Guitar Conspiracy Theories

I’ve created this thread to start a discussion on basic music theory, how to harmonize a major scale, why are the modes in the order they are etc.

This will eventually turn into a blog series of posts.

So feedback on what should be included etc is very welcome.

In the attachment you see

	basic-music-theory-1.jpg	Download | View
	basic-music-theory-2.jpg	Download | View

I can’t read music, I get the basics but I always forget them – possibly because I have no desire to learn how to sight read unless I really really have to…

I can see the C D E F G A B C in the “Basic C Major”…

I can see that the harmonised C Major is just 1 3 5 or 1 m3 5 triads.

Then the harmonised C Maj 7 chords are 1 3 5 7… 1 m3 5 7, with the exception of the Bm7b5… Which is 1 m3 b5 7.

EMaj is exactly the same but the… symbol thing… stave? At the start has 4 sharps…. So EMaj is E F# G# A B C# D# E…

The modal sheet I see that ascending mode starts a note higher…

The Intervals
W – W – H – W – W – W – H

Two tetra chords are 2 separated by a whole step.

The major third interval and it importance to the scale.

Maybe the technical names of each degree.

It the mother of all scales, important is not close to the right word.
It must be learned to even begin to learn or understand music.

Must get the scale sound inside your head, best to use chords too do this.
solfege

Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti/Si, Do

May wish to repost the triads blog stuff as well to show these relationships.

If we don’t play chords like I IV V where we stay the longest on I then we are not really playing in Major anymore.

For example, if we play chord II – V, a bar each then we disregard the I chord and can therefore not be playing in major anymore.

What we do is start on Re, or 2 instead over chord II, like this:

Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do

or

2 3 4 5 6 7 1

and the 2 is our home.

Same thing with chord V:

Sol, La, Ti, Do, Re, Mi, Fa

or

5 6 7 1 2 3 4

yeah?

i would like to know the formula used to get

1 2 m3 4 5 6 b7 for the I

and

1 2 3 4 5 6 b7 for the V

how did it change from I ii iii IV V vi vii ?

Yes, this is where the confusion lie I think.

If you only play from chord II, the same underlying pattern is there as II III IV V VI VII I.

If we look at the tones and semitones that have now appeared we see that:

C major

C (T) D (T) E (S) F (T) G (T) A (T) B (S)

to

D (T) E (S) F (T) G (T) A (T) B (S) C (T)

if you count frets you see that C to E in the first one have 3 frets between them, Two tones.

from D to F you only have a tone and a semi tone.

Hence 1 2 m3 rather than 1 2 3.

Yeah?

Let’s do chord IV as well,

C (T) D (T) E (S) F (T) G (T) A (T) B (S)
F (T) G (T) A (T) B (S) C (T) D (T) E (S)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 2 3 #4 5 6 7

If you do not get the major scale and it relative minor it will be hard to get the other modes.
Playing the major scale using the most simple triads may be the best thing a person can do.
I also would choose arpeggios over modes for a beginner.

Pentatonic Major: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6
Ionian: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Lydian: 1, 2, 3, #4, 5, 6, 7
Mixolydian: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, b7

Pentatonic Minor: 1, b3, 4, 5, b7
Aeolian: 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7
Dorian: 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, b7
Phrygian: 1, b2, b3, 4, 5, 6, b7

Yeah poor old Locrian if you playing Diminished chords you are using this, it is just part of the Family.
Peace