GuitarLessons365 » Music Theory

Intermediate Music Theory Lesson – Understanding Minor Scales

Carl Brown — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 05:37:52 +0000

In this lesson we will concentrate on a little bookwork to make sure you fully understand how to figure out all of your minor scale types.

This PDF tutorial is going to be a pre-requisite to the video lessons coming up focusing on how to visualize the minor scales on the fretboard using the 3-notes per string format.

Take your time with this study and try to spell all of the minor scales in as many keys as you can. You will need to know your major keys quite fluently to be able to completely follow this tutorial, so if you don’t have that down yet just download the “Understanding Keys” lesson in the music theory lesson archive, and it will get you up to speed quickly. Then you should be fine to follow along with this PDF tutorial on minor scales.

Here is the PDF download.

Understanding Minor Scales PDF Tutorial

Have fun and I will see you tomorrow with the first installment of the harmonic minor scale video lessons. WOOHOO!!

Please remember to consider a small donation so I can afford to keep all of these regular lessons FREE for everyone. Thanks!! Carl..

Advanced Theory Lesson – Writing Modal Progressions

Carl Brown — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:51:50 +0000

Ok here it is as promised. Today we are going to study how to write modal progressions that you can record and improvise over or just use as the basis for a composition.

The next lesson will once again be a video lesson describing how to apply these modal progression studies to the guitar.

I really encourage you to try and experiment writing as many modal progressions as you can, trying to be as creative with it as possible. Then, you will quickly make all of this material part of the way you naturally create on the guitar.

Here is the PDF tutorial for writing modal progressions.

Writing Modal Progressions Tutorial PDF

Try to just absord all this theory and I will see you tomorrow with a video lesson that will apply this modal progression theory to the guitar.

PLEASE ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND, THAT FOR ME TO CONTINUE THESE FREE LESSONS FOR EVERYONE PERMANENTLY, I WILL NEED SOME DONATIONS. A LITTLE BIT GOES A LONG WAY!! THANKS!! Carl

Intermediate Theory Lesson – Understanding Modes

Carl Brown — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:33:34 +0000

OK, so I thought it was about time to start doing some lessons on modes.

This PDF tutorial is designed to help you grasp theoretically what is going with modes. We take a look at modes in 3 different ways in this tutorial.

First, we discuss a method to quickly be able to spell all of your modes by using your knowledge of the major scales. If you can’t spell your major scales yet please check out the “Understanding Keys” lesson to get that out of the way.

The second method we will talk about is one to help you hear the modes in your head in order to improvise and compose with them more fluently.

And the third method we will study describes how to go about visualizing modes on the fretboard.

I finish up the tutorial with a brief explanation of modal harmony. Coming up will be video lessons to help you understand how to visualize any mode you want on the guitar quickly and easily!!

So go ahead and download the tutorial here.

Understanding Modes Tutorial PDF

In up coming video lessons I will show you not only how to use your 3-notes per string major scales as modes, but also how to use pentatonic scales as modes as well. WOOHOO!!

PLEASE HELP ME CONTINUE THESE FREE LESSONS BY MAKING A SMALL DONATION TO THE SITE. THESE LESSONS MAY BE FREE FOR EVERYONE, BUT THEY ARE NOT FREE FOR ME SO I NEED YOUR HELP IN ORDER FOR THEM TO CONTINUE. THANKS FOR HELPING!! Carl..

Intermediate Theory Lesson – Seventh Chords For Minor Keys

Carl Brown — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 06:03:15 +0000

In this lesson we will continue our study of chord progressions by learning the Seventh Chords that work within a Minor Key.

Just like in the minor key studies using basic triads we will have 3 scale types to choose our chords from.

If you haven’t checked out all the other chord progression studies here on the site, from basic chord progression theory, Seventh Chords in major keys, or even your basic understanding of keys, you should do a search on those topics here on the site now so you can catch up. Otherwise it will seem like this lesson is just leaving out a bunch about how this stuff is all created, but that was covered in earlier lessons.

Part two of this lesson series will once again be a video lesson showing how to apply some minor key chord progressions to the guitar using Seventh Chords.

As in the other chord progression videos, the chord forms that I will be using will just be from the CAGED Sequence studies that we have already done with Seventh Chords here on the site. Once again, if you don’t know them just do a search on Seventh Chords.

Here is the tutorial PDF for this lesson.

Seventh Chords In Minor Keys PDF

This will be the last of the chord progression theory lessons for a while, so we can take a look at some more playing techniques.

PLEASE SUPPORT THE SITE IN ANY WAY YOU SEE FIT TO HELP ME KEEP THESE DAILY LESSONS CONTINUING. THANKS!! Carl…

Intermediate Theory Lesson – Major Key Chord Progressions With Seventh Chords

Carl Brown — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:25:37 +0000

This lesson continues our study of chord progressions. We have finally made it to working with seventh chords with our chord progressions. You will notice while practicing these chord progressions that they sound much more sophisticated and less predictable than when you are just working with basic triads.

Like I did when we were just working with triads, I am going to start with just learning the seventh chords that work within a Major Key. We will take up the Minor Keys next.

Make sure that you can do all of your Major Key progressions with triads before moving on to the Seventh Chords. It will make everything VERY easy for you to understand.

Also, you may need to review all of your actual Seventh Chord forms on the guitar. We have done a complete series on all of the Seventh Chord types here at the site. Just do a search on Seventh Chords and you will find all of the seven lessons. Each lesson shows you how to play one of the Seventh Chord types 5 ways across the neck using the CAGED Sequence.

The next lesson will be a video lesson demonstrating ways to apply these Seventh Chord progressions to the guitar.

Here is the PDF download for this lesson.

Major Key Seventh Chords PDF

Stay tuned for the video lesson!!

PLEASE HELP ME CONTINUE THESE DAILY LESSONS BY MAKING SOME SMALL CONTRIBUTION TO THE SITE!! THANKS!! Carl…

Intermediate Theory Lesson – Creating Minor Key Chord Progressions

Carl Brown — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:23:22 +0000

This lesson is once again all about bookwork. Now that we have taken a look at the chords that make up a major key chord progression, we are ready to delve in to the world of minor keys.

Minor keys can seem pretty complicated at times, but the key here is just to memorize the order of chords for each of the minor scale types. Then it is just a case of lining up the notes with the appropriate chord type. It is all explained in the tutorial.

In Part Two of this lesson, I will once again apply the minor chord progression chords we learned in part one to the guitar in a video lesson.

I hope everyone is enjoying these theory lessons and please let me know if you would like to see more theory studies.

Get the Creating Minor Key Chord Progressions PDF tutorial here.

Creating Minor Key Chord Progressions PDF

Thanks for following along!! HAVE FUN creating new chord progressions!!

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Intermediate Theory Lesson – Understanding And Writing Major Key Chord Progressions

Carl Brown — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:20:14 +0000

This lesson doesn’t have a video to accompany it, we are talking pure bookwork here. Don’t worry, I tried to keep the writing light and simple so you can quickly understand how to determine all of the basic chords that you can use in a particular key as well as understand how to create a chord progression using those chords.

For this lesson we will stick with only major keys because minor keys require a little more work. But if you go through this method now, understanding the minor keys should be pretty easy for you.

The tutorial starts by just going through the basics of how chords are created and how we apply them to certain keys. Then we take a look at some actual chord progressions.

Part two of this tutorial will be a video lesson showing how to apply this chord progression knowledge to the guitar.

So don’t forget to download the tutorial and read through it a few times until you feel you can confidently write chord progressions and I will see you in Part Two with some actual guitar playing!!

Understanding And Writing Major Key Chord Progressions PDF

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Intermediate Theory Lesson – Spelling All Triads

Carl Brown — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:02:34 +0000

The lesson today won’t have an accompanying video, it’s all bookwork.

But don’t run away yet, if you don’t have your triads nailed you need to study this lesson.

Triads are the building blocks of so many things in music that it is essential that you can fluently spell every single one of them.

So the PDF download shows you a method to help you do just that.

Spelling Triads PDF

So take the time to study this material and post any questions you may have in the comments.

REMEMBER TO PLEASE SUPPORT THE SITE!! THANK YOU!!

Intermediate Theory Lesson – Understanding Major Keys Quickly and Easily

Carl Brown — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:02:45 +0000

This lesson is a quick tutorial on understanding and applying major keys. It is essential for every musician of every level to know what is covered in this lesson.

The material found in this lesson will form the backbone of all of our scale studies here at GuitarLessons365, so it would be a good idea to download the PDF and learn it.

The method used here to get you comfortable with keys is very simple and quick. However, the idea is not to try and figure out keys as quick as you can with this method. Take your time in learning and saying all of your major scales.

When it comes to actually applying this material in a real life situation, you won’t be using any method because hopefully by that time you will just know your keys automatically.

So this tutorial is really just a way to get these keys in your head so you can begin to become so familiar with them that eventually you won’t have to think about it anymore.

THAT is when you will truly have your keys nailed, and it only comes from a methodical study of the keys over a short period of time.

No video for this lesson, since its all bookwork.. WooHoo!!!

So Good Luck and let me know if you have any questions!!

Understand Keys PDF