October 16th.

And I’m still deep in Jackson Browne territory.

Last week his birthday sent me back through his first five albums – For Every Man, Late For The Sky, The Pretender, Running on Empty, Hold Out. Those records really hold up. The melodies in particular are extraordinary – and not just because they sit comfortably in the chord. Jackson frequently puts melody notes that are completely outside the chord underneath them.

An A in the melody over an E minor chord.

An F sharp over a C chord.

A C in the melody over a D7.

That tension between melody and harmony is a big part of what makes his writing so distinctive.

Rock Me On The Water – Finally

One of my all-time favorite Jackson Browne songs and somehow I’d never done a lesson on it until this week. Finished it up just the other day after spending time reliving those early albums.

I’ll admit – when I started working on it I instinctively played the melody instrumentally rather than just the accompaniment. I got complaints about that in the early days of Totally Guitars. Guitar players wanted the accompaniment, not the melody worked out over the chords.

I went ahead and did it anyway.

And now I’m thinking there might need to be a full instrumental arrangement of it too. We’ll see.

ROCK ME ON THE WATER GUITAR LESSON HERE

Brothers In Arms – Also Done

I also finished the Brothers In Arms lesson this week – something I’d promised last week. Got the solo arrangement together and I’m happy with it.

Interestingly, one of my intermediate guitar players walked in while I was working on it and immediately wanted to learn a simpler version to play and sing. So the lesson includes both – a fuller arrangement and a more accessible version for those who want to accompany their voice.

BROTHERS IN ARMS ACOUSTIC SNAPSHOT HERE

Augmented Chords – What They Are And Why They Work

This came up while talking about Jackson Browne, and it’s worth spending some time on because augmented chords are genuinely fascinating and underused.

Here’s the theory:

A major chord is built 1 – 3 – 5.

An augmented chord is built 1 – 3 – #5. The fifth is raised a half step.

The distance from 1 to 3 is two whole steps. The distance from 3 to #5 is also two whole steps. That symmetry means augmented chords don’t occur naturally in any major key – every major key has three major chords, three minor chords, one diminished chord, and zero augmented chords.

Which means whenever you hear an augmented chord, it’s being used for effect. Shock value. Mystery. That spooky, unresolved, reaching quality.

Where you hear it:

The Road by Danny O’Keefe – G going back and forth to G augmented throughout.

Starting Over by John Lennon – C moving to C augmented.

And a Gordon Lightfoot song I played this week where the same chromatic climb happens under the melody.

The chromatic climb inside augmented chords:

Here’s what makes augmented chords particularly interesting – they’re often the beginning of a chromatic bass line rather than a destination.

Take A moving to A augmented. The E in the A chord rises to E sharp (same note as F). Continue the climb and E sharp moves to F sharp – giving you either an A6 or an F# minor chord depending on how you want to think about it. Continue again and you arrive at G – which turns the A chord into A7, acting as a secondary dominant pulling you toward D.

So what started as a simple A chord to A augmented has become a four-step chromatic climb: E – E# – F# – G.

That A7 then resolves to D. And then often to D minor as the G in the chord descends chromatically back through F# to F natural.

That entire sequence – A to A augmented through to D minor – is one of the most satisfying chromatic bass movements in popular music. Once you hear it you’ll recognize it everywhere.

A Wedding Request

Some friends asked me to play at their wedding in a few weeks.

They wanted two processional songs.

One of them was Because by John Lennon – which I’ve been playing in G since my Beatles album in the late 80s for no particular reason. A fascinating progression – C minor appearing straight from an A chord in the key of G. Very Lennon. Very unexpected. Very beautiful.

The second request was Stand By Me.

Which made me think I might need to work out a proper instrumental arrangement of it. The melody starts on the sixth note of the scale – similar to what Jackson Browne does in some of his tunes. Something about melodies that don’t start on the tonic or the third creates a particular kind of emotional pull.

More on that soon.

A Comment Worth Sharing

Someone left a comment on one of our YouTube videos this week that I thought was worth mentioning.

They pointed out that Lennon wasn’t just the angry one – he wrote some genuinely beautiful melodies. Because is a great example. In My Life. All My Loving.

I had to agree completely.

He wasn’t just the rocker. There was a sensitivity and melodic sophistication in his writing that deserves more recognition.

Halfway through October. See you next week.

— Neil