Q. Basically, I have the scales down, but you know how each major key has a minor opposite, like C Major has no sharps or flats, and neither does A Minor, so on. At a music theory test, they obviously don't provide you with a piano to play the song (that's how i usually figure out the key of a song), so what's the real way to figure out the major or minor key?
A. The real hint to finding the key of a piece of written music is to look for accidentals and to analyze the first chord of the piece and the last chord. For instance A harmonic minor, will have g# as the raised 7th scale degree and you will also see f# as the raised 6th scale degree if the piece is using A melodic minor. Also, most music examples have the beginning and ending of the piece and the piece will 98.76% of the time end on the tonic or beginning chord. So it becomes easy if you actually look for these things. Hope this helps!
What are some good sources to read about guitar theory/ music theory?
Q. I want to learn more about chord structure works, how scales work, how most songs are written/ song composition and things like that because I want to have a better ability to make and write music. I'm a novice when it comes to guitar as I have only been playing for a year. Any other suggestions on things I should learn or what order or something I should learn things in would be much appreciated as well!
A. Hey there, my name's Garrett. I'm glad you're looking into ways to educate yourself in the technicalities of music theory in approaching writing songs! Many people take off without learning some basic fundamentals and hit walls because they are not able to completely understand what they are playing.
Probably the best way to understand music composition is obviously professional instruction. But because many people do not have the time, means, or financial capability to do that, I'll run through some other alternatives.
Honestly, some of the best free sources of music theory come from people uploading things on YouTube. Just run a search for "beginning music theory guitar" or something like that.
If you have a few dollars to spend, go into any guitar center or bookstore and look for orchestration or composition books. Even though these books may be geared towards different instruments, that is ok. Music theory is music theory. The first few chapters will always be about how music is arranged and how chord structure works. It doesn't change instrument to instrument, and it will still give you a solid foundation for applying anything to the guitar.
Personally I would recommend learning theory first by looking at the piano instead of the guitar. This may seem foreign and weird at first, but let me explain. Piano is unique in that there is a visual for every note that is played (in other words, there is a single key for a single note). And these notes are lined up lowest to highest, from left to right. Guitar doesn't offer that. You can play a note on the low E string that is higher than the open D string, and you can play the same note in a multitude of different places on the guitar. Piano is not like this. Piano is very straightforward. You literally are able to see the intervals.
Here's a crash course to solidify what I am saying. I will get to how this applies to writing songs on guitar, promise!
A major scale is composed of these intervals - whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half.
Whole meaning a whole step. This means that you move two keys on the piano (including black keys) for every note you move up. A half step means you only move up one key.
A C major scale is the simplest, so I'll use this one as an example. Start on C, then whole step (skipping the black key) to D, then another whole step to E, then half to F, and so on, following the whole-half structure I indicated above.
If you do this right, you notice that you didn't hit any black keys and the scale sounds happy and familiar. This is why C is the easiest. There are no sharps and no flats. If you start on the note D and play a D major scale, following the whole-half structure, you'll notice that you will hit F# and C#. This is where sharps and flats come from.
Now lets see how this applies to creating a song, and chord structure. Lets start at C again. Play a C chord, then an F chord, then a G cord, and an A minor chord. These all sound good together, right? That is because all of these chords are in the same key; the key of C. The C chord is the I chord, the F chord is the IV chord, the G chord is the V chord and the A minor is the VI minor chord. If we go back to our scale, you'll notice C is the first note you hit in the whole-half pattern, F is the 4th, G is the 5th, and A is the 6th. You can mix these chords up any way you want and they will sound good. Thousands and thousands of songs have been written based on these chords alone. For now it is not important to understand why the first three chords are major and the 6 chord is minor, but you will get to that if you decide to pursue your musical training.
If you want to play in a key other than C, you look at the same pattern, just with different notes. For example, the I chord in the key of D is D. The IV chord is G, the V is A, and the VI is B minor. These are the same intervals as the chords in the key of C, just played in the key of D.
Of course you are not only limited to the I, IV, V, and VI chords in making a song. You don't even have to play chords. The great thing about music is that it is always up to the artist's choice. Chords are just a good place to start. As you learn more, you will learn the other chords that can be played in a specific key to sound good and how to add "accidental" notes and move in and out of keys, use passing chords, etc etc.
But start with knowing chord structure and what chords will sound good together and why. Then you can find intervals and grooves you like, put some lead guitar on top of the chords, or incorporate whatever you feel is best.
I know I practically just wrote a novel, and I'm sorry for that. But I really love this stuff and I like showing it to people too. I hope some of that made sense. Read up and you'll understand this stuff in no time!
what's the difference between major and minor scales?
Q. arent all minor scales a form of major scales? for example a piece says "Study in E minor" why does it say in E minor when it can say G major? is there any difference in G major and E minor, or C major and A minor? they have the same key signature. so why say minor instead of the equivalent major one?
Malcolm: great thanks for the link. i'm a beginner so there are some confusing things that i dont clearly understand but i'm trying.
if you know a good website or video that explains the intervals and chords please let me know. i have problem understanding them.
A. Every major key shares its signature with a minor key - hence your observation that both C major and A minor have a key signature of no sharps and flats. This means that they are 'related'. You could say that A minor is the relative minor of C major (because they share a key signature), and vice versa.
The difference occurs in the way in which a scale behaves. When you go up and down a major scale you pay attention to the key signature - therefore in C major you end up playing all natural notes (or all the white notes on the piano).
Minor scales behave differently. Firstly - you need to know that there are two forms of the minor scale. These are the 'harmonic minor', and the 'melodic minor'.
When playing a harmonic minor scale you have to raise the 7th note of the scale from what it would be in the key signature. In the case of A minor, the 7th note would be G so when it is raised you would actually play a G#.
When playing a melodic minor scale you have to raise the 6th and 7th on the way up the scale, but play them as the key signature on the way down. This means that in A minor you woulf actually play F# and G# on the way up, but they would be natural on the way down.
Pieces written in minor keys also follow these patterns. If you are playing a melody you will find that a piece of music follows the melodic form, but the chords (or harmony) follows the harmonic minor rules.
Hope this is vaguely clear!
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