Music Theory

Pearl Juli

I'm taking a Fundamentals of Music class in college, because well, it fulfills one of the General Requirements for graduations and because I figured it would help me grow as a musician and stuff. So far we learned Major Scales and the Circle of Fifths, along with the other basic stuff like notes, accidentals, etc. So I was wondering, how do I apply this newfound knowledge on the guitar? How can this make me a better player? Any tips?

StuffnJunk

well, if you want to write songs, the circle of fifths shows you which chords work best together/or are always pretty much used together........for example:

G,C,D,Em

A,D,E,F#m

C,F,G,Am

D,A,G,Bm

E,A,B,C#m

the first chord listed in each group is what key you are in, or the I (one) chord.....the next is the IV, then the V, then the relative minor.......almost all rock songs are made using this pattern......so this helps to write songs, or if you are trying to figure a song out by ear- if you figure out one chord, the other chords will probably be the others listed in one of these groups

WindNoSail

StuffnJunk wrote:

well, if you want to write songs, the circle of fifths shows you which chords work best together/or are always pretty much used together........for example:

G,C,D,Em

A,D,E,F#m

C,F,G,Am

D,A,G,Bm

E,A,B,C#m

the first chord listed in each group is what key you are in, or the I (one) chord.....the next is the IV, then the V, then the relative minor.......almost all rock songs are made using this pattern......so this helps to write songs, or if you are trying to figure a song out by ear- if you figure out one chord, the other chords will probably be the others listed in one of these groups

I love the circle of 5ths, it is a beautiful thing.

who's_pearljam?

Juli!

It's great to learn that stuff.
One way it can help, is to learn new chords and be out of the 3 chord rock and roll box.
Maybe you'll become a cool jazz player. :cool:
When you learn to read and use music, you learn a lot about just sitting down and playing solo guitar, too.
Or learn to play Jobim Brazilian sheet music, like Corcovado. (The reason I say this, is because that's what I'm doing right now. I have a gig tomorrow night, and I'm playing it solo, but haven't learned it yet!) :eek:

Chords like C minor with a flat 5th sharp 9th don't seem so strange, and you can learn where to use them when you're playing.
If you learn accidentals and scales and all, a whole new language opens up to you. Learning things like the Jazz harmonic scales and the different scale modes really help you play lead and improvised music.
That helps a lot with lead guitar. When you know a bit about music, I think it improves your ear, too. You know where to graspt what you hear in your head, and make it happen with your fingers.
If you can sit down and read music, and play it on the guitar, be it country, classical, jazz etc, you'll find that you can play anything and you'll learn all kinds of licks and chords that you'll end up assimilating and using.

Good luck, Juli!