A "first problem" that I use music theory to solve is "How do I find the root notes of these new bar chord shapes that I just learned to play?"
Following the plan laid out in the easy to understand document shown above (left) provides guitar teachers with a method that makes music theory a tool that students can use to solve problems rather than being something thats (lets face it) not as much fun as just playing the guitar
The contents of a well rounded and useful study of music theory for the late stage beginner/early stage intermediate player should be made up of what is useful to the musician now and should address the following sequence of questions.......
Some notes can have only one name (A B C D E F and G -the white notes on a piano keyboard) whilst others (the ones between A-B, C-D, D-E, F-G and G-A -the black notes on a keyboard) can have one of two names (a letter name followed by either a sharp or a flat sign) depending on the circumstance
While the above looks complicated written down we have graphic teaching aids designed to make sure that your students get to grips with the principles behind assigning the right name (or choice of names) to any note
If a guitar player does not understand how to correctly name notes they will struggle with every other aspect of music theory and be likely to decide to limit their potential by coming to the conclusion that music theory is not for them
This "resistance" to understanding what they are doing (even if they are doing it well) can lead to the "I don't want to know anything about music theory in case it interferes with my natural feel" gibberish that I have heard trotted out by far too many (otherwise perfectly lovely and sensible) musicians during my rides around the sun
Whole-step and half-step intervals are the gaps between notes A whole-step is two frets and a half-step is one fret
Below you can see a detail that is taken from one of our three guitar teaching aids/worksheets (shown above) designed to help you to ensure that your student/s come to understand this vitally important element of music theory
The sequence (for any and all Major Scales) is W-W-H-W-W-W-H
All of the areas that should be studied during early guitar music theory lessons are addressed on the one page music theory scheme of work you can see at the top of this page and which you can download by clicking the button just below it
Below are two of the worksheets in our download that help students to develop a "joined up" understanding of the principles involved in the construction of Major Scales
The worksheets (like the "explainer" PDfs featured above) do not use musical notation but instead rely on letter names. This is because of the simple reality that the vast majority of guitar players do not read music and the fact that you do not need to read music in order to understand how scales and chords work
The worksheets feature graphic aids (guitar neck, keyboard and the note naming "oblong" discussed above) alongside a set of circles which run left to right. The larger circles have smaller, rounded shapes connecting them into which you will see that the letters "W" or "H" have been entered
As guitar teachers we need to stress to our students that even though the names of the notes changes with every scale the sequence of whole step and half step intervals (W-W-H-W-W-W-H) remains constant for all Major Scales
"W" = Whole-step interval (2 frets)
"H" = Half-step interval (1 fret)
A common situation facing guitar teachers is judging the "right" time to introduce music theory to their students. Introduce it too early and it gets in the way of what should be going on in the beginner stage (learning to move between the eight chords that every guitar player should learn first)
On the other hand, if you introduce it too late (when they can play a little but don't have any understanding of what they are playing) and students can become "resistant" to developing a framework of theoretical knowledge because they feel that they are making good progress just by learning things parrot fashion
In the early stages beginners should be learning to move between chord shapes rather than concentrating too much on playing single note melodies and solos and the chords that they should be playing at this stage does not include the chord of F
The key of C (of which the chord of F is an important part) is far and away the best key to begin a study of music theory with but the chord of F is and impossible chord for beginners to play as they are required to hold down two strings with a single finger before they are used to holding down a single string
I find that the optimum time to introduce the "how music works" stuff is when they can play and move between basic open chords and the F chord in time to backing tracks. This stage is just around about the time that they are introduced to power chords and bar chords when a knowledge of how scales are put together and the correct notes for names on the fretboard will be very useful as they work out where to play and move the chord shapes on the neck of the guitar. Introducing music theory at this point means that it becomes a tool they can use rather than an obstacle that they need to overcome because some guitar teacher told them that it was a good idea to learn about this stuff
If you have been "with the programme" to this point you will have been working with your student/s in order to get them to be able to move between a bunch of chord shapes in time to music This is brilliant (and fun!) stuff and you and your students deserve a pat on the back
If we were to go into the teaching theory behind what you and they have achieved so far we would identify all of the activity to this point as having been carried out in the "phsychomotor domain of learning"Saying that our students have been operating in the Phsychomotor Domain of learning is just another way of saying that they have been developing physical skills and capabilities that require very little in the way of theoretical understanding
Learning to walk, ride a bike, holding a pen or a cup These are "phsychomotor skills" that we mastered at an early age and then never had to think about them again Just like computer programmes "running in the background" we take such skills and capabilities for granted and we generally never have think about them even while we are doing them
There is nothing wrong with this at all! The situation is as it should be as up until now you and your students have been working on the difficult stuff
By now your students should be able to instruct their hands to move between chord shapes in time to music without any more having to think too much about how each individual chord is formed
Your students have come through the most difficult stage of learning to play guitar (the stage between not being able to play at all and the one where they can play a little bit) The phase of guitar playing that you have guided them through is the one at which most people give up trying to play the guitar
The sole reason why learning music theory seems more "difficult" than just "playing by feel" is that the subject areas that go to make it up are often presented and studied in the wrong order
Major scales are often understandably overlooked by guitar players (and some teachers) during the beginner and to some extent the intermediate stages of learning to play guitar. During the time that the typical student is learning to form chords and pick out single note solo passages
The simple fact is that there are other scales (particularly the Blues Scale and its closely related cousin, the Pentatonic Minor Scale) that can offer more "fun" and a more "authentic" sounding "instant result" to the novice player
My (distressingly long!) experience has shown me that sometimes students are a little "resistant" to Major Scales or instinctively feel that they are so simple as to be a little "beneath" them and in addition they are not really the scales used by the rock, metal,blues,jazz and funk gods at whose altars they often worship
My job (and yours?) is to help them to see that the scales and modes that they use (but dont understand) are all either directly drawn from or can best be understood in relation to Major Scales
If you like the look of the resource and think that you may find it useful then you will want to take a look at our other free to download handouts, chord sheets and backing tracks
All of the handouts, worksheets,lesson plans and backing tracks in an easy to use download
When your students are familiar with this they will know how to come up with their own chord sequences that work every time without stumbling around the neck of the guitar till they find something that they don't mind hearing but which they don't understand
They will also be in a position to analyse the chord sequences of songs that they know and love in order to understand that this is the way that "professional" songwriters and musicians think
One of the main attributes of guitar players who understand how major scales work is that they are in a position to then develop a joined-up knowledge of how each of the notes of a Major scale can then be used as the root note of a series of Major, minor and diminished chords that fall in a pre-determined sequence. Its the same for all keys so if they can understand the chords in the key of C then they can identify (and understand) the chords in any key
This is very similar to the way in which if they understand how sequence of whole-step (W) and half-step (H) intervals the scale of C Major is constructed then they are in a position to work out the names for the notes to be found in any Major Scale
Below you can see one of our handouts that guitar teachers use to help explain this (commonly called) "diatonic" system of harmony
When they can correctly identify the names of the notes in a "parent" Major scale then they can simply assign the appropriate chord quality (Major, minor or diminished) to each note of that scale
Chord One = Major
Chord Two = minor
Chord Three = minor
Chord Four = Major
Chord Five = Major
Chord Six = minor
Chord Seven = diminished
The handout shown above uses the notes of the C Major Scale (C,D,E,F,G,A and B)
The chords built on the first fourth and fifth notes (C F and G in the key of C Major) are always Major whist those built on the second, third and sixth notes (D, E and A) are minor chords (giving the chords of Dm, Em and Am). The chord built on the seventh note of the scale (B) is always a diminished chord (B diminished)
The graphic below shows two of our worksheets that help allow students to find out that once they can work out (and remember) the diatonic system of chords in any one key they can use the same principles to transfer it to any other key
The first is to give them an insight and understanding of the chords that they are likely to encounter when they are working out cover versions
The second (and in my view more important) benefit of understanding how chords within keys work is that they will be in a much better position when it comes to writing chord progressions for their own original music This fact alone is often enough to spur them on when it comes to developing a positive attitude to the development of a healthy theoretical approach to the instrument
Below you can see a detail from a completed worksheet that deals with all of the three note chords (triads) that can be made up by using the notes of the ("parent") A Major Scale
We should help our students to realise that the notes of any major scale follows the alphabetic sequence (A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C-D etc) regardless of whether there are sharps or flats involved and that the chord qualities (Major,minor or diminished) assigned to each degree of the scale remain constant regardless of which note the Major Scale starts from
Guitar players often have a "love hate" relationship with music theory and if you survey a hundred different guitarists (ranging from jazz purists who need to understand the role and function of every note that they play through to Punk players who eschew anything that manifests itself as "rules") you will get a hundred different answers as to the role and function of music theory with relation to playing the guitar
The reason for this diversity of attitude and opinion (you are unlikely to find the same range of feelings among trumpet players) is tied up with the role of the guitar in recent popular culture and the fact that (unlike many other musical instruments) it is perfectly possible to get a great noise out of a guitar without having a clue what you are actually doing
This page makes the case for the study of music theory to be undertaken at the right time in a guitar player's career and also for the type of music theory to be studied We and our students want to know the information that is likely to be of use to us as guitar players in the type of situations in which we are likely to find ourselves rather than to concern ourselves at this stage with a broader musical (school music lesson type?) education in which the subject is generally covered in a way that is by necessity not slanted towards understanding music theory with reference to a particular instrument
I will also make the case that (unlike in the traditional study of music theory) we should (after becoming familiar with a single major scale) progress our students to the theory of how chords work as quickly as possible (after all, moving between chords is what our students have been mainly concerning themselves with up to this point in their progress)
By following this course we will help our students to understand what they already do before moving on to introduce new theoretical concepts
Music theory is not an end in itself The knowledge and application of it need to be appropriate to the stage that a guitar player is at in terms of his or her development In the early stages of becoming a guitar player (typically the period when a player is developing the ability to move between the easier open chords in time to music) a knowledge of music theory does not really have much of a role at all In terms of educational theory this stage is concerned totally with developing a facility within what is known as the "Phsychomotor Domain" which involves the aquisition of physical skills Put bluntly at this stage it does not confer any real benefit if the student understands the theory behind what they are doing It is more important just to do it
The problems with this approach to learning guitar comes after the initial stages Students, (self taught or otherwise) can become convinced that in order to make more progress on the guitar they need merely to keep on doing what they are already doing (learning chord sequences and songs "parrot fashion") and that by following this path they will continue to make reasonably rapid progress This is not the case What will happen is that although they will undoubtedly increase their repertoire they will become stuck in a rut
There are an awful lot of this type of guitar player about (perhaps they are the most common sort of guitarists) Somebody who enthusiastically learned the basics and practiced where to put their hands and to function (often very well) within a couple of scales but then the rate of progress slows down until they are just (competently) going over old ground and although they are enjoying themselves (and thats great) they are not really getting any better as musicians (and thats not)
The key to progress at this stage is to encourage them to take a step back in order to understand what they are already playing by rote and to help them to realise that by applying a little thought they will be able to understand how music (not just guitar) works It all starts with The Major Scale
Understanding Major Scales is absolutely crucial for guitarists for two reasons The first is that the construction of all other scales is defined by their relationship to the notes of a major scale and the second is that the chords that can be constructed from the notes of any major scale provide the harmonic basis of the majority of music that we hear
Developing an understanding of major scales and how they work is the most important thing that a guitar student can do with regard to understanding music theory but the problem is that guitar players in the beginning/intermediate stages of playing often dont tend to have too much use for the major scale. They seem (quite understandably) to have a lot more time for the pentatonic minor scale that will allow them to noodle away playing stuff that sounds like (and is) Rock and Blues music
Our job as guitar teachers is not to try to turn them off the pentatonic minor scale but to show them that the pentatonic minor is contained within any Major Scale (starting from the sixth note and selecting five of the eight notes in a pre-ordained sequence)
If your intermediate guitar students can construct all of the chords that can be built from the notes of a single major scale they will have begun to develop an understanding of how the vast majority of songs are written
There are a whole load of resources and teacher's notes/explanations in the PDF that are designed to provide insight into the way that effective guitar teaching works
If your students can correctly identify the notes of a Major Scale then they can then build a (major, minor or diminished) chord on each note of the scale
The chord quality (Major, minor or diminished) of the chord built on each degree of the scale is the same in all keys (the chord built on the first, fourth and fifth notes will always be Major chords while those with a root note on the second, third and sixth notes will always be minor)
By identifying the notes of the relevant major scale and then hanging the correct chord quality (major, minor or diminished) on each note you can easily work out "The Chords That Work" in any key
Click to download student handouts/worksheets and guide to teaching music theory which demonstrates the chords that work in the key of A and a guitar teachers explanation of why the chords work
Working on the material outlined above is an ideal way to introduce music theory to guitar students who can play but don't really know what they are doing (or indeed why they are doing it?)
Our job as guitar teachers is not to try to turn them off the pentatonic minor scale but to show them that the pentatonic minor is contained within any Major Scale (starting from the sixth note and selecting five of the eight notes in a pre-ordained sequence)
The above statement is quite involved and if you ask a student who is ready to start a meaningful study of music theory (i.e. one who can move around the eight beginners chords in time to music, can maybe handle the F chord and is starting to get to grips with power chords and basic bars) if they would like to study how pentatonic minor scales are contained within Major Scales they will most likely nod politely while wondering what the dickens you are on about. They will maybe even start to get that familiar feeling from their least favourite lesson at school where someone stood at the front of the class and droned on about something that everyone else seemed to understand but which they found completely incomprehensible
This is not a feeling that you (or I) want to instill in a customer upon whose money we depend We want them to feel happy and motivated (our living depends on it) and rather than present them with complicated notions of a five note scale being contained within a seven note scale I tend to introduce my students to the concept of music theory in a different way I ask them a question to which there is only one (usually very enthusiastic) answer
We are guitar teachers. We earn money teaching the guitar. Thats what we are all about. That is what people pay us for and expect us to do. Its all very simple but if you look a little deeper into the motivation of our students (and ourselves) perhaps guitar teaching is only one of the things that we can get paid for.
Very few people take up the guitar determined that they will never write a song but the reality is that most people who play the guitar do not write songs (or not ones they are prepared to show to anyone else anyway). Songwriting can seem like a bit of a "black art" and the impression can form that the only people who can do it are a select group of artistic and inspired individuals who have the "keys to the kingdom"
The (fortunate) reality is that the technical elements of writing songs (song structure, melody and harmony) are not too difficult for any guitar student who has made it to the intermediate stage (where they can form and move between the eight chords that any beginner should learn first
The remainder of this page is concerned with helping us to help our students to understand enough about how the chordal (harmonic) element of songwriting works that they will not be be intimidated by the whole idea. We start with an introduction to the "Four Chord Trick" in the ("guitar friendly") key of G
Generally speaking people who write music on guitar tend to gravitate towards the "sharp keys" because they exploit some of the natural features of the instrument but of course the other keys (the flat keys) are every bit as valid and useful in other circumstances (such as playing with brass instruments or individual singers who operate better in particular keys where capos often come into play)
People (including me) will often lazily refer to "jazz chords" but the reality is that just like the blues scale (which is heavily featured in most kinds of popular music that came after it first turned up in the Southern states of America in the late nineteenth century) Jazz harmony is everywhere
If a guitar teacher understands how five common four note chords are put (and work) together then they they can teach the music theory behind just about all popular music forms
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