My Color Music

Pop quiz, y’all. What was the first thing that was ever recorded in audio? Since we’re all music fans here, then it’s good to know a little history. Was the first line:

a)  “Oh, Romeo. Oh, Romeo. Where for art thou, Romeo?”
b)  “Mary Had a Little Lamb … whose fleece was white as snow.”
c)  “There here, I tell you … the aliens! They’re here!”

Well, if you guessed option (b), then you are correct … and you get five points. When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, he immediately gained worldwide fame. And the first words he spoke into his new recording machine were “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” The same lyrics of the song we just played. (We’re making history, people!)

Edison’s new invention was so unexpected to the public that it seemed almost magical. In fact, he even became known “The Wizard of Menlo Park” (which was the name of the town he lived in). His first phonograph machine recorded on tinfoil wrapped around a grooved cylinder. And to be honest, the sound quality was pretty bad. But hey, it was radically new technology at the time … so it blew people’s minds away.

Along with the phonograph, Thomas Edison also invented some really strange stuff. Like the motion-picture camera, the light bulb, and even the microphone. In other words, he was a smart dude. In fact, I’d even say he was one of the best. Because his work changed the world … and it made modern music possible.

I mean, think about … without Edison, we wouldn’t have music videos, stage lighting, stereos, or microphones. And that’s why he definitely ranks right up there with the greatest gods of music.

After you’ve had a little practice, it’s easy to add chords to any melody. You just have to play the melody with your right … and hit the chords with your left hand. It’s as simple as that. And this combination of notes makes our music sound a lot more interesting.

But things get even more interesting when we change chords in a song. After all, the C major chord isn’t the only game in town. We can play all sorts of chords to create some very cools sounds. For example, check out the song “Mary Had a Little Lamb” below. By adding an extra G major chord to the mix, everything sounds a little better.

Now that we’ve added another chord, our left hand gets to move a little more throughout the song. And it’s kind of fun. Instead of keeping our fingers in place over the C major chord, we get to move back and forth between C major and G major … like this:

Both chords have the same note pattern of “1-3-5,” so we can keep our left hand in the same basic shape. We just have to move our hands quickly enough to play the correct chord at the start of each measure. Don’t worry if you need to glance down every once in a while … to make sure you’re hands are moving to the right place.

Just like before, try playing each part separately first. Start out by focusing on the melody. Once you’ve played it alone a couple of times, your right hand will be ready. Then play through the chords to get a feel for how they should sound. And when each hand can play its part, try putting them together. The end result will sound awesome.

The nice thing about chords is that they use the same 12 notes we all know and love. Sure … we have to play those notes together in a chord … instead of only one at a time. But there’s nothing too special about that. In fact, you might even say that chords are easier to play than any of the scales we’ve seen so far. And that’s because, while most scales include five, six, or seven notes, most chords have only three notes.

Chords might take a little more coordination as our fingers work together at the same time. But no worries … we have Color Music on our side. By using colors and shapes, we can quickly pick out the right notes and intervals. Which makes it easy to find and play any chord.

Just like before, the colors, squares, and circles, show us which notes to play and why. And that means we’ll spend less time thinking … and a lot more time playing.

As always, those nice, little squares and circles make life good. Like a pattern of lights guiding our way, they show us exactly what we should play.