Guitar Theory
This is the section for all of the music and guitar theory related lessons and articles. Some of the more in depth and complex information on this site can be found here, although there will be lessons for those of all experience levels. It is important to have an understanding of music theory and guitar theory specifically to fully understand the instrument. The fretboard is a complicated grid to navigate, so the lessons in this section on interval theory and chords and scales will help you get it down. Remember that theory must be put into practice to become useful.
Presenting a new section of this site: guitar theory. This category will have all of the music and guitar theory related articles and lessons on this site. The information will range from beginner to advanced, but in general, this will be some of the more in depth material on the site.
It is important to have a theoretical understanding of the instrument in order to keep progressing. Many people think of theory as a boring waste that doesn’t come into play when actually performing or learning songs and licks. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Guitar theory is how you expand your capabilities on this instrument more than anything else.
Man players who ignore theory end up getting bored with the instrument once they have reached the highest level they can just by playing by ear, or learning guitar tabs. Theory will allow you to really create your own music and explore the deepest concepts in harmony. All that guitar or music theory is is just a way of mentally condensing and organizing information about the sounds that you hear in music. Just like you need words to communicate and think on more than a very basic level, you need music theory to control and conceptualize music on more than a basic level.
One of the reasons that many guitar players ignore theory is that it is difficult and requires work. Its much more fun to just jam for a few minutes rather than work on theory that can seem an awful lot like math sometimes. However, good things do not come without work, and you will be much happier with you playing after understanding new concepts that allow you to control new sounds and make more effective music. Just like anything in life, its not about being happy every moment all the way through, you have to put in the hard work to gain happiness in any area.
If you are a guitar player who needs help with some of the more music theory aspects of playing, this is the section for you. Stop by here every so often and work on something new. Remember to take it slowly and see what the theory can do for you in practice.
December 03 2009 | Guitar Theory | No Comments »
A good way to learn how to play guitar is to learn how to play guitar with intervals. Intervals are the building blocks of music in general so to understand music, you need to understand intervals. and to play music with the guitar you should understand all of the intervals on a guitar. After you know the movable interval relationships on the guitar you can really start to learn how to play guitar.
What the intervals will help you do with your guitar playing is understand the chords and scales that you have always been playing, which are simply groups of intervals. When you understand the individual parts of these scales and chords you can see how to better apply them to whatever you are learning to play on your guitar. You can also then modify and change parts of the chords and scales into other tonalities.
Too many guitar player rely on memorizing shapes when they learn how to play guitar. While there is nothing wrong with this at first, and you have to memorize things with any instrument, it can be very limiting to rely on just shapes and memorized patterns to play the guitar. Learning the intervals can open up the whole guitar fretboard and release your creativity. It can be a great habit to start looking at intervals early when learning how to play guitar.
January 14 2009 | Guitar Theory | Comments Off
The guitar can be a great tool for transcribing music, and transcribing music can be a great practice for any musician. Some of the factors that make the guitar a good instrument for music transcriptions are that it is portable and can be taken to the computer or stereo that music may be playing from. Also, because you can play chords on the guitar you can handle any type of music that you may need to transcribe. Finally the guitar has a wide range of notes so you should be able to match any pitch in a recording, which makes it easier to transcribe.
Transcribing music is a great practice because it helps your playing, your ears, and your music writing and theory understanding. If you need something transcribed and you cant figure it out there are people who can offer a music transcription service, but if you start practicing with simple melodies you can eventually build up your transcribing skills.
Some things that can help your transcription abilities are learning the intervals by ear. This can be done by playing and identifying the intervals one at a time. First concentrate on minor seconds and then move up through the intervals. Beyond knowing the intervals you need to be able to identify rhythms and being able to slow down the melodies in your head can help with that. Obviously you need to know how to write the music to properly transcribe it. This can be easier if you have a notation software program but it is also good to know how to write music by hand.
January 05 2009 | Guitar Theory | Comments Off
Composing music on guitar is one of the most rewarding practices of guitar playing. Whether you just want to do it for fun or become a freelance music composer, it can be great to sit down and write a song of your own. The joys of creating music are often much greater than simply learning to play someone else’s song. Expression and creation are an important and overlooked aspect of human life.
Composing music on guitar can be as simple as taking some basic open string guitar chords and arranging them by ear into a pleasing chord progression. Then adding a melody or lyrics to this progression can give you a complete song. All of this can be done without advanced knowledge of music theory, although exploring music theory for composition can also be very helpful. After you have made a few songs with basic chords you can experiment with 7th chords and other extensions to add in some more interesting harmonies.
Composing music on guitar and any instrument in general is not emphasized by many people but it can be a great experience. You don’t have to be a musical genius to write a composition, or even a good composition. You just need to know what sounds good to you and be willing to experiment with things. Search for your unique voice and compose some music that sounds good to you and expresses what you want. Using the guitar for composing music is something all guitar players should try.
October 19 2008 | Guitar Theory | No Comments »
Taking the chord shapes that you know and using them for arpeggios and the basis of singe line melodies is a simple but underused method that can add some new sound to your guitar playing. This doesn’t mean picking the notes of a chord separately and letting them ring, this means playing each note of a chord as a single note. In order to do this you may need to use alternate fingerings, avoid barring chords and use your fingertips for every note whenever possible.
June 05 2008 | Guitar Theory | No Comments »
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