Troy Thibodeaux

Frank Gambale - Modes No More Mystery I remastered I #frankgambale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp8iiWSsZvM

Frank plays the chord progression E, D, A, but says it's NOT in the key of E, even though he does acknowledge that the emphasis in the progression is on E, and E is the "home base" as he calls it. Instead of saying that it's in the key of E, he says it's "the E mode of the A major scale". 

He says, "No matter what key you're in, the fifth mode will always be Mixolydian".

I know this is all probably just a matter of semantics, but that statement is just not true. The fifth mode is only Mixolydian when the key is the natural major scale, which is the Ionian mode. Do Ra Mi Fa So La Ti Do.

I think it's confusing to say "the E mode of the A major scale". If you play the progression E, D, A, with the emphasis on the "E", like he did and explained, then it makes much more sense to say it's in the key of "E". But I would say it's "E" Mixolydian, so whoever I'm talking to knows it's a major key with a flat 7. Granted, when written, the key signature would be identical to "A" major (Ionian) with 3 sharps. 

My reasoning follows the definition of a key below.

A "key" of a song/progressoin is the note the music centered around. In the example above, the key is "E".

The dominant note in a progression, scale, riff, etc. is the note that fives the key it's name. The root, tonic, home key, etc. is that note that the music is centered around. The scale, riff, etc. feels at rest when you are on that note, or the chord based on that note. There is resolution in that note/chord.

A key signature is a different matter. That refers to how the key is written in standard notation. If a song like The Beatles "Let It Be" is written, it would have no sharps or flats. That in itself does not tell us what is the root note, tonic, key of the song. The song itself does that. The key signature will tell you what notes are in the song. When they key signature has no sharps or flats, then you know whenever you see any notes on the staff, they are the natural notes, A, B, C, etc. ... with no sharps or flats. 

If you were to write out the song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" the key signature would be the same. It would have no sharps or flats. But these two songs are not in the same key. "Let It Be" is in C major, and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is in A minor.

"Let It Be" does throw in a flat 7 here and there, and WMGGW changes keys in the bridge, but that's for another discussion.

To be clear, Frank Gambale knows WAY more music theory than I do, but his video is about teaching and understanding the modes, and I just think that his explanation of the "key" of song, and how it relates to modes makes it harder to understand how they work. At least in that particular statement. The rest of the video, and the video in general is great and very informative. 

I think of "moods" when I think of "modes". They each have a different mood. 

11-16-2021

Well, I'm still at it. I'm 75 days in studying Spanish with Duolingo. Where am I at? I still don't know. I have a lot of trouble breaking down sentences I hear at a native speaker's pace. 

Yo estoy apredieno mucho, pero no usar lo.
I'm learning a lot, but not using it.

I have not tried to speak with  Spanish speakers much, but when I do, I am instantly lost .

Yo necesito personas hablar muy lento.
I need people to speak very slowly.

I think that might be awkward and rude to ask, but maybe I just need to throw that out there, and hopefully they will oblige me.

I'm starting to get into the weeds, and it's pretty confusing. But, there is some hope in that every once in a while I hear a phrase that I instantly know. For example, I've known for a long time that "Donde esta el bano" is, "Where is the bathroom?". I heard that so many times that I instantly know what is meant by that phrase. That's where I need to get with Spanish, and it happens sometimes. It's not often, and it's only with really simple things but it does happen.

11-14-2021
I went fishing again at Lake Lewisville. This is the same spot I've been going to lately. The weather was great, but the water temp was noticeably colder, and this will soon put an end to my wade fishing for the year. It was not bad at all until the sun started to set, and by the time I got back to my car I had to put the heater on to warm my legs up.

I fished for a couple of hours and I caught three small bass. One was a sand bass, which I dropped while trying to get a pic of it. The other two were largemouth bass. All were caught on a Roostertail.

10-31-2021
Another beautiful day for fishing, and another day of not much catching. I managed to convince this little channel cat to bite on my Roostertail somehow.

10-16-2021
I go running on a trail at Lake Lewisville pretty often. The trailhead is at a park that is 5 miles from my house, and the trail runs along the edge of the lake. I decided one day, after my run, to go to the closest access point to the lake, which is a short walk from the trailhead, and go fishing. 

From the looks of the water color, close to the shore was really shallow, and then a little ways out it looked to get deeper, as the water was darker green. I waded out a little ways to where I could cast to the deeper water. 

I caught one keeper size sand bass, and couple of other small fish, one being another sand bass, and another was a largemouth. All were caught on a white Roostertail inline spinner.

It was really fun. The weather was awesome, and water was not too cold for wading.

10-17-2021
The next day, I tried again. This time it was the late afternoon and the sun was setting. It was beautiful, but I didn't catch any fish. I tried a few different lures. I tried a couple of different color Roostertails, a Beetle spin, and another one that I can't remember.

10-23-2021
I went back the following week. This time, I had in mind to keep a few fish if I caught enough for a meal. I fished again with Roostertails.

I caught a 10+ inch sand bass, two really small largemouth bass, and another largemouth bass that was really close to being legal size, which is 14 inches. My intention was to only keep sand bass, or maybe if I caught some crappie or catfish, but I would have kept the largemouth if I were sure it was legal, as the catching slowed, and the other fish I caught were way too small to keep.

It was another awesome afternoon of fishing. The weather again was perfect.

Well, I'm not sure how to judge my progress. I am more confident in the content I've learned, but I'm still so far away from having a conversation in Spanish. I have a decent grasp on what I've learned so far. I say it that way, as you could just memorize words and phrases, and that is great, and hard to do, but to know "why" you use certain words is another thing.

Estoy aprender pero muy lento. Esta muy dificil. Estoy no comodo hablar con personas. Estoy muy nervioso hablando español.

I typed the sentences above from memory. I completely understand the words and phrases. The problem is that if some else said those things at the speed most people speak, I would really have to think about it to figure out what they are saying. It wouldn't take me long, but it wouldn't just click that I heard this...

"I am learning, but very slow. It's very difficult. I am not comfortable talking to people. I am very nervous speaking Spanish."

Again, I'm not sure how to judge my progress. I hear horror stories of people studying for years and still can't follow conversations, and then I hear others say they worked around a lot of Spanish speaking people and just picked it up. I know it would be easier to be around people speaking Spanish, and there are a lot of people around here that speak Spanish, but they are not all people I'm comfortable asking to help me learn, or be patient with me while I try to hear and speak a few things. 

I do have some friends that are helping, but I don't want to abuse that generosity, so I don't beat them down with it every time I see them. 

I've tried a couple of times to speak to people, and it was OK. They understood me, and one person even said my pronunciation was very good. But those were just a few sentences, and when they replied, I didn't fully understand what they were saying. 

I'm sticking with it, but it's hard to picture myself "getting it". We'll see.

I am on my 30th day in a row using the Duolingo app to learn Spanish. I have the app set to where my daily goal is 20 minutes a day (50  XP), and I have reached that everyday, and most days have spent probably 30-45 minutes a day. I have no way of knowing if I'm on the right track and that my progress is where it should be. I cannot hold conversation in Spanish to any real degree. I know a lot of words and phrases now, but the few times I have attempted to have a simple conversation with someone in Spanish, I quickly hit a road block. 

Everyone says it's about immersion, and getting the language familiar by lots of exposure. That all makes sense, but I'm not sure how to go about that. I've listened to some Spanish radio, podcasts, etc, and even watched a couple of movies in Spanish. I have no way of knowing if that's helping. The Duolingo lessons are teaching me a lot, I think, but there's a certain level of comfort and familiarity with the app, and how it presents lessons, that has me doing really well in the app, but when I go outside of that, I'm a bit lost.

I'll keep at it and see where it takes me.

 "I'll use my power as president to get them out of the way"