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3 key points
One thing needs to be clear from the start: when learning to play guitar or any other
instrument you need to divide your study time between three very distinct, though
interconnected aspects of your project:
1. KNOWING THE INSTRUMENT AND ITS POSSIBILITIES
the fretboard is the same regardless of style, right?
2. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF TECHNIQUE
what's the most efficient way of interacting with the guitar?
3. STYLE SPECIFICS
what style do I want to play, and how does that relate to the first two
points? What about style-specific techniques?
These points are arranged in order of importance: 1 determines 2 and 2 determines 3; yet,
in practice, it's best to work in an integrative way. Otherwise the learning process
becomes either too practice-focused, with little understanding, or too abstract. If you find
the right balance, you will save yourself years, and enjoy yourself while youre at it!!!
The main focus of both Fretboard Essentials and this getting-started guide is point 1: if
you have a solid basic understanding of music theory as it applies to the fretboard, all
the rest will fall neatly into place when it comes time to work on it.
guitar-theory-in-depth.com
6 strategies
1. Know thy enemy
2. Break it down
3. Learn the rules of the game
4. The smart route
5. Its not the notes, its what you can do with them
6. Get out of the forest
guitar-theory-in-depth.com
guitar-theory-in-depth.com
You only have a single rule to learn. UP, or DOWN. Learn the note names, and that's
that!
(Ok, thats not enough to be an Oscar Peterson or an Arthur Rubinstein, but the fact
that the piano is a single axis instrument makes it easy to understand in a visual way).
One string at a time...
If the guitar only had one string, then it would be as easy to play as the piano:
The farther to the right you move, the higher the pitch
The farther to the left you move, the lower the pitch
Again, there is only one simple rule to this game: so far so good...
guitar-theory-in-depth.com
2 axes?!
As you well know, the guitar has 6 strings, not 1. While you could think of the guitar as
6 instruments in one, the possibilities of all 6 combined are way more interesting!!!
This means that you can go up, and you can go down on 2 different axes.
Remember plotting charts in math class? X and Y axes? Same thing...
guitar-theory-in-depth.com
The 10 Steps
1. Stop feeling confused about it: just do it!
2. Divide a string in half to get the octave
3. Only 12 tones
4. The 12 tones are a cycle
5. Intervals between strings
6. Major scales
7. Say the names of the notes you play
8. Sing everything you play
9. Visualize everything in your minds eye
10. Integrate music theory and ear training to your study of the fretboard
guitar-theory-in-depth.com
guitar-theory-in-depth.com
If you go up a major or a minor scale and count 8 notches, you get an octave. (More
on major and minor scales in Step 6).
Back to our string. If you halve the vibrating portion of a string, without changing its
tension or anything else, the note you get when you pluck it or bow it is an octave above
the note you get when you pluck the open string.
Guitars are handy in that they have frets: if you count up to fret 12 of any string, that
distance is exactly half the string. If this is not the case with your guitar, then feel free
to use it as firewood or as a projectile ;-)
Wait! Didnt I just say 8, not 12?! The reason for this is that the frets of a guitar are not
divided into white and black, like the keys of a piano.
If you count up using only the white keys C major, you need 8 steps to get to the
octave. If you count up using white and black keys, however, you need 12 steps before
you get to the octave. Just like a guitar!
The scale you get when you play 12 contiguous frets on a guitar, or the white and black
keys of a piano is called a chromatic scale (more on chromatic scales in Step 3).
Play and sing an open string, and then that same
string with your finger on fret 12.
Try to get a feel for what an octave is. If you cant
do it with that string, attempt the exercise with an
other one.
guitar-theory-in-depth.com
3. Only 12 tones
The number of possible notes is infinite. The number of tones, however, on a guitar or a
piano is limited to 12. Yes, you read right: there are only 12 different tones to choose
from when making music on a guitar or a piano.
If you find that limiting, switch to trombone, voice or violin...
These 12 tones all occur within the space of an octave:
C C/D
D/E
10
11
12
If you play all 12 tones in order, you get what is called a chromatic scale. On a guitar,
the 12 tones of a chromatic scale are all right next to each other in any same-string
succession of 12 frets.
Take the open string you found most
comfortable in the exercise in Step 2.
Now play and sing the 12 tones going up,
fret by fret.
guitar-theory-in-depth.com
: a major third
Play and sing the notes of each pair of contiguous open strings, one at a time.
Do it going upward and also going downward, across strings, on axis 2.
If you find it hard to sing in tune at the beginning, dont despair... this comes
with time. The reason to sing, as you will find out in Step 8 is to engage
more of your senses, more deeply, in your explorations of the guitar.
Do everything you can to make this experience as intense and meaningful to
you as possible. Avoid studying guitar while checking Facebook, or while
watching TV, or whatever. It just cant be done, not with the degree of
concentration needed to take your playing where you want it to go.
If you find it hard to dedicate much time to your explorations of the guitar,
then its far better to do it for 5 minutes, in a focused way, than to do it for
hours, with something else in your head at the same time...
So far you have understood basic note layout both along each of the
strings, and across the fretboard: the 2 axes of note distribution...
guitar-theory-in-depth.com
6. Major scales
The scale you learned in Step 2, the chromatic scale, you practiced for one simple reason:
to understand note layout along axis 1. Its now time to take this one step further and
look at major scales...
Every single scale-type has a set distribution of tones within it. A scale is nothing but a
selection of certain tones within the octave. Each pair of neighboring tones is divided by
a specific interval. This interval pattern repeats at each octave, no matter how high or
low you go.
The most common scale-types contain either 5 or 7 tones. For now, we will focus on a
the most common of the 7-tone scales: the major scale.
Each neighboring pair of notes of the major scale is divided by either a half-tone or a
whole-tone. But lets not get too deep into the fancy names of things for now:
Lets just say that each neighboring pair of notes of the major scale are either right next
to each other, as in the first picture above, or have an empty fret between them, as in the
second picture.
Lets call the first interval 1 and the second 2. The interval pattern for the full major
scale, closing an octave above the starting note, is:
2-2-1-2-2-2-1
This means that if you start your scale on any open string of your choosing, these are the
frets you will have to use to play a major scale:
0 2 4 5 7 9 11 12
guitar-theory-in-depth.com
Play and sing a major scale starting on each of the open strings.
Dont worry too much about technique or smoothness in the
beginning. Just keep it simple and focus on the scale itself.
Play and sing going up, and going down as well... do so until you
can do it fluidly, and the sound of the major scale is ingrained into
your mind, along with its. interval pattern.
This will be the basis for most, if not all, of the music theory that
you will layer on top of your new-found knowledge of guitar
fretboard basics...
C D
Upward:
D E F F G G A A B
Do DI Re RI Mi Fa FI Sol SI La LI Ti
Likewise, saying a-flat wont do, so we say the names of flattened notes thusly:
C B A
Downward:
A G G F
F E D
Do DE TE La LE Sol SE Fa FE ME Re RA
Apply this principle to all the exercises youve done so far. In the case of chromatic
scales, use the sharp names when going upward, and the flat names when coming
back down.When singing major scales, you will need to count to figure out the names of
the notes for each string. E major, for instance, would be:
E
G A
D E
Mi Fi Si La Ti Di Ri Mi
In the case of major scales, you use the same names going up and coming down. Work
out the syllables for the major scales on the remaining open strings and practice them!
It is important not only to get it in terms of sound, but also to have a name for
every element of music that you use. Thats the importance of this step...
guitar-theory-in-depth.com
guitar-theory-in-depth.com
guitar-theory-in-depth.com
guitar-theory-in-depth.com