivid portrait of a time and an intricately woven tapestry of lives in a small town where everyone knows everyone's business, and where well-meaning gestures often have unforeseen consequences. Tóibín has created one of contemporary fiction's most memorable female characters, one who has the strength and depth of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. In Nora Webster, Colm Tóibín is writing at the height of his powers.