The Acoustic Guitar Forum - scale and chord theory, Blah, blah, blah, blah

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scale and chord theory, Blah, blah, blah, blah

I am having trouble remembering anything I learn about this. When I listen to my teacher talk about theory for more than three minutes it turns to blah, blah, blah. Is there an easy way to learn and remember this stuff? Then the application of it. I understand that keys have certain chords that "go together" within those chords they have notes of a certain scale, and then there are the modes arggghhhhhhhhh. hmmmmmmmm I'm lost.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 12Stringer (Post 1668415)

Hi 12S...
If I didn't cook, all recipes would start to look alike I'm afraid.

Unless you are putting the theory you are learning to work, or at least doing exercises to make it stick to the brain, it will be difficult.

I had a student who needed such an assignment so I gave him the task of figuring out and memorizing them in the five easy guitar keys (C-A-G-E & D)

He brought me the following chart (he made one mistake in it which I wish he had corrected before sending me the chart). I bet you can find it.

Common Chord Progressions - click

The progressions are designed to be played one bar per chord and repeated till your wife or friends scream ''Can't you play anything else'' then you switch lines or progressions. Anyway, they tie scale degree to the corresponding chord in the key, and progressions derived from them.

You are welcome to download and practice it too...and it may help you to apply a bit-o-theory. It's like slice and bake cookies not tiramisu but it's good to know.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ljguitar (Post 1668593)

Hi 12S...
I had a student who needed such an assignment so I gave him the task of figuring out and memorizing them in the five easy guitar keys (C-A-G-E & D)

He brought me the following chart (he made one mistake in it which I wish he had corrected before sending me the chart). I bet you can find it.

Hi Larry,
Actually I noticed 3 mistakes, not 1!

E C#m F#m D is not I vi ii V - D should be B
D E Bm A is not I IV vi V - E should be G
D A Bm E is not I V vi IV - E should be G

Hope that helps!
Regards,

Aaron

Quote:

Originally Posted by trion12 (Post 1668626)

...E C#m F#m D is not I vi ii V - D should be B
D E Bm A is not I IV vi V - E should be G
D A Bm E is not I V vi IV - E should be G

Hi Aaron..
Thanks...if he ever offers to touch it up, I'll point them out to him.

He's actually been playing quite well and this was the exercise that helped dislodge him from top-dead-center and being tied to his charts.

Here's the direct essentials as to notes in a chord and what chords go together:

(Of course it's a tadd bit more complex since you're still in the "confused" stage I kept it simple. You'll see the horizon widen as you go along)

Chord theory: Notes in a chord are I-III-V eg C, E,G

Music theory: Chords that go together: I-IV-V eg C, F, G

(the "V" chord is usually the 7th version of that chord so it's really G7 BUT, the song plays pretty much the same if you just sue the Major version)

Quote:

Originally Posted by 12Stringer (Post 1668415)

Man o man do I know that feeling. I have the exact same problem and I haven't really been able to overcome it. I don't know much theory, I only know a couple scales by memory and whenever I try to learn something new it's like I have ADD or something.

What I finally did was gave up. I may not know all the theory behind what I do but I know what sounds good and I know what I like. I have found this site: http://www.all-guitar-chords.com to be most valuable to me. The site will show you any scale, any chord, and then it will link you to chords and scales that work within the framework of what you are doing. It helps break me out of the box without having to study theory. Plus each time I use it I learn something new and it sticks with me because I am applying it to something I am doing.

Thanks for the replies and info, it should help, if anyone has other suggestions chime in.

Thanks for the tips.
Hank

That's a nice chart. I corrected the errors Aaron noted above and here it is as a JPG:

http://www.nichebooks.com/Chord_Progressions.jpg