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Guitar/Learning Songs
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Now that you've got a few chords under your belt, you're ready to start learning some songs.
Great! There are several ways to learn songs, and some are more accessible than others.
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1 General Tips

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2 Methods of Learning
2.1 Sheet Music

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2.2 Online Tab

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2.3 By Ear

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2.4 Other Guitarists

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2.5 Concert Videos

3 Chord Progressions
3.1 Chord Theory
3.2 Common Progressions

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General Tips

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There are two basic forms that appear in thousands of songs. They are the twelve bar blues and
the thirty-two bar ballad. Both forms are used extensively in all genres. The blues and rock 'n 'roll
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What links here

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genres both use the twelve-bar blues form and many songs by Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran and

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Buddy Holly are twelve bar blues and therefore very easy to learn. If you are trying to learn a jazz

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standard then you will find that many of them are of the thirty-two bar form. Practicing and

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understanding these two basic forms is essential for the guitarist who wishes to learn songs.

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Practice the song slowly (especially if it's a fast song) until you can play it flawlessly. Then, when
you are confident with the notes you are supposed to play, increase the speed until you can play
along with the song.
Using a drum-machine or metronome when practicing is recommended. An alternative method for
improving timing is to play along with your favorite artists.

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Methods of Learning

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Sheet Music [edit]

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The best way is to find sheet music for the song you are trying to learn, like a tab book, available

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from any guitar shop. Tab books are good, because they are almost always accurate, and they not

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only show the notes you're supposed to play, but they give good sense of how to play the notes.
Generally they include both the rhythm and lead part, even written on the same page if they are
played at the same time.
Tab books are expensive and there's a learning curve associated with fluent tab reading,
especially if you have no prior knowledge of music notation. Understanding music theory, even just
enough to properly (and easily) read a tab book is a challenge but not insurmountable. Being able
to read music, whether it's tab or notation, will improve your playing.

Online Tab [edit]

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A much quicker, cheaper and often faster way to learn is to search for an online tab of the song
you're looking for. Simply type "Artist Name Song Name tab" into your favorite search engine, and
"voila!", you have dozens to choose from. The online tab community is thriving, and there are
many popular sites where you can find tabs for most popular songs. Some sites even feature a
MIDI of the song, to make learning even easier.
There are several downsides to online tab, some of which are outlined in the Tablature section.
The biggest problem is lack of accuracy. Always remember that online tabs are not made by
professionals like tab books, and that somewhere down the line someone was sitting at home with
a CD and figured it out by trial and error. Thus, the more complicated the song, the less likely the
tab you are reading is 100% accurate. But since most people don't play a song exactly as it
sounds on the album (even the recording artists!), this isn't such a big deal.
Another down side is that there is a huge amount of stealing in the community, and if you are
looking for an obscure tab, you might only find one actual tab, with copies of it on every site you
visit. Some sites allow for multiple versions, and some use voting or comments to give you a sense
of how accurate the tab is. However, don't let voting alone determine which tab you read, because
if the people who vote don't know how to play the song either, then they might vote a terrible tab
really high. In general, you should read two or three tabs for a song, and then from that determine
how you intend to play the song. Comments on a song can contain slight revisions or alternate
fingerings for chords, so it is good to check those out.

By Ear [edit]
Songs can also be learned "by ear", with no sheet music. Essentially you just listen to the song
and try to figure it out, with nothing for reference. Knowledge of music theory is particularly helpful
for this method. It probably sounds a lot harder to learn this way than it is, but it is a really good
way to practice whatever music knowledge you have. And it is especially rewarding being able to
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figure out a famous musicians piece and saying "I could have made that up!"
First, you should always try and figure out the key (or scale) the song is in. Knowing the key
essentially tells you two important things; what the root notes are of the chords they are playing,
and the scale that is used for soloing. When you know the scale, you can also probably figure out
which scale degree is supposed to be major or minor.
To figure out the key, try playing random notes on the fretboard, and when one "works", play a
major or minor pentatonic scale beginning with that note. Once you have figure out a few more
notes, you will probably have a good idea of what scale is being used. If that doesn't work, try
humming the chords being used, and then match those tones on the guitar. Be careful you don't
accidentally start humming the lead vocals, because although that will help determine the key, the
chords are likely different.
Once you know what key the song is in, the rest generally follows pretty quickly. Some of the tricky
bits can be one-note riffs, arpeggios, of specific voicing of the chords they are using.
If have no experience of keys and their relationship to writing songs, then figuring out songs by ear
is more difficult. Essentially you need to just find the same notes or chords and write them down or
remember them. Generally this involves a lot of trial and error, but working this way provides
excellent ear training.

Other Guitarists [edit]

This is perhaps the best way to learn. Playing with another guitarist gives you the opportunity to
ask questions about chords and rhythms, and it gives you a chance to see and hear what the song
is supposed to be like when it's performed live. However, the down side is that often a guitarist
learns to play a song "their way", and they don't care about how it's "really" supposed to be
played. Thus, you might not be learning the song exactly, but rather a slightly different version.
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Concert Videos [edit]

Another place to learn is by watching concert videos, especially on DVDs where they allow you to
pick camera angles. Often they will have a camera never breaks away from lead guitarist. By
following along, you can learn exactly how a particular guitarist plays a particular song live.
The downside of this is that not every artist (especially new ones) has a concert DVD. Also, the
guitarist may be playing the song differently live than on the album, so depending on how accurate
you intend to be with your learning and playing, watching a video may not be the best way.

Chord Progressions

[edit]

Songs are created using chords. Chords are derived from scales. The chords that are derived
from one diatonic scale never change. If you learn the seven chords in the key of C major, then
when you find a song in that key, you can quickly work out the chord progressions that make up
the song.
Chords in C major

C major

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D minor

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E minor

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F major

G major

A minor

B half diminished
7th

Note that the chords in the key of C major consists of 3 major chords, 3 minor chords and 1
diminished chord. This holds true for all major keys.

Chord Theory [edit]

Songs in the key of C major will start with a C major chord and end with a C major chord. The tonic
chord of C major is the chord that defines the key ( the name tonic is derived from the word tonal).
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If you think of music as a journey then the tonic chord is the starting point and the return point.
The notes in the scale of C major are named:
I is the Tonic
II is the Supertonic
III is the Mediant
IV is the Subdominant
V is the Dominant
VI is the Relative Minor
VII is the Leading Note
VIII is the Octave
Tonic - is the first note of the scale and it is this note that determines the tonality or key, hence the
name Tonic.
Supertonic the word super comes from the Ancient Latin verb superare which means to be
above. The second note of any scale is always above the tonic.
Mediant the mediant refers to the fact that this note lies halfway between the tonic and the
dominant.
Subdominant the word sub means below. This note is below the dominant.
Dominant this note has this name because with the tonic it sets the tonality or key. The tonic and
dominant notes, more than any of the others, determines the tonality of a piece of music. The fifth
note of the scale is therefore a dominant factor.
Relative Minor so called because this is the tonic note of the corresponding natural minor scale.
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Every major scale has a corresponding natural minor scale that contains exactly the same notes.
So the relative minor of the C major scale is A natural minor. It is also called the submediant
because is lies three notes below the octave as the mediant lies three notes above the tonic.
Leading-note whenever you play a scale and arrive at this note, you will find that it naturally
wants to move up to the octave note. People have a psychological expectation of music. The most
important need is for the musical journey to have a start and end. If you were to play the C major
scale and stopped at the leading-note, you would always have the sense that the scale is
incomplete.
Octave the same note as the tonic but an octave higher in sound and the end of the musical
journey that a scale takes us on.
All the chords in C major take the same names given to the degrees of the scale. You can refer to
the dominant note or the dominant chord.

Common Progressions [edit]

The tonic, subdominant and dominant are called the tonal chords. The supertonic, mediant and
relative minor are called the modal chords. The tonal chords define tonality (key) and the modal
chords suggest modality. If you play only the modal chords Am and Em from the key of C major the
listener will eventually interpret the music to be in the key of A minor (aeolian mode). It must be
noted that Am and Em has to be stated over a lengthy period of time. Analyzing chord
progressions starts with the tonal chords:
Step One: Try the progression I-V (Tonic to Dominant)
Step Two: Try the progression I-IV (Tonic to Subdominant)
Step Three: Try the progression I-VI or I-III (Tonic to Relative Minor) or (Tonic to Mediant)
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Step Four: Try the progression I-II (Tonic to Supertonic)

If you know the song starts with a C major chord and none of the above works then the song may
contain chromatic chords. It is common practice to change the modal chords which are minor into
their major counterparts. So D minor becomes D major and E minor becomes E major. The
chromatic supertonic and the chromatic mediant are a common compositional device. Even though
you have added chromatic chords the listener will still interpret the key as C major.
Try playing this progression: C - E major - Am - G

C major

E major

A minor

G major
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In the above chord progression you have played a chord that doesn't belong to the key of C major.
The tonality of the piece is preserved by the following chords which are diatonic to the key.
Guitar
Category: Guitar

This page w as last modified on 20 September 2014, at 21:06.

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