Beginner Theory

[jdpresto]

For clarification purposes: This post is a continuation, or rather a deviation from the "Tricks to Spice Up Chords" post.

Q: Can you name the notes on your guitar up each string? (it doesn't matter at all how quickly you can)

A: Yes.

Q: Do you understand how every sharp could be renamed as a flat (for example, Db and C# represent the same note)

A: Yes

Q: Do you understand how to construct a major scale from whole and half steps? Do you know what half and whole steps are?

A: Yes

Q: Do you know how to build triads within a key?

A: Yes (but for confirmation) 1,3,5

Q: Do you understand intervals in terms of major scales?

A: No

Q: Do you know how to spell out the notes of a chord?

A: Yes (for confirmation) take 1,3,5 notes of chord, for C = C, E, G for D = D F# A for minor, drop the 3 1/2 step. etc.

Q: Do you know your chord formuals (there are specific definitions as to what makes a chord major, minor, major 7th, dominant 7th, minor 6th, etc......

A: Major, minor - yes. anything beyond that I am not positive of. Starting from that point will cover all of the bases.

Thanks Mapletrees.


------------------
Jeff Preston
Indianapolis, IN
"All" my gear - http://php.spea.iupui.edu/jdpresto

[This message has been edited by jdpresto (edited 01-23-2001).]

[mapletrees]

I haven't forgotten about this thread - just been busy.

[mapletrees]

By the way, do you have any understanding of the word "intervals"...the way I asked may have been confusing.

Also, do you understand the Cycle(or circle) of Fifths and Fourths?

[tone]

Does anyone know of a really good theory book? If so, where can I get it? If this helps, I've been playing for about 10 years and have a good understanding of how to play multiple chord positions up and down the neck. But, I have never studied what makes up the chords that I'm playing. If you asked me "why is that chord a bla bla bla?" I would not be able to tell you.

Thanks

[jdpresto]

Intervals, no.

Circle of 5ths, hmmm. I have figured out how to determine the correct #'s and b's for the keys of CDEGAB, but that is about it.

[Jeff-NKC]

You guys are speaking English right?

[jdpresto]

The problem is, I keep getting bits and pieces of info here and there, and I have a feeling that I am doing more harm than good this way. I too need a good book to go through cover-to-cover.

[mapletrees]

Without a doubt the book to get is called "Harmony for Guitar" by Lance Bosman. See my caution below.

What I planned on doing in this forum was writing out in very plain English the fundamentals of music theory and chord construction pretty much following the order of that book (it's sort of the only order that would make sense) and include some basic self-quizzes. Of course, what I wrote here could not possibly be as complete as a full book. I'm momentarily pressed for time, and depending how ugly my tax return gets, I might not have time until April!

A word of caution about the book. The examples in the book are written in standard musical notation - NOT TABLATURE! The text is certainly readable whether or not you can read music. The music reading involved to illustrate the given topic of theory at hand is extremely elementary, though, and in general just involves reading on the first few frets. Now, what would not be so elementary are the examples of classical guitar music throughout the book(for each topic covered, they also give an example from the classical music repetoire to further illustrate). I am not a classical guitarist and I just essentially ignore all of those illustrations( though I could play them poorly!) with no great loss with respect to the instructional value of the book.

This book is often found at the big and modern megabookstores that you would find near or at big shopping malls(Borders, Bookland, Barnes and Noble, etc...) You'd be able to check it out for yourself.

[mapletrees]

Originally posted by Jeff-NKC:
You guys are speaking English right?

Stay tuned, dude.

[jdpresto]

Originally posted by mapletrees:
Stay tuned, dude.

Mapletrees, how's it coming? Looking forward to some posts!

[mapletrees]

Sorry to disappear on you - life gets very complicated sometimes.

I happened to see on the internet (while looking for something else) two other theory books that might be helpful. The book I suggested might not be the most user friendly for some.

Theory for the Contemporary Guitarist by Guy Capuzzo (National Guitar Workshop) and Harmony and Theory (maybe called Theory and Harmony - I can't remember) by Keith Wyatt (Musician's Institute).

I haven't seen these books but I have seen many good books by these sources.. They tend to have books that take organized and structured paths - with modern applications.

My students learn theory in a very conversational way - we don't use a book (even though I'm a book freak). They all learn to read music and from the get go they learn to speak musically. Scales, intervals, degrees, tension and release - they're understanding that by the time we hit Jingle Bells.

I do intend still to start putting the basics of theory here - pressed for time!!!!!!

[minorman]

check out this site it has helped me a lot it has a section on and I quote

"lessons on major, minor, and pentatonic guitar scales and modes: the most important technique in guitar"

"music theory lessons regarding guitar chords (Dsus4, D/F#, etc.) which are useful to all guitarists"

"chord formation for beginners, covering both basic chords
and barre chords"

"lessons on basic techniques: slide, bend, hammer-on & pull-off, etc.; great for beginners!"

I don't know if this will help any one but it helped me and it can't hurt to give it a try....the scales and modes are what helped me the most http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~d...tic/index.html

wholenote.com is great too.

Allan

[david_m]

I have an interest in music theory and would love to add some info to this thread. I am by no means an expert musician, but I have a decent understanding of the basics. I’ve read through a few music theory books, and only found them to be helpful AFTER I had someone explain the concept in easy to follow English. My guitar teacher was fabulous at this, so I’m going to use as much of his explanation technique as possible.

First and foremost you NEED to know how to construct a major scale. Once you have this knowledge everything else falls into place. Really! Okay, ALL major scales follow the same pattern. Once you learn this pattern you can construct a major scale in any key. Here’s the pattern:

Whole step
Whole step
Half step
Whole step
Whole step
Whole step
Half step

Let’s take the C major scale as an example. The distance between the first and second note needs to be a whole step (C to D), the distance between the second and third note needs to be a whole step (D to E), the distance between third and fourth note need to be a half step (E to F). The pattern continues until the whole scale is determined. Go ahead and write out the entire scale. It looks like this:

C
D
E
F
G
A
B
C

You might be wondering why there are no sharps or flats in this scale. The short answer (and I do mean short) is that there are natural HALF steps between E and F and B and C. That’s why the key of C major has no sharps or flats. Let’s do one more scale. Use the above formula to write out the D major scale. It should look lie this:

D
E
F#
G
A
B
C#
D

The major scale pattern requires that there be a WHOLE step between the third and fourth notes of the scale. Because E and F are naturally a half step apart, the F must be raised an additional half step to F#. The distance between E and F# is a whole step. The same rationale holds true for the distance between the sixth and seventh notes of the scale. Because B and C are naturally a half step apart, the C must be raised an additional half step, to C#, to fit the major scale pattern. The beautiful thing is that the C# is only a half step away from the D, and the major scale pattern requires that the distance between the 7th and 8th notes of the scale be a half step apart.

The fact that the last two notes of a major scale are only a half step apart means that the scale sounds finished when you play it. When you listen to a major scale, it sounds like it has a beginning, a middle and an end. The end sounds so obvious because the last two notes are a half step apart. This is called a resolution.

Now lets move on to the minor scale pattern. The formula for a minor scale is:

Whole step
Half step
Whole step
Whole step
Half step
Whole step
Whole step

Let’s try to write out the A minor scale using the above pattern. It looks like this:

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
A

The natural half steps that exist between E and F and B and C again come into play. This means that the A minor scale has no sharps or flats (just like C major). Let’s try one more. How about the G minor scale. It looks like this:

G
A
B flat
C
D
E flat
F
G

The minor scale pattern requires that the distance between the 2nd and 3rd notes be a half step. So, the B is lowered a half step, to B flat, to match the pattern. The same rationale holds true for the 5th and sixth notes. The minor scale pattern requires this distance to be a half step, so the E is lowered a half step, to E flat, to match the pattern.

If you play a minor scale, it does not sound as “complete” as the major scale. Because the last two notes in a minor scale are a whole step apart the end of the minor scale doesn’t sound finished. The whole scale sounds a little disconcerting and mysterious. This is why a lot of dark and mysterious music is written in minor keys.

Okay, you know the pattern for the major scale (and the minor scale), but you’re probably thinking, “I know how to create a scale for crying out loud. What I want to know is why on earth do different chords have these different and complex names!?” Believe me, if you know the information above, you are very close to having a very thorough knowledge of basic music theory.

Chord construction.

What is a C major chord? I’m sure everyone reading this post knows at least one way to finger a C major chord. Go ahead and finger a C major chord on your guitar, and then name all of the notes being played. If you’re fingering a C major in first position the tab would be 032010. These notes are (from the lowest string to the highest string) ECEGCE. Even though there are six different tones in this chord, there are only three different notes: C E and G. Well guess what? That’s all it takes to make a major chord. Three notes. If you look at the C major scale we wrote earlier you’ll see that the notes for the C major chord are the first, third and fifth notes of the scale. BINGO!!! That’s what makes a chord a major chord. It has the first, third and fifth notes of the major scale in it. C E and G.

You’re probably thinking, “that’s pretty easy, but what about a minor chord.” Okay, you’re going to be so surprised at the answer you’re going to smack yourself in the head. Here’s the big difference between a major chord and a minor chord. Are you ready? Do you think you can handle this wildly complex piece of information? Here we go….. Flat the third. That’s it. The paragraph above says that the C major chord consists of the first, third and fifth notes from the C major scale (C, E and G). So, the C is the first (usually called the root), the E is the third and the G is the fifth. To turn a C major chord into a C minor chord you flat the third. So a C minor chord would be C E flat and G. That’s it. Of course there is another way to figure out the notes in a minor chord. You could just write out the minor scale (using the pattern described above for minor scales), and then use the first, third and fifth notes from the minor scale. For example, what are the notes in a C minor scale? Based on the pattern described above they are:

C
D
E flat
F
G
A flat
B flat
C

Now take the first, third and fifth notes from the C minor scale above, and you can see the notes are C E flat and G. The only difference between the major chord and the minor chord is the flatted third!

You now know almost everything you need to know about music theory! Now don’t feel cheated. You know much more than you think. Some of you might have seen some jazz charts with some funky chord names. You’re thinking, “If I know so much about music theory, how come I can’t make heads of tales of a jazz chart?” Well, you CAN understand it. It’s as much a state of mind as anything else. First remember the statement below. It will carry you a long way in music:

There are only two types of chords: major and minor.

I’m pretty sure everyone reading this can remember the two types of chords. These chords correspond to the major and minor scales. A major chord is derived from the major scale and the minor chord is derived from the minor scale. Everything else in a chord name is just window dressing. Let’s take the following progression:

Cmaj7, F#min7flat5, Dmin7 G7.

You already know most everything there is to know about the above chords. Let’s take the first chord: Cmaj7. What kind of chord is this? (Hint: there are only two kinds of chords). Since the name of the chord is C major 7 it’s probably a major chord. Well, what are the notes in a C major chord? We know that the major chord has the first, third and fifth from the major scale in it, so there must be a C, E and G in the chord. But, what does that 7 mean? It means put the seventh note from the C major scale into the chord. What’s the seventh note of a C major scale? Try B. So, a Cmaj7 has the notes C E G B in it.

The second chord is a F#min7flat5. What a mouthful! However, we already know a lot about this chord. First of all, what kind of chord is it? Since the name says F# minor 7 flat five it’s definitely a minor chord. What are the notes in an F# minor chord? Take the first, third and fifth notes from the F# minor scale: F# A# and C#. That’s a great place to begin. The next part of the name says to add the 7. What’s the seventh note of an F# minor scale? Using the patterns described above it is an E# (What the heck is an E#?!?!). Because there is a natural half step between E and F (see above in the major scale discussion), an E# and an F are the same note. So, an F#min7 will have the notes F# A# C# F. Finally the last part of the chord name says flat five (remember the chord we’re analyzing is F#min7flat5). The chord we have described so far already has a fifth in it. It’s C#. The chord name instructs us to flat the five, which means we should reduce the fifth by a half step. Finally, the notes in an F#min7flat5 are F# A# C F. No big deal.

The next chord is a Dmin7. Piece of cake. Take the first, third, fifth and seventh from a D minor scale: D F A C.

The last chord has something we haven’t discussed yet. It just says G7. The chord name says nothing about major or minor. When you see something like this it is called a dominant. So the last chord in our progression is G dominant 7. The dominant in the name is usually dropped, so this chord is called a G7 chord. Is this major or minor? Good question. There are a couple of ways to answer this. One way would say this is a major chord and another might argue that it is minor. To keep from getting too technical and confusing I tend to think of this as a major chord. What are the notes to a G major chord? Take the first, third and fifth notes of the G major scale: G B and D. The seven at the end of the chord indicates that we should add the seventh of the G major scale. This would be an F#. However, there is a special formula for the dominant chord. It takes a flatted seventh. So, for the G7 (also known as the G dominant 7) the notes are G B D F.

There, armed with this knowledge you should be able to figure out most any chord voicing. What the heck is an add 11 chord you ask? Okay, this is also very easy. There are only 7 notes in a scale. Count ‘em in the C major scale below:

C
D
E
F
G
A
B
C

The last C is the eighth note, but it is simply a repeat of the first note. The difference between the two is that the eighth note of the scale is an octave higher than the first note. Using this same logic the ninth note of the scale would be the same note as the second note, but an octave higher. And the eleventh note of the scale would be the same as the fourth note of the scale only an octave higher. So a C add11 chord would be a C major chord with the 11th added: C E G F.

The information presented above usually covers anywhere from thee to seven chapters of a lot of music theory books. Obviously I’ve left out a lot of interesting and technical discussions. What I’ve tried to present is useful knowledge for working out chord voicings. Read and digest the information above and try to apply it to your fretboard. It really won’t make a lot of sense until you can visualize it on the fretboard. The important thing to note is that armed with three pieces of knowledge you can understand some pretty complex musical ideas. The three things to know, understand and learn are:

1. Know how to construct a major scale
2. Know how to construct a minor scale
3. Understand that there are only two types of chords: major and minor. These chord types correspond to their respective scales.

Good luck and happy holidays.

David Moore

[ASN]

David_M,

Please keep posting! You and Mapletrees have given such wonderful information. Keep itup!