Best Place On-Line to learn Music Theory for Guitar?

[GuitarFundi]

I do not need to learn music theory to be a professor, but I do want to know enough to be competent enough to atleast understand what people are talking about musically. For example I do not understand what a "key" is and when I put my capo on the 2nd fret are all songs in "A" or just some songs... don't hate me because I'm musically stupid ;-(

I am lost trying to figure this out as it applies to guitar... or is music theory just all universal and I have to suck it up and go to school and learn sheet music? :-(

[DownUpDave]

Justin Guitar website has a music theory section. The begining part or primer is free then their is a cost. This info is aimed toward guitar so it is very useful. Jump on You Tube and do a search, lots of useful stuff out there. Good for you for asking the question taking the plunge

[Tannin]

Music THeory for Guitar: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRw...Qf6tQpnYDcSC5A

Tommaso is a brilliant teacher. Can't recommend him highly enough.

[pickinray]

This video explains the basics in a clear and simple manner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxSKfnk0D18

I think it's a good introduction. Every guitarist should know some basic music theory to understand how chords and scales work - good on you for taking the initiative to learn.

[The Bard Rocks]

Music theory will normally apply to all instruments and vocals; it's the theory, an understanding of why things are done the way they are. It will give you the basis from which you can build and create music ....that sounds like music.

Many experienced players say they have never learned music theory. What really is the case is that they have not formally learned it but, believe me, they have certainly learned some of it or they wouldn't be playing at the level they are.

[Andyrondack]

Originally Posted by The Bard Rocks

Music theory will normally apply to all instruments and vocals; it's the theory, an understanding of why things are done the way they are. It will give you the basis from which you can build and create music ....that sounds like music.

Many experienced players say they have never learned music theory. What really is the case is that they have not formally learned it but, believe me, they have certainly learned some of it or they wouldn't be playing at the level they are.

Absolutely, but I also think some experienced musicians try to actively create a myth that their ability originates from a kind of mystical infussion of the spirit of the muses, a form of anti- intellectualism really.

[charles Tauber]

The Basis of Music: no nonsense, just the facts.


https://www.amazon.com/Basis-Music-F...8844807&sr=8-1

[cliff_the_stiff]

I find that learning to play bass has helped me with theory immensely.
studybass.com

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by GuitarFundi

I do not need to learn music theory to be a professor, but I do want to know enough to be competent enough to <at least> understand what people are talking about musically.

Hi GF…

My degree was in Music ed and Music Theory.

There is really no such thing as Guitar music theory, or Piano theory etc. There is theory as it is applied by instrumentalists.

I usually recommend people who want basic theory take a one or two semester course in theory on piano at a junior college or local music school.

Scales, time signatures, tempo, dynamics, keys, transposition, chord construction, chord voicing, melody, harmony are ALL important topics musicians are well served by knowing about. They are also FOUNDATIONAL music theory concepts.

I started playing on keys at age 8, added brass instruments in Jr High (my major instrument in college), voice lessons, guitar and arranging over the next 15 years.

I was already playing by ear, arranging, and harmonizing by the time I studied formal theory in college. In addition to teaching me 'new' things, it brought me language and understanding of what I was attempting to do. Wish I'd had it earlier…

I taught guitar for 4 decades, and even my basic students could construct a simple major and minor scale on a single string, harmonize it in thirds, and play some simple etudes.

And they learned how to play simple 3 string chord inversions early on. They didn't know they were learning theory…but they caught on to the fun of putting direction to their music experimentation.

Music notation is a language. It has an alphabet (notes), words (chords), sentences (phrases), and paragraphs (verse, chorus, bridge etc).

I know formal notation, Nashville numbering, Figured Bass, Roman Numerals, Solfege, and how to play by ear. Not everybody needs to know this much (my opinion).

And most people who play with me don't need to know how much I know. I just need to know which language they speak, and how to apply it, so we get up and are playing more quickly.

Hope this adds to the discussion…

[Ceabeceabe]

I find this site helpful. The content index is an easy way to dive into a specific subject you want to know more about.

https://musictheory.pugetsound.edu/m...sicTheory.html


If you like the Beatles, there is also a book out there called Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. It analyses various Beatles songs and applies music theory to them.

[captain_jack]

I have't gone through it myself but somebody on another forum posted a ton of material:

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/in...x-toc.1371119/

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Ceabeceabe

I find this site helpful. The content index is an easy way to dive into a specific subject you want to know more about.

https://musictheory.pugetsound.edu/m...sicTheory.html


If you like the Beatles, there is also a book out there called Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. It analyses various Beatles songs and applies music theory to them.

Hi C
Thanks for the link…good outline of topics involved in music theory.

[nightchef]

I'll just say that you absolutely do not need to learn music theory on a keyboard just because that's how most music students do it. We had a piano in my house as a kid, but I never did more than plink around on it. But when I got a guitar at about age 9 or 10, my curiosity exploded. I asked my dad (who was a professional trumpet player and arranger) to explain chord construction to me, and he went through the basics of diatonic harmony, common chord types, and how to build them in every key. I spent hours in my room working out possible chord voicings. I had learned some basic chords from Mel Bay books, and I used what my dad taught me to extend that vocabulary.

The most important part of my musical education, though, was the time I spent learning songs' chord structures by ear. I think in some ways the worst thing about being a learning musician in the 21st century is how easy it is to find chords and tabs (often incorrect ones) for any song. When I was a kid that information was scarce and never free -- unless you wanted to spend your allowance money on sheet music, you had to figure it out for yourself by trial and error. This is a great ear-training exercise.

[Tannin]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

There is really no such thing as Guitar music theory, or Piano theory etc.

Sure. But it makes much more sense to learn your theory on an instrument you are familiar with and use every day. Expecting people to learn an unfamiliar new instrument (typically piano) at the same time as they are learning music theory is not good teaching practice.

That said, I derive considerable benefit from watching and reading things written for piano players. But (a) I learned my basic theory on piano when I was learning piano 50 years ago. (I hated piano lessons: the theory weas the only part I liked.) And (b) these days I'm up to speed on a pretty fair theoretical level, so I'm able to translate piano-oriented lessons into terms that are useful and meaningful to me as a guitarist. But if I was at a lower level, and especially if I hadn't got that long-gone but never-quite-forgotten piano background, I'd learn much more readily when the examples are coming from my own instrument rather than a foreign one.

[Andyrondack]

Originally Posted by Tannin

Sure. But it makes much more sense to learn your theory on an instrument you are familiar with and use every day. Expecting people to learn an unfamiliar new instrument (typically piano) at the same time as they are learning music theory is not good teaching

No not true, anyone with no prior experience can play the piano, you only need to put a finger on a key and push, to understand theory you don't need any other skill, it's all done with the brain.
Access to a keyboard is usefull because understanding a large part of how music works requires understanding intervals and the intervals in the key of C, once someone points it out become imediately obvious in a visual way on a keyboard, you can see them and how they combine to create the chords we use.. You can stare at a guitar fretboard all day but you'll never see with your own eyes that a scale is a repeating pattern of major and minor intervals or that 2 3rds make a 5th which is the basis of harmony.
Once you can see that or it's shown to you don't actually have to try and play the piano if you don't want to, you take that understanding and apply it to any instrument.