Hello, i've been playing guitar for about 4 years, about 2 years of diligent practice and involvement. but it's all been on my own, i never had a teacher or a book or anything that wasn't just tabs, i'm kind of a broke bum or else i would go out and buy a beginners book on guitar. I'm ready to learn some theory, internet access isn't a problem so i figured it wouldn't be too hard to get started but with all the crazy stuff out there i find it a little overwhelming and i havn't a clue where to even begin, i'm a fair player not necessarily "wowing" but i figure if i put some theory with my bits of skill i may well be on my way to being a good player, so any and all advice will be well recieved and much appreciated.
So you're telling me i can sing AND play guitar at the same time.....? Since when?
Perhaps you could consider this book, it is called "Music Theory for Guitarists" by Tom Serb: http://amzn.com/0972472304
There are many good lessons on theory in the main site, too.
Our own NoteBoat published a Theory book for Guitarists. Judging from the quality of his posts, I'd guess the book is well done.
Bob "Notes" Norton
Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com Add-on Styles for Band-in-a-Box and Microsoft SongSmith
The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<
I'm a designer, I work under seasoned engineers. When one says this works this way, its not good enough for me to know it does, but why does it. I took the same stance with learning guitar. I can read tabs and copy what they do all day but why do they do what they do. How does a major become a minor why is it a blues scale and not a pentitonic scale.
Plus I like a challenge and guitar offers me that. And learning is fun! Sometimes I guess lol
I started with pentitonics and went from there. I found in my learnings that just about every mode comes from there too. Once you see that you can see how the extra notes make it a different mode. But playing four years you probably already use the modes I mentioned but just don't know you are doing it
As you can see, Kingpinjones, you are not getting too many replies to your question.
I wonder why that is? In short, it's too big and too vague.
There are many, many excellent theory articles for beginners here. Unfortunately they have been rearranged recently and there is no longer a Theory link where they are arranged in a logical order from the beginning. So you're on your own a bit.
Start with David Hodge's articles. Here are a few to get you started:
Theory Without Tears
The Musical Genome Project
The Power of Three
Building Additions and Suspensions
To follow that up, go through the articles here:
Tom Serb, AKA Noteboat and author of "Music Theory for Guitarists" also hasnumerous articles here. Many are music theory oriented.
Finally, if you have more specific questions, this is the forum for them and we'll try to help if we can.
--
Helgi Briem
hbriem AT gmail DOT com
Had to start somewhere didn't i? Thank you very much though, i'm glad you could provide me with these materials. If i have more specific questions i'll be glad to post them later on.
So you're telling me i can sing AND play guitar at the same time.....? Since when?
Try out some sites on the web. There are full of information. The difficult thing is to decide where to start. If you want, have a look at my site: http://www.lost-in-guitarland.com/
I'd say start with chord theory. Look at how chords are put together using the major scales. You can branch out many directions from there because chord structure uses different aspects of music giving you a glimpse into stuff like scales, progressions, intervals etc. Just pick a subject to follow with but chord structure is a great place to start.
Just got a good reminder that I need some more study in chord structure my self. Once you learn something, it pays to go over it again to make sure you remember it, or in my case, make sure you didn't get it all wrong.
I just had a mucho mucho quick look in our lessons pages but couldn't immediately see anything about chords - there must be something on this site which talks about chord theory and construction; David?
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
Lots of them but one doesn't always get that from the titles! Sorry!
If you want a step-by-step guide in three parts:
https://www.guitarnoise.com/lessons/the-musical-genome-project/
https://www.guitarnoise.com/lessons/the-power-of-three/
https://www.guitarnoise.com/lessons/building-additions-and-suspensions/
If you want it all in one go:
https://www.guitarnoise.com/lessons/theory-without-tears/
There are others as well, but for the basics, these are a great start.
Hope this helps.
Peace
Hi KingpinJones
I started writing a series of lessons a while ago which were designed to teach theory to guitarists in a way that is relevant to the guitar fretboard and layout.
One of the problems with theory is that it's much easier to see and experience using the piano. Much of theory is about keys which have different numbers of sharps and flats, and it uses lots of note names. On the piano you can see very clearly the sharps and flats - they are black notes. On the guitar, all the notes look the same. It's also easier to learn chord formation using a piano, because you can see very clearly that you are picking every other note in a scale.
So I have written a few lessons which try to teach music theory, especially chord formation and the idea of musical keys, to guitarists in a guitar format. I'll post the first lesson to my blog. It has an mp3 backing track and is quite easy to follow. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post external links here, but if I am then you could find this lesson very useful. Otherwise PM me.
Luke Mosse
