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Musical Theory and Scales for the Fun Loving Amateur Guitarist If you’re like me, the words “music theory” make you feel a little queasy and take you back to elementary school and drawings of the G clef on the chalkboard. If you want to be a professional composer, or a member of an orchestra, you should probably know all that stuff. If you just want play music for fun by yourself or with friends you don’t need to know how to read music and everything about theory. However, I’ve learned a few smidgens of theory that have a practical application to the recreational musician, and these can make your playing more enjoyable for you and for those that play with and listen to you. The major scale used in this lesson is the most helpful for understanding the theory. The pentatonic scales used later are easier to play and apply. If you need a theory break, move ahead to the pentatonic scales for fun. This lesson is designed for the advanced beginner or intermediate guitarist. If you are interested in improving your playing by learning a little more about how music works, feel free to read on. Please bookmark this page now, as you will want to come back for the resources listed here. Contact me at Trautman@aol.com with your questions or to receive the appendix of scales. Here's an interactive tool to generate any scale www.all-guitar-chords.com/guitar_scales.php and here's another look at some basic scales www.cyberfret.com/scales/basic/page2.php Most of all, remember to have fun playing!
Want to just have fun now? Try this site www.guitarnoise.com. Be sure to come back for the theory. Learning to identify the 7 notes in a major scale. A) There are several practical uses for this information. When fellow musicians say to you, for example “It’s a 2-5-1 progression” or “hold the 6 for an extra beat” you won’t have that dumbfounded look in your eyes and you will understand what they are telling you. B) You can use these 7 notes to create melody lines when playing lead. C) Each of these notes has a corresponding chord. By identifying these notes, you know which chords will “work” harmonically in any particular key. This is great information when you want to make up a song or improvise. D) Chords are formed from notes in the scale. You probably know some chords now by their shape. Each chord consists of a “formula” of notes. If you know the notes in the major scale and some chord formulas you can then build chords and alter chords all over the fretboard. Ok, now we have some good reasons to learn the major scale. To learn the major scale, we must first look at the 12 notes in the full octave scale of Western music, as the other scales are derived from the full scale. Those notes are named: C-C#-D-D#-E-F-F#-G-G#-A-A#-B-C-C#-D The letters don’t really mean anything, but they are names for particular notes. Learn this sequence forward and backwards. You can say it to yourself while driving in your car. I started on C, but you can start anywhere and the sequence does not change. The 13th note in the sequence is the same as the first note and the pattern repeats. Notice there is a sharp between each note except E-F and B-C. You need to memorize the E-F and B-C exception. Later, you’ll need to know this. You find the 7 notes in any major scale by counting the spaces in between the notes. A “Whole Step” (W) means to count two spaces on the 12 note scale, a “Half Step” (H) means to count one space on the 12 note scale. C-C#-D-D#-E-F-F#-G-G#-A-A#-B-C -C#-D 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 W W H W W W H Counting these spaces beginning with the note C, gives us the C major scale: C D E F G A B C 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 People often learn the C major scale first because it has no sharps or flats, and has avoided the B-C, E-F exception. Since you don’t always want to play in the key of C, let’s apply the concept W-W-H-W-W-W-H to another key. Memorize this concept by saying to yourself Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Half. Stick with me, I am going somewhere with this. Here"s a good place to see and practice this scale: Scales are most fun when you jam with other instruments! Try this now: http://www.jamcenter.com/jammachinec.html
What are the 7 notes in the key of E, also known as the E Major scale? Try to work it out on your own first. (Hint: write out the 12 note scale beginning with E. Now apply WWHWWWH concept.) Answers: D-G-C is 2-5-1 in the key of C E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D#-E these are the notes in the E major scale. It usually takes some practice to figure out the correct notes. I suggest you name the 7 major scale notes for each of the following keys, and number the notes in each scale 1-7: A A# B C D D# E F F# G G# Great. What am I supposed to do with all these scales? Hang in there; it gets fun soon. Need more instruction on this concept? Try http://www.theorylessons.com/ionian.html One thing you can now do in addition to being able to better communicate with fellow musicians is to play a melody line in the proper key. Sometimes, a good way to start is by working on only one string up and down the neck. Try this out on your low E string on your guitar. You can pick out the notes E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D#-E on this string by the using the concept W-W-H-W-W-W-H. Starting with the open string E, go up a whole step to F#, another whole step to G#, a half step to A, a whole step to B a whole step to C# a whole step to D# and a half step to E at the double dots on your fretboard. These dots mean you have covered 12 frets. These notes can be played in any sequence you like. Now pick the notes out by traveling backwards from the 12th fret double dots all the way back to the open E string. These notes sound nice against a major chord progression in E, such as a 2-5-1. See if a friend will play the progression F#m-B-E or you can record it and play against your chords. For a jazz sound, make the chords F#m7-B7-Emaj7. A Major Scale. Now move to the 4th string and pick out your A major scale notes on your A string using the WWHWWWH concept. A – B – C# - D – E – F# - G# - A. Now pick out the A major notes on your 6th string, by starting on the 5th fret A note. Remember, you can go either direction up and down the fretboard to find your notes. Have some fun! D Major Scale. Find the notes in D major on the 4th string (Open D). Find those same notes on the 5th string, starting on the 5th fret. Find the D major scale on the 6th string. Ok, you, get the idea. These notes exist on all the strings and you can find them using the concepts we’ve discussed. So far, we have played the notes in a linear fashion on one string in order to simplify learning the theory. In practical use, people typically play scales in sequential boxes across the matrix of the fretboard. See the appendix for the Major Scale Diagram – 2 Octaves. For describing the fingering of scales, let’s designate the fingers on your left hand as follows 1=index, 2=middle, 3=ring finger 4=pinky. It is best to designate one finger per fret and use all 4 fingers to avoid confusion. In the upcoming example, finger 1 plays all notes on the 4th fret, finger 2 all notes on 5th fret, finger 3 all notes on 6th fret and finger 4 plays the 7th fret. Your hand position does not move in this one. Your pinky strength and coordination will improve with practice. To learn the Major Scale in the appendix, begin with finger 2 on the 6th string 5th fret. This is “A” your root note, so this is A Major. Next use finger 4 on 6th string at 7th fret, finger 1 on 5th string 4th fret, finger 2 5th string 5th fret, finger 4 on 5th string 7th fret, etc. Time for something fun! Turning Scales into Songs. Each of the notes in the major scale can be turned into a chord, and these chords will all work together harmonically. This is very useful for making up songs. Think of these chord/scale relationships as the rules of music. Later, you can break and bend these rules and that is part of the fun of creating interesting music. It’s more fun to break and bend the rules when you know what they are: C D E F G A B C 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 M m m M M m dim M Each number in the scale has a corresponding Major (M) or minor (m) chord. In the key of C illustrated above, the chords are: C 1 Dm 2 Em 3 F 4 G 5 Am 6 Bdim 7 Personally, I find very little practical application for the diminished chord, number 7. It’s a cool chord, and feel free to learn it sometime, but you can get pretty far with chords 1 through 6. Play around with these chords and make a song. You probably already know some 1-4-5 progressions. There are hundreds of songs written this way. Try ascending and/or descending through the entire scale using these chords. You can use any chord forms you like, but if you know some moveable bar chords, they will give you a nice sound and a logical progression. Feel free to leave some chords out. Maybe use a few for the main part of the song and bring in the minors for a bridge. 1 is the strongest chord, so try not to overuse it. Maybe don’t play the 1 at first so the progression is less predictable. 5 ‘s are the next strongest chord. They want to pull your ear back to the 1, so be careful where you use it. The 5 is often a dominant 7, which in this example is G7. Go back to your earlier exercise with the notes in the E major scale and pick out the chords on the 6th string in the key of E. If you are using an “E form” barre chord you can just run up the neck using the notes in the E major scale as your root notes for the chords: E F#m G#m A B C#m Find the 1 through 6 chords for the other keys. If you understand the system, you don’t have to memorize the chords. A jazzy note: The corresponding chords we discussed are the ones commonly used. The full forms presented in this section are not used as often in some styles of music, but they are nice to insert into songs for effect. In jazz, these full forms and derivations of them are primarily used. C D E F G A B C 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 M m m M M m dim M Each number in the scale has a corresponding Major (M) or minor (m) chord. In the key of C illustrated above, the chords are: C Cmaj7 1 maj7 Dm Dmin7 2 minor7 Em Em7 3 minor7 F Fmaj7 4 major 7 G G7 5 dominant 7 Am Am7 6 minor 7 Bdim You can now find the chords to any major scale. Fun, easy, useful scales Minor Pentatonic and Major Pentatonic (two for one) Pentatonic scales have lots of fun and useful applications in rock, blues, folk, country, funk and bluegrass genres. Pentatonic means it is a 5 note scale, whereas the major scale had 7 notes. You can play these scales and have fun with them without knowing the formula of how they are made, so I am saving that explanation for after we learn how to have fun. Let’s start with Minor Pentatonic scales in the key of A, which is found in the appendix or online http://www.theorylessons.com/pentpos.html http://www.jamcenter.com/minorpentatonic.html All the scales exist in a series of 5 overlapping patterns. The end of one scale is the beginning of the next. Look at minor Pentatonic scale pattern 1 and pattern 2 and examine the notes on the 5th fret. They are the same. Look at patterns 2 and 3 and see the notes being played on the 7th and 8th frets. They are identical. When most people learn scales they learn them as boxes, or as pattern 1, or pattern 2, etc. In time, you can learn to visualize these boxes as one entity, and you can slide from one pattern into another. The patterns and their connections to one another don’t change. If you are playing in a different key than A, you will just begin the pattern in another place on the fretboard. At first, you will want to begin your scales on the root note, which is A in this example. When you are more comfortable, you can start anywhere in the pattern. Rock music is often characterized by a major sounding chord progression, such as A-D-E, with this minor pentatonic scale played against it. Blues music is often characterized by the use of dominant 7th chords such as A7- D7-E7. The same pentatonic scale can be used, often with a triplet feel. To begin learning scales and lead I recommend some repetitive exercises followed by some fun applications. Start by learning pattern #2, assigning one finger per fret and playing through the scale on all six strings, then play back up to the start using alternate picking the whole time. Do this exercise 5 times each time you pick up your guitar as a warmup. You will be learning this scale and increasing your single note coordination. Now have fun with this scale by playing this scale against a major chord progression and/or a dominant 7 progression. Ask a friend to play the chords, or record the rhythm yourself. You can get free backing tracks online at http://www.guitarbackingtrack.com/
Practicing scales and playing lead are not the same thing. When playing lead, use your ear and create phrases that sound interesting and enhance the music overall. Use the notes in the scale, but select notes within the pattern but out of sequence, repeat notes, pause. Use articulation techniques such as bends, pull-offs, hammer-ons, slides, etc. to add musical interest to your leads. Don’t overpower the vocalist. It’s good form to lay back when the singer is singing or someone else is taking a lead. Let the music breathe. “Some musicians have something to say and others are always saying something.” Listen. After a week or so, add Another fun way to play with your scales against a rhythm is to play chord melody style. Do you know the 12 bar blues? Most simply it is A7 x 4, D7x2 A7x2 E7x2 D7x2 A7x2. (note: you can transpose this to any other key easily if you realize this is a 1-4-5 progression) For chord melody, strike a chord, such as A7. Play some notes, maybe the bass notes on strings 5 and 6 from pattern 1. Repeat, playing the 12 bar blues progression interspersed with notes from the A minor pentatonic scale. Now you’re cooking! How the minor pentatonic scale is made: If you want to think of it as a derivation of the major scale, the minor pentatonic scale formula is: 1 3flatted 4 5 7 flatted A C D E G is minor pentatonic A B C# D E F# G# is A Major So a minor pentatonic scale is formed from the Major scale by omitting notes 2 and 6 and “Flatting” notes 3 and 7, which means moving those notes down half a step. It is not essential to understand this derivation in order to have fun jamming! I promised you two scales for the price of one if you stuck with me this far. The major pentatonic scale sounds great for country music, bluegrass, celtic tunes and some jazz. http://www.jamcenter.com/majorpentatonic.html Use your ear to decide which scale to try. Sometimes minor pentatonic sounds best, and sometimes major pentatonic is preferred. If one scale is not working switch scales. The major pentatonic scale is exactly the same fingering as the minor pentatonic scale, you just begin in a different place. To play A major pentatonic How to build and alter chords This is a pretty big topic and requires lots of charts to do it justice. I’m going to skim the surface of chord building so you understand the concept and can apply your knowledge of music theory. For a thorough treatment of this topic, I recommend Bill Edward’s series Fretboard Logic. www.billedwards.com Chords are created by combinations of notes played simultaneously. You can think of chords as having formulas that give them their unique characteristics. For example: 1 3 5 makes a major chord A 1 flat3 5 makes a minor chord Aminor 1 3 5 7 makes a major 7 chord A major7 1 3 5 flat7 makes a dominant 7 chord A7 Let’s take a quick look at how this works on your fret board. Make an open position A chord by fingering the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings on fret 2. Use a separate finger for each string in this example. Strum the chord. String 5 is open A, a 1, string 3 is an E, which is a 5, string 3 is another A or 1, string 2 is a C# for your 3 and open E on string 1 is another 5. All 1’s, 3’s and 5’s so you get A major. Now we make A minor by flatting the 3. There is only one 3 to be found in this chord shape, so we move the 3 down one half step and it becomes a C note. You now have 1 flat3 and 5 and voila’, you have created a minor chord. To create A major 7 we add a 7 to the A major chord. Do you recall that 7 is only one half step behind 1? 7 is the same as 1 flatted. From the first open A major chord shape, move the note on string 3 down a half step. That was an A, now it’s a 7, which is G#. You still have another 1 on the 5th string (A) so you are left with 1’s 3’s 5’s and 7 and made an A major. Flatten that 7 one more half step and now it’s an open string G. 1-3-5-flat7 You made A7! Congratulations! There are many, many more chords and scales with their own formulas, and you can move them all up and down the fretboard. That’s all great stuff to learn, but it’s beyond the scope of this article. Seek out the many books and websites available to teach you. Fellow musicians are a great source of knowledge. Keep playing, keep listening and keep learning. Learn to enjoy your practice time. Have fun with your instrument! Chip Trautman 3/30/2009
Contact me with questions or to receive the appendix of scales at Trautman@aol.com
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http://www.fretjam.com/chord-progressions-3.html Well, I can't seem to help myself. Here's some more theory ideas I'm looking at now about creating minor key progressions and building dynamic tension. Interesting stuff. The fun goes on!
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