Guitar Music Theory: What The $#%A Is It And Why Do You Need To Learn It???
I'm Going To Tell You How To Start Using Guitar Music Theory Right Here Right Now.
First Though, What is Guitar Music Theory? And how does it make you a better guitar player?
Answer: this is the study of chords, scales, intervals, key signatures, and more musical concepts…..and how you can apply them to make riffs, solos, chord progressions, melodies, and more.
Those are seemingly timeless, and repetitive questions that I’ve heard ever since I started playing the guitar.
It’s true that all you need is a tab and good technique to play someone else’s music, BUT……
What else do you need to understand how to play the guitar tab?
How do you make your own guitar solos and choose the right notes to play at each moment?
And how do I start preparing to become a musician or a member of a band that actually knows what they’re doing?
The answer to all three of those questions is to learn guitar music theory……
Again…..Guitar Music Theory Is The Application Of Intervals, Chords, & Scales To Make Riffs & Solos & Progressions
Simple right?
No way at all…..
When I first started reading about theory, I was so confused about how to use modes, putting chords together, and matching what I was reading with the songs I was learning in tab books.
There was just no common thread to all of this stuff and what I enjoyed listening to.
Every new rule I learned was pretty much broken and ignored in the music I loved.
So was this useless to learn, or were they teaching it all wrong?
Thankfully they were just teaching it all wrong, and I discovered this after breaking down literally thousands of songs and chord progressions to see how this stuff works.
I Actually Hate Music Theory Too! Here’s Why……
Not only were they teaching it wrong, but NO ONE shows how it works in actual songs!
I’ve yet to find a youtube channel that breaks down metallica songs by chord progressions, by their rhythms, and by their melodies.
There’s no discussion about how the arrangement of the various instrumental parts work together.
I didn’t pick up the guitar specifically to learn about counterpoint and complex harmony……
But that’s what I did because I wanted to learn how my favorite artists made their music.
And that’s why these books and this bookcase was my best music theory teacher…..
What Everyone Gets Wrong About Music Theory
It’s not just chords. It’s not just scales.
Trust me. I bought those guitar grimoire books too if you know what I’m talking about…..
The only reason to study music theory is to study music, like I just said.
And all the music I’ve studied uses combinations of intervals that form some combination of scales and chords, which makes songs and riffs and melodies.
Theory is the best tool to break it all down and recreate it.
Take the infamous “Smoke On The Water” riff……
It uses a rhythm of 8th notes……
In a series of interval jumps…..5 to 8 makes a minor 3rd……8 to 10 makes a major 2nd…..and 10 down back to 5 makes a perfect 5th.
The chords are just a series of perfect 4ths.
The notes all come from the key of G Minor or Bb Major, which is the relative major key.
I know these are the notes of that key because I’ve memorized them and seen them many many times throughout the music I’ve studied.
I feel like this is a much better way to study and learn music theory than someone shouting a bunch of intervals and note letters at you with zero context or application.
If you only see it as a bunch of numbers, parts of a power chord, or stuff to play on the A and D strings……
Then you’re missing out on so much information that could teach you about how music like this is made.
Why I Dislike CAGED & The Circle Of 5ths
In case you don’t know what either of these are……
CAGED is an acronym that stands for each of the popular common chord shapes like C major, A major, G major, etc. and reveals that the notes of a chord like C major appear throughout the fretboard in the order of those shapes…….
Look at the image above and you’ll see the shapes of the C major open chord, then x35553, then 875558 (G shape), and then the E shape (8-10-10-9-8-8), and so on. I just saved you a ton of money on CAGED courses……
Then the circle of 5ths is this thing you’ve seen in guitar stores called a chord wheel……
It’s very important to learn all the numbers of flats and sharps in every key, as well as the chords in every key….but this is a very inefficient tool to do that.
Once you understand how keys work, it’s easier to memorize this stuff, and I help you do that in the PIL Method. Sorry I can’t reveal everything here.
But look, you’re not going to use either CAGED or this Circle while improvising or learning a song. You can’t whip this thing out or look at it while you’re soloing. Maybe while playing music.
And that’s because it’s just easier to know that the chords of C major are C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, and Bdim rather than going back and forth to this thing.
And memorizing the fretboard and knowing that the chord tones of C major are C – E – G is better than relying on this CAGED trick.
ALSO, a lot of music, rock music, blues, country, jazz, classical, pop, everything……
Doesn’t always strictly stay in a musical key, which is what this is training you to do.
It’s better to understand the roman numeral system and basic diatonic harmony than to learn CAGED or the Circle to do that.
Again, my PIL Method helps with that.
Harmonies + Rhythms = Melodies
You see, every piece of music you come across can be broken down by intervals.
And those intervals help build harmonies, aka chord progressions.
THEN a guitar riff is played over those chords or a singer sings over that.
That’s pretty much how music works, and how music theory can help you understand what you see in the tabs.
More Reasons Why Guitarists Hate Music Theory
They hate it because…..
1) Lots of people make this way too hard to learn
2) When you learn a basic theory concept, like the C major scale, it’s going to sound like a rock song or a metal song, and you’ll conclude that theory is lame
3) Again it’s because no one helps them apply to music like the Deep Purple riff just now
You’ll be shocked at how many so called musicians don’t know how a chord works, or even the notes on the fretboard……
Another problem is that lots of rock progressions, as well as progressions from other genres, don’t fit into the concepts of minor and major key signatures.
This is a difficult concept to explain, but a musical key is a set of notes used to make melodies, chords, and solos.
So a key like C major has a strict set of notes you can’t veer out of. However that’s actually really boring to stay in key, and lots of great songs bend the rules of C major and many other musical keys too.
Guitar Music Theory Is The Study Of Making Music
So when you see it this way, it’s quite absurd to abandon the study of music theory!
The jargon and the systems that make up this science will help you better understand the makeup of any song, riff, or solo that you’ll ever come across.
And that’s a huge advantage when you’re crafting your own guitar style!
If you’d like to learn more about how to use theory to become a better guitar player then I suggest that you read my other articles:
7 Essential Music Theory Tricks
Why Guitarists Hate Music Theory
And My Movie Music Lesson, which shows an application of some advanced theory concepts
I also encourage you to check out my course, The Play It Loud Method, which contains the module/course that you see in the image above called “Music Theory Demystified.”
Inside, I’ll tell you all about how I cracked the code to improvising exciting yet musical solos consistently, in several genres like Jazz, Country, and Rock of course.
Intervals Are The Real Key To Understanding Guitar Music Theory
An interval is just the distance between two notes.
A power chord like G5 for instance has two intervals stacked on top of the G note……
G to D makes a perfect 5th……while G to G on the D string for 355XXX…..makes an octave.
Plus! D to G makes a perfect 4th.
And if you add or change any of those notes then you get different combinations of intervals, and thus new chords or “voicings” as they’re sometimes called.
It’s why so many guitarists fail to understand how to use modes.
Take the E Phrygian mode, the 3nd mode of C major because it starts on the 3rd note of the C major scale (C D E F G A B)……
The notes are E – F – G – A – B – C – D.
That set of notes has a different set of intervals than E minor does……
The notes of E minor are E – F# – G – A – B – C – D.
Go ahead and look it up if you want, but that F natural changes everything if you’re wanting to use a mode.
If You Want To FINALLY Understand Modes Then Click The Image Below And Get My Modes Course, and 2 Other Courses, 100% FREE!
A Frequently Asked Question: How Much Theory Do You Need???
You only need enough to break down the music you’re wanting to learn from, to improvise over some chord progressions in the music you like, or make the music that’s in your head.
So there’s no great answer as it depends on you.
But I’d say that most people will be fine if they learn how intervals turn into chords, and they turn into melodies, and how they turn into songs.
To do that, you need to understand what key signatures, time signatures, and many other concepts, as well as to start memorizing the notes of the fretboard and some common scale constructions.
The more you start to apply this stuff…..the quicker it’ll go.
And that’s why I believe having a great course or teacher will help immensely.
You don’t need to learn orchestral instrumentation, fugal counterpoint writing, advanced jazz harmony (unless you’re into jazz), or how to make music in tone rows and serialist composition techniques.
But there’s one thing I’d practice the most if I were you……
