AboutChuck Expertise I am a professional musician, I can play by ear, I arrange music write music, teach music in the public school system, and teach privately. My father was a school music teacher, and I have written three volumes for teaching beginning string players, taking them from scratch to high school level. I have performed in a local production of Music Man (musical) with celebrities John Davidson/Susan Watson and have my masters degree in education. I retired from the classroom in 2004 with 38 yrs. experience-now still substituting for music- and writing arr. for my cello trio(with two audio cd's and one dvd of a performance)
I have directed church choirs and am principal cellist in our local community orchestra. I really love to arrange music for the groups I perform in and sing and have music in my life every day. A day without music, is a mistake, like having a day without sunshine.
Experience Employment history: I have been employed by our local school district since 1967 as a music teacher from grades 1-12 Organizations: I play cello principal chair in the local community orchestra, and sing in a chorus,and perfom in a barbershop quartet
Education: My early life in high school and college was summer workshops in choral conducting with founder of Westminster Choir College (N.J.) Dr. John F.Williamson (in Who`s Who in Music) and summer workshops with Robert Shaw in San Diego Grad. of Sacramento STate Univ.and masters from Univ. of La VErne, ca
Awards: awarded the Bank of America award in my high school senior year for music
Question Hi, if you can help with these questions that would be awesome! Just simple answers is fine..
Just wondering, for about how many measures would I be able to play out of key chords(regular and power chords), and solo over it using chromatic(out of key) notes in a song, before I would be changing keys?
Also, would I be able to use out of key chords often throughout a song, as long as I am still playing diatonic chords from the original key? Like for ex-use an A# power chord and an F# power chord included in every measure of a song that is in Cmaj/Amin, or would the key change?
If I were to play an out of key scale throughout most of a song over diatonic chords and play the out of key scale on its own during most of the song, would I still remain in the original key?
Please let me know,
thank you,
Sarah
Answer Sarah:
Well, honestly, this is the first time I have been asked this question, and I'm not sure I totally ''understand'' the nature of your question. It sounds like , to me, that you are asking about the nature of the ''key''(signature) to the actual notes you are playing in your ''song'' . The only value of indicating a key signiture is to make it easy on the page for the reader to keep seeing accidentals by notes that could be remembered from the key signiture. If you are not in a''key'' long enough to warrent using a key signiture, then I'd suggest that you leave it off, and just add the accidentals as they are needed in the music. Many great composers 'change key' in the original song, and if they need to add a new signiture, they do, for the duration of the change. There is no rule to how you choose to notate your piece.
The other part of your question is also unclear to me, and that is about the use of ''diaTONIC' notes along with other chords out of the key, sorta like using a 'drone' or an ostinato, or a pedal point, to create a sense of the oriiginal key while you create tension by making chord clash with the diatonic notes. That is also not necessary to show a key change in that case if you remain locked in to the original key.
So I assume, I have only confused the issue, because I'm not sure I really understood the question fully. That is my initial reaction to what you wrote. If you would like to ''expalin' more to me, I'd take another stab at the question if you want.
Thanks for using this forum, and feel free to run your question by other people on the panel.
Chuck - you have a 'unique' question here for sure , :-)
