Music Theory for Guitarists – Grade 1 – Part I
Music Theory is a vast subject, and one that many guitarists could use more than they do. It is true that some of our heroes cannot read a note of music, but I imagine if they had, they could and perhaps would have achieved even more. With that in mind, I plan to introduce you to music theory for guitarists… nice and slow like I do all my students.
One of the most common problems for guitarists is a lack of appreciation for rhythm. We all seem to want to be screaming lead players, and too often neglect the basics of musicianship. Music theory for guitarists can help cement this aspect of playing and can open the mind to a wealth of musical possibilities.
With that, I introduce grade 1 music theory… In this first part we will look at time, notes and rests, and the stave itself.
The Stave
Most guitar music is written in the treble clef, which will be familiar to most if not all of you:
The easiest way to remember the notes on the stave is with this mnemonic Every Good Boy Deserves Food. The lowest line on the stave is an E, and the highest line is an F. It may also help you to know that the white spaces between the lines, low to high in order are F,A,C,E.
Note Values
The position of the notes on the stave denotes pitch, but the way they are written states how long each should be played. In all pictorial examples that follow, the bar line is followed by the symbol you would use to denote a rest. Nothing would be played for the duration of one beat of the specified length.
The symbol used most for a single beat is a crotchet or quarter note, 4 of which are written as below. Imagine footsteps left, right, left, right:
Imagine soldiers on parade. If the bass drum is hit each step, it would be written the same as the above, but if it were struck every other step it would be written with minim or half notes, as shown below:
So as you can see a half note lasts as long as two quarter notes. During the march, perhaps a snare drum is played twice with each step. This would be eighth notes as below:
Two eighth notes are therefore equal to one quarter note. In the example above the notes are joined together (beamed) as they would be, a single eighth note is shown to the far right.
Any of these notes can have a small dot placed just after it, which increases its length by 50%. Therefore a dotted quarter note would be the same length as three eighth notes.
Time Signatures
The length of notes is linked to the time signature. The numbers immediately to the right of the clef are used to show how many notes there should be in a bar, and what type they are. The upper of the two numbers states how many notes are in the bar, and for now, the lower number will always be a ‘4’, which means quarter note beats called quarters because there are four to a bar. Shown below are the three time signatures we need at this stage, with half, quarter and eighth notes in each example to show how a bar in each time signature is filled with each note type:
And that brings part one to a close. You should now have an understanding of musical time, a knowledge of the stave and the types of notes we need for now. Next up we look at sharps and flats, major scale construction and key signatures… You can find Music Theory for Guitarists Grade 1 Part II Here!
You can find more articles on scales and guitar technique to help you develop as a player here. If you’ve got any questions please get in touch on Facebook or Twitter.
And yeah, I know it seems a bit dull right now but trust me… this stuff really helps 🙂
You can download a PDF of the notation below:
