Lesson Three - Some Boring Stuff
Notation
pm - Palm mute
> - Accent this note
h - Hammer on
p - Pull off
/ - Slide up
\ - Slide down
ah - Artificial harmonic
T - Tap
So here we are, learning some theory. But don't run away! This is useful and really will help you be that little bit better than the next guitarist!
Right, first of all to clarify the difference between major and minor. Major is bright and cheery and generally 'nice' sounding. Minor is sadder and a little bit more evil. But you probably knew that anyway. And here's a few terms we'll be using this lesson, you might wanna refer to these if you get lost:
Major - Nice, happy sounding
Minor - Sad, bad(!) sounding
Scale - A specific group of notes
Enharmonic - A note with two different names
Semitone - The smallest interval in music, one fret
Wholetone - The equivelant of two semitones, two frets
Tone - Another name for wholetone
Here we have our first scale and you know it already, it's called the
chromatic scale, and it is simply:
e ||----------------------------------||
B ||----------------------------------||
G ||----------------------------------||
D ||----------------------------------||
A ||---0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12---||
E ||----------------------------------||
Yeah, it's simply every note from the open A string to the 12th fret on the same string. The notes that you're playing (if you're in tune of course!) are:
A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A
or
A Bb B C Db D Eb E F Gb G Ab A
They are exactly the same thing - Bb IS A#, Eb IS D# - these notes have two names for obscure reasons to do with the history of music and other complex things that we don't care about. And these twelve notes are all the notes you can possibly get out of a guitar without bending the strings. So with this knowledge you can easily work out what note is on any fret on any string by counting up the scale from the string that you're on. E.g.
What the note is the 6th fret of the B string?
B C C# D D# E F
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Easy . . . So there you go, we've learnt something useful already! If anyone asks you to play a B# or a Fb you can confidently declare, "Hah! Those notes don't exist!" And you can easily explain to your bassist/rhythm guitarist/lead guitarist what the note you want him to play. Now for something a little more difficult !
The Major Scale
Yeah, I've started with the nice one first so nobody gets scared but once you've conquered this, everything else is a breeze. So we've got our twelve notes, right? Good. Now we're gonna make something that actually sounds like something out of these notes!
The distance between two notes is called the interval. A distance of one note (one fret) is called a semitone. A distance of two notes (two frets) is called a wholetone, or just a tone. Hopefully this'll clarify this point:
Distance Interval
A to B Wholetone
A to A# Semitone
5th fret to 7th Wholetone
5th fret to 6th Semitone
So by 'plotting' certain intervals we get our major scale, this scale was arrived at after hundreds of years of music, so I think we can say it's accepted now:
Tone - Tone - Semitone - Tone - Tone - Tone - Semitone
So if we wanted to get a C major scale we'd do it like this:
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C# |
D |
D# |
E |
F |
F# |
G |
G# |
A |
A# |
B |
C |
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So the notes we get are:
C D E F G A B C
Pretty convenient.
Now you might be thinking, "Oh God. I just didn't understand how he got that!" But don't worry, you'll get it soon - re-read the above stuff and try visualising it on your guitar with this tab:
C Major
e ||-------------------------||
B ||-------------------------||
G ||-------------------------||
D ||----T-T-S-T--T--T--S-----||
A ||---3-5-7-8-10-12-14-15---||
E ||-------------------------||
Think about what the distances between the frets are when you play the scale, "I'm skipping a fret here, so that's a wholetone interval," is an ideal response.
The Minor Scale
This is how we make the minor scale using the interval idea we developed above . . .
Tone - Semitone - Tone - Tone - Semitone - Tone - Tone
And if we wanted to make an A minor scale, this is how we'd go about it:
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A# |
B |
C |
C# |
D |
D# |
E |
F |
F# |
G |
G# |
A |
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And the notes we get are:
A B C D E F G A
And the tab for our minor scale is:
A minor
e ||-------------------------||
B ||-------------------------||
G ||-------------------------||
D ||----T-S-T-T-S-T--T-------||
A ||---0-2-3-5-7-8-10-12-----||
E ||-------------------------||
Obviously these scales were chosen cos' they look nice and have no sharps or flats, but try a couple yourself and see how it works. Once you think you've got the hang of it have a go at the test below to see if you've got the idea sorted:
a - Write a B minor scale (remember, start from B and use the minor pattern: T S T T S T T)
b - What is the 11th note on the A string?
c - Write a D Major scale (start on D and use the major pattern: T T S T T T S)
d - What is the interval between E and F?
e - What is the interval between frets 3 and 4?
Show answers
Well that's it for this lesson. If you've been struggling this time: keep at it! If you've got a guitar tutor, show her/him this lesson and see if they can help you out with it.
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