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    Ka-Ching Guitar and Music Theory Basics
    Ka-Ching Guitar and Music Theory Basics
    Ka-Ching Guitar and Music Theory Basics
    Ebook164 pages2 hours

    Ka-Ching Guitar and Music Theory Basics

    By Paul D.E. Mitchell

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    About this ebook

    When I began learning I could not find a single book like this that began with absolute basics and went on to explain chords and music theory behind it in a clear and concise manner. I had no access to a piano – just a beat-up Epiphone and a tuning fork so I decided to construct this book around playing and listening exercises on the guitar adding chord shapes only when needed to progress the development of the music theory. This book will not teach you to write scores nor reproduce guitar riffs using tablature but at the end of it you will be able to construct and analyse chords progressions and have a thorough understanding of the songwriter’s art.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPaul D.E. Mitchell
    Release dateJun 6, 2011
    ISBN9781466028043
    Ka-Ching Guitar and Music Theory Basics
    Author

    Paul D.E. Mitchell

    Paul D.E. Mitchell (b1956) has enjoyed a varied career in chemistry, computing, teaching, lecturing, music (as a bassist in numerous bands), and served as a senior Cardiff councillor for 10 years and was elected to the Cariff ward of Fairwater in May 2012. First as a single-father and then as a carer for elderly relatives, he retired from the private sector and politics (temporarily) to concentrate on poetry and bringing to life a complex near-future sci-fi/paranormal series of nine books (set in three trilogies) and three spin-off novels as well as several other genres. Light-Father is doing extraordinarily well and may be made into a film or an anime. Paul is also publishing and editing works by others of a co-operative of independent authors based in Wales and will soon take on a micro-publisher called Wuggles Publishing.

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      Book preview

      Ka-Ching Guitar and Music Theory Basics - Paul D.E. Mitchell

      KA-CHING - GUITAR BASICS

      Smashwords Edition

      © Paul D.E. Mitchell 2011

      Published by: Paul D.E. Mitchell

      For Matthew Dunn

      All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise outside of the publisher’s contract and the licensing terms and conditions as agreed with Smashwords without the prior permission of the publisher. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

      Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Chapter 01: Basic Basics

      When I began learning I could not find a single book like this that began with absolute basics and went on to explain chords and music theory behind it in a clear and concise manner. I had no access to a piano – just a beat-up Epiphone and a tuning fork so I decided to construct this book around playing and listening exercises on the guitar adding chord shapes only when needed to progress the development of the music theory. This book will not teach you to write scores nor reproduce guitar riffs using tablature but at the end of it you will be able to construct and analyse chords progressions and have a thorough understand of the songwriter’s art.

      ~~~~~

      The only thing I can’t do for you is tune your guitar strings to the standard tuning of E-A-D-G-B-E! If you’re a beginner with no assistance or peers, buy a guitar tuner and seek advice otherwise you will not be able to tune the guitar properly and benefit from the book. Those of us not gifted with perfect pitch (the natural ability to recognise a frequency without reference) can’t always tell if we’ve hit the right open string frequency. Even a slight off-tune will make everything you play sound not quite right or terrible so if in doubt - use a gizmo!

      ~~~~~

      If you’re buying a guitar to learn on, ALWAYS seek advice on how to buy a decent inexpensive guitar. I was given a shitty dirt-cheap Kay acoustic guitar as a kid and ended up convinced I would never be able to play when I’d have had more luck with a cigar box and six elastic bands. It was years before I realised my mistake. There is absolutely no point spending a grand on a guitar either if you’re not going to see the basics through – the only guy who benefits is your pawn-broker. You will also find computer programs like Noteworthy a huge help!

      ~~~~~

      Let’s begin the fundamentals with your fretboard. I’m assuming you have the basic grasp of physics that tells you that when you shorten a string it vibrates faster when plucked and so its frequency – which we musicians refer to as PITCH - rises. Each fret raises the pitch of each string by a set mathematical ratio we refer to as a SEMITONE. Repeat and burn into cortex: each fret is a semitone! Now add to the grey matter the fact that the difference in pitch between any pair of semitones is called an INTERVAL. Do not proceed until you grasp the definitions of these three basic concepts!

      ~~~~~

      I want you to start on the open bass E-string and then play every semitone up to the twelfth fret. You will notice that there is little musical information from this exercise other than the pitch rises by semitone intervals. I want you to listen to those semitones and then play the twelfth fret and the open string several times. Now repeat the exercise for all six strings - I know it’s obvious but I want you to learn to LISTEN as well as PLAY straight off the bat as it’s much harder to unlearn bad habits later. It is not a bad idea to repeat the exercise and SING each semitone as you go to see if you can match the pitch as you’ll begin to train your pitch perception.

      ~~~~~

      You’ll hear that the pitch of the 12th fret semitone is higher than the open string but it still sounds the same and the same applies to the other five strings. If you really are a newbie, then you should be going ‘huh, oh yeah!’ at this point. Now look at the position of the 12th fret in relation to the nut or open fret and the ridge of the bridge. Measure it with a tape measure and you’ll find that the 12th fret is exactly in the middle. When you hold down the string at this fret and pluck the string it will vibrate at DOUBLE the frequency of the open string.

      ~~~~~

      Half the string-length equals twice the frequency; a quarter-length doubles the frequency again and so on. There are hundred of web articles on the relationship between frequencies and string-lengths on the internet but this all you need to know for now.

      ~~~~~

      Now write this in marker pen on your hand: the frequency difference or interval of twelve semitones between an open string and a 12th fretted string is known as an OCTAVE. Each octave is comprised of 12 semitones. But why does doubling or halving the frequency to create octave intervals not change the way you perceive the musical value of both pitches?

      ~~~~~

      Play the open and 12th fretted E bass string and sing the two pitches if you can to appreciate this point. The physics will be explained later. The open E string presents a musical value or identity to your ear called a NOTE - an E to state the obvious. Doubling the frequency of a note does not change its musical identity to your ear which means that the pitch of the semitone on the 12th fret is an octave higher but it is still an E! Even if the note is buried in a complex chord or melody you will still recognise that E regardless of its pitch!

      ~~~~~

      Repeat playing each open string and its 12th fret to get these important points: (1) Semitones are the physical differences in pitch (separated by frets) and 12 comprise an octave (2) the musical identity or note of a pair of semitones separated by an octave (a doubling of frequency) is the same thus (3) a note is not the same concept as a semitone – to really labour the point! Why are they called semitones and not tones? See later!

      ~~~~~

      I know you might find my insistence on this a little wearying but you have to appreciate and listen to the difference between each semitone and understand what an octave is before progressing to properly grasp the fundamentals of how semitones make music.

      ~~~~~

      Before I drone on about the physics of the inner ear I’ll start you off with the hands-on physics of playing chords so that you can alternate between practice and study as you plough through the book. There is no magic to this exercise which will last the rest of your musical life. You have got to press the strings down hard immediately behind each fret or all you will hear is a soul-crushing dull thud instead of a soaring six-string orchestra in full voice. Deep ridges will form in your unhardened fingertips and you’ll experience pain but this is your Mister T moment - toughen the tips by practising an HOUR a day forming these chords one at a time and then try moving from one to the other in every pair combination you can think of. I cannot stress enough that you must spend the time to play these chords cleanly!

      ~~~~~

      I’ll place the finger numbers (with 1 being the index finger) on a representation of a right-handed guitar fretboard. I didn’t find photos much use when I was learning and if you’re left-handed, I’m afraid you’ll have to mirror the chord diagrams. The fingering is the most natural for these chords but they’re not gospel as you will employ other finger combinations for certain chord progressions as you improve but learn them to begin with until they become second nature as muscle memory.

      ~~~~~

      You’ll see one or two words beneath each chord name on the right of the chord diagram but just note them for now. Just learn the chord names and the abbreviations in the brackets and I’ll explain what key, major, minor and diminished all means later. Just practice the chords for now and begin playing!

      So there you go: the seven basic chords in the Key of C Major with the B diminished being the most difficult fingering of all (I used to call it the Bastard). The F major requires you to apply pressure via your thumb placed at the centre of the back of the neck to bar all six strings (which is why we call it a bar chord) with the index finger laid flat behind the first fret which can be painful to achieve but as in most things, perseverance pays off. For some early rock bands this was all they needed being content to move the shape up and down the fretboard until they found a sequence that worked!

      ~~~~~

      If you play these seven chords in random sequences you’ll note that a tension sometimes comes and goes as you move from one chord to another such as the [Am / Bo / C] sequence but just keep that in mind for the moment. So when you get a spare moment just keep practicing pair and triple combinations to be able to smoothly keep moving from one chord to another. Do not rush this (dreary) stage of your development: make each chord ring – one clear chord is worth one hundred dull thuds any day (especially the F and Bo chords!).

      Nope, this is not something scraped off a submarine hull though the similarity to a nautilus is striking. It’s your inner ear with the balance organs to the left and the all important cochlea to the right. Sound is physically transmitted into the diminishing spiral of the cochlea via the ear-drum. The nerves at the beginning are stimulated so you hear bass pitches from 20 cycles a second (known as Hertz or Hz for short) all the way up to the 20,000 Hertz (20kHz)

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