Learnt by Ear

You might read this, Theory without tears. And shop around in the other articles on the theory page.

Hope that helps.

First, I think you have to understand that learning scales, music theory, etc. is not really a technical or different way to approach playing the guitar; it's merely a way to organize and communicate. If you can learn to play music by ear and you can write your own music then you already know a lot of the "techincal" aspects of playing, however you may not realize it.

I read a lot of threads debating whether learning theory, scales, arpeggios, etc. is worth doing. I can honestly tell you that the more I learn, the more valuable I find the information to be. I really could not appreciate the usefullness of such things until I truly mastered them and could incorporate them into my playing.

It's actually very simple to learn these things. First thing to do is to read a book on basic music theory. Noteboat's book is good. You want to find a book geared for the guitar. Check out Greybeard's page for scale charts, or look anywhere on the net. Note: don't try to learn too much too fast. Take it slow and fully master each piece before moving on.

Since, you can already play, I suggest you first learn about keys. Learn what notes chords make up the most common keys. Ie A, G, C, D, E. Then learn a major scale pattern, a minor scale pattern, and a minor pentatonic pattern. Then work on writing songs in key, and using scales to write a lead/melody.

If you want a really good method, check out Fretboard Logic (see my review in the Review of Instructional Material Forum).

One more thing. Learning theory might seem very difficult. However, it's no different than learning anything else like Math, English, or how to beat your favorite video game. You have to start with (and master) the basics, then you progressively learn more and more.

Hiya,

Don't try to learn theory all in one hit either - take as much as you need to understand what you're doing at any one time, and then don't worry about it until there's something else you don't understand.

Best,

A :-)

ah, the II V I, the I IV V, etc - all those seeminging random progressions all have theory behind them (yeah music theory goes deep, really really deep) but for our puposes don't worry about it, just know it exists. Theses "pentatonics" you hear of are scales. If your playing, for example a 2 5 1, lets say in the key of C, then the chords would be Dm, G7 , and C, that would just be a simple 2 5 1, but to play a solo over these chords, you would want to play a C major, or C major pentatonic scale, because the notes are all "in key" and will sound better, that's what scales are for, every scale you ever hear of has a pattern, that can be played (transposed) into any key you desire, so my advice would to go out and buy a beginning theory book, and also to look around on the internet, i found a website called cyberfret.com very useful when i first started learning theory, also, there is some good stuff right here at guitar noise.

Hiya, i've been playing guitar for many years, i'm decent at writing music/solo's etc;
i just listen tto the song, find the note that sounds in key, and play around that.. and it always sounds good..
But when come to sites like this and hear people talking about I IV and VII, and stuff like arp's and pentatonics, i get lost...
anyone know the best and easiest way for me to learn all this technical stuff about guitaring.
I'm hopeing it will allow me to understand what i'm playing, thus it will improve my playing..
Thanks

i'll give you the basic rundown. if you know the key of the song, (say it's Amajor), then a progression like "i iv vii" would be the 3 chords whose root note is the 1st, 4th, and 7th note of the Amajor scale. get it?

arpeggios are when you play the notes of a chord individually in (usually) an ascending or descending pattern. Pentatonics are a movable scale shape most commonly used with rock and blues. Everyone should know the pentatonic scale.

hope that helps,
kyle