These notes are very basic and simplified. Everything is more complex than described here. It is meant as a very basic start into music theory. I keep these notes as I try to learn blues guitar.
Looking at a piano keyboard we quickly see a pattern of white and black keys that repeats. The black keys come in bunches of two or three. Try playing the white keys starting with the one just to the left of a group of two black keys. That note is named C. If you play the white keys up to the next C you hear the familiar do re me fa so la ti do. This is, of course, the C major scale. Try fooling around playing the white keys starting and ending on a C. Now you're noodling around in C major. In the diagrams that follow the little vertical bars are meant to depict the black keys. The letters are note names for the white keys.
| | | | |
C D E F G A B C
^ ^
For extra credit do it again with only the white keys. This time start and stop on the key two white keys below the C. (or any of the white keys that fall between the second and third black keys in a group of three black keys) Sounds a bit melancholy, doesn't it. Now you're noodling around in A minor. Same notes, but different emphasis.
| | | | |
C D E F G A B C
^
When you play the notes in order (up or down) it's called a scale. When you noodle it's called a melody. So we have played the C major scale and the A minor scale and making up simple melodies with them.
Now try playing three notes at once. Not just any three, but the ones pointed to below:
| | | | |
C D E F G A B C
^ ^ ^
That's a C major triad. It is a very simple chord. The three notes harmonize with each other. Now try these three:
| | | | |
C D E F G A B C
^ ^ ^
Note that both the triads above use only the white keys, the keys in C major (and A minor). More subtle is the fact that there are two black keys between the left note of the triad and the center note. There is just one black key between the center and right notes.
The "distance" between notes is measured in steps. The distance between two adjacent keys is a half step. Two half steps is, naturally a whole step. So you can see that our C major scale follows the pattern of:
whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half
That's the pattern of the other major keys which can start on any piano key. Of course, except for C major all the other major keys will have to use black keys to keep the major pattern above.
Now back to our triads. Notice that if we play this triad it doesn't really have that same major sound:
| | | | |
C D E F G A B C
^ ^ ^
That's because it doesn't have the same number of steps between the tones (the same number of black keys). But this one does:
| | | | | |
C D E F G A B C D
^ ^ ^
That's it. These are the only three major triads where all the notes are in the C major scale. Here's another diagram where we go vertical to show the notes in all three triads:
| | | | |
C D E F G A B C
E A B
G C D
Play all three notes of the C major triad. Then do the same for the other two. Now mess around with these three triads starting with C.
If you look at a lot of popular songs you will see C, F, and G chords pretty frequently. These are also called the I, IV, and V chords respectively. You can probably figure out why they are called that. If we number the notes of the C major scale starting with C F is 4 and G is 5. Then we go with roman numerals. The other triads will sound a bit sad and are called minor. Lower case chord numbers are used for those:
I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi
Let's close the spaces between E and F and between B and C. Now each space represents a half step. The blanks stand where C#, D#, F#, G#, and A# would be. Then let's go for two octaves of the C major scale. Then we show seven chords below it.
C D EF G A BC D EF G A BC
I C E G
ii D F A
iii E G B
IV F A C
V G B D
vi A C E
vii B D F
You can see the different spacing for the major and minor chords. That last chord, the vii chord, has a flattened third (one and a half steps), but, unlike the minor chords, it also has a second minor third. This is calle a diminished chord.
Now try playing those same triads with your left hand and noodle around with the white keys higher up (to the left) with your right hand. Your right hand is playing the melody and your left hand is supporting the melody with harmony.
If you use a particular scale to build melodies and chords for a tune that tune will be in a key of the same name. So, if you make up a tune with chords and melody from the C major scale it will be in the key of C major, or just "the key of C" for short. Keep in mind that the note C and the C major triad (or C chords) would be where you start and finish.
If you emphasize A as your root note then even though you are still using only the white keys you are playing in the key of A minor. When playing in A minor you will probably want to emphasize the minor chords (triads). The 1, 4, 5 (i, iv, v) triads for A minor would be::
| | | | |
C D E F G A B C
F G C
A B E
We can shift our focus and put the A at the beginning of the diagram. This might make it easier to see the numbering:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
| | | | | |
A B C D E F G A
C F G
E A B
Because the key of A minor uses the same notes as the key of C the key of A minor is called the relative minor to the key of C.
If you play all the keys, white and black, you get what's called the chromatic scale. The major and minor keys are called diatonic scales. (I think, also heptatonic for 7 tones). But what if you play just the black keys? Starting with the left-most black key in a group of three, there are five in the pattern.
Gb, Ab, Bb, Db, and Eb.
Try noodling again with only these keys and start and stop on the Gb. Does it sound a bit Chinese to you? Sort of does to me. This is the Gb major pentatonic scale. Counting steps between the notes we get:
1, 1, 1.5, 1, 1.5
Now back to the white keys. Let's start with C and take the same steps. We get the C major pentatonic scale:
C, D, E, G, A
| | | | |
C D E F G A B C
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
1 2 3 5 6
Notice this is the C major scale with half steps omitted.
Next play that scale starting on A (remember the A minor scale?)
| | | | | |
G A B C D E F G
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
1 3 4 5 7
This gives us the A minor pentatonic scale.
Now let's add a blue note, a flatted 5 to the A minor pentatonic scale. Try noodling around with this. Remember to start and stop on A.
| | | | | |
G A B C D E F G
^ ^ ^^^ ^
1 3 4 5 7
Numbers are often used instead of specific note names (letters) to generalize some of these ideas. The numbers are assigned to the notes of a major scale The numbers are often referred to as scale degrees and they start with 1 for do.
Above we show the C major diatonic scale. Here's G major:
Now we can say fun stuff like "The fifth degree of the C major scale is G." and "The fourth degree of the G major scale is C." Or "A major triad is one, three, four. A minor triad is one, flat three, four." You may have heard of seventh chords Add the seventh note to the major triad to get a chord with four notes: one, three, five, seven. These are the major seventh chords.
If you flatten that fourth note of the seventh chord (flattened seventh of the scale) then you get what's called a dominant seventh. These are often used in the blues. If you see a chord name like C7 that means the dominant seventh chord. The major seventh is written like Cmaj7 or CM7.
We've already seen two of them, major and minor. Remember that these were the same set of notes starting on, stopping on, and emphasizing a different root note. Well, there are seven notes in the diatonic of scale, one for each note in the major scale. The major scale can also be called the ionean mode. The minor scale can also be called the aolean mode. All the modes, in order, are
OK. Let's move to the guitar.
There are many ways to tune a guitar, but there is a standard way and in that standard tuning the second highest sounding string is the B string. Here's a diagram of a guitar fretboard. On a real fretboard the frets get closer together as you move from the head to the body. This diagram is abstract and incorrectly makes all the frets equidistant. Shown are the notes of the C major scale along the B string.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
B||---C-|-----|---D-|-----|---E-|---F-|-----|---G-|-----|---A-|-----|---B-|---C-|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
It is, of course, the same pattern as on the piano key board.
Here's the (first thirteen frets of) the fretboard for the C Major scale.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
E||---F-|-----|---G-|-----|---A-|-----|---B-|---C-|-----|---D-|-----|---E-|---F-|-
B||---C-|-----|---D-|-----|---E-|---F-|-----|---G-|-----|---A-|-----|---B-|---C-|-
G||-----|---A-|-----|---B-|---C-|-----|---D-|-----|---E-|---F-|-----|---G-|-----|-
D||-----|---E-|---F-|-----|---G-|-----|---A-|-----|---B-|---C-|-----|---D-|-----|-
A||-----|---B-|---C-|-----|---D-|-----|---E-|---F-|-----|---G-|-----|---A-|-----|-
E||---F-|-----|---G-|-----|---A-|-----|---B-|---C-|-----|---D-|-----|---E-|---F-|-
Notice that there are "redundant" notes. The ones on the fifth fret (fourth on the G string) are helpful for tuning the guitar.
Now we can play chords like the C major triad. Remember? C, E, G
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
||-----|-----|---G-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|---E-|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|---E-|-----|-----|---G-|-----|-----|-----|-----|---C-|-
G||-----|-----|-----|-----|---C-|-----|-----|-----|---E-|-----|-----|---G-|-----|-
||-----|---E-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|---C-|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|---C-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
Notice that that last one, furthest to the right, has the same three notes, but in a different order. The G is the lowest note. This is known as an inversion and is written with a chord name of C/G.
Next let's fill in the rest of the C E and G notes and add the other notes of the C major pentatonic scale D, and A:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
E||-----|-----|---G-|-----|---A-|-----|-----|---C-|-----|---D-|-----|---E-|-----|-
||---C-|-----|---D-|-----|---E-|-----|-----|---G-|-----|---A-|-----|-----|---C-|-
G||-----|---A-|-----|-----|---C-|-----|---D-|-----|---E-|-----|-----|---G-|-----|-
D||-----|---E-|-----|-----|---G-|-----|---A-|-----|-----|---C-|-----|---D-|-----|-
A||-----|-----|---C-|-----|---D-|-----|---E-|-----|-----|---G-|-----|---A-|-----|-
E||-----|-----|---G-|-----|---A-|-----|-----|---C-|-----|---D-|-----|---E-|-----|-
Notice that this is the same diagram for the A minor pentatonic scale. As an exercise, fill in all the blue notes. Look back up to find the A Blues Scale, figure out what the blue note is, and then find them on the above diagram.
Suppose you're trying to sing a tune written in C and your're having trouble with a few low notes. So you want to sing the same melody, just with each note one full step higher. That means you want to sing in D. You want to transpose the tune from C to D. There is a handy gadget for the guitar to make this pretty easy. A capo can be used to clamp down all the strings at some other fret. So let's put a capo on (just before) the second fret. Now, if we play the tune (chords and melodies) exactly as we would in C it comes out in D. You can visualize this by replacing the note names above with "fingerprints" and then sliding the whole pattern up two frets:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
||-----|---o||---o-|-----|---o-|-----|---o-|-----|---o-|---R-|-----|---o-|-----|---o-|---o-|-
||-----|---o||---R-|-----|---o-|-----|---o-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|---o||-----|---o-|-----|---o-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|---o||-----|---o-|---o-|-----|---o-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|---o||-----|---o-|---R-|-----|---o-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|---o||---o-|-----|---o-|-----|---o-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
Guitarists often see the fretboard in patterns like this.
Let's go back to the I, IV, V chords we talked about before. If you know how to play them on the guitar then great, do so. If not then go back to the piano.
Sing something like "da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum". Emphasize the "dum"s. Make each one a touch louder and a touch longer than the "da"s. There are four "da-dum"s in a measure (or bar). Each is a beat. Four beats per measure.
Now play these chords with that beat. I show just one roman numeral to mean play that chord for one measure. That is four beats or eight strums.
I I I I
IV IV I I
V IV I I
Notice the twelve measures? Hence the "twelve bar blues".
You can have fun by making the last "da-dum" a V chord. This is called a turn-around and helps draw us back to the beginning. You can also play the IV chord for the second measure. This is called a "quick change". After a bit, this should start to sound familiar.
Now pick a key like E. Get one guy to play the chords (E, A, B) on one guitar (rhythm guitar) while another noodles around with the E blues scale (solo or lead guitar). Or, if you're a pianist play the rhythm with your left hand and melody with your right.
If we take the C major pentatonic scale and rearange the letters we can form the word "CAGED". The pentatonic scale is a subset of the major scale where there are no half steps. This will come in handy with the CAGED system of finding chords. Let's start with the C major triad and then move it up the fifth fret:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
G||-----|-----|-----|-----|---C-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|---E-|-----|-----|-----|-----|---A-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|---C-|-----|-----|-----|-----|---F-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
That second, higher cord is an F major triad which is the IV chord in the key of C. Go up to the seventh fret with the same shape and we get a G chord. That's the V chord of the key of C.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
G||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|---D-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|---E-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|---B-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|---C-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|---G-|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
Now clever guitarist notice that there's another C on the B string and there are two open strings that have an E. So we learn a full C chord using all six strings, but it's harder (but possible) to move the whole pattern up to frets five and seven.
Next we can do the same thing for an A chord shape.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
E||-----|-----|-----|-----|---A-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|---C#|-----|-----|-----|-----|---F#|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|---A-|-----|-----|-----|-----|---D-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
E||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|---B-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|---C#|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|---G#|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|---A-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|---E-|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
Again , we usually play all six strings by adding the E on the D string and the open low E and A strings. This full pattern is a little easier to bar on frets five and seven than the full C shape. Now we have the IV and V chords of the key of A, D and E.
You can play just the low note of each triad with the high note leaving out the middle note.. This give simplified versions of the chords. These are called power chords with just the 1 and 5 notes of the chord.
Repeating this process for the G, E, D chord patterns fufills the CAGED system which gives us options for chord shapes all over the neck.
Check out the second, third, and fourth (highest) strings in standard tuning. They are (in reverse order, or lowest to highest) D, G, and B. They are the notes in a G major triad, but with the D lowest in stead of the G. You may remember from above that this inversion is written G/D.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
B||-----|-----|-----|-----|---E-|-----|---F#|-----|-----|-----|-----|---B-|-----|-
G||-----|-----|-----|-----|---C-|-----|---D-|-----|-----|-----|-----|---G-|-----|-
D||-----|-----|-----|-----|---G-|-----|---A-|-----|-----|-----|-----|---D-|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-
Now you can easily play the I (G), IV (C), and V (D) chords of the key of G. Of course, you have the I chord again up on the twelfth fret. The other open notes do not fit in a G chord, but what if we tuned the low and high strings down one full step to D and the A string down one full step to G.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
D||-----|-----|-----|-----|---G-|-----|---A-|-----|-----|-----|-----|---D-|-----|-
B||-----|-----|-----|-----|---E-|-----|---F#|-----|-----|-----|-----|---B-|-----|-
G||-----|-----|-----|-----|---C-|-----|---D-|-----|-----|-----|-----|---G-|-----|-
D||-----|-----|-----|-----|---G-|-----|---A-|-----|-----|-----|-----|---D-|-----|-
G||-----|-----|-----|-----|---C-|-----|---D-|-----|-----|-----|-----|---G-|-----|-
D||-----|-----|-----|-----|---G-|-----|---A-|-----|-----|-----|-----|---D-|-----|-
Well now you can use a slide to "barre" all six strings and play the blues.
This tuning is called Open G Tuning or Spanish Tuning. You can also tune each string up another whole step to get Open A Tuning. If you go much beyond this you risk running into trouble with strings being too low or high to perform well.