An ascending Major Tetrachord consists of… any starting tone, followed by… the tone one whole-step above the first tone, followed by… the tone one whole-step above the second tone, followed by… the tone one half-step above the third tone. The term Tetrachord, by the way, is the combination of two Greek words: tetra meaning “four” and chord meaning “tone”. Here’s an ascending tetrachord starting on C: Now let’s [...]

The Major Scale, as you learned in the Basic Guitar Scales lesson, consists of a definite sequence of whole- and half-steps. This pattern of intervals gives this scale its character and unique sound. Another thing you learned in the Basic Guitar Scales lesson is that thebasic scale starting and ending on the tone C is also called the Ionianmode and that, in fact, is the only basic scale that is also [...]

Because you’re a guitarist or soon will be, you and I share something beautiful and profound. I want to help you make every moment of your guitar-playing time as musical, enjoyable and productive as possible. I also want to help you avoid the detours and dead-ends that have so often slowed my guitar journey. Whether you’ve been playing the guitar for less than a [...]

You probably started learning how to play guitar for personal reasons: A song you really liked may have featured a terrific guitar part. Your favorite artist or band prominently features the guitar. Your family and friends have complimented your singing voice and you’d like to learn how to play guitar to accompany yourself. Maybe you simply love music played on [...]

In this Guitar Technique section of the site I’ve made it my secondarygoal to clarify, to the absolute best of my ability, the most effective and efficient ways I know to play your guitar. My primary goal, however, is to help you have more fun with your guitar. Before we get started, let’s get something straight – I don’t know ofany player who has mastered every possible guitar [...]

Studying the vibrating guitar string, and the harmonics that arise from it, is a natural first step toward understanding guitar music theory. Please note: You can devote years to studying the complex events and interactions a vibrating guitar string generates. Please accept the following extremely brief explanation as an invitation to do your own research and exploration if you want a deeper [...]

This lesson covering the Group 2 Intervals rounds out what you’ve learned so far on the Introduction to Intervals and Group 1 Intervalspages. Mastering this information will prepare you for the coming lessons on Tetrachords, Scales, Arpeggios and the Circle of Fifths. Take the time to really understand Group 2 intervals. Doing so will payhuge dividends. The intervals of Group 2 include the 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th. Here are four examples in standard [...]

You might be asking yourself, “Why should I learn guitar music theory?” I’d like to answer your question by listing just a few of the benefits you’ll receive as you study this fascinating subject: You’ll play your guitar with much greater confidence becauseyou’ll understand what you’re doing. You’ll play with greater sensitivity. Playing solos consisting solely of one “lick” after another will [...]

You’ll receive some major benefits when you learn every note on the guitar fingerboard… You’ll play your guitar with greater boldness and confidence. Your playing skill will improve much more rapidly. You’ll find it much easier to learn chords and arpeggios. You’ll grasp music theory as it applies to the guitar much more quickly. Thoroughly knowing your guitar fingerboard simply makes playing [...]

Guitar chords and guitar chord theory can present real challenges to the new guitarist. On this page we’ll take a high-level look at what chords are and learn the 13 most useful chords for the beginner. With the chords you’ll learn in this introduction you’ll be able to play literally hundreds of songs. You’ll also have a solid grounding for [...]

In this lesson on Group 1 Intervals we’ll build on what you learned on the Introduction to Musical Intervals page. Understanding this material will give you a solid foundation for further studies in music theory. Now that you know how to recognize an interval’s numerical classification it’s time to learn how to recognize its type or quality. The first step in this process is to divide the [...]

The Diatonic Triads will play a critical and ongoing role in your understanding of music theory. In this lesson we’ll look at the diatonic triads you can create from the tones found in four essential scales: the Major scale the Natural Minor scale the Harmonic Minor scale the Melodic Minor scale You’ll also learn the basics of Roman Numeral Notation. This information will really come in handy as you explore music theory more [...]

Preventing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and protecting and improving your hand health need to be your top priorities as a guitarist, whether you’re brand new to the guitar or have been playing for decades like I have. Frankly, the ongoing state of your hand health determines, to a very great degree, how far you’ll go with your guitar playing. A little farther down [...]

After choosing the type of instrument you want, you’re ready to buy a guitar! In the 40+ years I’ve been playing I’ve used the following step-by-step process to buy a guitar literally dozens of times. The few times Ihaven’t used it the guitar didn’t work out and I sold it soon after buying it (with one very important exception; please see the bottom of [...]

The Blues Scale is one of the most important and useful scales you can learn. Knowing this scale will give you a solid foundation for playing blues guitar solos, of course. But this scale is also the foundation of most rock and metal solos as well! The fundamental blues scale consists of the tones 1, b3, 4, #4 (or b5),5 and b7. There are variations, but this lesson covers only this primary form. This first example [...]

The blues guitar solo tips you’re about to learn are the same tips thesegreat blues guitarists used to build their solos: Duane Allman Jeff Beck Chuck Berry Eric Clapton Robert Cray Jimi Hendrix John Lee Hooker Robert Johnson Albert King BB King Freddie King Gary Moore Stevie Ray Vaughn …and many more! Study these blues guitar solo tips and use them as you [...]

Blues accompaniment for the blues guitarist playing rhythm guitar falls into one of three primary approaches: the shuffle pattern the single-note riff comping, also known as chordal accompaniment In this lesson we’re going to look at the shuffle and single-note riffstyles of playing blues rhythm guitar. We’ll examine comping in the lesson on the most useful blues guitar chords. Blues Accompaniment Style #1 – The Shuffle Pattern Blues guitarists [...]

This excellent question has two answers… 1) You should take this beginner guitar lesson online because you’re now going to learn for free what a teacher would charge his normal hourly rate to tell you. And even if he did have the patience to clearly explain all this for his ninth time today, he’d probably tell you in such a rush (so that [...]

This lesson on the Basic Triads marks the starting point of our exploration of Harmony, one of the three fundamental elements of music. This harmonic element is based on three-note chords we calltriads. We can build triads on any note of any scale. These diatonic triads vary not only in quality but also in the way they function within a given tonality. With these thoughts [...]

Before we start this lesson on basic guitar scales let’s lay a foundation: The word Scale comes to us from the Latin word for ladder -scala.  The Basic Notes are A, B, C, D, E, F and G, unaffected by accidentals. Basic guitar scales are stepwise arrangements of these sevenbasic unaltered notes, contained within the span of an octave. Stepwise means starting at one of the basic notes and continuing alphabetically, remembering to start over after reaching G, until you [...]