I found it difficult to write last week and nearly impossible to write today. What is up with that? Yesterday I wrote all kinds of stuff, filling up many, many pages (well, maybe five) but none of it was in any way finished or even finish-able.
This afternoon I interrogated Damon about music. He listened to three tracks and helped me identify the instruments. He identified one of the song I had been listening to as being composed in a mixolydian mode, which prompted Michael to give me a brief explanation of what musical modes are.
The song was "Letters in My Head" by Fleming and John, the song I tried to write about last week. Michael said a mode is basically a scale that begins and ends on particular notes. He said, "Think about it this way. Have you noticed that Gregorian Chants sound different from other music? That's because home base for a Gregorian Chant is different than home base for the music you are used to hearing." According to what I understood, a mixolydian mode has a difference of only the fifth note, which Damon explained is about as far from home base as you can get, considering the fact that a scale is composed of eight notes repeated over and over again.
If I have failed to explain this clearly its because I don't actually know what I'm talking about yet, and so I doubt I've recounted their words very accurately. Again, accuracy matters when you're relating someone else's ideas, particularly when it comes to matter of fact.
I have a lot to learn about music. Somehow though I've been surrounded by guys who can teach me something about it.
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