Music Theory volunteers needed

[Mike_S]

John,

That sounds like a great project you are embarking on. I wish you all the best with it and am sure its gonna be a great help to folks.

I am also a bit of a wing and a prayer guitar player and I normally have a big problem understanding / taking tuition at the best of times, not sure why but i think i must have some kind of attention span deficiency when it comes to certain things and music theory is one of those unfortunately.

Having said all this if i do find time someday and decide to try and explore music theory a little i will give it a go.

I am only grateful for a website like this that entertains my fiddling about with guitars and music and permits me to be heard alongside people with real talent.

Best of luck with this John

Mike

[Pete C]

I got in touch with Johnny and downloaded a copy of his Guitarist's Guide to Music Theory. Below is a copy of my own thoughts on his project which he's happy for me to share with you all. I'd encourage you all to contact Johnny for a copy - whatever level you feel you've reached as a guitarist, I'm sure that you'll find something there to help you. It's a well set-out guide which doesn't take too much of your time to read through.

Hi John

Thanks for the download which I've now read through and I'm ready to give you some feedback.

To give you a background of my knowledge in music, before choosing which O levels to take at school, I had music lessons once a week for 2 years between the age of 11 to 12. I remember this covered scales, intervals and so on but everything went straight over my head. Apart from the recorder, which I couldn't get to grips with, we never had the opportunity to try any other instruments. However, as a young teenager I set my heart on being a guitarist and got my first accoustic guitar for my 14th birthday, I think. This co-incided with a Saturday morning TV show called Play Guitar by Ulf Goran, and I bought the book to accompany the TV series. I learned the basics from watching this and from another couple of beginner's books.  I even taught myself to read music at the time, although I've since forgotten how to ! I spent the next few years trying to play along to my favourite music, punk came along, and I got my first electric guitar at 18 and started a band with some friends. We never got anywhere as, to be honest, we were appalling, but we got together every Sunday afternoon for about 3 years for a rehearsal.

After the band fell apart, I just used to play along to records at home and gradually improved a little purely by playing by ear as I knew all the basic chords- majors, minors, 7ths. Solos and twiddly bits were worked out by ear if possible, and I had no knowledge of even the pentatonic scale.  In my 30's, I started playing again with some friends as a hobby and we did a few gigs here and there at charity events, family celebrations and the odd pub. As being in a band again re-awakened my interest in learning more, I started to buy magazines like Guitarist and Total Guitar and found out that tablature existed, which was much easier than trying to read music. As well as improving technique, it also gave me a better understanding of guitars, amps and effects.  Then the internet came along which made it much easier to find the chords for a song and find tuition videos. I even played with a semi-pro band
for a year.

As you said in the guide, the magazine and video tuition often re-confirmed what I was often doing already and had just learned by chance.

Its a few years now since I've played in a band so Songcrafters is my way of keeping my hand in and I think home-recording has helped me maintain the level of playing I had reached in my band days and has encouraged me to still learn a little and try to improve as I would only class myself as an average-ish guitarist. Its only because of Songcrafters that I've learned a few basic keyboard chords and started to play bass guitar which I'd never done before.

Back to your Guitarist's Guide - it's difficult after playing guitar for 40 years with so little technical knowledge of what I'm actually doing to start to analyse the theory of what I'm doing. However, what I would say is that if I was starting to learn guitar now, and was filled with enthusiasm, the guide would be a valuable aid and I'd be reading through it again and again till I fully understood it. (You're a vaper John - when I started to try e-cigarettes nearly 5 years ago, I was so enthusiastic that I watched every video I could find, bought all the latest gear as it came out, learned how to build my own coils and finally understood Ohm's law which is relevant for variable voltage/wattage devices.) If I was just discovering the guitar I'd have that same keeness to learn as much as I could - information was limited back in the 1970's.

Reading the guide, some of the topics started to make some sense at last and I'll be keeping my download as a reference as I realise I should really spend some time on learning the pentatonic positions at the very least as I only know the basic ones. I also need to learn the fretboard a bit more as I still can't name every fret without having to work out what the note is by counting up from the notes I do know !

In summary, the Guide covers stuff I should have learned 40 years ago and its a bit late, being set in my ways, to go right back to basics and re-learn. However, I would certainly recommend the Guide to a new(er) player as from my own experience, the musicians I have worked with who do know the theory, were better musicians as a result.  As I said, I'll certainly be keeping hold of my copy of the Guide as a reference to revisit the sections that will help me.

I'm certainly interested in reading the remaining sections too when you've finished them. 

Regards

Pete