Learning Some Jazz Chords

I’ve started trying to learn some jazz.  So here are a few jazz guitar chords that I have been working on this week.  Of course, the first major chord is not just a “jazz” chord, but is widely used, but for a basic major chord with a 6th string root, it seems to be about the only option.  I will post some more next week, assuming I survive this sinus infection that decided to make my head its home for the time being.  For now I am concentrating on chords with a root note on the 6th string (low E) on the guitar.  The legend below the chord diagram provides the interval for note on each string, such as R for root, p5 for Perfect 5th, etc.

What are some of your most useful jazzy chords?

Also, I need to emphasize that I am not a jazz musician….only that I find it fascinating and it is an awesome way to learn chord theory.  I think to be a true jazz cat you need to give it full time study and my interest lies in too many other areas and I just don’t have time to devote full time effort.

Major 6thString     Dom7_6thString_MBaker     Dom7_6thString

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President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation (1863)

I believe Lincoln’s words speak for themselves.  Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone.

gardner-last-lincoln-photo

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the iron and coal as of our precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward, Secretary of State.

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Source:  National Archives: http://research.archives.gov/description/299960

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Farewell to Erin

Here is a track I recorded a little while back on guitar (okay, on electric guitar with drums too and a few other sounds for good measure) of an Irish fiddle tune that I found in a pile of my fiddle tune sheet music. In my fiddlers fakebook it is listed as an alternative title for Farewell to Ireland. But all of the recordings of Farewell to Ireland that I have heard are a different melody than this version of Farewell to Erin. At any rate they are both about bidding the green isle goodbye, as my ancestors, Bridget and Patrick Early did somewhere around the late 1840s during the height of the Irish potato famine when the made their way to America by ship sailing from Liverpool to New York City.

Farewell to Erin

Farewell to Erin Sheet Music

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Samsung Making Parts for Apple

So now there’s going to be Samsung AP chips in iOS devices?  The Korea Times is reporting that Apple selected Samsung over TSMC.  How ironic after the global patent infringement wars that have gone on between Apple and Samsung.

Samsung Electronics agreed with Apple to produce application processors (APs) from next year for iPhones and iPads, sources said Monday.

Samsung has indicated that it will produce some sample 14 nm chips for an unidentified customer and they plan to produce the production quantities of the AP chips beginning next year. The Korean Times report says Samsung will start manufacturing the chips early next year in its South Korean plant and  plans to expand production to the Samsung’s Austin, Texas facility and a Global Foundries New York plant in the coming year.

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Kimo’s Hawaiian Rules

One of my favorite t-shirts (and I love t-shirts BTW) is one that I picked up in Hawaii.

KIMO’S HAWAIIAN RULES

Never judge a day by the weather.

The best things in life aren’t things.

Tell the truth – there’s less to remember.

Speak softly and wear a loud shirt.

Goals are deceptive – the unaimed arrow never misses.

He who dies with the most toys – still dies.

Age is relative – When you’re over the hill you pick up speed.

There are 2 ways to be rich:  Make more or desire less.

Beauty is internal – Looks mean nothing.

No Rain – No Rainbows!

 

Kimo's Hawaiian Rules T-Shirt

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