How Guitars Work

In the previous lesson, we’ve looked at playing the root note (or tonic) along with a third interval harmony.  This next lesson will  be in two parts and we’ll look at adding the fifth interval note to build a full major chord. Remember, that’s how all chords are built, based on the first (or root note), major third interval note, and perfect fifth interval note of a scale. In part a of this lesson, I’ll teach you how to find fifth interval notes in relation to your root notes. In part b of, you’ll have a go at playing fifth intervals by using power chords. Building a C chord with a third and fifth interval note Let’s start part one of our lesson on fifth interval notes by looking at the C chord. To build a C chord, we take the first, third and perfect fifth interval notes from the C scale. So we spell the C chord as C, E, and G. C - Tonic (or root note) C# - Flat 2nd  D - Second D# Flat 3rd E - 3rd F Perfect 4th F# - Flat 5th G - Perfect 5th G# - Flat 6th A - 6th A# - Flat 7th B - 7th

In lesson 4, we looked at the important role that third interval notes play in:  building chords and making them either major or minor creating harmony if you want to play them alongside your melody notes. In this lesson you'll learn how to find third interval notes quickly anywhere on the fretboard. We've already looked at how the guitar is an instrument tuned around intervals of perfect fourths and major thirds. You've also learned that  the perfect fourth interval note is usually directly below your root note.  So, if I play the note G on the E string, I know that the fretted note below it is going to be the perfect fourth interval (the C note): Let’s just check if that's the case and refresh our memories. Well, the fretted note on the fifth string is the note C. So there should be an interval of a perfect fourth between G and C: Tonic is G Flat 2nd is G# Second is A Flat third is A# Major third is B Perfect fourth is C If I know that the strings are tuned in interva

When we’re working out a song, it’s important that we know what key it's in. If you’ve shied away from keys and scales in the past, because you think it means spending hours learning complex theory, don’t worry, I’m going to break this down for you and show you specifically, how to apply this to the guitar. You will learn That there are seven individual notes in any key That you can use these notes to understand which chords to play in a key Chords 1, 4 and 5 in a major key will always be major Chords 2, 3 and 6 in a major key will always be minor Chords 7 in a major key will always be diminished What is a musical key? A key is a family of notes that sound good together. We already know that there are 12 notes in the musical alphabet. You can start on any note (A-G) and work up all 12 notes until you return to the start (this is known as a chromatic scale). When you play in a certain musical key, you identify which 7 of the 12 available notes in the musical alphabet you are goin

In this lesson I’m going to show you how to take a simple three note bassline and, using harmonies, turn it into something that's interesting and beautiful to play or listen to. We’re going to split this session into two parts.  In part a you’re going to learn: The difference between notes, harmonies and chords How chords are built In part b, you’ll use this knowledge to find and play harmony notes. You’re going to need to refer to the PDF sheet you filled in as part of your homework in lesson 3 , so if you haven’t got that to hand, go grab it now. Part a The difference between notes, harmonies, and chords If you play an additional note at the same time as your melody notes, you're playing a harmony. So a harmony is made up of two notes that sound good when played together. If you play an additional two notes at the same time as the melody notes, you're playing a chord: One sound is a note Two notes at the same time is a harmony Three notes or more at the same time is a ch

In this lesson, we’ll be looking at musical intervals - or the spaces between notes, and why they’re so important for guitar players to understand. You will learn: What an interval is The name of the 12 interval positions That you can play the same melody in different places, as long as the intervals between notes are the same How the guitar is tuned, helps you to learn where to find your interval notes What the place markers on the fifth fret and seventh fret of your guitar are for Interval names In music theory, each of these twelve positions in the musical alphabet has a special name assigned to it.  That name references how far away it is from the first note played in a particular scale. The correct musical term for this distance between notes is an interval.  I’m going to show you the names of these 12 intervals now because as we move through the lessons you’ll learn: the relationship they have with each other how to move between intervals quickly, without having to memorise the f