Music Theory & Guitars

From my own personal experience I can tell you that the thinnest book I've seen on music theory was at least a hundred pages, therefore I'm going to pass along what we as a team feel are the important concepts of music theory to enhance your guitar ability. This is not something you'll want to look at once and say "neat picture...what else is in here." This is an on going appendium that you can use as a reference based on your progress through the lessons. This section has been written to guide you through the "guts" of why music is music, therefore, we won't flash big terms or words with out an explanation. Come back every now and then to re-familiarize yourself with the concepts we mention here and it will help you learn to create your own "style" of music as it has for us."

Have you ever wondered why the 1st string on a guitar is an "E", or why the 4th string is a "D". Well, at some point your most likely to ask this question, and quite possibly get different answers from different people! So I'm going to break down Notes and why they are the foundation of music and guitar playing.

The first thing you need to know is that EVERY musical instrument plays some form of a note or notes. For as long as you hold your guitar you'll be playing some form of notes. So exactly what is a Note? Webster defines a note as "A tone of definite pitch and duration with symbolism"...This is probably the easiest definition your going to find so I'll help translate. A note is represented by a letter (A, B, C, D, E, F, G) to represent a constant pitch, or sound. Therefore, a "C" note on a trumpet and a "C" note on a guitar would have the same relative pitch and essentially blend together.

The next thing to know about notes is that the separation between notes gives each note it's specific sound or tone. The tone of notes is separated by either a full tone, or a semi-tone. Another way of thinking about full and semi-tones is that a full tone apart is essentially a full step on a ladder, and a semi-tone is essentially a half-step on a ladder.

Notice that the "G" note has a full step between it and "A" which thus begins the cycle all over again.

The following graphic will help illustrate this section.

What's a Scale

So what's a scale? Simply put, a scale is a series of musical notes in alphabetical order beginning and ending on the same note. Scales begin and end on the same note (ex. A B C D E F G A) this is referred to as anOctave. Scales are very important to a lead guitarist; however it's even important for a rhythm guitarist to have a grasp on scales, as you'll soon see.

Probably the most frequently used scale at first for guitarist is the Major /Ionian Scale

Notice how the octave begins on a C note and ends on a C note. Thus, this makes a complete scale.

There are several scales in music which can be used, but we suggest that beginning players stick to the "C" scale for a while to learn how they work. From just knowing the scales in music you can begin playing your own masterpieces by already knowing the next natural sounding chord.

Another concept in the usage of scales is that each note within the scale falls on a fixed set of roman numerals. These numerals will correspond with there respective note to help the formation of chords. Here's how the numeral system breaks down.

So an example of how this would work would be:

C = 1st

D = 2nd

E = 3rd

F = 4th

G = 5th

A = 6th

B = 7th

C = 8th

The roman numeral system also has a semi-tone between the 3rd and 4th notes of a scale and the 7th and 8th notes in a scale. This will never change and will be compatible for any scale.

Now that you know what and how scales are formed, you can now play certain notes together in sequence to form a chord. A chord can be defined as a "group of two or three notes played in tandem within the same scale. So exactly how many chord are there? Well the sky's the limit as there are virtually hundreds of chords and chord variations out there, but again, like notes, the main sequence of A through G applies in chords and will be the majority of chords you'll use for quite a while.

So what makes an A chord different than an A minor chord? Well the series of notes involved in the chord determines the sound of the chord produced. Major chords are made by first selecting the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the chords scale. So for example, the C chord is determined by the C scale therefore the 1st note is a C, the 3rd is an E, and the 5th is a G. Remember that a chord must have three notes which may be repeated.

Minor chords are created the exact same way accept that the 3rd note is flatted.

The following table will help you learn not only your chords, but also your scales. My advise is to write out every scale on a sheet of paper with the roman numeral system on top of the letters. Make sure to remember that the 3rd and 4th, and the 7th and 8th notes in any scale are only a semi-tone, or a half step apart. This is critical to get the right notes in a chord. Once you've done this consult the table exercise.

This is the end of the Musical Theory info that we're including into Electric Arpeggio. Like we said in the beginning, this can be used as an on going reference for your guitar playing needs.