Music Theory for Guitar Lessons

The very word theory conjures up images of geometry class, or worse, physics lab. Scary stuff. Scarier, when you put the word music in front. Music is supposed to be fun, carefree, an expression of our feelings. Music is not science. Is it?

Theory Without Tears By David Hodge The very word theory conjures up images of geometry class, or worse, physics lab. Scary stuff. Scarier, when you put the word music in front. Music is supposed to be fun, carefree, an expression of our feelings. Music is not science. Is it?

Multiple Personality Disorder - (or making (many) friends with your fret board) By David Hodge What do you do when someone asks you to play a song you've never played before? If you have heard a song before and you know it, you can play it. Armed with the knowledge given in this lesson and a bit of practice, you can pretty much sit in on most songs, including ones you've never played before, and sound like you know what you are doing.

Scales Within Scales By David Hodge Not everyone is keen on scales (including our humble author). However, they are important and valuable tools. Don't wait too long before figuring out their uses, but don't obsess over them either. Let David Hodge set the pace in Scales Within Scales.

Five To One - (or Home, home again...) By David Hodge How many times have we asked how to find out what key a song is in? Is it really important to know? When we listen to a piece of music we create a "home" for ourselves and that "home" is the key signature of that song. In an effort to simplify what music theorists call tonality, pitches and tonics, David Hodge brings it on home with familiar and easy examples.

You Say You Want a Resolution... By David Hodge In our last column we started discussing tonality and the use of the V to I cadence. This week's column delves a little deeper into musical phrases and introduces two other common types of cadences. If nothing else, it should show you that while theory is a terrific tool, there can be dangers on using it as your primary tool. Sometimes something just sounds right. Hopefully we can use theory to explain why.

The Musical Genome Project By David Hodge It has occurred to me, looking over all your questions about scales and leads and chords and melodies, that now is as a good time as any to answer these as fully as possible. In order to do that I need to take you back to the beginning steps of music theory once again.

The Power of Three By David Hodge Once you have all your notes figured out and are (somewhat) familiar with scales, you’re ready to take the BIG step. Today we’re going to look at how to put together chords. Before we get going too far, you might want to take a little time to reread (or read for the first time) Jimmy Hudson’s 'A Study On Intervals' as well as 'Happy New Ear.'

Building Additions (and Suspensions) By David Hodge Today we'll look at how chords other than our four basic ones (major,minor, augmented and diminished) are created. Melodies and chord progressions move from one point to another and that movement helps us to define matters. Musicians and songwriters should be constantly aware of the purpose of a chord pattern, of the function that a particular chord can serve in a song. "Sounding good" is always nice, but believe it or not there are reasons why certain progressions "sound good."

Sustained Tones: An Animated Discussion By David Hodge This week we take a look at an unusual phenomenon that occurs in many songs by Oasis. The chords seem to remain the same and change at the same time. In fact it is so unusual this week it took two writers to explain. This week's column is co-written by Abel Petneki.

Putting Things Together - Theory/Songwriting Workshop 1 By David Hodge A lead is simply the guitar playing a melody of sorts. Over the next few months we’re going to be examining how melodies and chords work together. I’ve called these columns “workbooks” because not only will we look at specific examples from all kinds of songs, we’ll have exercises to try out original ideas as well.

Home On Your Range - Theory/Songwriting Workshop 2 By David Hodge Whether or not you realize it, you yourself may be one of your biggest obstacles when it comes to songwriting. Think about how you go about writing - especially if you’re one of those “let’s strum around and see what comes up” sort of folks. Chances are you pick up your guitar and the first chord you play will be an E, A, C, D or G. Unless, of course, you happen to be in a mad, sad or bad frame of mind and then you pound out an Em or an Am.

Minor Progress By David Hodge Songs written in minor keys can be sad, mysterious, ominous even. To the listener, they deliver an incredible variety of emotional ranges. And to the fledgling songwriter, as well as the experienced music theorist, songs in minor keys can cause no end of emotional impact as well, usually frustration and bewilderment. But hopefully today we can dispel some of the mysteries and anxieties that surround these wondrous sounding songs.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes - (or, Everything in Modulation) By David Hodge Today I want to introduce you to the subject of modulation. Modulation is a great song writing tool and, more importantly, a key subject to grasp if you want to know more about how music is put together. And, fortunately, there are lots of examples of modulation in recent pop/rock/whatever music as well, which we can use to explore this technique.

A Study On Intervals By Jimmy Hudson Here is a simple look at an invaluable tool, complete with chords and scales. For anyone who has ever asked why do I need theory? Here is the answer. Music is a language and at some point you have to have agreements where all musicians can understand what you are talking about.

Key Changes By Jimmy Hudson In this article Jimmy Hudson discusses how to know what key you are in and how to stay in key.

Gin and Diatonic By Nick Torres Generally discussions regarding the technical frequency value of a note verses the scale name is kept under lock and key for fear of sending musicians off to the loony bin. Find out why.

Auto Magic Harmony - Easy string pairs to take your playing to a new level By Mike LaFountain Harmony and dissonance, tension and release are what make music. Both aspects come alive when you use the simple technique of playing string pairs. Rich harmonies and subtle dissonance are easily found, letting you fill and solo nearly at will. Let's look at the power of string pairs.

Circle Progressions By Rich Scott Rich Scott, webmaster at Moneychords.com (and long time Guitar Noise reader) has graciously given us permission to use this excerpt from his recently published book, Chord Progressions For Songwriters.

Augmented Diminished Dementia By David Hodge Just the words augmented and diminished give us pause. Do we need a special degree or extra study to employ one of these chords? Not at all! Let's examine these chords, how they're formed and the functions they can serve. If you're capable of counting to twelve, you're capable of understanding and using these marvelous chords.

Basic Music Theory By Bruce Fleming Bruce was kind enough to write out this concise article, which spells out some of the basics of chord theory. He was even kinder to include all sorts of handy charts and diagrams that should help out any beginner wanting to tackle this subject..

Hands-on Intervals By Oleg Twerdov First time contributor Oleg gives us a great approach to looking at your guitar in terms of musical intervals. This is a terrific method to use for lead playing as well as sight reading and increasing your ability to take the music that's in your head and bring it out of your guitar.

Untangling Chord Progressions By Tom Serb In this lesson, Tom unravels some of the mysteries of chord progressions. We'll learn about cadences, the natural harmonic series, chord extensions, secondary dominants and much more.

Extended Chords By Tom Serb Getting to the stage of playing advanced chords doesn't really require learning hundreds of new chord shapes - it only demands that you can relate new chords to old ones in a logical way. By the time you've finished reading Tom's latest article, you'll be able to form any chord extension that you want!

Altered States By Tom Serb Tom has a gift of being able to explain complicated material in a very uncomplicated manner. After guiding us through the maze of extended chords in his last article, he returns to explain altered chords and does so in such a simple way that I wish I'd had him explain it to me many, many years ago!

From Math to Music - (A Mathematical Approach to Learning The Fret Board) By Bruce Cyburt One of the more difficult tasks to learning the guitar is mastering the fretboard. Bruce presents us with one method, which employs simple memorization and your ability to quickly add small integers in your head. The first part of this article will present this method, and the second part will provide additional information to reinforce your learning of the fret board.

Guitar Playing By Numbers By Graham Merry Here's Graham's take on using a mathematical approach to learning the fretboard. And while he'll be the first to say that this is not a replacement for theory and it won't teach you the names of notes in scales or chords, but it does offers you a way of using theory without too much thought.

Key Signatures By Paul Andrews First time contributor Paul Andrews gives us a basic guide to key signatures, including how to recognize and (easily) memorize what you need to know about them.

Chord Substitution By Tom Serb At long last, Tom takes the mysteries out of chord substitution, giving you detailed and simple explanations that will make you wonder why you ever worried about it in the first place!

The Number System By Jimmy Crabtree First-time Guitar Noise contributor Jimmy Crabtree details the workings of the Number System (also known to some as Nashville Numbers). This is a good reference to get you acquainted with the basics of the number system, which is used a lot in studio work.

More Lessons »
Sign up for the latest site news and ramblings »

Learn To Play The Guitar in 30 Days
Is your guitar playing stuck in a rut? Fantastic results in 7 days. Guaranteed.
Become a serious guitarist. Complete, step-by-step method shows you how.