Larry Allen Brown

In 1970, I moved to San Francisco, after living in the Philippines for a year. It was quite different. Discrimination seemed to be absent. Black, white, Hispanic, gay, straight…everyone worked with everyone. During this time it was still safe to hitch-hike and I took advantage of the opportunity. I was first hitching rides around the city, and into Marin County. Then a friend and I decided to hitch to Chicago. I had no idea what to expect. I’d never attempted anything on that scale before. With hardly…

Driving from New York into Pennsylvania on Interstate 90 we stopped at the first rest-stop  to stretch our legs, get a snack, and let the dog, Dipstick,  do his thing.  The plaza was well lit and quite modern.  In fact the entire plaza was bathed in light, front and back. The back stretched out a good 50 yards to a fence.  Beyond the fence was acres of hedge-rows, that could have been corn rows, but it was much too dark to tell for certain.  Nevertheless, thinking that it would be best to take…

The Harmonized Major Scale What is Diatonic Harmony? © Larry Allen Brown Oct 2, 2008

Where do chords come from in music and how are they constructed? It all begins with the major scale.

The importance of knowing and understanding the harmonized major scale is vital to any musicians ability to communicate something melodic when soloing over a chord progression or in composing music that makes sense.

What is the Harmonized Scale?

Most people who had some kind of basic music in grade school are familiar with…

The Lydian Mode

The Lydian Mode Expanding the Musical Vocabulary © Larry Allen Brown

One of the interesting things that can be done when improvising over a major chord is to shift into the Lydian Mode. It's easy to do.

The characteristic note in the Lydian mode is the raised 4th. ( flatted 5th ). When improvising on the guitar for example, spotting that note in the heat of the moment can be difficult. There is a very simple way to do this.

Knowing the Scales

Using the key of C as an example ( no sharps or…