Post your questions HERE for Sundays Q+A
Added 2026-01-09 15:49:17 +0000 UTCWhat's the deal with 11th chords? Is 6/7 a time signature? How is triad formed? Whatever your musical question, I'll try to answer it this Sunday (Jan 11) at 12:00 Noon CT. Leave a question below and I'll get respond to them in the order that they appear, and please get your questions in by tomorrow night (saturday) so I can spend some time preparing some thorough responses for your interrogatories!
Important rules for submitting a questions
-If you're asking about a song, include a youtube link where we can listen. If it's an original piece that isn't uploaded, please email me the song directly (signalsmusicjake@gmail.com).
-If your question involves sheet music, please post a link to the image or email it to me.
-If you submit a question past the deadline, I'll may not have a substantial answer for you!
An hour before the stream starts, I'll post another link here to join live. Once I'm done answering questions from these posts, I'm happy to take live questions! And as always, the Q+A session will be available afterwards for replay.
In other news, I'm back to working on a 2-part lesson for youtube on guitar improvisation. While that's happening I'm beginning to work on the forum for my website, where we can all collaborate and discuss lessons and projects in a space more organized than here on Patreon. I expect by March it'll be fully up and running, but I'll be asking for help before then to test and debug some things.
Ask away!
Comments
Sorry if I am too late Jake but it’s a simple one. Any plans for lessons like last winter where submissions are encouraged?
Aaron Shemon
2026-01-11 15:45:28 +0000 UTCSounds like you get it. You'd still be in the Key of C even if you're playing in Am for a section. I'm not sure that it matters, but conversationally I might say you changed "keys" to Am even if that's not technically correct. Kinda one of those subjective Music Theory things. Though I have heard some compelling arguments covering specific scenarios for when it is actually important to conceptualize something as being in the Major or Minor Relative due to how the musician is then interpreting a piece and how that affects their choices in expressing that piece. But that was a concert pianist's senior (college) performance and thesis.
Ralyks aka BassDaddy918
2026-01-10 16:46:31 +0000 UTCDude, wow. That is freaking amazing.
Ralyks aka BassDaddy918
2026-01-10 16:44:29 +0000 UTCFrom my limited Music Theory knowledge...No, not ALL substitutions would be Modal Interchanges. You could for instance, substitute the 7 chord for the 5 in a Major Key since they have the same function, or 2 chord in a Minor for the 5. It's also very common to exchange the 1 and the 6 chords in major or 1 and 3 in Minor, being that they are each other's Relative Major/Minor chords. There's also Sus Chords which can be substituted for the actual chord seemingly any time you want to. I can also think of many instances in Jazz where you would certainly add extensions to a Chord Substitution. Often, extensions add significant color or can destabilize Chords so that they have a different effect, or softer effect, like making the resolution of a chord movement sound less resolved.
Ralyks aka BassDaddy918
2026-01-10 16:33:14 +0000 UTCI would be interested in learning about recording guitars and mixing. How do you go about it? I have basic knowledge, but I still lack the know-how to make the guitars sound professional. I use IK Amplitube 5 and TONEX plugins in Ableton Live 12 Suite. Doubling guitars and mixing would be a good place to start.
Marcoroni
2026-01-10 12:50:16 +0000 UTCQuestion: Are all chord substitutions modal interchanges from the parallel modes? And would there be any reason to add extensions to a chord substitution ? I guess two thoughts here…thanks!
Marsha in Austin
2026-01-10 03:56:13 +0000 UTCI hope i dont get an emergency Service Call. I want to het a better recording of this, but in case I dont, heres at least a badly performed version. Id like to get this submitted before theres hundreds others. I will email this to you now. Looking for options for expanding upon it, adding some different sections or ideas for arranging this for a full band: Guitar, Drums, Bass, maybe Horn since my current band has a Trombone player. https://youtu.be/K5X2iGeHJVA?si=oEWsNUGhhrgKti35
Ralyks aka BassDaddy918
2026-01-10 01:35:02 +0000 UTCMan, Im 35. It looks like unless you’ve made it big by the time you’re in your mid 20s there’s no hope. All the greats were professionals by their Teens. I feel you man
Ralyks aka BassDaddy918
2026-01-10 01:29:34 +0000 UTCHey there! I'm pretty new around here and I just wanna say that im loving all the lessons so far, these and the YouTube videos are the only reason ive managed to write some music lol. I personally struggle a lot with developing ideas in my songs. I can sometimes come up with an interesting melody or starting phrase but most of the time I have a lot of trouble developing it, or writing "B sections". I'd love to get some tips on that! I'm posting the last song I've made (and coincidentally) the one I've put the most effort in as a reference and thanks in advance for everything! https://youtu.be/4D1uJbkKlDU?si=Ou6qkukPOGn3E9Er
splatnamby
2026-01-10 00:23:43 +0000 UTCHey, Jake. After a long time! Hope you're doing well. I have been wanting to write music for a long time, it has been three years since I have been stagnating over the idea of finishing a song, an album, but the problem seems to be me. One, I feel like I am too old (I'm 23) to come up with something good and that usually great artists are made in their early teens. Second, I'm never able to complete an idea and tend to leave tracks half-way finished. What advice would you give to someone like me who wants to get productive with results and has been stagnating over ideas for years?
Flare
2026-01-09 17:20:04 +0000 UTCIf a song stays in C major and never plays another diatonic chord, you would say it never changes what? I used to say key, but that makes it sound like I mean a modulation. I mean it doesn't change to A minor or anything. Or let's say in the chorus it does change to A minor. That's not a key change, right? What do you call that? The tonal center is still C major, but we're just bouncing around A minor now.
cptnoremac
2026-01-09 15:57:31 +0000 UTCYAY! A great early birthday gift!! I got something a bit vague: How would you write a spooky or strange song that still sounds friendly and inviting? Not cartoonishly friendly, I reckon. I've got a character that I've thought of writing a tune for, and the character has a spooky, gothic theme. Communicates with ghosts, loves bats, Halloweeny. But they're a friendly and fun person! How would you tackle a musical concept like this? 🤔
Captain Byte
2026-01-09 15:55:00 +0000 UTC
