So I’m diving down the rabbit hole of trying to understand more about improvisation and came across Mark Smith’s video on Root and Fifths.
In this section he covers using I VI IV V as part of the root/fifth pattern
What I don’t understand is how the numbers apply. I understand root/fifth/octave, but I can’t make 1645 fit the same note placements.
root, 5th, and 8th are the position in a scale.
C-G-C
R-5-8
1645, in the video above, the notes are
C-Am-F-G
1-6-4-5
These are not part of the major or minor scale, or am I approaching this wrong?
This is the chord progression of the song. The notation calls out the root notes of the chords in the progression as scale intervals from the root note of the key the song is in - the first (root), sixth, fourth, and fifth in this case.
If the song is in the key of C major, then those are the chords rooted at the root (C Major), the 6th (A minor), the 4th (F Major) and the fifth (G Major). You can tell if they should be major or minor via two methods - either just memorizing the pattern, or by simply playing the chord at each interval that is contains only (or mostly) notes within the song’s key.
Josh discusses this in the course in the music theory bit in the middle.
This is usually notated either with the Nashville numbering system or with roman numeral analysis. I prefer the latter.
OMG. Of course. Thanks. I was thinking scales and that didn’t work, and then when I tried to fit it into note progression I was adding in the sharps/flats in between and of course that was way off and wouldn’t work. Now I understand. Just stick to Major notes.
12345678
CDEFGABC
1645
CAFG
I think I glossed over for much of the theory parts. LOL. I need to get back to those basics!
