Music theory Archives - Page 2 of 7

How to Play and Learn the G Major Scale

Hi lovely people, today I want to teach you how to play the major scale, in particular the G major scale. The G major scale (1st position) is the best scale to start out with when you’re learning a major scale on the guitar, because of how it is positioned on the guitar.

Once you know how to play the G major scale you can move it up and down the neck to every key you like.

How to Learn the G Major Scale – 1st Position

The best way to learn the major scale is by playing the 2 octave major scale.
Memorize the notes of the major scale
Learn the scale using the appropriate fingering
Learn the scale also with one finger to become conscious of where the notes are on the neck.

Below are the TABS and the video lesson where I explain everything in full detail.

Effective One-Octave Major Scales and Why!Part II

By Klaus Crow 6 Comments

Hi folks, today we’re going to dive into the one-octave major scales Part II. A nice, compact, clear and focused guitar lesson. If you haven’t learned the part I yet, you can check it out here: Effective One-Octave Major Scales and Why! Part I

Reminder Why You Want to Learn One-Octave Scales

Remember, you want to learn the one-octave major scale to easily identify the shape and structure of the scale, the notes within the scale, and the intervals. Moreover, the one-octave scale is easier to play for beginners and opens new doors, breeds new insights and improves the playing of intermediate guitar players.

Starting from the Root Note on the A-string

Today we are learning three major scale shape/patterns with the first (root) note starting on the A-string (5th string).

Tip: Learn and memorize the notes on the A-string so you can instantly recognize the key of the scale when you want to move the scale up or down the fretboard.

Major Scale Fingering

For the major scale examples and tablature below I’ve notated the fret-hand fingering. The numbers next to the notes on the note staff right above the tablature indicates the fret-hand fingers:

How to read tablature? Check out How to Read Guitar Tabs – Tablature

The numbers in the yellow neck diagrams also indicate the fret-hand fingering. The neck diagrams also clearly show what the shape or pattern looks like. Learn to visualize and memorize the shape of each pattern.

Make sure you play the scale shapes using alternative picking. Strictly use alternating down and up strokes. The first note you play is a downstroke, the second an upstroke, the third one a downstroke, the fourth one an upstroke and so on.

Practice the scale in every Key

In the examples below we play the G major scale, but the goal is to learn these scale shapes/patterns in every key. Once you got the scale under your fingers learn the pattern in different keys. Just move the entire scale up or down the fret and change keys easily. Need more help with that? A more detailed explanation on this in Part I

Without further ado..

Enjoy!

MAJOR SCALE SHAPES – ROOT NOTE STARTS ON THE 5TH STRING

G MAJOR SCALE fingering / shape / pattern #4

Improve Your Guitar Knowledge and Skills Faster

By Klaus Crow 6 Comments

Improve Guitar Knowledge and Skills Faster

We all have tons of excuses to justify the times we don’t practice. We need to work, maintain our relationships, play with our kids, finish up tasks, exercise, eat and sleep. How in the world is there any time left?

How can you improve your skills amidst all of this, stay motivated and keep learning and growing when there are times when you can’t pick up the guitar?

Well, there are many places and times throughout the day where you can do some really valuable exercises to make huge changes in your guitar playing. I’ll first show you WHAT you can do, and then HOW and WHEN can you get better at playing guitar everyday, anywhere and anytime! Let’s check it out.

Memorizing the Notes on the Guitar

You can start by learning the notes on the guitar. Memorize where every note (all 12) are located on the guitar neck on every string. Start by memorizing all the “F” notes on all strings. Say out loud: The F note is located on the Low E-string, 1st fret | F on the A-string, 8th fret | F on the D-string, 3rd fret | F on the G-string, 10th fret | F on the B-string, 6th fret | F on the high e-string, 1st fret.

Try to visualize where the note is located on the neck while you’re naming the fret and string. Then pick another random note and repeat the exercise. Keep doing that until you know all 12 notes from the top of your head.

Memorizing Scales

Next, learn to name all the scale notes of each key out loud. Start with the C major scale: C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C, then the G major scale: G – A – B – C – D – E – F# – G, next the F major scale: F – G – A – Bb – C – D – E – F and so on. Just pick any key in random order, until you’ve gone through all 12 keys.

You can also do this with the natural minor scale, and every other scale. Just like the first exercise try to visualize where the notes of each scale are located on the strings.

Memorizing Chords and Progressions

You can also memorize all the chords you can derive from each major scale in every key. C major scale chords = C – Dm – Em – F – G – Am – Bdim , F major scale chords are: F – Gm – Am – Bb – C – Dm – Edim, G major scale chords: G – Am – Bm – C – D – Em – F#dim, and so on.

How to Play The Many Graceful Minor 7 Chords

By Klaus Crow 8 Comments

The Min7 chord is a beautiful way to enhance the minor chord. It gives it some extra colour and depth. It sounds kind of contemplative and a bit more sophisticated than your standard minor chord. It’s a graceful chord.

The minor 7th chord is used widely in every style of music and today we’re going to learn how to play it in a different set of varieties and build it from the ground up.

We’re going to look at “open” Minor 7th chords (open strings involved), moveable Min7 chords (no open strings involved) with the root note starting at the Low E (6th string), A-string (5th string) and the D-string (4th string), and finally some more beautiful sounding min7 chords you might not have played before, but are an asset to your chord vocabulary.

MIN7 CHORD CONSTRUCTION – MUSIC THEORY

A minor chord consist of the root (1), flatted third (b3) and fifth (5) notes (1 b3 5) of the major scale. The minor 7th chord (min7) consists of the root (1), flatted third, fifth and flatted seventh notes (1 b3 5 b7) of the major scale. That means only the b7 is added to the minor chord.

For example, if you take the notes of the C major scale = C D E F G A B C
The C minor chord (Cm) consists of the notes: C Eb G (1 b3 5)
The C minor 7 chord (Cm7) consists of the notes: C eb G Bb (1 b3 5 b7)

Another example: A major scale = A B C# D E F# G# A
The Amin chord consists of the notes: A C E (1 b3 5)
The Amin7 chord consists of the notes: A C E G (1 b3 5 b7)

This way you can build or analyze any Min7 chord:

Note: In the chord diagrams above: the black dots above the nut are open strings, and the letters in the dots indicate the note names.

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