Minor plagal cadence and other theory sources

From: reed@reedkotler.com (Reed Kotler Consulting)

When I was in 9th and 10th grade in high school I remember going through
the Berklee School of Music guitar series. It's called the "Modern
Method for the Guitar" books I, II and III.

For me it was mostly a combination technique book (scales, arpeggios,
etc) as well as a source for basic jazz guitar chords.

However it has many valuable theory lessons which unfortunately my
teachers never discusssed with me. They are pretty deep and possibly my
teachers who were just college students at Berklee themselves didnt
really understand them either.

It has perhaps the best description of chord/scale relationships I've
ever seen. Though of course it's spread out throughout the three volume
series in a series of mini lessons. It's the only book I've ever seen
that relates chord scales to the key you are in, which is what ear
players do naturally . As such it's the only modern book which
acknowledges the importance of the harmonic minor scales.

Anyway, I find myself always going back to those books and am amazed how
much valuable information I find there.

On the subject of ivm chords which I have gone on and on ad nauseum
about, I find that there is actually a whole page on these. I learned
about these independently from studies many years later with piano
teachers and on my own. I'm amazed to see it was all layed out in these
books I used 25 years. Too bad there was nobody to explain this to me
then.

On page 114 of book 2, there is a page on "Non Diatonic Minor6 and
(unaltered) dominant 7th chords" where unaltered is defined to mean "No
b9, +9, b5 or #5).

Anyway, it's all there.

They discuss the im6 and ivm6 chords which can appear and take a jazz
minor scale from the i or iv respectively. It also explains how they can
appear as the IV7 or bVII7 respectively.

For guitar teachers, students out there, I've noticed that there are
several books from within the 3 volume set of books. I frequently have
my students take their books and xerox out various sections and place
them together in a binder. For example, one can xerox out all the
"Theory" pages or all the "Chord Form" pages, and place them together in
a binder, making a great book that can be read and/or practiced cover to
cover for the constant review necessary for ultimate assimilation of the
material.

What is missing from the series though are concrete examples from actual
tunes, transcriptons, etc. The examples in the book are unfortunately
not very musical and probably contributed to me not taking all that
information seriously.

[end mpc]