Understanding Music: Guitar Lessons Made Easy

The toughest part of playing any instrument is often understanding the music you’re reading or playing to.  Each genre can have its own set of unique characteristics and every piece of music can present its own challenges.

As a guitar teacher in Aberdeen it’s my job to help my students understand music by breaking it down in to manageable chunks. The art of understanding music is to look to the foundation on which that specific piece was built – a scale.  We have a thing in music called the chromatic scale – all of the notes that exist in modern western music (there are only 12).  From there we break that scale down into an eight note scale (I usually start with a Major scale).  There we can analyse the notes and work out the chord progression from the scale.  We can use that eight note scale (7 different notes, also known as diatonic if we’re being pedantic) to better understand the melody and harmony of that specific piece.

Within their guitar lessons my students learn how to read a key signature which will better help them understand the scale on which the piece has been founded.  We also look at the chord formulas that exist within the scale (Major, Minor, Minor, Major, Major, Minor, Diminished).  We then look at the extensions of those triads (three note chords) and we turn them into 4 note chords.  We look at sus chords, borrowed chords and slash chords (chord inversions).  We look at whether or not the song may be modal (sub key of the existing key).  We discuss the possibilities of passing/bridging notes and we look at the time signature to better understand the feel of the music.  By understanding the time signature we can better understand how to count and feel out the music.  Simple, Compound and Irregular time signatures exist – we can go further and look at simple triple time and shuffle/swing time too. 

By fully understanding the piece of music that you’re playing, my students, within their guitar lessons are able to play with more confidence and better “play” with the track.  When I say “play” I mean alter, amend or improvise over it.

It may seem like a lot (sometimes it is) but by breaking down a track and working it up from the foundational scale it can make your playing better and ultimately provide you with more freedom when playing.  If you feel you’re missing this within your guitar lessons with your guitar teacher try asking them to include this information within your lessons – it will make a world of difference!