Learning
Music Theory 1 for Guitarists! You can jump around through these lessons but I advise to follow them in order so you don’t have gaps in your learning. Have your Guitar in your hands and go through what your reading as you read it. So go pick it up and lets get started. I want to keep these lessons short and easy to grasp. If you have questions leave me a comment and I will help. This is where it starts. Thick E string… From the open Fret to the 12th Fret. This is one octave. From the open string to the 12th fret you have 12 notes. They are… E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, and E again. REMEBER THIS!!! E and B have NO Sharps, NO #’s. This is important. Its not hard just remember it. E and B have no sharps. Play each of these notes and call out the names as you go. Starting Open, play each note sliding up one each time. E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, and E again. You have just played One octave. This is a scale, its called the chromatic scale and in my mind it is the most important scale to know. All other scales are created from this scale. All chords are created from this scale. In fact EVERYTHING in music is taken from this scale. In my mind it is the most important scale to know. As you will find out in the coming lessons this scale is very important to know. Seems easy...
Learning
For so many years now i am still amazed at how many Awesome Gutiar Players dont know anything about music. On so many occasions I have said to fellow axemen “Play the 6th chord” or “You play the 3rd” and im looked at like a freak! I get why they dont, and in many ways that is one of the reasons the guitar is such an awesome instrument to play. The guitar is tuned in 4ths and this basicly means you can learn a shape on the neck ie an “E” chord shape and then using a bar with you first finger, move it anywhere up or down the neck and play any other like shaped chord. It works with every shape chord “A” like double bar chords “A-” chords, what ever. The very cool part is it works with Scales, Riffs, Runs etc. What ever you can play can be moved to a new position and then play it in any key. Now this is going to be the first of Many Many posts on this topic because it is huge and encompasses so much important information. I have taught this very same information to my all my students, purely because it is so important. I love to see them go from being a Riff playing guitarist playing purely by TAB and ear, to being able to compose, transpose and play what they actually hear in their head. I hope to use this to be able to do the same from you. I would how ever like your feed back on how clear it is to understand this...
