The Journey to Learning Music I sat in my room, listening to Jazz, following a piece of paper.

I listened and looked at the paper to try and figure out what these masterminds were doing, but everything sounded like wizardry to me. Being a rock guitarist, all I could hear were drums and a saxophone playing what seemed to be nonsense. It all flew by me way too fast. John Coltrane was blowing away at Giant Steps and I could not even follow the chord changes. It was all right in front of me, and I just could not keep up. I tried to solo over the form but it was too fast and way too many key changes. I was not equipped with enough musical knowledge to be able to figure out what notes went well with those chords. Even playing the chords was difficult, I could not keep up. The start of my journey began when I was eleven years old. I had a friend named John who was a pretty big fan of music at the time. He had an mp3 player, and he wanted to show me this song called Best of You by Foo Fighters. He played it, and I was amazed at the song. That was the first time a piece of music had ever moved me, I just heard a big mess of noise and a guy screaming touching lyrics at me. The song was so loud and there were so many things going on; harmonies, melodies, chordal homophony, syncopation, pounding drum fills, solo breaks. There were so many things going on, and I had no idea what to call them or even how to describe them. That moment inspired me, from then on I wanted to learn how to play the guitar and eventually learn the language of music. But then I realized my lack of resources. I had a little bit of musical background. My parents always played music around me, my dad even played the bass guitar. I had also taken music in elementary school and played the recorder. But no formal training otherwise. I wanted to learn how to play the

guitar, but who would teach me? How is an eleven year old boy supposed to teach himself how to play a musical instrument, as well as having a vocabulary of musical terms? I had no idea what to do, so my musical career was delayed, but I continued to listen and find more music to somehow help my knowledge. Eventually, I began using the internet to figure out how to play a couple songs and a few musical terms but I was not close to knowing the language. Through learning on my own, I developed many errors in my playing. My technique was pretty bad, I had no knowledge of alternate picking or how to even place my fingers on the fret board correctly. My rhythm was terrible, I had a tremendous problem with rushing. I had no idea what an eighth note or a triplet was. It was not until my sophomore year that I would acquire guitar teacher, Mr. Bermudez, to guide me through learning music and how everything worked. But the language of music was still pretty foggy and unclear to me until one day in my junior year. Mr. Bermudez helped me figure out what the seven church modes really were and showed me how to play more advanced chords. He explained me to me how they are all connected, but the starting note changed the qualities of the modes, and he also showed me many shell voicings so that I was able to successfully accompany people with these chords that were new to me. I was puzzled by all the information he gave me that day, so I proceeded to ask him a question: But wait, how do I know which mode goes with which chord? His response was, Oh, Ill show you! He ran over to the piano like a mad man and told me to follow. He started pressing a bunch of keys on the piano, naming a mode for every chord he played and telling me what notes go good with them. This is a major 7 with a sharp 11, this is a Lydian chord, and its composed with

the root, third, fifth, seventh, and sharp eleventh on top and any note from the Lydian mode will sound good with it. I was amazed at all the knowledge he threw at me, he sounded and looked like a madman, throwing out terms I had never even heard in my life. It was so much information, even he had to start thinking more. He continued to do so for all seven modes and it even took thirty minutes out of class time. I stood by that piano with him hearing all the things he was playing, with him writing down a roadmap to figure everything out. But the best part: everything made sense. It made sense theoretically. I was able to see it on paper, I was even able to hear what he was doing and how it was connected. I started seeing everything, I began to see why some notes go well in a melody over certain chords. It was like I had finally found the formula to pop music and all the options available when playing jazz or more advanced music. I was able to finally make all the connections and apply it to my guitar playing. From that moment on, everything was clear and listening to music made a lot more sense to me. Now I sit down and listen to Giant Steps, and I can tell you what chords are being played, where in the form they are, and even what modes theyre using. I can clearly hear the bass player playing on a double bass, walking a tight bass line with swung eighth notes. I can hear the piano playing on the off beats and syncopating everything, and trying to enhance John Coltranes soloing. I realized that the song is over two hundred beats per minute. I can hear the drummer hitting the high hat on beats two and four, playing the swung eighth notes on the ride, and hitting the snare as inconstantly as possible. I can even hear John Coltrane beginning his phases on the off beats and all the sixteenth notes and triples, switching between different keys through all the different chords. Everything was so much clearer.

Now I feel that my knowledge of the music language is strong. My vocabulary has expanded to knowing things like hemiolas or even compound duple time signature. I know what altered dominant harmony is and how to apply it. I even feel as though my knowledge of the music language may be as strong as my knowledge of the English language, and definitely stronger then my knowledge of the Spanish language. My senior year in high school closed the door to learning the language of music, and in turn it opened the door to mastering music.