Not sure, but if you figure out how to play it, let me know. I have a boner for that song.
I'm just going by the tabs posted on this site. I've got those down pretty well. But as we all know, it takes a lot more than that to make Tim's songs come alive...
Going by the tabs it seems as if F is your only sharp note, and the rest seems to be centered around E...but it's been years since I took music theory, so I could be way off.
Any time you are looking to find the tonal center of a piece or it's key you can look for V chords as they usually establish tonal centers. The motion from a V chord to a I establishes the tonal center. Then if you hear the IV chord you can be positive of the tonal center. Especially with 7th chords. Also if you are looking to find out if a key is in minor besides looking for the obvious like if it ends on the do of the minor scale you can also see if the V chord is major and not minor becasue it's third is raised or the fifth of the relative major is raised. It's also common to see the same alteration on all the chords that contain the 7th (te) in the minor scale. Most times people raise the seventh in minor scales from te to ti. It seems to give it stronger forward motion, but it doesn't always have to be raised. Especially when falling in the melody like a do te le sol line you wouldn't probably raise the seventh.
it would be in a mode (excluding ionian and aeolin) if the tonal center was focused around a scale degree that wasn't the tonic or submediant implied by the key signature.
That's because I spelled his name wrong. http://www.schenkerguide.com/basicmodel.html#bottom That is an overview and then you don't have to buy the book since it's a little out there anyway and if you're just looking to brush up on theory it's not what you're looking for. Oh ya and this is his full name spelled right... Heinrich Schenker
Open Up, Let it In - theory question
Posted - 03/15/2005 : 2:08:01 PM
