How To Learn Music Theory For Guitar

Why are we starting with E? Well as beginners we have not yet started exploring different tunings for guitar. Most of us will keep our guitars tuned to E. There are 2 E strings the bass E and treble E. So, we will start with E. Most of the music theory lessons I have encountered focus and start out on the C major scale, which works well if you study piano, but sometimes gets confusing with guitar. The above diagram shows the notes of the E major scale as they lie on the fret board. If you start in the open position on the E strings and play up the scale to the 12th fret these are the E major notes in order.

Lets start with the E major Scale.

With this series we are going to build the foundations of what can often times be a very confusing subject. Don't get hung up on having to know everything all at once. In this first part, I want to introduce terms that will help to under stand music and the information out there about music. This is all free on the web if you have the time to find it, and you can also pay for instruction, but if you have a limited bank account, saving that money for gear is the priority. As we start learning the guitar, the focus should be on learning songs. I fell into the trap of systems and techniques, all that does is build a library of techniques. What this series will hopefully do for you, is minimize your search for information, and help maximize your time on the fretboard. Lets get started.

Some of the terms you should know are scales, intervals, modes, degrees, tones, semi tones, steps, half steps, notes, etc.. Theory can be a mind blowing subject. So we will try to simplify it as it relates to guitar. Take a look at the fretboard diagram below.

Terms and definitions I wish I knew starting out.

On fret board diagrams, the bottom string will be your bass E and they go up in this order E-A-D-G-B-E bass-treble. Lets start looking at the notes used in music on the A string. It has all the notes in order from A-A. There are 7 natural notes and 5 flat or sharp notes. Going up the fret board,(open string to the 12th fret the notes are sharp), going down the fret board, (12th fret to the open string, these notes are flat). How the direction of movement can be interpreted, think of it this way, up the scale the notes get higher in pitch, down the scale the notes get lower in pitch. If you'll notice the sequence of notes repeats at the 12th fret. So open A and 12th fret A are an octave. They are the exact same note just an "Octave" higher or an "Octave" lower.

The spaces between notes. These are intervals, steps, and tones. Some of the information out there will have different names for this, but it all refers to the musical movement between notes. The natural notes BC, EF, have a half step, or semitone to get from one to another. For this series we will refer to this as steps, walking our fingers around the fret board. To get from A-B you need to move a whole step. If you look at the diagram you'll notice that movement will skip a fret. Now we can consider moving fret to fret as moving a Half step. Skipping a fret will be moving a Whole Step. This is pretty important as we learn to navigate the fret board. Understanding the movement between notes starts the basics for understanding how the notes work to make the music we enjoy. So, steps, tones and intervals can be used to describe the space or movement between notes, and to help understand a sharpened or flattened note. A half step up will sharpen a note, a half step down will flatten a note.

Now lets look at scales. Scales are the foundation of music arrangements. They have specifics on how the notes are sequenced and which notes are used. Not all 12 notes will be used. I say 12 because the octave is part of the scale, as this is how the scale resolves musically. The movement of the scale is from root note to root note. The root or tonic is the musical center of the universe that the scale revolves around. It is the note where a song resolves or ends or the note that is the main focus of the melody. When songs are being played it can be thought of as the key or pitch of the song, this helps our ear keep the song arrangement smooth and musically appealing.

Looking at the above diagram we see the spacing or steps between the notes on the E major scale. E-Gb(flat) is a whole step. Then you go another whole step to Ab(flat) the movement between Ab(flat) and A is a half step. This can be a little confusing on the diagram because going up the scale the notes should be sharpened and down the scale the notes should be flattened. Most every diagram or scale will show these as flattened for simplicity in writing. Other wise you would see the scale written like this. E-F#(sharp)/Gb(flat)-G(sharp)/Ab(flat). So for sharp and flat notes it may be easier to think of them as; Notes that are a half step up or down as movements on the fret board. For example B can be sharpened to C, and C can be sharpened to C# and C# can be sharpened to D, moving up the fret board. Each half step up sharpens the previous note. Moving from D down the fret board we flatten to Db then to C then to B and from B we flatten to Bb.

Back to the E major. It would be inconvenient to play scales on just one string and actually quite dull. How is this overcome, take a look at the above diagram arrangement of the E major notes as they lie on the fret board. From here we can see how the notes can be played in different positions along the fret board from E-E.

The below example shows the scale starting on the open bass E string and the scale ends on the D string 2nd fret.

If you study the diagram of the E major scale layout of notes you will be able see how this can be played in different positions starting with the lowest E-to the E octave. Here is another example.

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Grab your guitar and start exploring the different positions where you can play the E major scale. Familiarize yourself with the sound and melody of the scale. Experiment with changing the root note position and playing in a different key. The steps of the Major scale will always be same. Whole Step-Whole Step-Half Step-Whole Step-Whole Step-Whole Step-Half Step(Root Octave scale resolve). Call out the notes as you play them to associate their location on the fret board to memory. If you start using this as warm up exercise daily it will become natural and assist with fret board memorization. One key take away is learning how the steps work to create and build the scale. If you move or change the steps how does that sound? As this series develops we will explore how changing the steps or intervals affects the scale.

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