Is E# a chord?

by Ari 30 May 2017 1 minute read

E# – Maybe not so Sharp?

Got a question, here is my answer. The short answer is, well sort of: musicians would know what to do when encountering an E# triad, but a knowledgable musician would not use this naming and there are some great reasons for that. These reasons all go back to

  • understanding intervals
  • understanding the cycle of fifths

My off-the-wall awesome wall chart definitely shows you all the pieces of theory behind this at one glance 🙂

It really does pay off to know how to name your chords and scales correctly. It makes your life much easier! 

Read Ariane Cap’s answer to Is E# a chord? on Quora

Read the article and then tell me – is there an E# minor triad? Hint: not on the first scale degree, but maybe, looking at the cycle of fifths, you can find a key that it might be part of? Remember, minor scale degrees are on the second, third and sixth scale degrees… If you treat this question like a Sudoku, meaning using the process of elimination – you can find it 🙂

Also of interest: It matters whether you call it Db or C#

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Hi. I'm Ari.

As a bassist, I have toured/played/recorded with a variety of rock, Jazz, and funk bands, I have worked with some incredible producers (Keith Olsen) and musicians (Paul Hanson, Muriel Anderson) and I toured Brazil with Stu Hamm as a duo.

 

As a bass teacher, I have taught at London Bass Day, Gerald Veasley’s Bass Boot Camp, SBL, Truefire, notreble… I even ran my own music school for a few years before gigs took me back on the road.

 

One thing to know about me is that I teach because I am absolutely fascinated with the learning process. And I am obsessed with helping others realize their musical potential.

 

When I started playing bass, I excelled very quickly because I had an amazing teacher who taught me using a powerful method. This method transformed my playing so quickly that I passed a bunch of high-level university auditions and even tested out of entire classes at university even though I had been playing for only a very short time.

 

That’s what, many years later turned into one of my books, co-written with Wolf Wein, called “The Pattern System for the Bass Player”. I created entire systems of learning based on some of these ideas and wrote books and created courses together with Wolf. Our bass books have sold over 30,000 copies and garnered rave reviews.

 

I started teaching online in 2009 and have embraced technology as a powerful learning tool since then, never losing sight of the importance of providing feedback and personalized guidance to learners.

 

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