Music Theory

[G30oGNh0]

Hey guys,

I have learned a lot from people on this website, the knowledge which it has given me has helped me grow and understand not only programming, but the concepts of thinking, understanding and problem solving in general situations of my life. For this I thank you.

As I am unable to give back the knowledge that has been given to me, as my programming skills are not quite as adept as veteran programmers who help people everyday, instead I would like to share something which I know, but maybe the skillful programmer does not, and would like to. For this I give you a snippet of the wonderful world of music theory.

I have been playing guitar for several years of my life, I first picked one up when I was 13. I played off and on for several years but I have only been seriously playing since I was 16. It's surprising at how good you can get at something when it's the only thing you have to make you wake up in the morning.

I have never been in a band, or played for people, nor do I wish to. Everything I have learned and taught myself I have freely passed on to people, hoping to give them something to hold on to when they are in need of something, just like I was. I have self taught around 8/9 people free of charge. I hope to set an example as what music should be, as it were, a release, not a fashion.

Take from it what you will, I hope you enjoy, and thank you all, for what you have given me.



The Major Scale is the 'Happy' scale in music theory. A scale is constructed of 'Steps' or more precisely 'Tones'. Let's looks at this further.

C Major scale – C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C*

As you can see, the scale is made up of 7 different notes.

Between each note is a 'Step', steps are constructed from 'Tones' and 'Semi-tones'.

A more in depth approach...

C – C# - D – D# - E – F – F# - G – G# - A – A# - B – C*

C ---------D----------E – F-------- G----------A---------B---C*

TONE TONE ST TONE TONE TONE ST




The Minor Scale is the 'Sad' scale in music theory.

Let's look at the A Minor scale.

Am: – A – B – C – D – E – F – G – A*

R – T – ST – T – T – ST – T – T

As you can see, this scale contain the same notes as the C Major scale, however start on a different 'Root' The root is the starting note of the scale.

In theory, these are called “Modes”. The Major and Minor scales contain 7 different modes, for the 7 different starting points or 'Root notes'.

Ionian – Major

Dorian – R, T, ST, T, T, T, ST

Phyrigian- R. ST, T, T, T, ST, T, T

Lydian- R, ST, T, T, T, ST, T, T,

Mixolydian- R, T, T, ST, T, T, ST, T, T

Aeolean – Minor

Locrian- B, C, D, E, F, G, A, - R, ST, T, T, ST, T, T, T,



Pentatonic scale.

The pentatonic scale is derived from the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th note of the minor scale. To derive the pentatonic from the minor scale we will use the example of A minor pentatonic.

A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G#

A B C D E F G – A minor

A C D F G. - A minor pentatonic.

The pentatonic scale can be used over the relative minor scale, I.e. A minor Pentatonic over the A minor scale.


Arpeggios.

An arpeggio is playing the note's of a chord one note at at time, a chord is 3 note's of the scale played together. Arpeggio's can be played in a variety of ways, single picking, legato, economy and sweep picking ( Which I shallow follow up in another section ).

In this example we will use the C Major arpeggio.

C major scale – C, D, E, F, G, A, B

C major chord – C, E, F.


TBC......


If anyone would like to learn more, or just talk about guitar/music in general, please PM me, or if you have a dab hand at this yourself, please contribute, sharing is caring.

[Mats]

A tiny bit off topic

I think that music theory is one of those things that you will never truly understand until you have started to learn an instrument. It's like, you can write down some really 'clever' chord progressions and so forth, but you won't have any idea of music theory. It's like someone learning to say all the words that one might describe a sunset as, and learning the reasons behind why the light becomes more red and why the sun rises and sets, without ever having gazed upon a sunset.

I also say to anyone on here who has not learnt to play an instrument to consider it. Never have I heard anyone say they regret learning their instrument*, but many times have I heard people quit their instrument and wish they had not...

Slightly more on topic:
I don't have much to contribute to the theory you wrote up there other than to say in classical music, we most often talk about harmonic minors and that is what I would expect someone to mean if they just said 'minor' to me and that stuff like single picking, legato and sweep picking are matters of technique and not music theory. A theoretical look at how one might play arpeggios would probably involve discussions of things such as alberti bass or 3rds or 5ths.

*Even a friend of mine who played in an orchestra and since has become deaf. He said if he could do it all again, he would still do music and never regrets any of the time he spent doing it.

Edit: Neatened up a bit.

[G30oGNh0]

You are right about the understanding of music. Anyone can start a car but only a mechanic can truly understand why the car starts.

I have to agree with you again about never regretting to play an instrument, I've never heard anyone say 'I wish I didn't learn it' Although I do know of a guy who learned Violin, and hated it, but I believe he doesn't regret learning the music, I think he just didn't like the instrument.

I did not include Harmonic Minor, to be honest I am unsure why! I play a neo-classical style on the guitar almost everyday and that is the go to scale for me. For those who want to know the Natural Harmonic Minor, Sharpen the 7th note of the Natural Minor scale by a semi-tone.

In which case I could go on to the Melodic Minor, but I'll leave that for another day.

As for the picking techniques, I did say I'll go in to that in another section :) Although again, I've sat back and looked at several picking techniques, and I do believe there to be a theory behind it and why it works, then again I think there is a theory behind everything, always another layer underneath.

[TheBeardedQuack]

Sharpen the 7th note of the Natural Minor scale by a semi-tone.

I imagine that anyone who stumbles across this thread entitled "Musical Theory" on a programmers forum is probably going to be people that already know the basics such as the term "sharp" means a semitone higher.

Although I suppose having a reference to the modes is handy XD (I didn't actually bother learning that the Aeolean is the Minor of an Ionian scale)

[TwilightSpectre]

C major chord – C, E, F.

Sorry for nitpicking, but surely you meant C, E, G? Also, an arpeggio is not necessarily 3 notes, it could be more as well (though not normally less).

Just reiterating what has been said: Learn an Instrument! It is great fun, and always worth it (though sometimes a little expensive, depending on the instrument and whether you get proffesional teaching). Learning music also gives you a better appreciating for music, and can open up a whole world of interesting music that would otherwise often be passed off as "boring" (as in, "classical" music).

P.S.
Just because I worked this out while writing this response, C, E, F happensto be an F major 7 chord 2nd inversion (without the third).

[Mats]

C E F just on its own is too vague to really give it a name. You would have to see it in a sequence or have more notes in the chord. It could just as well be an F minor, since we don't know what the 3rd is or maybe C¹¹ with a missing 5th.