Dave's gettin' soft

[1eyed_jack]

haha there ya go. i remember in my guitar class i was playing a song and i was saying how dave uses wierd chords and my teacher was like "thats not a wierd chord its just a stripped down Bm: so ya i guess trhat shows how much music theory i know

[MWR]

Yup. He's almost never uses weird chords, just weird voicings. A weird chord would be a Dominant 7b5#9 which you probably won't see unless you play jazz. As far as musical complexity and tension goes, Dave has always been simple.

[gravesRR7]

i think some of his best songs were written a while back, but that's not to say that any of the new stuff is below par.

but it does seem like his stuff is getting (in general) simpler
but he's still crank'n out some good riffs and stuff (so damn lucky, YNK)

[Ando]

As far as musical complexity and tension goes, Dave has always been simple.

That's what I'm always trying to tell people.

They don't believe me. They still think Dave is one of the best guitarists out there.

[1eyed_jack]

As far as musical complexity and tension goes, Dave has always been simple.

That's what I'm always trying to tell people.

They don't believe me. They still think Dave is one of the best guitarists out there.

dave still is a hell of a guitar player though. How talented you are doesnt always make you a good guitar player. dave has a great ear for music, his stuff might not be extremely comploicated, but it is very original sounding

[c_tietze]

while agree dave does his own thing, dont let him fool you. he knows some music theory. a lot of his chorde arent just random notes. for example, this chord that we see a lot

x
x
8
x
6
7

i think that the chord at least. anyway, that is just like a stripped down Bm chord. a lot of his chords are just stripped down peices of other chords. he knows some theory, i dont know how much, but remember he did take lessaons for a litle bit

I understand what you are saying, but just because one plays these chords does not mean he is "theory knowledgeable", as Dave did not "create" these chords, he just uses them because they utilize different voicings than stock open position chords.

I recall an interview wherein Dave talked about Robert Fripp's influence on him with regard to using unorthodox chord voicings and crazy stretches. To Dave's dismay he found out that Fripp had tuned his guitar differently.

Peace,

CJT

EDIT: For the record, Dave is an awesome guitar player and arguably one of the front runners in reviving the acoustic playing frontman paving the way for numerous other talented artists, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Howie Day, Ari Hest, etc.

Is he reinventing the wheel? NO! Can he play lead? NO! Does know how to read and write music? From what I've read - NO!

Does he rock and just have an amazing star vibe - hellz YES!

[jsgksu]

I dont know if Id call Dave songs simple, songs like billies, warehouse, smts, wwys, r&r, bowa and a few others are difficult for a lot of people. As for him being very knowlegeable I think hes even said he doesnt know theory, the only reason he knew what key satellite was in is because Timmy said, as he says in a concert I have. I also believe I heard that Tim taught him a lot of those weird chords, and I odnt recall ever hearing he had lessons either.

[c_tietze]

I dont know if Id call Dave songs simple, songs like billies, warehouse, smts, wwys, r&r, bowa and a few others are difficult for a lot of people. As for him being very knowlegeable I think hes even said he doesnt know theory, the only reason he knew what key satellite was in is because Timmy said, as he says in a concert I have. I also believe I heard that Tim taught him a lot of those weird chords, and I odnt recall ever hearing he had lessons either.

Must be nice to have Timmy Reynolds teaching you lick and chords and stuff, right?

From what I've read, Dave took lessons as a kid.

Personally, I just love Dave's percussive style ala SMTS!

[jsgksu]

I dont know if Id call Dave songs simple, songs like billies, warehouse, smts, wwys, r&r, bowa and a few others are difficult for a lot of people. As for him being very knowlegeable I think hes even said he doesnt know theory, the only reason he knew what key satellite was in is because Timmy said, as he says in a concert I have. I also believe I heard that Tim taught him a lot of those weird chords, and I odnt recall ever hearing he had lessons either.

Must be nice to have Timmy Reynolds teaching you lick and chords and stuff, right?

From what I've read, Dave took lessons as a kid.

Personally, I just love Dave's percussive style ala SMTS!

Maybe he took lessons as a kid but whoever taught him surely didnt teach him all those weird chords, Im sure he gave him the basics, but I swear I heard timmy showed him some of those "dave" chords early on, anyone?

[ericwormann]

I dont know if Id call Dave songs simple, songs like billies, warehouse, smts, wwys, r&r, bowa and a few others are difficult for a lot of people. As for him being very knowlegeable I think hes even said he doesnt know theory, the only reason he knew what key satellite was in is because Timmy said, as he says in a concert I have. I also believe I heard that Tim taught him a lot of those weird chords, and I odnt recall ever hearing he had lessons either.

Must be nice to have Timmy Reynolds teaching you lick and chords and stuff, right?

From what I've read, Dave took lessons as a kid.

Personally, I just love Dave's percussive style ala SMTS!

Maybe he took lessons as a kid but whoever taught him surely didnt teach him all those weird chords, Im sure he gave him the basics, but I swear I heard timmy showed him some of those "dave" chords early on, anyone?

anyone could have showed him, they are fairly common

[DMBFan63]

I doubt that tim taught him those chord voicings.. Dave wrote some songs before he even met tim.. I think dave learned these chords on his own through listening/playing music

[Jer1400]

Well, I just think his style's evolving into something a little different.

[MWR]

Complexity and musicianship are two different things. He's obviously an amazing musician and songwriter, we all know this or we wouldn't be here. Just because his songs can be difficult to play doesn't make them complex on a musical level. Keep in mind I'm talking about theory only. He really doesn't go out the box when writing progressions and riffs.
Radiohead is a good example of a band that really explores more unorthadox sounds. Does that mean they're better? Of course not.

[DmbFanJason]

Seems like Dave's new material (i.e. Everyday to now) is so much easier than his old stuff. He's just using alot more chords, simpler riffs, and rehashing old patterns from other songs. Anyone else think Dave may be losing his touch, having some creative problems? Only complicated or trickey songs I can think of recently have been Fool To Think or maybe Some Devil. You just don't see anything with the difficulty of the Verse on Tripping Billies or the muting on Warehouse, or songs like What Would You Say, So Much To Say, or even The Stone.

I fully agree with you. FTT is the only one that I have even bothered to delve in out of any of the new stuff. Dave will always be my favorite band unless something new and crazy comes out. We expect a lot from him now that we know what he is capable of. However, I become less critical of him and less hard on him when I stop and think about what he has done for us all already. But yea, the newer stuff isn't as good and is much simpler than the old stuff. I think it has something to do with influences like Glen Ballard leaning Dave toward what "Glen" thinks sounds good.

[jkanter]

Seems like Dave's new material (i.e. Everyday to now) is so much easier than his old stuff. He's just using alot more chords, simpler riffs, and rehashing old patterns from other songs. Anyone else think Dave may be losing his touch, having some creative problems? Only complicated or trickey songs I can think of recently have been Fool To Think or maybe Some Devil. You just don't see anything with the difficulty of the Verse on Tripping Billies or the muting on Warehouse, or songs like What Would You Say, So Much To Say, or even The Stone.

I fully agree with you. FTT is the only one that I have even bothered to delve in out of any of the new stuff. Dave will always be my favorite band unless something new and crazy comes out. We expect a lot from him now that we know what he is capable of. However, I become less critical of him and less hard on him when I stop and think about what he has done for us all already. But yea, the newer stuff isn't as good and is much simpler than the old stuff. I think it has something to do with influences like Glen Ballard leaning Dave toward what "Glen" thinks sounds good.

Oh no....I knew Jason was going to get involved in this thread