Paul Pitt Guitar

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Paul Pitt,
(619-249-5401)

2021 has been very difficult. It is actually worse than 2020 which was also a nightmare. California is the behind the Iron Curtain. I began playing guitar in 1956 at Karnes Music in Evanston Illinois. I play country music, folk, blues, jazz, doowop.

I loved every minute of playing in Swing Street Band, Lazy River Trio (Tom Conti), Java Jazz trio(Tom Conti), Fred Heath, Pete Johnson: Jus’ Blue Baby, Hal Jellison band, Norm Tellisons Saints Band, Willie Browns Blues Jam, Jerry Parmer’s Bullfrogs, Laura Walcher Flutist, San Diego Folk Song Society, Wood N Lips mike, Music with Muriel (Santee VFW), Cuyamaca State Park, Town & Country Hotel Lounge, San Diego Womens Club, La Mesa Seniors, St. Paul's 4th St, St. Paul's on Nutmeg, St. Paul's PACE, Canyon Villa and Kearney Mesa Convalescent,  Wesley Palms (Janee), North Park Band (San Diego)

The guitar is a Gibson L5 CES I have a nice Yamaha LS6M which traveled to Tyler Texas and Greece. The first three letters of Yamaha are "YAM" so I call her "Sweet Potato" and the Airlines took very good care of her.

The Hamer Newport Pro Custom is now a "collectors" item (hand made by Jol Dantzig).

I use Band in a Box to create and arrange lead sheets.

Arrangement (Lead Sheet)

Lead sheets arranged from midi files or your recordings. The typical lead sheet is 32 bars in four sections A-A-B-A of 8 bars each) Often the group likes to have an "intro" (a few bars) and an ending (a "tag" or a slow-down and fade). Thirty Two bars will fit on one 8 x 11 page so that there is no need for flipping pages or scotch taping. One page serves all.

The "C" instruments play in the main key but horns and other "Bb" instrument must be 2 half tones higher to sound like "C" instruments. But nobody wants to play more than 3 sharps or 3 flats so these are the best keys for groups

C_. ..... . Bb_. ..... . Eb_
C............ D............. A
B ......... C#/Db ... G#/Ab
Bb ....... C ......... G
F ......... G .......... D (best for horns)
Am ..... Bm ......... F#m
Dm ..... Em ........ Bm

Which Chord Goes to Which Chord

The 1 can go to any note in the scale. It is root. It is the tone note or “tonic.”

the 2 goes to the 5

the 3 goes to the 6

the 4 goes to the 1 or 5

the 5 goes to the 1

the 6 goes to the 2

Like this

1 → 3 → 6 → 2 → 5 → 1

C – E7 – Am – Dm – G7 – C

1 → 4 → 5 → 1 → 4 → 5

C – F – G7 → G – C – D7

1 → 6 → 2 → 5 (Doo Wop)

C Am Dm7 G7

If 1 chord goes to the 3 chord 1 → 3 (C to E7) and 3 goes to 6 (A7) and 6 goes to 2 (D7) and 2 goes to 5 (G7) then you have the “Five Foot Two” called the “Circle Progression)

C – E7 – A7 – D7 – G7 – C is 1 – 3 – 6 – 2 – 5 – 1

If 1 chord goes to 4 chord it is 1 – 4 – 5 progression.

If 1 goes to 5 chord ithen it goe to the 1 (right?) Yes

If 1 goes to 6 chord (A7 or Am) then 6 goes to 2 and 2 goes to 5 and you have the classic 1-6-2-5 or 6-2-5-1 used in many nice jazz tunes andalso Doo Wop

Eb-Cm-Fm7-Bb7

C-Am-Dm-G7

If 1 goes to 2 chord which is D then 2 goes to the 5 and 5 goes to 1. This is called 2 – 5 - 1 example is Dm7 → G7 → C But because Dm7 if the relative minor of F and so it is kind of like a 1 – 4 – 5 which is our basic TRIAD,

So you know how ROOT can go to any chord and there is a logical sequence back to root.