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Re: theory behind Belief
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StratLovesLenny
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12/06/2015 1:39 PM
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The way I think of it, the bass notes are the roots of each chord. Dmin, Gmin, C, Dmin. You can think of these bass notes as what establishes the chord and makes your ear think "oh this is Dmin, this is Gmin, etc." As you can tell, the 6th intervals are descending through the minor scale diatonically. However, the 6ths don't function the same way in each chord. You can think of the 6th's being played as both a motif of the song, as well as each "downward slide" as sets of notes that serve as tensions to the chord that guide the ear.
Dmin:
The 6th intervals are the "5th and minor 3rd" of the chord, sliding down to the "4th and the 2nd"
A and F, sliding down to G and E. This makes a sound a little similar to the sound of the guitars in the intro to Slow Dancing.
You can think this as at a regular D minor chord, changing to hint into a Dmin(sus4) chord.
Gmin:
The 6th intervals are the "7th and 5th" of the chord, sliding down to the "6th and 5th" of the chord.
F and D, sliding down to E and C.
You can think of this as hinting at a Gmin7 chord, changing to hint at a Gmin6 chord.
C:
The 6th intervals are the "2nd" and "7th" of the chord, sliding down to the "1st and 6th" of the chord.
D and Bb, sliding down to C and A.
You can think of this hinting at a Cmaj7(sus2) chord, changing to hint at a C6 chord.
Dmin:
The 6th intervals are the "5th and minor 3rd" of the chord, sliding UP to the "6th and the 4th"
A and F, sliding down to Bb and G.
You can think this as at a regular D minor chord, changing to hint into a Dmin6(sus4).
If you can understand this, you can figure out how the 6th intervals function for each individual chord of the chorus. I'm not sure if John really thought about it this much when writing Belief. I have the feeling that he thought that "Dmin, Gmin, C, Dmin" sounded like a nice chord progression, and that having 6th intervals going down in a scale sounded good over those chords. More like a keyboard player's mentality where they might be chording a chord with the left hand, and making some kind of run of notes with their right hand, likely without thinking about it.
It just "happens" that those 6th intervals might imply certain sounds since not all of them are part of the triad of the chord. Actually, I feel like since Belief is so stop-start with alternating between the bass notes and the 6th intervals, it doesn't really make you think, "oh that sounds like a Dmin going into a Dmin6(sus4)" as much as "oh that sounds like some single notes that assemble to make something Dmin-ish with some color." Maybe I just don't have enough of an ear to really think that, because my explanation really only boils down to being able to figure it out visually on the guitar neck more than anything else. Belief is almost like the Hendrix approach of mixing rhythm and lead at the same time, but with single notes instead of with shapes in the CAGED system.
So yeah, theoretically, those notes imply chords with certain tensions (2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th, etc). To my ear, they sound like single notes that trick my mind into hearing Dmin with some extra color, Gmin with some extra color, etc. Maybe these two things are one of the same, haha. I'm a bit bad with theory terminology, so forgive me if some of the terms I'm using above or concepts aren't all right.
Sorry, I've thought about different ways Belief has worked a lot, but never actually wrote it down on paper, hah.
Influence.
Last Edited By:
StratLovesLenny
12/06/2015 1:45 PM. Edited 1 times.
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