Music Theory is often a touchy subject in the guitar world. A high percentage of players will tell you it isn’t necessary. I am one of those who clearly disagree with this philosophy. The more you know about music, the better. If all you do is learn a song, you mic the analytical process which helps you digest the music a whole lot better.
The first thing to understand is harmony. Some people will say scales. They are really both the same actually. Scales are merely the link of notes that are related harmonically. A scale is just a harmony. That’s where studying the circle of fifths comes in really handy. There are twelve notes which gives you twelve keys. That means there are twelve points that can be considered the root of the harmonic structure. Key and scale are almost interchangeable. Think of key as a set of notes that can be called upon within a certain harmonic framework. The scale just puts them in ascending and descending order.
Harmony is what explains how scales and chords are connected. The note that the key is named for is the center of activity. The whole thing is based on a pattern discovered by Pythagoras. It is all mathematics. The way frequencies are related. Frequency is the speed at which the air is moved through vibration. That is why some notes sound better than others when played together. Actually, that is subjective but there are harmonies that are considered more pleasant than others. When Pythagoras figured this out the notes were not equally spaced. Some keys were more dissonant than others. Later musicians developed the idea of equal temperament. That means that all twelve tones are the same distance apart. There is not hierarchy. This comes together clearly when you study the circle of fifth’s.
This may be a bit of a difficult concept to understand. Having said that, a little bit of knowledge goes along way. You don’t really need to understand the exact math to understand music. Knowing how keys relate is, in my opinion a must know piece of the musical puzzle. The nice thing is that theory applies to all instruments, not just the guitar. This helps with arranging songs for your band, writing, learning new material, etc. If you have any questions about this or have any other topics for future episodes of For the Guitarist drop me a line. My e-mail is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Thanks for reading and don’t be afraid to think while you play.
