WAY too good to pass up and not save somewhere. To be perfectly honest, I'm not too sure about a little of the astrology thing thrown in at the end, but yea, good stuff. Awesome podcast. I think I needed to see this, myself... (If it helps others, even better). Some REALLY amazing, interesting and encouraging viewer responses here, as well. Wow...
"I saw an angel when I was 12. My mother threatened suicide often. At a family reunion at Lake Texoma she threatened to drown herself. I couldn't take it anymore. I walked to an unoccupied part of the beach and cried. Suddenly I felt a presence above me. A beautiful woman hovered above me. No wings. She was surrounded by light. At first I thought she was coming to take me. I was scared. She told me, without speaking a word, not to worry. Everything would be okay. Then she was gone. Twice later, an angel (male voice) warned me of danger and I slowed down. Both times my car was totaled. I walked away. They are real. I pray often, and talk to my Angels always." -jenniferwaite3219 (Y/T Viewer).
"The morning after my infant daughter died of SIDS I was in my room praying for wisdom on how to tell my three year old daughter what had happened. I heard her come out of her room and head up the hall, pause, stop and go back to her room. Much later she told me that there was a man in the hallway that stopped her and said “your mom and dad are going to be sad for a while, but everything will be okay.” She also told me that she saw my door was slightly open and my room was glowing." -Y/T Viewer
"When I was pregnant with my eldest son. I was bleeding badly and was taken to hospital and after a scan, the nurse basically told me to go home and rest because it looked like I was miscarring. This was the second time I had bled and this time it was pretty heavy bleeding. I went to bed and woke up after a nap. I sat on the side of my bed feeling devastated. I sensed a female presence at the right of me and I felt a hand being placed on my bump and I heard "don't worry, everything was going to be okay from now on". This wasn't a voice people could hear, but a sense that came as words. What you would expect from a spirit. The bleeding had stopped and I went on to have a healthy beautiful son. We had no issues the rest of the pregnancy." -Y/T Viewer
"When my brother in law was dying from leukemia, he kept asking my husband who the person was dressed all in white standing at the window. My husband saw no one, but he knew exactly what he was talking about. Before my husband died, he would tell me that he would hear Angelic singing and hear his mom’s voice in particular. His mom passed away about 5 yrs before he did." -Y/T Viewer
Brilliant explanation as to why there has just got to be some kind of intelligent design. And when you really think about it, nothing else really makes any sense. Nobody, I mean NOBODY has any kind valid explanation for the origin of life, as we know it. No scientist. No one! Whatever that intelligence is, its WAY beyond our comprehension...
Of course, it really still doesn't answer those nagging questions, as to why that incredible genius just didn't go a step further and make everything perfect to begin with? Ya know? In relation to such glaring questions, as to why there is so much suffering, disease, death, etc.?
And I guess, that's where philosophy comes in, to a certain extent, and the arguments in relation to the writings in the various religious texts, like the Bible and all. Yet, although, the Bible does seem to somewhat address the issue of man's free will as the primary cause, it appears to explain it in a mostly mythological way of course; so let's face it (in respect to this, and some of its barefaced contradictions, among other things) even the Bible itself falls short! But I'm not even gonna' go there. Too deep. Just thought this lecture was way too interesting to pass up...
Okay, here is a somewhat alternate or possibly even complimentary view, in relation to a few of my posts in 'Learning & Things of Interest' some months ago, that also provides allot of food for thought... Of course, it doesn't necessarily explain such things, as the absolutely brilliant, seemingly intelligent design of many of the incredible mysteries of our planet, the Universe, Biology, and the one Sun, one Moon thing for instance, but it may possibly provide a somewhat complimentary explanation, as to why, despite all the human technology, inventions, and discoveries, that can make this planet a paradise, and even heaven on earth, there seems to be so many other things that are also of man's own design, that make it so difficult for so many, and where you sort of like have reflections of both heaven and hell on the same planet! For instance, the miracle and beauty of life and nature, and the evils of war, corruption, greed, selfishness, poverty, disease, sickness, death, etc. sort of like side by side with each other... This theory, also, in its present form at least (though which may yet to be discovered) doesn't necessarily explain why certain individuals do get it, and others don't; or why some people are more prone to sociopath behavior for example, while others are not. (Or maybe, it does explain at least some of these things, in a way). In other words, why there appears to be such a huge difference in the human species itself. And also, doesn't necessarily explain what created it all to begin with. For instance, when I was a kid, I once had a particular, very interesting discussion about Extraterrestrials, UFO's, and how that all fits into the possible existence of God, and the reason for our existence, with a very wise friend, who was studying for the priesthood at the time (yet eventually decided not to go that route) who said something very insightful, that sort of like stayed with me after all these years, when he said something to the effect of: "Well, all I can say, is that if there is such a thing as Extraterrestrials, where did they themselves ultimately come from? In other words, everything that had a beginning, had to have come from something that had no beginning." Wow! I can still remember how that statement totally blew me away when he said it, and kinda made so much sense in a way. Just sayin'...
"Empaths are often poets in motion. They are the born writers, singers, and artists with a high degree of creativity and imagination, so the artistic community is filled with them. They are known for many talents as their interests are varied, broad, and continual. They often have interests in many cultures and view them with a broad-minded perspective. Empaths encompass all walks of life and span every culture across the globe. You can find empaths within your family, neighborhood, workplace, and the broader community.
There is no single defining gender, career, personality, or any other label that we can place on empaths in general, they are everywhere and can be anyone. These are the listeners of life. Empaths are often problem solvers, thinkers, and studiers of many things. As far as empaths are concerned, where there is a problem, there is also an answer. They will often search until they find one—if only for peace of mind..." -From, 'The Basic Traits of Empaths and Empathy'
'Sociopaths' - The complete opposite of an 'Empath'. As compassion (and justice) is also, of a higher order...
"1/25 people disliked this video...." -Joshua Mcateer. Very funny...
"I lived with a psychopath for several years, and have met others. One thing I noticed is a 'flashbulb smile', a sudden broad grin while speaking. They also seem to think and choose words carefully, and try to avoid giving away any new information but save up mentally what they learn about others, to later use against them." -karen stauffer (YouTube Viewer).
"I took an Uber ride the other night that changed my life. I got lucky. The big lesson I learned is to never sacrifice your safety and wellbeing to be polite. It could cost you your life. Listen to your intuition and act on it." -Inner Integration
I can kinda' relate to the previous story myself. (Knowing, first hand from experience, that you have to be aware of who you are showing kindness to. Let's face it, not everyone is honest, or has the same good intentions as you, if you are that kind of person to begin with; and someone who is not on the level, and/or who has ulterior motives, and/or who is a predator, or even a 'Career Criminal', may sorta' like pick up on that).
For example, some years ago already, (before actually living in North Carolina), I was visiting relatives in Charlotte, while staying in a hotel. I got a little lost on my way back to the motel, and had asked this black man from my car for some directions. (Don't mean to sound prejudiced and all, but that's what he was. Sorry! Same thing could have possibly happened with a 'white man' as well). After he advised me which way to go, he tried to play on the fact that he could see I was a decent guy, and indicated that it was raining out and he was getting wet, etc. and if, out of the kindness of my heart, I could give him a ride on my way back to the hotel. Against my better judgement, I complied, and told him to get in the car. (As I was also, sorta' like testing out the area myself, as a possible place to live, and had seen something on the news the night before about a pretty violent crime that had taken place around the city, and was therefore especially curious about the quality of life there). Sure enough, he directed me towards this dark alley, and his character had completely changed. His true colors seemed to come out, and he tried to rob me! He definitely, also seemed to know what he was doing. Much to my surprise, he knew how to work a choke hold, like a pro! He was also very shrewd (in an evil kind of way of course), as he tried to force me against my car, when I opened the door to get out - in an attempt to defend myself; sorta' like instinctively knowing that I would be afraid to damage my car by the confrontation he tried to turn violent. (The dark alley that he led me to of course, didn't hurt either). Well, to make a long story short, I still managed to get my car keys from him, which he attempted to use as leverage. And then, he was gone. I mean, like disappeared! And when I had called the cops, because he managed to get away with my license, the particular cop who arrived at the scene actually asked me if I was buying drugs from the guy!!! Believe it or not. "Yea right, that's what I was doing officer, I was buying drugs. That's why I called the cops! Duh. Makes sense to me! In fact, remind me again as to why these guys are so brazen, and think most of our law enforcement is a joke. Wow!" (In all fairness, this may not have been a complete reflection of the Charlotte area; as my cousin's friends, and the crowd she hangs out with, seem to be very decent people. Which was one of the reasons as to why I was considering relocating to the area. The people. It may have also been partly indicative of the vulnerability of my particular situation - of being a Whistleblower and all for instance - which I am not going to get into here).
But anyway, my point being, (and the moral of the story) is that these principles, of course, can be applicable to men, as well as women. As with the story told by the woman in the video, this was another definite learning experience for me, as well. And reaffirmed my belief in the absurdity of being 'politically correct' (so to speak) in certain situations, for example. (While still being a civil, well-mannered, objective, and nondiscriminatory person). Neither here nor there, but I also firmly believe that there are certain women, and kids, (young children being especially vulnerable), who are cut from a different cloth, and therefore, should especially make it a point to learn self-defense, from a good, credible, martial arts school for example. Combined with good judgement, it could possibly even save your life. And also, my strong advice, is to NEVER walk into a situation like what I walked into, (if it at all can be avoided), to begin with. (And this particular situation could have been avoided). That is the FIRST rule of thumb. (And any good martial arts school will teach you that as well). There are enough bad things in this life (that sometimes, unfortunately, cannot be avoided) as it is. I know...
Note: I had also initially included a very compelling, important, and insightful video here, that has since been deleted from YouTube, and was unable to find a suitable replacement anymore. It was called something like: '7 Warning Signs That Someone in Your Life is Evil.' Being an extremely intuitive person myself (and an excellent judge of character) I definitely could relate. For instance, when there is some kind of pattern of negative things that keep happening in your life that seem to have no other rational explanation as to why these things are happening (but there are DEFINITE clues) it is usually an indication that someone in your life is evil, and is seeking your demise in some way. (These type of individuals are usually very sneaky and very dangerous, in more ways then one). And one of the most common motives, is usually a psychologically sick, inordinate, disproportianate, and extreme form of jealousy, for whatever reason. There is a difference between a normal kind of jealousy for someone you may care about, for instance. (I mean, if your in love with somebody, you definitely don't want to share them with someone else, of course. That should be a no-brainer). But, there is a definite difference between that, and of course, the sociopathic kind, that seeks their destruction. Someone who really cares about someone else, would never do anything to hurt that person, or seek their ruin, or with malicious intent, seek the ruin of anyone else. (That is the key phrase here: "With malicious intent." And a clear indication that it crosses the line). That is the distinct difference...
Okay, here's something I just found...
Particularly interesting here, is the part that says something to the effect: "Truly evil people like to with-hold certain information (that would help you in some way) for their own benefit..."
Yep, I've DEFINITELY picked up on that one before. No doubt about it. And, in relation to the video, it makes you say to yourself: “Why does this seem to be my luck all the time?” But then there's Karma; ya know, “whatever goes around, comes around”? And in circling back to the initial subject matter of this post, a true Empath is also someone who is instinctively (and wisely) aware of this universal life principle to begin with themselves…
This is the second half of a special Reverb Nation Guide To Music Theory. In Part 1, I taught you how to build and understand intervals and basic chords. If you haven’t gone through Part 1 one of this guide, stop reading this and check that out first. To understand everything in this article, you’ll need to have a basic knowledge of everything I talked about in that first guide.
In this article, I’ll introduce you to scales, Roman numeral analysis, and the circle of 5ths. Having a solid grasp on music theory’s basic concepts can be a huge help to you no matter what your unique experience and background in music is, and by the end of this guide you should have more than enough information to be able to wrap your head around the ideas that govern music. Let’s jump back in.
Scales
Scales, which are also referred to as modes, are step-by-step sequences of notes that explore keys in music. If your piano or guitar teacher taught you how to play scales without explaining the theory behind them, you might be under the impression that scales are nothing more than finger exercises, but they’re much more important than that.
Major and minor scales provide the unique sets of notes found in most of the chords we hear in popular music. Memorizing a few basic patterns will allow you to play and understand scales in any key on your instrument. And just a reminder, we’re using the keyboard here as a visual guide, but it’s important to apply the information in this article to your instrument.
There’s a bunch of musical modes to learn and explore out there, but for the purposes of this guide we’re only going to look at the major and natural minor scales. Major scales provide the unique sets of notes found in major keys. We’ll use a pattern of major and minor 2nd intervals to learn how to build major scales anywhere in music. Starting with the C major scale makes the most sense because it doesn’t include any accidentals (black keys).
Here’s the pattern you’ll need to memorize to build major scales in music. W’s represent whole-steps (major 2nds) and H’s represent half-steps (minor 2nds):
Once you’ve got a good idea of how to build the C major scale, start testing your knowledge by using the pattern above to build major scales in other keys on your instrument. For example, if you apply this same pattern of intervals and build the major scale on the note of G, you should end up with the notes G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G.
There are three minor scales in music: natural, minor, and melodic. We’re going to focus on natural minor scales because they’re used to build the minor keys we hear in music. If you were to build a scale starting on the A note in the C major scale, you’d end up with an A natural minor scale.
Here’s the pattern you’ll need to memorize to build natural minor scales:
Like you did with the major scale pattern, test your knowledge by building natural minor scales in a few different keys. With these simple patterns you now have an easy way to build major and natural minor scales in any key in music. Pretty neat, right? This scale-building knowledge is great for writing, improving and understanding music.
Keys and Roman numeral analysis
I totally realize how frightening of a term like Roman numeral analysis is, but don’t go crazy and pour beer on your laptop just yet. It’s actually not too difficult of a concept to wrap your head around. The keys we hear in music are built with the notes found in major and minor scales. For example, all the chords we hear in the key of C major are built using the notes from the C major scale. Like with intervals and scales, the note-to-note relationships within keys are permanent. This means that order of chords within keys never change. We’re going to combine our knowledge of basic chords with what we’ve learned about major and minor scales to figure out how the chords in keys work.
In major and minor keys, one distinct basic chord is built off each note in a scale. Here’s the order of chords found in major keys:
I used the good old key of C major here as an example because it’s easy, but again, the note-to-note and chord-to-chord relationships of these keys are permanent, so you can and should apply this knowledge to any major key in music. For practice, I recommend playing the scale of a key first before attempting to play through each of its chords.
Like with the A natural minor scale, the key of A minor uses the same notes as the C major scale but in a different order. This is because A minor is the relative minor to the key of C major. All relative minor keys are located a minor third interval lower than their major counterparts. Here’s the order of chords found in minor keys:
You now have the knowledge of how to build intervals, chords, scales and keys on any note in all of music. That’s hugely powerful stuff, but things can get a little difficult to understand in music theory because the relationships between chords sound so similar no matter what key you’re playing in. That’s where Roman numeral analysis comes in.
Roman numeral analysis is used to identify the permanent relationships between chords within keys. For example, when you hear a song in the key of C major that uses a chord progression of C major and F major, we’re much more likely to be able to identify and remember the unique sound of the relationship between the chords rather than the individual notes themselves. The listener hears that song and hears a 1 to 4 chord progression, not a C major chord moving to an F major chord in the key of C. There are absolutely musicians out there with perfect pitch who are able to discern the differences between notes, but the vast majority of us interpret music through its broader relationships between chords out of the context of keys.
The Roman Numeral system is typically used to identify chords in music theory because it gives us the ability to use uppercase letters to represent major chords and lowercase ones to represent minor chords. Diminished chords are represented with a small degree symbol next to a lowercase letter. I’m sure this all sounds confusing if you’re not familiar with it, but writing out plain numbers doesn’t work nearly as well for identifying chord progressions. Remember, the systems used to describe music theory concepts might seem complicated, but their job is to make understanding this stuff as easy as possible. Here’s what the order of basic chords in major keys looks like with Roman Numeral symbols:
Again, the size of the symbol determines whether the chord it’s representing is major or minor, and the degree symbol next to the seventh chord at the end means that the chord it’s representing is diminished.
Here’s the order of basic chords for minor keys. Again, the order of basic chords will exactly match the ones you see in the major key’s order of chords starting from the minor 6th chord because of the relative minor relationship between major and minor keys:
You can use this system of Roman numerals to not only understand chord progressions in music, but to communicate your own musical ideas.
A brief introduction to the circle of 5ths
The circle of 5ths is a handy visual guide that helps us make sense of how keys work in music theory. We can learn to identify different keys by looking at their unique key signatures, which are comprised of the unique number of flats and sharps found in each key. And just in case you’re confused, flats and sharps, which are also called accidentals, make up the black keys you see on the keyboard. Sharps raise notes by a half-step while flats lower them by the same amount. The keys of C major and A minor don’t have a key signature because they don’t include any accidentals.
The circle is split up between keys with flats and sharps. The outside of the circle is comprised of major keys and the relative minor to each major key is on the inside of the circle. Moving clockwise and starting with the key of C major, each key moves up a 5th and gains a sharp. Each added key keeps the old sharp and adds a new one located on a note called the leading tone, which is a scale’s seventh degree located the note right before the octave. For example, the key of G major’s sharped note is F#. The sharp side of the circle ends with the key of F#, which can also be interpreted as Gb.
The left side of the circle works in a similar way, but the major difference is that the added accidental for each new key is located on the fourth scale degree instead of the seventh. For example, the key of F major’s added accidental is Bb. If you’re ever confused about the way keys work, this is a great visual guide to help you get your bearings.
Tips for mastering music theory basics
Well, that about wraps up this special music theory guide. There’s so much more to learn and talk about when it comes to the theory behind music, but what we’ve covered here is more than enough to get you started. In order to truly absorb all the information in this guide, you’ll have to do the unsexy work of building intervals, scales, chords and key signatures on paper. While that sort of work is tedious, it’s mandatory if you want to firmly internalize the concepts behind music theory. In order to fully understand and appreciate music through a theory context, you’ll have to memorize things like the circle of 5ths and how to build chords, but once you’ve put in the work, you’ll begin thinking about music in a completely new and connected way.
Patrick McGuire is a musician, writer, and educator currently residing in the great city of Philadelphia. He creates music under the name Straight White Teeth, and has a great affinity for dogs and putting his hands in his pockets.
Because of this FACT alone, there should never be anything called: "Austerity." (Or kids going to bed hungry at night). File this under: "Solutions!" - That they don't want you to know about. Now you know, what gives impetus to many of the career criminals and thieves especially, to believe they have a right to get away with what THEY do, and why rip-offs and scams are so prevalent in the U.S., particularly, because it's the very same mindset! (And it's often selfishly used as a form of control). Corruption breeds corruption. And unfortunately, it is all too often that the honest people (and the innocent) who suffer, because of it. And then, there are the intelligent, seemingly forthright individuals like Foster Gamble for example, who do get it, and at least seem to sincerely try to make a difference. (He is like 'The Buddha' of the elite!)
Although, I may not necessarily agree with every single one of his views about the role of government in a free society per se' (whereas I do understand how he's arrived at some of his conclusions) we do never-the-less desperately need more people with honest and sincere character traits in government, as well as in the private sector, before it's too late. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, (for whatever it's worth) the same ole', same ole' is just not working anymore. (Not that it ever really worked very well to begin with). We need a new paradigm, that works for everyone. Because, it is pretty obvious from this video (and subject) alone, that there is MORE THEN ENOUGH to go around. And much of that, is even earning compound interest!
There seems to be a solution for everything, when decent, honest people (wisely) work together for REAL change. Because, it would seem, as Foster Gamble himself very wisely points out in many of his videos and teachings for example, is that it is written into the very fabric of the Universe itself...
