Neil,

As so often happens, Frank said in a much simpler and more eloquent manner what I had been trying to say in my post. The "strange relative" metaphor is a really good one. And, sorry about the confusion created by the use of "-" for minor; that's the way I was taught.

I'd been playing upwards of twenty-five years when I decided that was too long a time not to sight read and understand some theory. I placed myself at the mercy of a mostly retired jazz guitarist and tried to absorb as much as I could. (Not nearly enough I can tell you for sure.) He used no printed materials but hand wrote each lesson expressly for me; didn't even use a ruler to draw the staff. If, by mistake, he gave me the same tune on two occasions, he hand wrote it again each time. His approach to theory was very logical and natural and, although he used the chords you mention, he never wrote them down or even diagramed them. He once gave me a single piece of paper that he said contained all the theory one would ever need and, while that may not be entirely true, he certainly came very close. It's not supposed to be as hard as computers seem to think.

- Mark