The 4/4 time signature tells a performer to play four crotchet beats in each bar and will be heard in the majority of popular songs. 3/4, also known as Waltz time, is similar but refers to using three crotches per bar instead. Texture in music is effectively created through the different layers of instruments and what they’re all doing at any given time. This means a thick texture will typically include many instruments or fewer instruments playing more hectic, full lines. A thin texture will typically include less instruments or more sparse performances from more instruments.

We’re only adding it here so you have a complete understanding and you won’t use it in the vast majority of chord progressions. Between the letters of the natural musical alphabet, we have sharp and flat notes. Sharps and flats are interchangeable, meaning that an A sharp is the exact same note as a B flat. In the same vein, a D flat is the exact same note as a C sharp. Piano players have to deal with white and black keys, but as a guitar player, it’s much easier to see whole and half steps. A standard triad or seventh chord is created by stacking thirds from a root note.

Welcome to GuitarMusicTheory.com where you can learn the inside secrets to popular guitar music. See how scales, chords, progressions, modes and more fit into your favorite songs. Go beyond guitar basics and get to know how music works on the guitar fretboard. Gain the skills necessary to compose and improvise your own music. Many players who don’t understand the inter-workings of music are limited in their ability to apply what they know.

It allows you to quickly find the corresponding chords in the new key. Thankfully, those numbers are the numbers you’ve already been using to find out which chords are major and which chords are minor. When you look at the piano, any two keys right next to one another would be considered a half step apart. If you skip a key in between two notes, then they are a whole step apart. Strive for your best; you’ll have more fun when you see you’re improving. But know you’ll automatically get better at playing the guitar by just being there doing it and letting go.

They are put into layman’s terms and have excellent examples to reinforce what they say about each concept. As mentioned before in this article, the way the information is presented is crucial – it must be accessible to people wanting to learn the theory for the first time ever. Will always teach you what you need to know but also show you how these concepts are specifically applied to the fretboard.

And yet, we all know guitarists that have the best Guitar rig in the world and still have a bad tone. The fact is that regarding tone, the player comes before the instrument. Click here to see how you can get a great guitar tone by spending nothing and only changing the way you play and approach the instrument. A real idea of what aspects of music theory are the most useful things for you to learn right now and in your guitar playing future. Now that the pattern begins on a G, you’ll get a G major scale. Notice that although the pattern remains the same, the notes have changed.

That’s a seven-note scale comprising only natural notes, meaning no sharps and flats. He has a practical, hands-on approach to teaching, with a focus on the guitar fretboard and emphasis on popular songs. Desi honed his craft through decades of teaching, performing, and publishing. Pentatonic scale pattern one, as shown here, is perhaps the most widely known and used scale pattern on guitar.