Theory Basics
Music is essentially a language. Understanding the language of music will help you to learn musical concepts and will also allow you to communicate with other musicians. The basics of music theory are not difficult and do not require a lot of time. As little as 20 minutes a week will give you a solid grounding in music theory within 12 months. I suggest you also find a teacher to assist you as this will accelerate your learning and ensure you are not misunderstanding or getting stuck.
To begin please refer to the G4 GUITAR Chords and Reading for an introduction to the basics of music theory and music notation before preceding.
Musical alphabet
There are 7 alphabetic letter names.
A B C D E F and G
Musical note names (Chromatic scale)
There are 12 notes used in music based on the 7 alphabetic letter names.
1) A 2) A#/Bb 3) B 4) C 5) C#/Db 6) D 7) D#/Eb 8) E 9) F 10) F#/Gb 11) G 12) G#/Ab
The 12 notes are know as the chromatic scale.
An easy way to remember the chromatic scale is to simply note that B & E have no sharps.
On the guitar you can work out any note simply by starting on an open note and using the chromatic scale.
Exercise
The open notes on the guitar are E, B, G, D, A, E. Try applying the above chromatic scale to each string to work out where the C note is on each string.
Try matching the notes on your guitar to the notes on a piano (keyboard).
This lesson has been taken from the G4 Guitar Theory book. For your free copy please email g4guitar1@gmail.com
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