How Guitars Work

In this lesson, you'll learn how to spell each of the major chords.  What do I mean by that? Well, when you learn any new chord, you need to know the three core notes that make up that chord (the tonic, the major third interval, and the fifth interval). If you do this, regardless of how you play the chord, you’ll always be able to identify which notes you’re playing, anywhere on the fretboard. I’ve included a print out for you below, so you can start to learn how to spell each of the major chords. Each time you say a chord name, just spell it out too. For example, you’d say C chord, C, E , G. It only takes a few seconds and it really helps you to remember which three notes you’re going to be playing.  As you move through the next few lessons, you’ll start to see why this is really important, and so useful to you as you mature as a guitar player. Spell each of the major chords - worksheet (PDF, 22KB) Spell each of the major chords - answer sheet (PDF, 23KB) Guitar practice journal

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