Why Theory Matters: Guitar Lessons Made Better

As a guitar teacher in Aberdeen I often get students attend who have either been self-taught or have never learned the theory behind what they’re actually playing.

I know, I know, the word theory doesn’t exactly fill us with excitement.  We’re more interested in just being able to play the cool stuff, right?  What if I told you that by learning the theory that you could actually play to almost anything without the need of having the chords, tab or rhythm written in front of you?  It would sound too good to be true most might say.  Well it’s not and I’ll tell you why.

The greatest freedom you can have as a guitar player (or musician in general) is the ability to listen to a piece of music, work out its key (the scale the song has been founded on) and from there work out the chord progressions, rhythms and melodies (including solos).  To do this there is a process that I teach my students within their guitar lessons. Below I’ve listed some of the ways that I work out all of the above without the need of sheet music.

1.       What’s the key?

Finding out the key of any song you play has to be the first thing you do.  If you know the key, the rest will follow.  I do this by using a series of quick and usable scales (usually a pentatonic or major/minor scale).  I work my way down the neck until what I hear fits the song.  This takes some getting used to and it can be tricky if you’re new to it.  It does get easier with time as your ear develops.  There are certain genres/songs that will fit into the wrong against right category.  I.e. the scale that sounds right against the track may not necessarily be the key the song is in.  Sounds confusing right?  This is to do with modes and genres like the blues but let’s not worry about that for now.  90% of the time the scale that fits best to the track IS the key it’s in.  From there I move on to the next part.*

2.       What’s the chords?

Once you know the key you can then work out the chords using chord progression from a scale.  Yes, this involves knowing what those chords would be but once you’ve studied chord progression from a scale and how chords can grow from triads into bigger and more interesting chords it does get easier.  We must also remember that we can borrow chords from other keys.  Because there are only 7 different notes (diatonic) in a Major/Minor scale song writers will often borrow chords from other keys to make their songs sound more interesting.  The chords borrowed however must only make up the minority of the chords used, otherwise you’re in another key altogether.  Once I know what chords are roughly being used I try to place them in line with where they are changing within the song. Once I’ve got that (it can take a few tries to do it but it does get easier) I move on to the next step.

3.       What’s the rhythms?

Knowing the rhythm often requires knowing the time signature (in other words, is the song in simple, compound or irregular time?).  Is the song played in shuffle?  A lot of blues songs are for reference. When we can work out the feel of a track we can begin to work out what rhythm is being used on the instrument you’re trying to replicate.  I teach my students within their guitar lessons what I call “go to” rhythms.  These are rhythms that will generally work over any song even if it’s not exactly what is being played.  Of course, it’s good to be able to hear and play exactly what’s being heard so learning to visualise what you hear can make a big difference.  To visualise well it’s important to learn how to count, read and feel rhythm by reading sheet music/tab first.  This will give you more confidence when you attempt to copy what you hear.

In summary, I realise this sounds like a lot.  Believe it or not by the time you’ve done it for a while you’ll be able to get through all 3 of these steps within a matter of seconds (depending on the complexity of the song of course).  Once you reach that point you will have gained the ultimate freedom within your guitar playing.  You will no longer necessarily require/depend on the sheet music.  Instead you will be able to play to anything (within reason) at any time.  Is it worth the time to learn all of the above to give you the confidence and ability to play to any song?  I think so!

*It is important to remember that some songs can change key or be atonal (keyless).  By changing key, we call this modulation.  If the song you are listening to does modulate it just means doing step 1 and step 2 again to work out the key and chords to the modulated part.