Introduction to Music Theory...

[-Plastic-]

Hey all,

Ive been playing for a little while now and ive somewhat come to understand the basics of scales, chords and so on... But i still have not yet started to learn or even try to understand the basics of music theory on the guitar. Now, this fall i will be starting a highschool music theory class to start to get a basic knowledge of it, but im looking for a jump start on it, especially with my guitar, and i was wondering if anybody would be able to help me out and give me a 'crash-course' on basic music theory.

[Zamboni]

I posted this somewhere else here, and I think it helped that guy, so maybe it'll help you too:

Well, let me get you started:

A major scale has a certain set of intervals, normally I would write them as 1 2 3 4 5 6 7, but that doesn't explain much, now does it?

Here is the pattern for the Major scale:


------------------
------------------
-----------------
------------4-6-7
------4-5-7------
--5-7------------



Here is the pattern for the Natural Minor scale:


--------------------
------------------
------------------
--------------5-7
--------5-7-8-----
--5-7-8-----------



Notice that compared to the Major Scale, the Minor Scale has a flat 3rd, 6th, and 7th degree.

In music, almost everything is compared to the major scale, so we would call the intervals of the minor scale: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7.

Anyway, that's just an intro to scale theory, here's what you want to know about chords:

A major chord has these notes in it: a 1 3 and 5. So if we're in the key of C, the notes would be C, E, and G.

If we want a minor chord in the key of C, then we would have these intervals 1 b3 5. So the notes would be C, Eb, and G.

Now, about sevenths and ninths, when you are adding notes to a chord, you will need to name the notes you are adding. For example, if I want to play a Cmaj7 chord, I'm going to need to use the notes of a C major chord (C, E, and G) and then add a 7th. The seventh note in the C major scale is B, so a Cmaj7 chord would have these notes in it: C, E, G, and B.

Sometimes, when a note added to a chord is an octave above the root of the chord, musicians like to add higher numbers to the notes added. As you may have guessed, a major scale only has seven notes in it, with the root being octaved. Well, if we consider the octaved root to be "8", then a 9th would simply be the octave of a 2nd interval. That means that if you have a chord that has a "9" in it, you need to add the octaved 2nd interval of that key into your chord.

Hope that helped a little.

-Mike

[bigskiohio]

guitar is perfect to learn theory being each fret is a half step , actually it all boils down to simple math and patterns or formulas and intervals which is the distance between notes. chords are 1 3 5 and sometimes 7 or you lower the 3 or raise the 3.

[Zamboni]

chords are 1 3 5 and sometimes 7 or you lower the 3 or raise the 3.
Whoa whoa whoa, there are way more formulas for chords than that.

E.g. 1 4 5 b7 = sus, 1 3 #5= augmented, etc.

[-Plastic-]

wow, great advice Zamboni, thanks for the help. It is slowly starting to come together.

[Zamboni]

^Good, if you have any other questions, don't hesistate to ask.