👨‍🔧 5 easy fixes

(how James Clear changed my life)

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The PRE-S:

The life-changing magic of 1% better.

This week on the Better Solo Shows YT channel, we look at five easy improvements you could make today (and everyday).

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RIFFS:

Humans love stories.

We use them to explain the world to each other… and ourselves.

The major scale is a story, one we all know by heart.

That second-to-last note is a cliffhanger.

Listen to what it sounds like if we stop there:

We’re hooked. We have to hear how it ends.

It’s why the dominant V chord pulls back to the I:

Of course… that’s just a story we tell ourselves.

Music theory explanations do that.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls it the “narrative fallacy.”

We can’t help it—we assign a story to everything, even when it’s not really true.

The truth is that it sounded good first.

The story that explains why came later.

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RECS:

I binged Connor Price this week. Start here:

author

Connor Price on Instagram: “Carrot flute > SPINNIN by Connor Price & @bens.bdw out now on all platforms. Link is in the bio. 🫶 Prod. @100grahambeats & @christian_sagum Mix. @christian_sagum”

August 15, 2023

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CHARTS:

Let’s take a look at Simon & Garfunkel’s Mrs. Robinson:

• Dropbox folder with:

  • PDF

  • Sibelius file

  • musicXML file

• SoundSlice for the INTRO riff

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SMARTS:

1

The verse form is a little odd:

2

This song sounds in the key of A, but he uses capo II + G shapes.

3

The song starts on the “six major”—the VI.

That’s the major version of the normally-minor vi chord.

I tend to call these “borrowed chords,” because it’s a convenient way of thinking about it. We stepped outside of the key we’re in, and borrowed a chord from a neighboring key.

4

But that’s not quite what’s happening here.

In music school, they call this idea “secondary dominants.”

Like we saw earlier, the V pulls back to the I…

That’s the dominant chord, doing its dominant chord thing.

But you can stack this chord motion by playing the dominant chord …of the dominant chord. (Hence “secondary dominant.”)

You can keep stacking these up…

…and that’s exactly what the VERSE of Mrs Robinson does:

E → A → D → G → C

5

It’s a move you hear in the bridge of doo-wop & early rock n roll songs.

Sherry - The Four Seasons:

Everyday - Buddy Holly:

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That’s all I got this week.

See you next Wednesday,

Josh