The best theory teacher is all the songs you’ve learned. The best theory practice is to tear those songs apart and see how they’re put together.
In order to do that, you will need to learn to recognize chords, scales and arpeggios in any key all over the fingerboard. If you know the notes on every…
The first step is to figure out what types of chords can be generated from the scale. Learning to harmonize scales in triads and 7th chords is a typical approach to this.
Once you know what types of chords can be generated from the scale, try stringing two or three of them together and see if…
In order to know what you’re doing, you have to analyze what you’re doing.
If you want to learn/analyze a song, the first thing you’re looking at are the types of chords or riffs being used. In order to do that, you have to know how chords and riffs are built. In order to know…
Diminished triad = flat the 3rd and 5th of a major chord, or flat the 5th of a minor chord.
Diminished 7th chord is a little tougher. You have to know a diminished triad, already, and add a diminished 7th to it. One way to get there is to start with a major 7th chord and…
The diminished 7th arpeggio is most commonly associated with the minor key. If you build a chord off the 7th degree of A harmonic minor, you get G# B D F.
In A minor it usually functions as a leading tone chord that resolves one fret higher into the tonic chord (Amin).
Once you understand how it…
Notes all over the fingerboard (learning to read standard notation would be a good idea)
Major scale in all keys all over the fingerboard (key signatures, Circle of Fifths)
Intervals
Triad construction (major, minor, diminished)
Triad Inversions all over the fingerboard
Major key diatonic intervals
Major key triad harmony
7th chords and inversions
Major key 7th chord harmony
Relative major and minor (revisit key…
Scales are an excellent way to develop your technique.
They are excellent for helping to develop your ears.
They form the basis for understanding how chords are constructed.
They form the basis for understanding how chord progressions and riffs are constructed.
They are the basic building block of music…
