Where to learn Theory for beginners

There's more lessons/article right here than you can shake a stick at... hit the lessons tab at the top of the page and away you go. There's something for just about every level here, but a few I'd recommend to you would be Theory Without Tears, Key Changes and Guide to Chord Formation. They'll whet your appetite, and of course, if you have any questions on the lessons just ask them right here :)

Frank - take it stage by stage and build gradually on what you've learned by asking relevant questions here.

For example,
Know that notes are named in music as A B C D E F G . and arranged according to pitch in an ever-repeating pattern (similar to the way numbers repeat after reaching 9)

Learn where other extra notes called flats or sharps are placed between some of those 'natural' notes.

Learn how to build a major scale starting from any note. (The major scale is the familiar doh re mi scale)

When you know the major scale you can learn how to combine notes from it to build chords.

Then you can learn how to arrange those chords in various ways (progressions) to produce good music (which is the whole purpose of theory)

Then you can learn about other scales which are used in improvising over chords (e.g lead guitar solos).

Most importantly - ASK QUESTIONS. And don't be put off by answers that you don't understand. That happens sometimes because we don't know the extent of your knowledge so it's possible to go over your head unintentionally. But the more you ask, the more we can know your level and answer more helpfully.

Hi,

Go to the beginner's section, in the main site (here) and anything by David Hodge is a good place to start.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

I'd definitely check out musictheory.net. The site takes lessons bit by bit and you can download the lessons on your computer so once you download it, you don't need to be connected to the net.

Thanks lads, but I feel a little bit besieged by all this theory at moment what do you think I should try to learn first. A little bit flustered here as there is so much to look at
do you think I should learn to read music as I can kind of read tab so is there a point plus I‘d like to be able to play the guitar that's all so what do I need to be able to do that and what theory would I need to help me achieve that I As like fretstone said learn how to build a major scale starting from any note. (The major scale is the familiar doh re mi scale) ect ect I kind of know the one before this so is this the order to start and where should one go to find out about find this topic ?
Hope this all makes sense

Start with "Theory without tears" - right here on this site.

Best,

A :-)

If you already know about note names including flats and sharps, then you can progress to the next step in the sample list I wrote - learning the major scale from any note.

You need to also know about tones and semitone (whole steps & half steps in the US). Maybe you already know but here it is again:

Each fret on the guitar represents a distance of 1 semitone - two frets is a tone.

To build a major scale you start anywhere and ascend in pitch according to this exact order of tones (T) and semitones (S)

T T S T T T S
Memorise that thoroughly.

Then try it. For example start on the open A string

Fret 0 = A (go up one tone or two frets)
Fret 2 = B (go up one tone)
Fret 4 = C# (go up one semitone or one fret)
Fret 5 = D ( go up one tone)
Fret 7 = E (go up one tone)
Fret 9 = F# (go up one tone)
Fret 11 = G# (go up one semitone)
Fret 12 = A. You're back where you started name wise (That's why your twelfth fret has a double dot or other special marking)

Pitch wise you're higher - exactly one octave higher i.e., 8 scale notes higher (from octa = 8 )

So that's the scale of A major played all on one string. I kept it one string to make it easier to explain but I could just as easily have changed strings to make it easier to play.

One very important point to remember is that you must ALWAYS change letter name as you go up. Note 3 is C#. It can't be called Db. The whole system relies on this fact. The scale of A major has 3 sharps. (F#, C# and G#). No other major scale can have three sharps. It is unique to A major and that's why in notation those three sharps are placed at the beginning and referred to as a key signature as in a unique identifier.

If there's anything you don't understand here - ASK.

Thank you that is very interesting so this theory TTSTTS does not work for like a Gmaj or any other note other than A? .(Is this right)

As for the other scales I should forget about them for a while and stick to your list when you say build a scale what do you mean?

And can you start from any A on the fret board or does it have to be on the E string hope I don't sound to stupid

Thank you that is very interesting so this theory TTSTTS does not work for like a Gmaj or any other note other than A? .(Is this right)

As for the other scales I should forget about them for a while and stick to your list when you say build a scale what do you mean?

And can you start from any A on the fret board or does it have to be on the E string hope I don't sound to stupid

It works for ALL major scales Frank. That's the beauty of it. If you learn that formula, you can apply it to any note to make that major scale, Here's another example using it - this time starting from F

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

So that's the F major scale. As you can see it has one flat, Bb (which CAN'T be called A#).

F major is the only major scale with one flat. Like A major it's notes are unique and has its own key signature which is a single Bb note placed at the beginning of sheet music. It lets the player know which notes and chords to expect.

The TTSTTTS works for all keys - it is the "DNA" of a major scale. All major scales consist of two blocks of four notes, spaced whole-tone, whole-tone, semi-tone apart. Each of these blocks is called a tetrachord (tetra =4), each tetrachord being spaced one whole-tone apart:

TTS - T - TTS
Key of C
C D E F G A B C
T T S T T T S

Key of A:
A B C# D E F# G# A
T T S T T T S

You may notice that the 2nd tetrachord of C makes up the 1st tetrachord of G, which has one more sharp note than C (which has none). 2nd tetrachord of G is the first of D (which has one more sharp than G).

You can continue this through all the major scales
http://freenet-homepage.de/greybeard/CycleOfFifths.htm
http://freenet-homepage.de/greybeard/Scales.htm

Hope this helps

And can you start from any A on the fret board or does it have to be on the E string hope I don't sound to stupid

Not stupid at all.
You can start on any A to make an A major scale. My post above is really just explaining scales from a theoretical viewpoint, rather than practical, because that's what you asked about.

But they have practical value too. They help you learn the fretboard and they train your fingers to move efficiently in ways that will often be required of them when playing real music.

Try to find some good fingering patterns for scales. You don't want to practice them all on one string as I showed you with the A major scale. That was just to explain the note arrangement of tones and semitones corresponding to two fret and one fret steps. You certainly wouldn't want to practise playing the scale that way.

G thanks lads, slowly getting my head around it, one thing though how do you know what set of notes to use (when building scales) for the E string b or # because with the sharp it goes FROM 3rd fret G G#A A# B C ect And the other as you all know goes from 3rd fret G Ab A Bb B C
need a break soon thanks again

sorry thats what i ment building scales from a theoretical viewpoint must u start on the bottom E string

G thanks lads, slowly getting my head around it, one thing though how do you know what set of notes to use (when building scales) for the E string b or # because with the sharp it goes FROM 3rd fret G G#A A# B C ect And the other as you all know goes from 3rd fret G Ab A Bb B C

No - that's not true. They are exactly the same names whether you start from string 6 fret 3 or from string 3 open. The note on the fret after G (any G) is called G# or Ab. and two more frets after that is called A# or Bb. Sometimes we have to call it by one name and sometimes we have to use the other name. Look at the F scale I showed you. Its fourth note has to be called Bb not A# because we must always change the letter name. We already had A as the third note so the next one can't be called A anything, it must be called B something, i.e., Bb, not A#.

In some other major scales you'll see it must be called A# rather than Bb. If you follow that TTS... formula exactly and always change letter name, you'll never go wrong when naming a note. You'll name it correctly.

No - that's not true. They are exactly the same names whether you start from string 6 fret 3 or from string 3 open. The note on the fret after G (any G) is called G# or Ab. and two more frets after that is called A# or Bb. Sometimes we have to call it by one name and sometimes we have to use the other name. Look at the F scale I showed you. Its fourth note has to be called Bb not A# because we must always change the letter name. We already had A as the third note so the next one can't be called A anything, it must be called B something, i.e., Bb, not A#.

In some other major scales you'll see it must be called A# rather than Bb. If you follow that TTS... formula exactly and always change letter name, you'll never go wrong when naming a note. You'll name it correctly.

thats great for some reason your post was not showing up till i was quoting you, ok i now understand thanks you must be used to guys like me a bit on the slow side we will call it age :lol:

THANKS