Originally Posted by: bounceeThx for sharing. I'll think I will try the 2 books when I get my paycheck. Seems like it can be a new take on explaining musical theory, and I don't do too well in a typical learning situation so maybe that could be one way of grasping at least a little base knowledge of musical theory. As it stands today I am all blank on the theory.
You seem really interested in music theory! :) There are 2 ways to learn music theory at GT.
1. The guided courses include theory concepts in the material. Most importantly, you get the right amount of theory to go along with the practical application of the ideas.
2. I have a whole collection of stand alone tutorials that cover the basic concepts of music theory & how to apply them.
https://www.guitartricks.com/collection/music-theory
It's important to keep your theoretical learning & knowledge on par with & at the same level as your physical skills & practical applications.
If one outpaces the other, then you have an unbalanced situation. Either you can play things that you don't fully understand or know how to use, or how they work. Or you know concepts that you can't apply & have no practical use for.
My music theory collection of tutorials is designed to be more of a reference source. Kind of an encyclopedia to refer to when you need to understand some lesson, technique, or idea that you encounter when you are working on learning how to play guitar.
The ear training tutorials for example are something that you can return to over & again as you gradually improve in your playing & listening.
And there are other deep catalog tutorials on the site that you can use as you get deeper into learning the instrument.
So if you are working through the rock course, for example, & you learn how to play the examples, but you want to know more about how pentatonic scales are structured across the fretboard. You can work on these.
Pentatonic Scales
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=296
Or diatonic scales:
Major Scale Patterns and Positions
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=453
If you are learning how chords are formed & structured, the can learn in the courses, or dive deeper into my triads collection.
If you are trying to connect scales & chords.
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=426
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=427
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=428
If you are trying to apply music theory concepts to blues.
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=217
But if you don't yet have the skills (taught in the courses & earlier tutorials!) to play that material, then it's going to be an unproductive use of your time. Time better spent learning physical skills that will eventually get you ready to tackle more advanced material.
The point here is that music theory is a big topic! :) So, it's best to know your skill level & area of focus, or goals in order to point you in the right direction. Because working on just the above fretboard scale patterns is valuable info. But until you can actually use it in your playing it's an unproductive use of your time.
You should also be using your time to learn songs! Lots of songs, because that is where the rubber really meets the road. That's where you see theory applied.
Almost every tutorial contains some theory, at least enough to understand & explain how & why the lesson content is being taught. So to bring this back to the question, the courses are a great way to accomplish learning more theory, learning songs is another way.
Hope that helps!
Christopher Schlegel
Guitar Tricks InstructorChristopher Schlegel Lesson Directory