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Thanks for checking it out Chris, I have a lot of chord progression and theory lessons available here on the site. Perhaps you can refresh your memory with some of those as well.

I don’t think that is totally bad at all. The great Pat Martino usually see’s everything as minor as well. However, in most theory circles the major scale is considered the foundation of western music, so I use that as the basis for all visualization. Since every minor key and mode has a parent Major Scale, I feel it is the most consistent way of visualizing the fretboard. It becomes very easy to take every mode in music and reduce it to it’s parent scale for visualization purposes. The minor scale is one of those modes so I just personally feel it makes more sense to streamline everything down to something that they all share which is a Parent major scale. Hope this make sense!! Cheers.. Carl

All due respect, I’m hoping by the end of this that I will have brought to the surface what perhaps some others who are new to this strange way of looking at music or those who have have been feeling like me but haven’t been able to put it in words.

As an introduction, I’ve done music for all my life (you could say), but definitely over 20 years, singing, guitar, piano, and just about anything I could pick up, even rocks. But, all my life, I’ve never just sat down and learned music theory.

Bear with me a moment. I WANT to understand it so I beg you, don’t take my banter as something that is invalidating all that you have done (which is great) or all that you’ve learned, the experiences you have gotten or the success you have been given.

I’ll be honest, having talent in singing, guitar and songwriting has been frustrating when it comes to people who know theory. I feel pretty stupid when they talk as if they know my music better than myself. At the same time, I have met and know friends and associates who know music theory up and down but suck at playing, singing… or worse, don’t even play instruments at all!!

Deep inside my mind, some part of me doesn’t see the point or the practical application when I sit down and play my guitar. I write good songs, I sing wonderfully, I have relative pitch that could be developed more if I worked at it. I probably know more theory than I give credit because I’ve done music so long, but I couldn’t put a name to any of it. I can play a 3 note per string major scale on a guitar ONLY because I know the finger patterns. Over time, I have learned to shift that scale around the neck and connected that pattern that to other scales that interrelate to each other all over the neck. I did this without theory, just my ear, my guitar, a big chalkboard and a lot of patience.

The way I compose is as such, while I noodle around, I find something that sounds meaningful, communicates to me, begs to be created. Why do I care to assign a letter or name to it or what mode it’s in! If I then find another riff and it sounds good with the first one, someone with the theory might say, “Neat! You used a combination of [insert technical music theory babble] that’s really hard to integrate and you pulled it off! And I say, “I really don’t know dude, I just like the way it sounds.”

You and I certainly know great guitar players that don’t know a bit of music theory and create amazing stuff, yet said persons couldn’t name all the notes in every scale, and perhaps can’t even tell you how many sharps & flats there are even in what they are playing on the guitar neck.

So, in closing, let’s say I learn all the sharps and flats and I have learned how to create a minor and major scale in my head or on paper. But, I still have to learn *all* the notes on the guitar to really apply those scales and if I do, when it comes to writing a song, I’m not going to just sit there and count all the notes I play and make sure they are in a scale, or analyze what I play so that I can loft-fully say, “Oh, I wrote this using a mix of this node and that key”. And I’m sure you’ll agree, so that leads me to my original point. What is the purpose?

In closing: I admire people who learn theory and so can you please show me how you think learning this really translates to playing better guitar? What is the GAP that is filled from learning theory to sitting down and playing and being a better player or songwriter? If you play Little Wing, are you thinking of all the theory behind it? Was Jimmy? Wasn’t he stoned and high, getting his riffs and ideas from beyond the ether? I know he was trained, but did he really take such a rigid approach to writing music? HELP ME UNDERSTAND how these pieces fit together.

Gratefully,
Andy

I am having a hard time with this stuff, I guess I think all scales really are the major scale and i understand relative minor so I just see it that way.
All scales come from the major scale, I will keep trying Andy seemed to get it in a few days.
I have seen a change in my playing as well, I play a lot of stuff you hear on the radio so It seem, Ionian and Mixolydian and Aeolian are use in my playing and in most pop rock and country stuff.
Some times your solos come right from the chord shapes or tones.
I would like to plug Hendrix, he was high, too high in his solo act, but the man or boy played with so many greats of his day.
I have been playing longer than this man live on this earth, he had an old soul
Every guitar player alive today, well rocking players steals a lick from this Man.
Stevie Ray Vaughn did it like note for note but in another key and people think its his lick.
I have seen him play right handed guitars, stung for right handed players.
I think he could play any thing with a string, saw the man play a fiddle once.
He had big hands used his thumb and little finger for chords, which he got from Jazz greats of his day.
Got to plug Peter Green to, but Hendrix change the way we look at music so even if you don;t think his soloing is all that great, it was at that time.
I am going no where , I will stick with this training,it is needed and i wish I could have got it 20 years ago.
People are different, it my take ten weeks or ten months ANdy got it in ten days.
Carl seem to have a knack at teaching, this stuff is cracking my hard head, I think I will always think this is all the major scale I can’t get it out of my head but it is cool to try to re-learn stuff I really should have stuck with.
I dated a girl once she had a degree in music but had very little else , she really was a bad musician, if I didn’t see her degree I would not have believe it.
Thanks again to Carl Brown for making this site

I have been playing guitar for over 40 years — but mostly just chords — and really knowing little music theory. As one guy at another site expressed it “a singer who also plays guitar” .. he had expressed the desire to get to “a guitar player who also sings”. Never want to give up singing but would really love to improve my guitar playing.

Imagine after all of these years to be given something that will help me to remember how to determine things about a key without looking at a book. “UNDERSTANDING KEYS” is a great resource. I did find the last paragraph a bit more difficult to follow than the rest but all in all I was eventually able to figure out what you were saying.

Thank you so much.

I have taken some online courses and actually started guitar lessons with a teacher on three different occassions (three different teachers) as well as purchased some courses over the internet. But it is always starting over. And the depth of theory is usually what notes are on each string and not really getting to music theory — like I would like to understand how to put together a guitar chord — and when someone on our worhsip team calls out “key of G” for this song, I would like to know what to do — if I don’t have the chords in front of me or can clearly see where someone else’s hand is on the guitar, I am lost.
Probably a lot to ask. But really what a lot of courses appear to promise .. but so far don’t deliver.

I expect that if other stuff on your site is this good that I will want to contribute financially to your site from time to time but prefer a one time payment to a monthly withdrawal. Is there any way to do that? It is just that for other sites, the only way to stop an automatic monthly payment was to contact the credit card company. That is not desirable.
Some places allow a monthly fee or annual fee or in some cases a lifetime fee.

Once again, thanks.

If I want to share some of the PDF materials that you supply on your site, what are the rules?

I was just wondering something thats very confusing to me. I am trying to take in the key theory for figuiring out which keys have what sharps and flats. I’m catching on but here is my question. as far as I know there is no B# or E#. If you look at a piano it seems clear to me. I dont understand how you can have these in C# major or F# major which is shown in the PDF. Can some one open my eyes.

Thanks
Charles

Thanks Carl. I just started using the site and love it. Thanks for clearing up my confusion. It makes perfect sense now. I can move on now. Ya! I’m sure I will need you again so stay tuned.

Happy Hollidays
Charles

hi Carl
this Soumojit, before i wud write my query I must say here that u hve really good ear & playing ability. i also practicing regularly but not very good in music theory area. i want to how can I connect major chord notes with minor notes. Like if I am playing a music part in G key & if some where any minor chords reqd to placed then what will be that note or area, like in G major scale Em, Am, Bm, F#m chords will come but when i wud try transcribed a lesson how I will apply them.
pls reply soon because it is not able to sleep at night.

Regards
Soumojit

It’s been said before these lessons are simple and effective. Music theory is tough, but with a good teacher it really makes sense. My 2 cents worth is that if you are having a problem remembering the order of sharps and flats, the way I learned it, childish or not, is BEADGCF Bug Eyes Are Darn Good Cat Food. And FCGDAEB Fat Cats Get Down At Eds Bar. It made it easier for me to remember than just thinking of letters or that they are 4ths and 5ths.

Hey Kim, it does determine the chords that will be used in the song, even though the chords you will see will not always fit nicely into the original key due to a change of key within the song or other things like modal borrowing.

But for the most part, understanding the key and its corresponding chords should give you a much better idea of what is going on with the music.

Cheers! Carl..

Treasure *

Hey Carl, this is really good stuff! Really, but I need some clarification on this: C# Major: F# C# G# D# A# E# B# – this scale is spelled with B# as the last note and I always thought that B# was C… so when I read the lesson on minor scales and spelled out all of my relative minors I got to this scale and it occurred to me that I should probably ask for clarification on it. Can you tell me what the deal is with this spelling? I really needed the lesson, though. Thanx!!!