Sure could use some help understanding chords/keys

[kiteman]

As tot said, the fretboard is divided up in semitones and the same's with the keyboard. The keyboard makes it easier to understand the music theory so grab one to work with. The white keys are all notes and none are flatted nor sharped. That's the job of the black keys. Each key (including the black ones) are a semitone apart just like the frets on the guitar.

To play a C major scale (or A minor) on a keyboard you play only the white keys skipping the black keys. Just play from C to C (or A to A for A minor) on the white keys skipping the black keys in between and you've played a C major scale (or A minor scale). Skipping a black key meant that you'd played a wholetone which is two semitones apart.

Playing from C to C on the white keys we have

C -w- D -w- E -s- F -w- G -w- A -w- B -s- C

Now let's play a G major scale on the keyboard. We're going to use the same intervals we did with the C major scale. Here we start on G.

G -w- A -w- B -s- C -w- D -w- E -w- F# -s- G

Here we skipped a white key and hit a black key instead which is F#. The G major scale have an F# in it in order to keep the same intervals as the C major scale.

Let's do it again with the D major scale.

D -w- E -w- F# -s- G -w- A -w- B -w- C# -s- D

This time we hit two black keys, F# and C# so there are 2 sharps in the D major scale.

All major scales uses theses intervals starting on any note you want including the black key, w-w-s-w-w-w-s

If you were to start on C# using these intervals you'll play all sharped notes but not all on the black keys. Some of the white keys will serve as a sharped note or a flatted note in order to fit the scale. They're known as enharmonics. An enharmonic is a note with more than one name. Look at the C# major scale, all sharped notes.

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

the E# and the B# are the white keys but they're also known as the F and the C key. They all depend on the scale you're using.

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

Dug, one more thing about the circle of fifths:

Remember that it starts

C -> G -> D

with the arrows pointing in the dirction of moving up a fifth.

Let's look at that G major scale one more time

G A B C D E F#
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

So we see that the interval between G and C is that of a fourth.
If you go backwards along the circle (counterclockwise) you'll always be moving in intervals of a fourth. So the circle of fifths is also a circle of fourths.

 

[kiteman]

The CAGED System

The CAGED system is a powerful tool for unravelling the complexities of the layout of notes, scales, chords, arpeggios, interval patterns, licks and riffs on the guitar fretboard.

Its name is an acronym for the five basic chord shapes which form the origin of the system:

C - C major shape (root note on 5th string)
A - A major shape (root note on 5th string)
G - G major shape (root note on 6th string)
E - E major shape (root note on 6th string)
D - D major shape (root note on 4th string)

When I talk about the root notes I'm talking bass even though there's more than one root note in a chord in some cases. You first learn about triads and then you can add to it later (be it 7th, root, add9, whatever.)

Side note - the guitar has four bass strings just like the bass guitar but tuned an octave higher and two treble strings.

I apologize if I sounded old school but I am. ude:

I'm pretty sure you know these chords (C A G E D) as open chords (played at the nut). The nut is a barre so when you move away from the nut your forefinder becomes the barre (nut). You learn these 5 major chord shapes as a barre chord. I'm sure most of you are already familiar with the E shaped and the A shaped barre chords as they are widely used on guitars.

C shaped barre chords are often used too. the G and D shaped chords are difficult to barre but depending on the music omit the big E or the little E string and it's a snap. That's what I do.

Side note again - I'm like Keith Richards I don't like the bottom E string and hardly play it but I need it sometimes. Keith is more talented and he can get away with it so he removed it.

Once you learned how the barre the five chord shapes you've found 5 ways to play a chord depending on where you want the root to be. Here comes the interesting part:

Start with the open C major chord. Follow it up with these barre chord shapes A G E and D all connected by the roots (also known as octave points).

(see attachment)

They are all C major chords in a sequence, C A G E and D.

Now start with an open A Major chord. Do the same with this sequence, A G E D C (also connected by the roots) and here's your 5 A major chords.

The same with

G E D C A for G major chords

E D C A G for E major chords

D C A G E for D major chords

Whew! There's lots more about the CAGED system but right now you have 5 shapes to play a chord and how to find 'em.

More laterz. :beer:

 

[marnold]

As tot said, the fretboard is divided up in semitones and the same's with the keyboard. The keyboard makes it easier to understand the music theory so grab one to work with. The white keys are all notes and none are flatted nor sharped. That's the job of the black keys. Each key (including the black ones) are a semitone apart just like the frets on the guitar.

For me, I found it much easier to grasp music theory on guitar than on a piano. It could be because of the way that piano is usually taught. Most piano teachers that I've come across focus on having their students learn to read music and become an accompanist. It's not really taught with music theory in mind. The black keys are regarded as "accidentals." So when you finally get into some theory, your whole brain has to shift without a clutch and relearn everything with each key being one semitone away from the next, regardless of whether it's black or white.

On a guitar, there are just frets, each one otherwise indistinguishable from another. For me, anyway, that made the transition to music theory much smoother.

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

In fact, if I had a vote (which Vood assures me that I never do ) I'd redo the naming of tones from the archaic system with flats & sharps to the integers
modulo 12.

That is,

the notes would be called


0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, & 11

A semitone would be called a step and a whole tone a double step.

Thus a step up from 0 is the tone 1 etc. Think of 0-11 as on a necklace
so that a step up from 11 is 0 and a double step up from 11 is 1 etc.

This is easy to remember by setting 12 = 0 so

11 + 2 = 13 = 12 + 1 = 0 + 1 = 1.

ie 25 steps up is the same as one step up since

25 = 2 x 12 + 1 = 2 x 0 + 1 = 1.

To transcribe something written in the key of 0 to the key of 5 you just add 5 to all the tones making sure to wrap around after the 11.

 

[kiteman]

Sound like Blumberg's cipher system.

http://www.thecipher.com/

 

[duhvoodooman]

...I'd redo the naming of tones from the archaic system with flats & sharps to the integers
modulo 12.

Wow, Tot, this would make W-A-A-A-Y-Y too much sense and seriously damage the air of mystery & inscrutability that music theory has. It must not be allowed!
But not to worry, since you don't get a vote anyway!

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

It must not be allowed!
But not to worry, since you don't get a vote anyway!

Yes, mystery must prevail at all costs .

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

Sound like Blumberg's cipher system.

http://www.thecipher.com/

I've never heard of it...but after a quick galnce it may be the same (or nearly so) system.

He's maintained the air of mystery by calling it the cipher system .

 

[kiteman]

He's full of baloney. Wanna meet Al Silverman? He's a kook too.

I don't expect you to know who they are but they're some of those people who tries to change music theories to suit their methods.

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

He's full of baloney. Wanna meet Al Silverman? He's a kook too.

I don't expect you to know who they are but they're some of those people who tries to change music theories to suit their methods.

What methods be those?

 

[kiteman]

What methods be those?

I'm sure I can't tell you, they're not making sense. One was converting semitones into numbers (the cipher system) and the other making a matrix out of it.

:whatever: