Chord Theory and its Immediate Usefulness

Chord Theory and its Immediate Usefulness

Unless you know why it’s useful, the subject of chord theory could seem a bit bland. 

Imagine being able to figure out many, many possible voicings (ways to play a chord) for virtually any chord without having to consult one of those “1001 Chord” Books for Guitar. 

Let’s face it: you can’t really learn from those books anyway.  You can look up the chord in question, choose a voicing, and memorize it, but two things happen:

a) you will always wonder if you chose the best voicing, or

b) (much worse) you will always be dependent on the book.

When you learn how chords are constructed, you can make judgements in real-time on fingering adjustments to make to get the chord you are looking for. 

Understand that on guitar, the intervals of a chord may not be in the same order as they appear from low to high on an interval sheet.  For example, a D chord consists of the notes d, f#, and a which is the 1, 3, and 5 of D major.  But in practice a regular open D chord is “spelled” d, a, d, f# which is the 1, 5, 1, 3. 

The chord still has the intervals of a “root position” D triad (i.e. 1, 3, 5), but the order of notes is jumbled up so we can play it a lot more easily.

Now suppose you need a Dm(maj7) which is a minor chord with a major 7th.  Later in this presentation you will learn that a minor third is a half-step (one fret) lower than a major third, and a major 7th is a half-step below a root. 

So first you take a D chord and lower the third of the chord (the f# on the first string) one fret to get Dm:

 Then you lower the root of the Dm which (is on the 2nd string) one fret to get the major 7:

 If this is confusing at all, just trust the process that is about to unfold for you. 

Using the standard notation, tablature and diagrams on the following pages, you will be able to play the notes of each chord separately on one string, and then play a common fingering for that chord. 

The advantage of playing chord tones on one string is that you can see the spatial relationship of the notes to each other so you can move notes around according to your needs (as in moving the major 3rd of D down one fret in the Dm(maj7) example.)

So first play each note separately, then play the chord. 

The numbers right below the notes indicate the interval of that note within the scale.  (For example, in bar 1, c is the 1st note of the C major scale, e is the 3rd, g is the 5th.) 

I have also included the octave of the root, denoted as “8.”  Playing the root an octave up helps you see the relationship of the last note of the chord (most often the 7th or b7th) to the next root (as in moving root of the Dm chord down one fret to get the major 7th in the Dm(maj7) example.)

It is also possible that, for fingering convenience, a note or two may be left out. 

For example, some of you may notice that on the C6 chord, there is no 5th (the note g) in the voicing.  This is not cheating.  It’s more important to play the ‘good’ notes well and in a timely manner than to go for something less convenient for an interval that doesn’t add much to the overall flavour of the chord. 

(In this case, the 6th really defines the C6 chord so we choose that note over the note g which is the 5th.)

As a final word, it would a great exercise for you to take different roots (ex: A, D, G, etc.) and make the intervals on 1 string for all the chords in that key.  Then, try to come up with fingerings on your own before consulting your teacher for common ways to play them.  Doing this will really solidify both your chord theory and your fretboard mastery.

About the Author:  Dennis Winge is a pro guitarist and educator living in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State.  For guitar lessons in Ithaca, NY be sure to check out his school. 

Top 3 reasons you’re not getting results from your guitar practice

Top 3 reasons you’re not getting results from your guitar practice

In my guitar teaching, I often encounter some widespread misunderstandings about what it actually means to practice the guitar.

In my experience, the most common reasons that my students are not getting results from their practice time is because they have a wrong understanding of what the concept is actually about.

The 3 reasons stated in this article is meant to help you break out of your wrong practice habits and start forming new, better and more effective ones.

1) Are you practising or playing?

To play the guitar and to practice the guitar is two very different things and it is critical to know the difference between the two if you wanna improve your guitar playing. It’s important to note, that there is nothing wrong with “just” playing you guitar, but problems can arise when you confuse playing with practising.

By its very definition “practising” is the act of trying to improve one’s abilities in a specific area. This means that practising in its core concept can be one of two things.

Either it’s the act of acquiring a new skill(a new technique, lick, solo etc.) or improving upon something that you already know, but haven’t yet mastered.

“Playing the guitar” on the other hand is all the things you do with your guitar, that is not actively working towards bettering yourself in some area of you playing.

In other words when you are sitting in front of your tv or your computer “practising”, you are actually playing.

When you are “practising” while having a conversation with your girlfriend, you are actually playing the guitar not practising.

When you are noodling around with your guitar, you are playing not practising. I could write many more examples like this, but you get the idea.

The common theme here is the fact that your mind is only half involved in the actual practising. Therefore you can by its very definition only practice things, you already know well enough to practice them with only half a mind. And this is not what you NEED to be practising in order to improve your guitar playing.

 Then what is guitar practise?

Guitar practice is the means with which you will be able to play the way you want and you playing is the result of you being able practice efficiently. This distinction is critical to your overall ability to reach your guitar playing goals. 

2) Are you practising with a goal in mind? 

Your guitar practises should always have a specific and well defined goal. What is it you ultimately wanna achieve with your guitar practicing and how is this specific activity that you are doing going to help you reach that goal. If you can’t answer those questions in a concrete way, chances are that you are wasting valuable time practicing the wrong things. 

To ignore the goal you are working towards is like getting into a bus without knowing where it’s going. The chances of you reaching your desired destination are extremely low. No matter what you wanna achieve with your guitar practise you will get there a lot faster if you do it with a specific goal in mind.

 3) Practice session length

A question I often get asked by my students is “how much/long should I practice”. They might have seen Steve Vai’s 10 hour workout or heard Yngwie tell the story about how he practiced 8 hours a day from the age of 13 to the age of 18.

While these stories can demoralise everybody, they also tend to overemphasise the importance of “how much” you practice.

While practice time is important it is only one among many factores that determine how fast you will develop your guitar playing.

In reality the only case where practice time is the determining factor is if this is the only factor that is changing. This means if you are practicing a specific lick for 10 minutes instead of 5 and everything else (your focus, practice method, concentrations, practice environment etc.) stays exactly the same.

In reality, the question you should be asking is not “how long”, but “how efficient”. Only when your entire practice routine is optimised should you be focusing on the amount of time you practice.  

Practising your guitar in the right way will mean the difference between you being able to reach your guitar playing goals or not. Implementing the above mentioned things will get you well on the way to optimising your practice routines.

About the author: Janus Buch is a long time guitar player and founder of the Bredballe Guitarskole, where he teaches guitar students of all levels. If you’re not satisfied with your guitar playing progress contact Bredballe Guitarskole and let us prove to you that we offer the best Beginner guitar lessons Vejle, by helping you reach far beyond what you thought possible on your guitar.

Rhythm is everywhere. Use it!

Rhythm is Everywhere. Use it!

Many intermediate guitarist have trained to reach good skills in many important areas of their guitar playing. But one skill that is often neglected is the art of transcribing rhythm. If you want to immediately improve your ability to express yourself on the guitar read on and try what I suggest.

When training for example on a scale most guitarists use an even rhythm. That is reasonable since the skill in training should be usable equally fast at every time. When you then go on and try to improvise something you should concentrate on getting out of the even rhythm. To make that simple I will present several ideas on getting an arsenal of rhythms.

Technique 1: Listen to your favourite music.

Did you ever listen to your favourite music with a special emphasis on rhythm? I encourage you to do this. Hum with the melody or tap your finger in the rhythm and you will notice how rich the music is. Make an attempt to write the rhythm down. If you are already versed in music notation this will probably not challenge you, but nonetheless this is good training for your rhythmic skills. If you do not (yet) know music notation you could use length of lines as an indicator of note length.

Technique 2: Listen to people speak.

People are able to speak in a monotone rhythm, but usually they don‘t. You could try to get rhythmic ideas from the rhythmic patterns people use to phrase their words and sentences. Try to note the ideas down again; but more importantly: Try it with your guitar! The easiest plan would be to just play an open string and pick the rhythm you have just identified. Once you got that you could play little melodies with the rhythm. 

Bonus Tip:

Identifying the rhythm in speech patterns might be easier to do with a recording in a language you don‘t speak so that you are not as much focused on the meaning of the words. Most DVDs have tracks in other languages.

Technique 3: Listen to your surroundings.

Many aspects of your environment make sounds in rhythmic patterns. Listen to them. Examples are singing birds, a printer, people climbing stairs, the clock on the wall, the typing of your colleague, the wind in the leaves. Especially the combination of several of those can get very interesting.

As you just read all of the techniques presented focused on listening consciously. You can apply this everywhere and anytime. Use the ideas you have collected in a jam session or when improvising with a backing track and see whether you can make them sound good. 

If you find an especially nice rhythm I’d be happy if you contacted me, Rene Kerkdyk, at Rock Gitarre Hildesheim. There I teach student how to use ideas like this to express themselves with the guitar.

How long does it take to become the singer you want to be?

How long does it take to become the singer you want to be?

Many people wonder how long it will take for them to become the singer they desire to become.

Many people believe the common myth that you need to start when you’re young.

Others believe you’re either born with a fantastic voice or you’re not. Both of these beliefs are simply myths. They’re merely excuses made by people who aren’t sure why they didn’t become the singer they had always wanted to be or by vocal coaches who can’t produce a substantial level of improvement.

First thing’s first: there are no shortcuts.

You have to put in the work. If you have the right method and you put in the work then your success rate will be 100%. You will become a great singer.

Many people’s expectations of their voice is too high.

So as a vocal coach for 5 years I will fill you in on a secret: Voice is not a lot of growing over time. It’s a lot of failing, seeing no improvement and then all of a sudden, click, you fixed this problem.

Now there is a portion of singing that is strength development since it involves your muscles. However, the majority of your experience (from a physical standpoint) is simply learning how to coordinate and use your body. When you were learning to walk, it wasn’t a matter of “I’m going to see incremental progress”, it was more of a matter of “how can I use these things” and failing to do so over and over again until one day, boom, you could walk after weeks of falling on your face.

There are many other processes in life that progress in this fashion. Singing is one of them. Just a heads-up though: toddlers never say about walking “maybe this isn’t for me”!

Doing the work it takes

What you need to focus on is making sure you simply do the work. Everyone wants to know how long it will take and the real answer is it will just take as long as takes. Just like some people learned to walk faster than others or learned how to talk sooner, so to do people progress differently with voice.

For most people it typically takes three years to get all the foundations down. That being said, when you have all the foundations down as a singer, you’ll be a very good singer. Voice is one of those instruments where simply getting the foundations down is such a task that the majority of people never reach that point. If you’re looking to go beyond foundations and learn to distort the voice, extend your chest voice as far as possible etc. It can take another 2 years of diligent practice to get that down.

Practising Singing and how long it takes

Now, that being said, you can speed up this process by simply practicing more. The 3-year rule for me is a singer who practices 1 hour a day at least 5 days a week. If you practice two hours a day you can speed up this process tremendously. It all depends on how badly you want it and your willingness to put in the time.

It also depends on whether you have the right method and coach though. If you don’t you could be wasting your time. My advice is to make sure that your vocal coach can sing the way you want or at least has the foundations down so that they can help you get that part done. If not, then a new coach geared towards your specific genre can help you with the rest of it.

About the author:

——————————-

Chris Glyde is a vocal Coach based in Rochester, New York who is constantly helping his students to propel their voices to new heights. If you’re looking for a Voice coach to help you check out voice lessons in Rochestervoice lessons in Rochester.          voice lessons in Rochestervoice lessons in Rochester

5 Reasons Why Learning Music Theory Is Important

Music Theory for Beginner guitar players

5 Reasons Why Learning Music Theory Is Important

Learning music theory may seem boring to some people, but it is actually very useful and it can massively increase your overall musical skills and knowledge. If you want to become an accomplished musician, it is vital to know some music theory. Below is a list of 5 benefits you will receive from learning music theory.

1. It Improves Your Knowledge And Understanding Of Music

Understanding how music has been created or why music sounds the way it does is something that learning music theory will help you with. You will be able to listen to music with a better understanding of it, and you may be able to enjoy different types of music more. Learning music theory may introduce you to styles of music that you have never heard before, and get you interested in music that you could not previously understand or relate to.

2. It Teaches You How To Analyse Music

There are many different forms of music analysis. You can learn how to analyse harmony, song structures, key changes, melodies and other musical elements. Analysing music will give you a great idea of how music is composed, and you can use the knowledge to your advantage while playing your instrument or composing your own music. Explaining or writing an analysis of music will also improve your thinking skills and creativity.

3. It Improves Your Ear

Music theory isn’t only about analysing music. It also consists of different kinds of ear training. A musician with a great ear is able to compose better music, improvise and play music with more expression. 

Imagine being able to quickly learn how to play any new music that you hear. Different kinds of ear training will allow you to become good at this. Knowing how to play by ear is a skill worth having for many reasons, and it can impact your life in many positive ways. E.g. learning songs by ear can save you a lot of time, because you will not have to struggle with sheet music or video tutorials.

4. It Improves Your Music Composition Skills

Learning about different music theory concepts will hugely improve your ability to compose your own music. Knowing the theory behind how music has been composed can give you lots of ideas for your own music. You will learn how to better apply things such as chords, rhythm, harmony, melody, intervals and scales to your compositions. 

5. You Will Become Better At Playing Your Instrument

Understanding music theory concepts will improve your ability to learn songs quicker. Your sight reading skills will improve and you will become familiar with lots of musical terminology and symbols, which can be found in music notation.

Knowing how to play in the right time is also a very important feature of an advanced musician. Ear training and rhythm exercises will help you improve this ability. Rhythm exercises can save you a lot of time and frustration while learning rhythmically difficult songs on your instrument. 

These are just a few of the benefits that knowing music theory will give you. There are many more, so I recommend taking a few music theory courses to figure out what it can do to you!

About The Author

Matti Carter is a professional musician based in Tampere Finland. He currently teaches piano and composes music. He also writes and publishes instructional articles. If you wish to contact him with a question, feel free to get in touch.

Seven Unique Songwriting Methods

Songwriting for beginner guitar players

Seven Unique Songwriting Methods

Whether you have written 1 or 100 songs, it's always good to familiarize yourself with new composition techniques. The following are some ideas to either get you started, or to change the way you have been doing things for years.

Where to start with songwriting?

With all the people who spend time writing songs every day, it's interesting that many probably don't often consider HOW to actually write a song. For instance, where should one begin? Do you start with the chorus, or the verses? Is it best to write on the guitar, or piano? Or should you try to write the song away from your instrument?

The ways one can write a song are seemingly endless. However, there are some out there who have been lucky enough to find a method that just works for them. Which is great, but it often leaves the not so lucky ones to feel like they don't have what it takes. And then there are the people who are convinced that there should be no method at all and that all music should only come "naturally".

What’s the right way of writing songs?

What is for certain is that there will never be any one way of writing a song that will work for everyone. On top of that, something that works for a musician one week might not work as well for them the next.

If you want to continue to believe that songwriting is nothing more than sitting and waiting for inspiration to strike, feel free to stop reading now. Not trying to burst anyones bubble. Though, if you are looking for ways to change up your writing technique the following is a great place to start.

Read through the following 7 ideas that you can take into your next writing session. These certainly are not the only 7 ways, but they just a few to give you a taste of whats possible.

1 The Dependable Way

If you are looking to simply write a basic tune, you are going to want to follow this procedure. Begin by finding one chord progression for your chorus, and another one for the verses. Play them over and over till you can find an interesting melody to put over top. The common format for these kinds of tunes are often Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus. At this point you will want to add a bit of intrigue with a bridge and maybe even a solo of some sort. Then play the chorus at least a couple more time, perhaps an outro as well, and you got yourself a standard song structure.

The good thing about this is that it is generally a pretty safe way to write a tune and provides you with an easy structure to follow. The bad thing is, you follow this structure too often and your music will start to get a little boring (and you will probably get bored of writing tunes this way as well). Its good to know how to write a song this way, but should not be the only way you write.

2 Make Your First Line The Biggest

Besides writing a song in terms of chord progressions, you can also consider writing in terms of dynamics. Maybe you want to blow the listener away on the opening line, or perhaps you want to begin very quiet and increase the dynamics bit by bit throughout the song.

Decide if you want the chorus to sound fuller and more intense than the verses, or if you want it the other way around. Theres no real right answer to this. Do you want each chorus to be played with the same intensity? Or do you want to save the real big chorus for the climax at the very end?

A fun way to challenge yourself is to take some paper and draw out a graph out the dynamics of your tune from start to finish before actually writing it. Next, start writing out chord progressions and melodies that fit with these dynamics. Theres various ways to build up and bring down a tune including pitch, chord qualities and instrumentation. So go ahead and experiment with these.

3 Start With The Lyrics

You'll find that most songwriters like to find a good chord progression before they figure out the lyrics. However, this doesn't mean you can't try it the other way. There are in fact many popular tunes that started with the lyrics, Elton Johns "Crocodile Rock" being one of them.

The advantage to starting with the chords is that it is easier to to find words that fit within a certain chord structure than it is to try and find a chord structure to fit around words that have already been written. Though trying to do it the other way around is a challenge that may lead to interesting results. Perhaps the lyrics you wrote only works in a time signature you have never tried before. It gets you thinking outside the box a little bit and produces a more unique sound.

If you are someone who writes metal or prog rock music, this is definitely something you should try. Its a great practice to get you used to odd time signatures.

4 Take Lyrics From The People Around You (Money For Nothing)

Can't seem to find any words or stories worth putting into a song? Then take words from other people (no, don't blatantly steal someone else lyrics). What you can do is start a conversation with someone you know (or a complete stranger is even better).

Listen closely to what they have to say and write it down. With the right mind set, any conversation or personal anecdote has the potential to become a hit song. This is precisely how Mark Knopfler went about writing his hit "Money For Nothing". He went to an appliance store and struck up a conversation with one of the clerks, carefully transcribing what they were saying.

Theres no real skill required for this other than being able to really listen to the people around you.

5 Start By Choosing The Instruments You Want

Before actually picking up an instrument, decide in your head what instruments you'd like the song to have. Once you do, be sure to write it down so you don't forget.

What you write down could look something like this…"The song will start with a soft piano intro until we get into the opening line of the song, at which point a string section will be added. At the first chorus I will include some bass drum and vocal harmonies in the back that will build up throughout the song. When the final chorus comes I will include a full drum kit and electric guitar. The outro will go back to the original soft piano."

This technique is not only easy, but its fun too! By imagining how you want the song to sound before playing it, you aren't limited to your own playing abilities and you will probably write more interesting and complex sounds than usual.

6 Get Yourself A Song Writing Buddy

When writing a tune, there's no need to do absolutely everything yourself. Try finding a friend to not only write with, but to hold you accountable for writing more often.

When writing together, you can have one person write the lyrics and the other person write the music (it's good to change up who does what once in a while). Who ever writes their section first can share it with the other person to complete.

After both parts are written, you can try recording a rough demo to check out the result. Co-writing does take a bit of getting used to, but you'll be surprised what sort of things you can come up with.

7 Choose A Specific Story Or Feeling To Write About

For this technique, come up with a specific feeling or situation first. The more detail you can think of the better. For example "anger" is a little too broad. "Angry at a cheating lover" is okay. While "My lover of 5 years cheated on me with my best friend the day after our anniversary and I found out by smelling his scent on her summer dress" is way better.

After you've come up with the story line or idea, then go on to figure out the musical elements of the song. Will this song be best represented acoustic or electronically? Should it be predominantly major or minor? What kind of time signature do you want it to have? How complex do you want the instrumentation to have? Is it going to have one singer, or more?

Figuring out the details for your new song

Figure out all these details before you actually play anything. After you get all the small details figured out, the actually song will start flowing naturally. And with an idea as detailed as this, you cut down on the amount of wasted time with your instrument thinking "hmm what should I write about". Just remember to actually write everything down. Don't try to go off a vague idea in your head or else its easier to forget about the whole thing all together.

To see this method in action, watch the following video linked.

Write A Song

At this point you should hopefully feel inspired to start the actual writing process. What you are going to want to do is…

1. Pick from one of the above methods (which ever one you liked the most)

2. Shut down your computer and remove any possible distractions

3. Begin writing a song

Set a time limit and give yourself a couple hours tops to write a full tune beginning to end (the world doesn't need more half written songs). Continue this process once a day for at least a week and then you will have 7 new songs to enjoy. If you find you enjoy one of them enough, post it to YouTube and send me the link. I'm interested in hearing what you create!

About the Author

A professional prog rock musician, Tommaso Zillio is a regular writer of columns about music composition.

Learning Music Theory Will Make You A Better Guitar Player In Three Ways

Learning Music Theory Will Make You A Better Guitar Player In Three Ways

There are hundreds of reasons to learn music theory, but for this article, we will focus on just three main reasons to get started on this journey today.

Why Music Theory?

Will Music Theory stunt your creativity, or will it set you free on the path of musical enlightenment? Is it worth finding out? And are you better off staying away from it completely? The answers to this are surprisingly simple — keep reading to find out more!

Everyone on the Internet likes to talk about their tips for learning Music Theory, and there's always at least one commenter who doesn't believe it's worth it ("you just gotta feel and go along with the vibe"), or that other person who says Theory "is the only way to get good." But one thing neither of these people get into is what tangible benefits does learning Music Theory actually give you. 

It's always a good practice to know what you're getting into before expending energy on it, right? 

Like any good debate, experts land on either side of the fence when it comes to Music Theory. And there is a solid reason why you can find many articles about people who have had a bad experience with it: They've learned Music Theory the wrong way. But how can you be sure you're on the right path? The best way it to learn with a competent teacher.

In the end, once you start learning Music Theory using the "real" method, you will start gaining the following skills (and these are just the beginning) much quicker than you might think.

You'll Have The Ability To Write Songs Like A Breeze

Have you ever had a sudden rush of inspiration for a great riff, but then start to have trouble breaking it into a whole song? This is a common issue that happens to every musician — the good news it's a temporary condition caused by a limited knowledge of composition and creative stimulation. 

I know, I know, you've never heard that learning music theory can actually stimulate creativity; but it's absolutely true. And that's because, contrary to popular belief, Music Theory actually doesn't contain a single rule, but is actually a set of tools to be used when they're needed. 

There is also a large study of Music Theory dedicated to the exact problem of completing songs from a single melody, riff, or chord progression. The best part is that there are many ways to do this — and learning theory will help you find multiple different ways for the darkest of nights. 

Think about it, Elton John isn't the only musician out there who won't work on a song for more than 30 minutes, realizing that taking any longer only results in a boring composition; but have you ever composed a song of that quality in less than 30 minutes? Would you like to make it to that level? The answer lies in music theory, and that ability comes much faster than you would believe.

Your Fingers Will Become And Extension Of Your Ears

Have you ever listened to Steve Vai and wondered how he can easily sing exactly the same melody as is coming from his guitar - and vice versa? It's actually a simple technique called transcribing, and he can do it in the moment: and with a little bit of practice, a complete amateur will be able to as well. 

Make sure to practice this technique for a little bit, and if it isn't as simple as I think it is, let me know in the comments below. 

You'll Learn How To Solo Over Every Chord Progression

Many players new to the guitar know of only two methods to solo or make a melody over a chord progression: using "patterns" or going by "ear"; meaning they either listen for notes and melodies that sound good, or by learning and playing a number of unique patterns to use on top of fast or complex progressions. 

You'll be forgiven if it sounds a little backwards — because it absolutely is. When you start to learn theory, you'll see that using patterns and playing by ear are actually the same for two reasons:

1. You'll know the patterns before the notes are played.

2. When you hear a note, you'll know what patterns it works with.

Playing with patterns and by ear will mesh into the same thing once you start picking up theory the correct way. Once this happens, your fingers will become an extension of your heart — even when you're faced with complicated progressions. 

It sounds tough, but once you start practicing, you'll see how simple it really is. 

Next Steps

Now that you're ready to begin working on these skills, it's time to hit the books. There are thousands of resources on different sites throughout the Internet. And while there are good ones out there, finding them means you have to think critically as outlined in my article about Real Vs. Fake Music Theory; I have many more resources that can be found in the link below, as well — such as a map to help navigate Music Theory, and guides for beginners. Remember to grab your guitar, and practice along with all of the readings!

About The Author

A professional guitarist, teacher, and composer, Tommaso Zillio enjoys particularly writing about guitar music theory and its application to guitar playing