Why Learn Basic Theory?

We don’t want to fool anyone:  Learning to shred requires a lot of effort, certainly more than learning a few chords to strum.  There’s also no such thing as a free lunch and guitar courses that promise you that you can cut your practicing in half and double your technique are basically trying to fool you.

Guitar is a lot of work.  But, we suspect that you love it; that’s why you’re reading this. Good!  You’ve just made practicing a blast!

However, this course wants to take you beyond just the technical portions of shredding.  Why not start to learn music as well?

Why not learn how to solve the puzzle?

Because once you have the key and can unlock just the basics of the music theory mystery, a whole new world of music opens up to you!

Soloing becomes easier, songwriting becomes more natural, and understanding how it all fits is…enlightening!

If you have a good grasp on the concepts of music, learning the guitar becomes much easier and fun.  You start to see how scales, chords, and progressions fit together.  You understand why this particular note is an E-sharp and not an F-natural.  You know why the melodic minor is one pattern going up, and another going down.

And on and on…

In my experience, 75% of musicians (and maybe 99% of guitarists) don’t understand the inner workings of music well.  They may be naturally talented and can feel music and can do some neat, imaginative, and artistic things, but in many ways, they are hampered by a lack of knowledge and understanding about music.

Someone can be naturally gifted in music, but they’re holding themselves back if they don’t learn the basics of music.  Learning music is like learning a new language.  You need to master the vocabulary and the grammar.  Imagine the impossibility of being creative in a language if you don’t know how it works and have only limited exposure to its vocabulary.  So it is with music; you’ll go so much further if you become fluent.

Even the ultimate musically talented Mozart was lucky enough to have had a prescient father who knew that his son needed to be trained in music theory in order to unlock his full potential.

So, approach music education with an open mind.  Strive to become a well-rounded musician who can adapt to many musical styles and situations.  A strong understanding of the basics will do wonders for you and will make your technical practice easier.

Trust me on this !

The Good and the Bad

First the bad news:  There is a ton of material out there that claims to teach you theory for the guitar.  However, I’ve never come across a good one that introduces the basics of theory in a simple way.  Most books just cover an immense amount of scale patterns and expect you to memorize all of this!

Are they crazy?

If you’ve got a book titled something like “1000 Scale Patterns”, then just toss it out.  It’s not doing you much good.

Using “books of a thousand patterns” is like trying to read a book without knowing the alphabet!

Unfortunately, for some reason, most guitarists think this is the normal way to learn about music.  Maybe they think that all those patterns and charts looks technical and impressive.  Wow, the guy who wrote this must really know his stuff, right?!  Wrong!  This isn’t music – this is pattern memorization!

Now, the good news:

You really don’t need that much basic theory to start to see how notes, scales, and chords fit together.  But, you do need to know the basic theory well.

It’s not something that you read once and you’re finished; you know it.  You read it many times over and over.

You see it on your fretboard over and over.

Over time, it starts to sink in; it starts to make sense.

Once that understanding is there, there is no need for the book of a thousand scale patterns!  Instead, you can create them on your own – anywhere on the fretboard!

Now how’s that for fretboard freedom?

What about the Course?

This course intends to show you the basics of music theory.  But, it will be up to you to apply it and understand it.  It will be up to you to be disciplined enough to follow through with it.  However, we’ll give you some tricks and tools along the way to help you work on it.

But, don’t be fooled.  You can have fun with it too!

We hope that each little piece of the mystery will give you a bit of a leap of understanding every day.

You may know some of this already.  Fantastic!  You’ve got a head start.

Just make sure that you understand it all well.

It is time…

Go to the first lesson

You probably already know how to read guitar tablature.  If you don’t know how, don’t worry; it will be covered later in this chapter.  The good news is that 95% of guitar music uses tablature and it’s much easier than reading standard notation.

But, we’re going to suggest that you learn the basics of standard notation.

Don’t get scared away!  Just think of the edge that you’ll have on other guitarists!

There is a high value in learning the basics of standard notation.  Standard notation is superior to tablature in two ways:

• Standard Notation can show you musical relationships.  You can much more clearly see keys, scales, and, most importantly, chord progressions.   This is huge.
• Standard Notation is better at showing rhythm.

Let’s start with the basics of standard notation:

Figure 1 shows an example of a staff with both Standard Notation (the dots and lines on the top) and Guitar Tablature (the numbers on the bottom).

Let’s focus on the standard notation staff first. Have a look at the very simple staff below.  The odd symbol on the left is known as a “clef”.  This specific clef is called the “treble clef” and indicates the range of notes that the instrument produces.  This is the clef that is used in standard guitar notation.  This symbol indicates what the notes are represented by the lines (and spaces) on the staff.  The “staff” is the collection of five horizontal lines. Notes can appear on the lines and in the spaces between the lines to indicate pitch.  The higher the note appears on the staff, the higher the pitch.

Expand pitch here!

Different types of notes can be drawn to indicate duration.  Notes can even be drawn above and below the five horizontal lines using additional lines known as “ledger lines”.  Ledger lines are used when a note is either too high or too low for the five lines and four spaces of the staff.  See the first note in Figure 3?  That happens to be a “C” note (“Middle ‘C’ for piano players).  Notice the small horizontal line drawn through it.  That is an example of a ledger line.

What do the two “4″s stacked on top of each other mean?  That has to do with rhythm.

Why does one of the notes have a single vertical line attached to it while others have vertical lines that are connected by one or two horizontal line?  This also has to do with rhythm.

In all of these examples, the meter (for now, think of meter as the rhythm) is notated as “4/4″, read as “four four”.  The top number indicates how many beats are in a measure, or a grouping of notes that last for a given amount of time.  The bottom number indicates what type of note receives one beat.  A “four” means quarter note.  Quarter notes looks like this:

Exercise:

Clap, count, tap your foot, or whatever, but get a steady rhythm of four beats of the same duration going. Now count over that rhythm, “one, two, three, four”.   Repeat over and over.  Each repetition of “one, two, three, four” is a measure in this meter of 4/4.

If we write this out as seen below, these are quarter notes, represented by a single black note head with a vertical line (known as a “stem”). Each note is separate and not connected to another:

The staff (or bar) above is divided into measures by the bar lines. The 4/4 time signature at the beginning indicates that there are four beats in each measure and that each beat is represented by a quarter note, the black dot with a stem (vertical line). This is a simple example in 4/4. There are other time signatures, but we’re going to use 4/4 to begin with.  At least 95% of popular music is in 4/4 time.

Eighth notes (1/2 beat)

As in basic fractions, an eighth note is half as long as a quarter note, and you can therefore fit two eighth notes in the same time as a single quarter note.  The naming of notes  continues to follow a similar pattern:  sixteenth notes are half the duration of an eighth note, thirty-second notes are half the duration of a sixteenth note.  A half note is double the duration of a quarter note.  And a whole note is double the duration of a half note.  Pretty easy.

Now for the note values. When there are notes between the counts we start to use horizontal bars called beams that connect the notes.  Two equally spaced notes per beat are called eighth notes.  When an eighth note appears alone it represents only half a beat.  When this happens the beam has no other note to connect to and it trails off, hanging over the single note.  This is called a hook or a flag (see graphic). These single notes are normally preceded or followed by a moment of silence called a rest.  Like notes, rests can also last different amounts of time and are represented by symbols, as seen below (more on them later).  Go back to your four-beat counting and say “and” event between the numbers.

Now, for a very dense overview of notes in standard notation:

Alright.  That is one of the shortest introductions to standard notation.  But, there is an immense amount of information here.  If you’re new to it, your head may be spinning.  Don’t worry; just refer back to this chapter as you need.  But, here’s your goal:

You want to eventually be able to look at standard notation and recognize rhythms and note values without even thinking.

So, that takes a lot of practice and repetition.

Now for the easy part:  guitar tablature!  Have a look at this example of standard and guitar tablature again:

Now, we’ll ignore all those sixteenth notes and concentrate on the numbers at the bottom, this is the guitar tablature.  The guitar tablature staff has 6 lines which, unlike the standard notation lines, do not represent pitch; they represent guitar strings.  From top to bottom, they represent the high E, B, G, D, A, and low E strings.

The numbers represent the fret.  So the first number on the tablature staff is a “10” on the low E string (the circled “4” above is the suggested fingering and indicates your pinky.  A “1” would indicate your index finger.)  The next note is also played on the low “E” string at the 8^th fret, then the 7^th.  Pretty simple, huh?  You can see that just with a small amount of practice, you’ll be playing notes on the guitar in no amount of time using guitar tablature.

Now to connect the standard notation and the guitar tablature.

The important thing is to know what notes you are playing!  The image below shows the range of a typical electric guitar all the way from the low “E” up to the high “D”, assuming you have a 22-fret guitar.  If you have a Stratocaster, you’ve got 21 frets, and that 21st fret corresponds to C# (C sharp).

The image below does not show all of the notes on the guitar, just the ones that are in the key of “C” (a lesson on scales will cover this).

It can be very time consuming to learn all the notes on the guitar.  Not every note on the guitar appears just once – you can play some notes on six different places on the guitar!  Many others can duplicated two, three, four, and even five times.

Here are some suggestions for learning the notes on the guitar:

1) Refer to the graphic above, play one of the notes, and simply begin to make the association with the fret number, the sound of the note, and the note that it corresponds to in standard notation.  Be sure you’re diligent about this last step.  The goal is to ultimately be able to read standard notation as easily as tab.  Begin doing this by just looking at where the note is roughly located (above, below, or within the main staff to start with).  Over time, these associations will become more natural.

2) Learn the most common notes on the guitar and then slowly fill in the gaps as you gain more and more experience.  What are the most common notes?  Start with these:

1. The open strings.  From low to high:  E, A, D, G, B, A
2. The strings at the 12th fret, exactly one octave higher than the open strings:  E, A, D, G, B, A
3. The notes on the seventh fret, exactly one fifth (a fifth is an interval that is covered in a future lesson) above the open string:  B, E, A, D, F#, B
4. The notes on the 19th fret, exactly one fifth above the notes of the 12th fret:  B, E, A, D, F#, B

A  scale is a series of ascending and descending pitches.  Musicians use a scale as a convenient way of displaying the tones used in a melody or harmony.  Common scales are made up of a series of half and whole steps.  A half step is the minimum distance between notes.  On the guitar it’s from one fret to the next.  A whole step is two frets away.  These terms seem badly named, and maybe they are, but that’s the nomenclature of scales.  So remember:  half step, whole step.

The C Major scale is the natural place to start learning about scales.  On the piano, it is all the white keys from one C to the next C.  Starting at middle C and playing each successive note up to the next C yields an ascending C Major scale.

But, what makes a scale a major scale?  The answer is simply how the half and whole steps are arranged between the notes.  Starting at the root note, or tonic, and moving up, the major scale is defined as:  two successive whole steps, a half step, three successive whole steps, and a half step.

Different ways to say this:

• whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half
• all whole steps, with the exception of a half step between the 3rd and 4th degrees (notes) and the 7th and 8th degrees.

On the guitar, there are perhaps easier keys to play in other than C, but to comprehend notation, C Major is the easiest.  Again, all of the keys are the white keys on the piano and we don’t have to deal with sharp (raised) notes or flat (lowered) notes.

On the left is an image showing a C Major scale.  Tablature is provided to help you with fingerings and frets.

Reading tab:  From bottom to top, each line on the TAB staff represents a string, from low to high, on the guitar.  The low line is the low E, then A, D, G, B, and E.  The numbers at the bottom of the TAB staff (without circles) indicate the corresponding fret on the string.  In this example you can see that the first two notes are played on the third and fifth frets.  The circled numbers indicate the preferred fingering, where “2″, in this example, indicates the middle finger, and “4″ indicates the pinky.

Though tablature is very convenient, strive to focus on reading standard notation (the upper staff).

Things to remember:

• Basic scales are made up of whole steps and half step intervals.
• A half step is the minimal distance between one note to the next (on fret distance).  A whole step is two frets distance between notes.
• A major scale, any major scale, consists of, in ascending succession, two whole steps, a half step, three whole steps, and a half step.

Understanding intervals is a required step in understanding how to spell chords.  Intervals provide a way to accurately describe the distance between two notes.  In music theory, the intervals that matter are all contained within a single octave.  Though there are intervals that go beyond an octave (you may have heard of the “9th”, the “13th”, etc.), 99% of the real theory occurs within an octave, which includes intervals from the “2nd” to the “7th”.

Skipping this step is almost as bad as not learning the English alphabet!  Learning your intervals well will put you squarely on the path to understanding chords and harmony.

The graphic below shows all of the intervals in the major scale (we’re still C Major in this case).  Recall that scales are made up of whole and half steps.  Intervals, as opposed to whole and half steps, are a convenient way to talk about distances between notes.  For example, it’s much easier to say, “Play the note one fifth higher” rather than “Play the note three and a half steps higher”.  Where steps are a way to describe scales, intervals are a way to describe chords.  Intervals often can tell us how tones are “functioning” within a chord.

Look at the graphic below and take the time to play each of the intervals as notated.    Here, we’re forming intervals based on every note in the C Major scale.  For example, we look at C to D, C to E, C to F, and so on.

What does this term major mean in this case?  As in “Major 2nd” or “Major 3rd”?  The answer is that when you see the word “major” there is also a corresponding “minor” that indicates a tone one half step lower than the major.  For instance:

Notice that the Minor 3rd interval sounds one half step lower than the Major 3rd.  The same is true with all other “Major” intervals.  Now, why are some intervals not prefixed with “major” or “minor”?  Like the “Fourth”, the “Fifth”, or the “Octave”?  The answer is a bit advanced but trust that the answer has something to do with how chords are spelled, and the notes that make up chords.  We will get to this later.

Notice that the “octave” is the same note that occurs higher (or lower) than the root notes.

Not all intervals are created equally!  There is an importance to the intervals.  Some should have more focus on them than others in your learning because some dominate how chords interact.  Here they are, without the octave, ranked in order of “importance”:

1. The 3rd
2. The 5th
3. The 7th
4. The 4th
5. The 6th
6. The 2nd

I’m sure there would be those who’d disagree with me and I might actually swap the 4th and 6th, but this is how they should be focused on.

In future lessons, you’ll begin to understand why some are more important than others.  In fact, very soon, in the “Triads” lesson, you’ll see why the 3rd (both major and minor) plays such an important role.

Things to do:

• Practice playing the different intervals all over the neck.  Basically, learn what the shapes are that define the intervals.  Caution:  Only do this on the low strings E, A, D, and G.  The “B” string is tuned differently and thus the shapes for the intervals are completely different from the G string to the B.  We will worry about these later.
• Be able to pick a note, and play any interval asked.

A specific exercise:

While there is still plenty to learn about scales and intervals, we’ll mix things up this week and introduce something a bit more tangible and fun for learning guitarists:  chords.  After learning a little more about chords, we’ll go back to scales and intervals, building on the earlier lessons and from chord lessons as well.  This is colossally important for understanding how music works so study this on plenty of sleep and a good meal, pay attention, and don’t forget.

Harmony is the study of tones sounding together and there is a lot to learn about how chords work, how they move (progressions), how they resolve (cadences), and so on.  Melody implies a linear aspect of music and harmony refers to the vertical dimension of music.

A chord is a harmonic unit with at least three different pitches, any three different pitches, sounding simultaneously.  Recall that two pitches sounding together is called an interval.

A triad is a much more strict definition of a type of chord.  It is the basis of Western music starting from the seventeenth century or so.  Triads are crucial to learn and understand in order to be able to intelligently discuss chord progression and many guitarist today don’t really know what the definition is.  A triad is not any group of three notes!  That’s what a chord is.  I’ve seen several guitar theory books make this elementary mistake.  Any source making a mistake like this can never be trusted because the definition of a triad is so simple and so core to music theory that screwing it up can only mean that the source has no idea what they’re talking about.

So learn it and don’t forget it!  OK?  Here is the definition of a triad:

Triad – A three-tone chord build on superposed thirds.

It’s as easy as that.  Recall from the last lesson about the most important intervals.  There is a reason that the 3rd and the 5th are the most important intervals in spelling and describing chords:  these are the intervals that make up the triad.

But wait!  The definition of triad talks about “superposed thirds” and here we see that a triad is made with a root note, a 3rd, and a 5th.  So where does “superposed thirds” come into play?  Look at the distance in the C Major triad from the E to the G.  It’s another 3rd.  So, here’s a way to remember how to build a major triad:  a major 3rd above the root, and a minor 3rd above the major 3rd.

Again recall the lesson on intervals.  In the above example, the C to the E is a major 3rd.  The E to the G is a minor 3rd.  And the C to the G is a perfect 5th.

Practically every chord in functional Western music is based on triads.  When, in guitar, we talk about a C chord, everyone pretty much means this chord shown below.  This chord, as with virtually all others, is based upon a triad, in this case, the C Major triad.  You can see the triad explicitly in this particular chord.  The two highest notes are a “C” (one octave higher than the low C) and an “E” (of course, it is a major 3rd above the C).

When we talk of “major” and “minor” chords, we are talking about chords built upon a triad.  Always. Every single time.

You should be aware that other standard chords on the guitar may not have an explicit triad in them although all three notes of the triad are present.  For example, the standard D Major chord on the guitar consists of the root, then a 5th higher, then an octave, then the 3rd above the octave note.  Do not worry about this technicality for now, just recall the definition of a chord:  any three notes.  In this case, the D major chord contains the three tones of the triad, just spread out a little differently.

Things to do:

• Learn to play the C Major chord.  The ring finger frets the low “C” and the index finger frets the high “C”.  Practice fretting the notes comfortably.  Place your hand, play the chord with one down stroke (paying close attention not to hit the low open “E” string), release, and repeat.
• Learn how to spell the C Major triad.  Be able to explain the intervals between each note.
• Review how to play the individual intervals:  Major 3rd, Minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, and Perfect 5th.  Play the Major and Minor 3rd on both on adjacent strings and on the same string.  Learn the shapes.
• Try out the following scales:

The above image is a C Major scale followed by a G Major scale.  Notice that the fingering and intervals are exactly the same.  The only difference is where you start!

The above image is a C Major scale followed by a G Mixolydian scale.  OK, don’t worry about that fancy word just yet (it’s really not that fancy either once you learn what it is).  Think of the second scale as another C Major scale, just starting at the G note instead of the C note.  Notice how close to the G Major scale listed above it is; there’s only one note difference:  the F# (4th fret D string) is in the G Major scale, whereas the other is an F natural (3rd fret D string).

By now, you are familiar with the major scale, and should be able to play a major scale in just about any key, given your comfort level with different positions on the neck.  It’s time to introduce the minor scale.

Some interesting patterns emerge when looking at the minor scale in terms of the major scale.

The term relative minor refers to a minor scale that shares the same key signature (the same notes) as a major scale.  For example, in the key of C Major, the relative minor is A Minor.  The key signature for C Major has no sharps or flats.  The key signature is identical for A Minor.  To find the relative minor of any major scale, proceed to the sixth degree of that scale.  This tone is the tonic of the relative minor.  For example, in C Major:

This image shows how C Major and A Minor scales share the same notes, A Minor beginning on “A” and C Major beginning on “C”.  Note, that C Minor is not the relative minor of A Major.

Formulaic way to describe the minor scale in terms of whole and half steps:

• whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole
• all whole steps, with the exception of a half step between the 2nd and 3rd degrees (notes) and the 5th and 6th degrees.

Relative major is likewise another term.  As you can probably guess it’s basically the opposite:  The relative major of A Minor is C Major.  To find the relative major of any minor scale, proceed to the third degree of that scale.  For example:  A, B, C.

There is another term worth mentioning:  parallel major and parallel minor.  This refers to major and minor scales that share the same root note.  For example, C Major and C Minor have a parallel relationship.

Looking at the above graphic, you can see that in order to convert from C Major to C Minor, we have to “flatten” or lower the third, sixth, and seventh degrees of the scale.  This also shows us what the  key signature C Minor looks like.  Three flats:  B flat, E flat, and A flat.

Likewise, going from minor to parallel major requires “sharpening” or raising of the third, sixth, and seventh degrees of the minor scale:

Now, you can see what the key signature for A major looks like:

Below is an image showing an A Minor scale.  Tablature is provided to help with fingerings and frets. Practice this scale very slowly, only ascending to begin with.  Play the scale slow enough such that you are alternate picking every note regardless of switching strings.

Proceed to practice it both ascending and descending.  For something a little harder, try combining the A minor and C major scales.  In other words, play the first two notes of the A minor as shown.  Then your second finger will be in the same position it needs to be in (on the “C” note) to play the C Major scale.  Continue playing the C major scale as you always have.  Practice this both up and down.

The C Major scale is also shown below as a reference.  Notice how a minor and C major share the same group of notes.  They just start in different places:

Here are two different ways to notate chords. The top image shows both standard guitar chords and “classic” Roman numerals.

Here is another way:

The  graphic at the above shows the chords spelled out in the simplest format.  This is what you’ll encounter most frequently in popular music.  The lower case “m” indicates “minor”.  “Major” is implied with all chords without a suffix attached to it.  Major chords can also be notated with a capital “M”.  The one “weird” chord is “B dim” or B diminished.  Likewise for the other type of triad or chord, the augmented chord, an “aug” is added to the chord.  This chord, however, is very rare in popular music and does not appear naturally diatonically (ie, there will always be some type of accidental – sharp or flat attached to it).

Advantages/Disadvantages of each type of notation:

• Guitar chords:
  • Advantages:  You can read the chord symbol, and if you don’t know the chord, you have the fingerings available.
  • Disadvantages:  You’re given the ability to neglect understanding how the chord is formed.  The real “training wheels” version of notation.  Some may see this as an advantage.
• Classic Roman numerals:
  • Advantages:  Relationships to other chords in the key are explicit, easy way to distinguish major and minor, this is really the only way to do any useful harmonic analysis.
  • Disadvantages:  The most difficult of the three, requires solid basic theory to grasp.
• Popular notation:
  • Advantages:  The most common, easy to distinguish chord types.
  • Disadvantages:  Chord relationships are not available.

It’s important to be familiar with all three, but mostly “Classic” and “Popular”.

More on Intervals:

We’ve done intervals in a separate lesson.  Now lets learn intervals on a single string.  From any open string, be able to find (at the minimum):

• One octave up (don’t forget about harmonics!)
• One fifth up
• Major and Minor 3rds up

Others that should come easy once you can find these without thinking:

• The sevenths (major/minor)
• The seconds (major/minor)

A little trickier but by no means hard (save these for last):

• The fourth
• The sixths (major/minor)

Intro:

You are about to learn one of the top-notch licks in the classical repertoire.  That’s a subjective statement, but this is one of my personal favorites because it’s challenging, acrobatic, and sounds great when played up to speed.  You will not find a lick like this anywhere in modern shred guitar.  After all, you are learning to play the works of real masters.

In case you didn’t know, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, which was written in 1878 was initially dismissed as being unplayable.  After trying out this lick, you’ll have a sense why that is.  Don’t worry, it’s not impossible.

While it’s only three measures, this lick has a lot to offer:  a lot of legato, acrobatic fingerwork, and even some tapping.  Yes, that’s two-handed tapping.  Also, the first measure really serves as a lead-up to the two measure run that first cascades downwards in a series of ascending triplets to be followed be a very interesting ascent back to the upper frets.

Learning the Lick:

There are a few things, that need to be called out to make this lick a little easier to understand and play.  The first measure listed here serves to lead into the interesting two licks, but it should not be dismissed lightly; it is quite an awkward lick and takes a while to get used to.  Much of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto features strange patterns like this throughout.  As usual, follow the fingerings and slowly work it up to speed.

Let’s move on to the more interesting licks now.  First of all, notice how the rhythmic pattern of the lick changes.  The high note lands on the downbeat of each triplet section.  The first note is on the E-string’s 18^th fret (a B-flat).  Pick that note, then forget about it.  Train your mind to now count each triplet – with the triplet’s high note landing on the downbeat.

Each triplet pattern on the descent is a little different.  These patterns just require repetition to become dialed into your head.  Strive to use hammer-ons as often as you can.  Obviously, you can’t do this when you are required to switch strings.  The last two triplets of this measure function as one section of six notes that leads the lick back to the upper frets.

Things are about to get interesting again.

For the next measure, the same pattern of counting each triplet with the high note landing on the beat still holds.  But, now notice there are three sets of triplets whose first note repeats.  These two notes must be picked, obviously, but strike to keep the third note of each triplet as a hammer-on to preserve the legato nature of the lick.

Also, notice that there is a section of two-handed tapping.  The “+” graphic above the B-string 18^th fret note indicates this.  This pattern is repeated twice and gives you a split-second of rest just before you need to make a big leap up to the 16^th fret for the last part of the lick.  If you’ve made it this far, then congratulations!  You have survived a very tricky lick.

Download the music

I decided to break out the camera in my apartment, a totally casual location, and record a rough take of the opening measures of the Sibelius Violin Concerto, one of the greats from the Romantic Era. The beginning starts out softly and delicately and later builds into a dark and brooding tonal canvas.  There’s a wide range of techniques to notice here and to work on (myself included of course).  From the very soft beginnings played on a single string, to the more unstable low strings, dissonant chords, arpeggios, tonality changes, and a few more, there’s a lot to hear and see here.

There’s some fast 16th note shredding towards the end. Unfortunately, I’ve only learned partway through that first cadenza (you’ll see me suddenly stop), but you get the picture. I’m sure a lot of shredders will really enjoy this section and do amazing things with it. But, what I like about this opening is the wide range of drama and volume that can be found here.

I’m experimenting with a lot of the fingerings for this piece. Much of the opening is played on a single string, which gives a nice consistent feel. Also, the 16th note shred is all played on the low E and A strings; a different feel for such a quick pace.

Have a look and listen and see what you think. Does it look pretty interesting to you? Look for tab to be posted in lessons soon.

Here’s my first post in HD.  Does it make a difference?

I created a quick video of two short licks, sort of a “compare and contrast” sort of thing.  Check it out:

The point of the video is to show the regular and repetitive nature of the popular Yngwie lick contrasted against a wild, totally crazy lick from an old timer like Tchaikovsky.  Yeah, that’s right; Tchaikovsky.  The same guy who also wrote the Nutcracker Suite that you hear during Christmas and the famous luv melody from his “Romeo and Juliet” Suite.  Definitely a versatile composer.

Don’t get the wrong idea:  my goal of this post isn’t to rip Yngwie.  Yngwie was my early guitar hero and I bought all of his albums and learned tons of his songs and solos.  Even though they do get a bit repetitive, you gotta respect the heck out of the man for his technique and his passion.

Maybe we should respect him even moreso because he’s the king of neoclassical shred guitar.  I credit him as the number one influence of opening the eyes of legions of guitarists around the world with his quasi-Baroque style of playing.  The lick above, from his song “I’ll See the Light Tonight”, is pretty much his trademark sound (doubled with a harpsichord, of course).

That sorta leads into the purpose of the video.  My goal with the site is to inspire other guitarists to peek into the much bigger world of classical music.  Yngwie, and his numerous imitators, pretty much stay in that one style, Bach ‘n Roll, if you will.  That’s only a tiny portion of the styles of classical music that are available.  Did you know that Tchaikovsky wrote a piece, his Violin Concerto, that was once considered unplayable?  It is indeed a super challenging piece that demands a huge range of techniques.  This one lick in the video is one of my favorites because it’s just so weird, demands a ton of tricks, and sounds great.  And it’s only two measures!  Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto is over 50 pages long!  That’s a lot of shredding.

Look for more selections from Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto on this site in the future.