Music theory always seems like this mystery handed down on scrolls, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Understanding the relationship between keys, chords, and scales is not difficult, but it does take some practice. Don’t worry, it is fun- it isn’t like algebra class.
Great soloists aren’t born that way. The real truth is, that they work very hard at it. I’ve always believed that learning something new about this world of guitar is a good thing, and it makes us better players if we understand the musical world we live in.
To start, we must understand that we guitarists are at a disadvantage. It isn’t like learning trumpet or piano, where we have hundreds of years of music to learn. With those instruments the primary way of teaching is linear: through reading. You’d play ‘Hot Cross Buns,’ get a smiley face on the page from your teacher, and move on to page two. But we guitarists are different. We learn by listening, by watching, by diving right in and making a terrible (and wonderful) racket until we get it right.
‘New music’ like jazz, rock or metal was forged on musicians listening and watching. However if we ever move out of our guitar-centric world and need to explain a line to a keyboardist or horn player, we have to speak their language. We have to be literate.
Some players do fine without knowing an ounce of theory. They play in their rock and metal bands, stitching patterns together to make songs. This is a perfectly valid way of working, and has resulted in many wonderful and classic recordings over the past 60 years. However, if, as modern guitarists, we keep mining the same history as our forefathers, we are bound to repeat not only their work, but eventually our own. This is where theory comes in.
Let’s start with something very basic. Music, has its own alphabet. Except it doesn’t go up to Z. It starts at A, and goes right up until G. What happens after that? It starts over, of course.
So, we start with:
A B C D E F G A B C D E F G, etc.


To be more accurate, it continues in both directions. Before the first A, there is a G…and so on. While thinking about this, lets visualize a piano for a minute, since it is easier to tell the notes apart on piano. We know these notes as the white keys on the piano. But what about those black keys?
The black keys are what we call accidentals. Or, in better terms, sharps (#) and flats (b). They only occur between certain letters though. If I fill in the letters above with accidentals, we get:
A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A..etc

To make matters worse, each sharp name can also have a duplicate flat name:
A  A#/Bb  B  C  C#/Db  D  D#/Eb  E  F  F#/Gb  G  G#/Ab

It makes a lot more sense on piano…

The distance between one note and another is called a ½ step. On guitar, it equals 1 fret. We see in the example above that our musical alphabet consists of 12 half-steps.
So, if we start out on the 5^th fret of the biggest string, we have an A. If we move up 1 fret (called a half-step in theory-speak) we have a note that can be called A# (A sharp) OR Bb (B flat). How do we know which one to use? Actually, with other instruments it tends to make a big difference. With guitar, however, not as much. We guitarists use them interchangeably, and so do most musicians working in popular styles.
Notice that there are no accidentals between E & F, as well as B & C. On a piano, you will see where there are 2 white keys next to each other several times. These are either E & F or B & C. Sorry about all the piano references, but graphically, it makes a little more sense than guitar. To put it in guitar terms, your biggest string is an E. The first fret of that string is an F (no sharps or flats between E & F).
The scale examples here were played using the Custom 5 pickup, a wonderfully crunchy bridge pickup.
Over the next several blogs, I will be detailing how all this theory-stuff can make us better players. And, yes, it is fun. Unlike algebra.