I now know i know nothing!!!!!!...

Well actually, you're there.

This site has the best theory lessons available.

I recommend going through David Hodge's articles in the Theory Section.

You might start with these:

Theory Without Tears.

Five to One

The Power of Three

Basic Music Theory by Bruce Fleming might also be useful and I have learned a lot from Ricci Adams' MusicTheory.Net

I hope this helps. Here's a couple of tables that a lot of people have found useful to start them off.

Here are the 12 notes and the major scales based on them:


Key Minor Signature 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
C major A minor C D E F G A B
G major E minor # G A B C D E F#
D major B minor ## D E F# G A B C#
A major F# minor ### A B C# D E F# G#
E major C# minor #### E F# G# A B C# D#
B major G# minor ##### B C# D# E F# G# A#
F# major D# minor ###### F# G# A# B C# D# E#
F major D minor b F G A Bb C D E
Bb major G minor bb Bb C D Eb F G A
Eb major C minor bbb Eb F G Ab Bb C D
Ab major F minor bbbb Ab Bb C Db Eb F G
Db major Bb minor bbbbb Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C
Gb major Eb minor bbbbbb Gb Ab Bb Cb Db Eb F

And here is how you build chords from the notes of the scale (harmonising the major scale):
Degrees of notes C major scale notes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 C D E F G A B C Chord no. Chord name.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 3 5 C E G I C major
2 4 6 D F A ii D minor
3 5 7 E G B iii E minor
4 6 8 F A C IV F major
5 7 9 G B D V G major
6 8 10 A C E vi A minor
7 9 11 B D F vii° B diminished


And here is the formula for some common (and less common) chord types (note that 9=2, 11=4, 13=6):
Chord Notes
major 1 3 5
6 1 3 5 6
7 1 3 5 b7
maj7 1 3 5 7
9 1 3 5 b7 9
maj9 1 3 5 7 9
11 1 3 5 b7 11
add11 1 3 5 11
13 1 3 5 b7 13
add9 1 3 5 9
sus2 1 2 5
sus4 1 4 5
5 1 5
minor 1 b3 5
min7 1 b3 5 b7
min9 1 b3 5 b7 9
dim 1 b3 b5
dim7 1 b3 b5 bb7 (6)
min7b5 1 b3 b5 b7
aug 1 3 #5
6/9 1 3 5 6 9


yeah, hbriem's pretty much got it! BTW I feelt hat tabs are a form of "Cheating" so its really degrades your ability to play, although there is a need for thm, say you do have enough time to write the music down on sheetmusic or something. but tabs should not be a primary form of music for anyone. I used to use them a lot, now I love sheetmusic! i guess it gives you a form of feeling like you accomplished something accomplished

bstguitarist... if tabs can make you play easier then it is better than sheetmusic..

if i wrote on a huge piece of paper the actual notes like "B F# D E F# C# E B", whats wrong with that..

as long as you can play what you read better, its easier..

people (im not saying you) like to thing theyre better musicians because they can read sheet music, it isnt true, looking back on how music has been read in the past, and looking at tabs now, its easier, its not cheating

say some old style housewife did the cleaning by hand, scrubbing it and hanging it out, it cleans clothes, does that mean someone who uses a washing machine is cheating?? NO

it requires more talent to play the guitar sight reading from sheet music, but the guitar is about what you play, not how you read music its about the sound and the notes, if someone shouts out the notes to a solo and you play it, that person is no less than someone who played it from reading from precise instructions in arabic.

I wouldn't call tabs cheating, although I do consider them a serious pain (what, I have to know the song already to make sense of the written version? there's something wrong with that).
say you do have enough time to write the music down on sheetmusic or something
I don't think it takes longer to score something that to tab it. Of course, that depends on how sloppily you write.

IMHO - Tab is an excellent way of increasing your repertoire very quickly...so long as you know the piece you're working on.

Tab doesn't have any timing marks, so if you're working on something you don't know and have never tried to play before, then sheet music is the best bet.

Sheet music with the Tab printed under the score is the best of both worlds - but there's not enough of it around

Best,

A :-)

I've found tab to be very useful for my humble purpose.