Why you need music theory for guitar

Music theory for guitar is a must whether you are a complete beginner, intermediate or advanced guitar player, it is one thing which will always remain a constant. Your ability to progress as a guitar player will always depend on the knowledge you possess.  All music worldwide is based on its own unique language known as music theory. To become an expert music theory for guitar is an ever changing learning curve you need to keep up with. As a beginner you need to learn guitar scales and obviously guitar chords before progressing to advanced music theory guitar lessons.

Music Theory for Guitar

There are many ways to advance, like buying a music notes for guitar book or a music theory for guitar dvd. Once you have mastered the principles of this language, feel free to consider yourself to be bilingual! Now you may be thinking “Learn a new language? No way, not me”, but as you will soon find out it is not that difficult. In fact, the skills required to learn music theory for guitar were all acquired in grade school while reading music.

A-B-C’s of music theory for guitar

So what exactly are the A-B-C’s of music theory for guitar? Well, they are exactly that! The A-B-C’s.  Western music, in total, has exactly 12 tones based on a very small musical alphabet.  Can you say you’re A-B-C’s?  Great, because in music, once you get to “g” you are done. Here are all twelve tones:

A  - A#  – B –  C-  C# – D –  D# –  E –  F -  F#  – G – G#

A – Bb – B – C –Db – D – Eb – E – F – Gb – G – Ab

The “number sign” you see represents a “sharp” tone, and the lowercase “b” represents a “flat” tone.  They are EXACTLY the same.  In other words, an A# is the same note as a Bb.  So if you look at the two scales above, you can simply match them up by position to see what notes are the same (i.e. look directly below F# to see that it is the same note as Gb).  Simple, right?

So now that we know our new language is based on a simple alphabet with sharps and flats, we can start to learn how they apply to each key signature. If you have ever seen a musical staff (the lines where musical notes are written), you may have noticed a series of sharp or flat symbols in the beginning.  This is done to simplify the music reading and writing process.

There are 7 sharps and they are in this order: F# – C# – G# – D# – A# – E# – B#.  Therefore if you see one sharp symbol, it will always be an F#.  If you see two sharp symbols, they will always be F# and C#, and so on.  Therefore, if the piece of music is showing one sharp symbol on the musical staff, that tells us two things. One, we are reading a piece of music written in the key of G, and two, very F note in the piece will be played as an F# (unless otherwise noted in the piece).

So here’s where music theory for guitar gets really simple.  There is one key that has no sharps or flats and that is the key of C. So if you can say your “musical” alphabet starting from C until you get back to C, then you can name all the notes in a C major scale.  Here it is: C, D,E,F,G,A,B (and the next note is C which would be the next “octave” in the key of C major). If there is one sharp (F# as we learned) you would be in the key of G. So the notes in a G major scale would be G,A,B,C,D,E,F#.  So you have just mastered your first music theory for guitar lesson!

Take a look at the chart below:

Cmaj  –  0 sharps

Gmaj  –  1 sharp  –  F#

Dmaj  –  2 sharps  – F#,  C#

Amaj  -   3 sharps  -  F#,  C#,  G#

Emaj  -   4 sharps  -  F#,  C#,  G#,  D#

Bmaj   -  5 sharps  -  F#,  C#,  G#,  D#,  A#

F#maj -  6 sharps  -  F#,  C#,  G#,  D#,  A#,  E#

C#maj -  7 sharps  -  F#,  C#,  G#,  D#,  A#,  E#,  B#

Music theory for guitar last thoughts

Do you notice anything that may help you remember this easily?  I can tell you it has something to do with the alphabet.  Ok, enough suspense.  If you look at the last sharp, the key you are in is the NEXT letter in the alphabet!  Determining flat keys is very similar, however, since flat keys aren’t as widely used, we are not going to discuss them here. Lesson 1 of music theory for guitar concluded.