anyone have a basic list of what a person might want to know, theory wise, to jam at a basic level? I'm not totaly sure what I need to be asking here. Scales, chords?
Know your basic chords: power chords, major and minor and some suspended and 7ths too. As for scales, minor pentatonic in the most common position (the scale that starts on the 6th string), and the same goes for major and minor scales. You don't really need to know that stuff, but it'll definitely help. Some of the best players out there didn't even bother with theory, they just played for so long that they knew how certain things sounded and what worked and what didn't work.
Steve-0
Just to clarify. I think I know just enough theory to confuse myself. For example, I can understand why the chords C,Dm,Em,F,G7,Am,Bdim go with the Cmajor and the Aminor scale. So the chords should ?harmonize? with the scale tones? Wich chords apply to which notes in the scale, or how do the trends go? Should the melody note hover around or somehow move in some predictable fashion relating to the root of the chord?
