Music Theory through Pearl Jam

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  • StuffnJunk
    StuffnJunk Posts: 896
    i personally don't know any of that stuff about which keys have sharps or what not, it is not really needed to know how to solo, i solo just fine.....and i guarantee mccready, stevie ray vaughnn, even hendrix didn't know anything about that stuff either
    "I'll tell you what: If all I had was Pearl Jam, and I didn't have another band in the world, I would not be worried. Because in there is the essence of making great music. You don't have to use it all at once, but it's there." - Neil Young
  • DieasGrey
    DieasGrey Posts: 124
    StuffnJunk wrote:
    i personally don't know any of that stuff about which keys have sharps or what not, it is not really needed to know how to solo, i solo just fine.....and i guarantee mccready, stevie ray vaughnn, even hendrix didn't know anything about that stuff either



    its basic theory to know the circle of fifths and what keys have what sharps.
    A must know if you want to even comprehend playing to sheet music.

    knowing patterns is one thing...knowing why the patterns are there is 10x more benificial.

    even knowing why the guitar is tuned the way it is helps know where to go while soloing or learning scales .

    and i gurantee that all those guitar greats you mentioned know what keys have what notes sharpened or flatened.
    No one is Righteous.......
  • Anon
    Anon Posts: 11,174
    DieasGrey wrote:
    Lots of good info on here so far.

    Id have to say the circle of fifths is the most important thing to learn when starting out in music theory.

    So here is a lil crash course.

    FIRST: KEY AND SCALE ARE NOT THE SAME THING
    KEY= is bascially an indicator of how many sharps or flats are in the scale the song is based of off.
    SCALE= an arrangement of pitches (the step patterns) like wwhwwwh

    Where they relate is that every Key is based on a major scale (or minor ...but for the sake of simplicitywell stick to the major for now)

    So well start with the key of Cmaj.
    Using the major scale step pattern of wwhwwwh we get the notes
    C D E F G A B C...c major scale
    So the Key of C contains no sharps or flats.
    So any scale you play that has no sharps or flats in it is in the key of C.

    So lets do the Key of G maj .
    Again the same pattern of wwhwwwh but start at G.
    G A B C D E F# G...G major scale
    So the Key of G has 1#. So any scale you play that only has an F# is in the key of G. No matter what the step pattern is if it has a F# as its only sharp its in the key of Gmaj.

    So the Circle of Fifths Clock wise from noon goes
    C, G, D, A, E, B, F#,C#
    (count a fifth up from c you get g..count a fifth up from g you get d..and so on...thats why its the circle of fifths)

    Every new key adds one sharp to it
    C=0 G=1# D= 2# A=3# E=4# B=5# F#=6# C#=7#

    and every new note sharped is the 7th note of that key
    and the sharped notes carry over to the next key.

    start with Key of G
    G A B C D E F#G f is sharpened
    D E F#G A B C#D f is still sharp and the 7th(c) is now sharped to give 2
    A B C#D E F#G#A F,C are still sharp.the 7th G is now sharped
    E F#G#B C#D#E F,C,G are carried over and the 7th D is now sharp
    and you get the picture.It goes all the way up to the key of C# with has all 7 notes sharpened.

    another way to remember the order of the sharps that are added is that they also go up in fifths. F,C,G,D,A,E,B,

    So if you see a key that has 4 sharps in it :
    A. you should know that it is the key of E because of how many sharps .
    B. what notes are sharp. In any key with a sharp its going to have an F#.
    so you start with F then go up a fifth to c then go up a fifth to g and so on till you have all 4 sharps that are in that key.


    i could go on much longer but this should get you started i hope in learning the circle of ffiths.

    and you arent restricted by the key of the song to only play those 7 notes.
    In theory you can play any notes you want in a song. but thats a whole different lesson hahaha.

    a mate of mine is currently doing theory lessons with a music teacher, and sitting the proper exams etc. as well...... he has been passing this info onto me, and what you have above is about what i've learnt so far..... how to find the key a song is in, counting sharps/flats of a scale to get the key etc..... and it does actually start to make sense after a while....

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