Guitar Chord Theory And The String Theory Of The Universe

Ok. I honestly don't know how to explain the connection between guitar chord theory and the string theory of the universe, but I do know how to make a few important points clear.

When people start getting interested in basic music theory and how it can help them be better guitar players they quite often get stuck in a lot of unimportant sticky details. Some of these details just make them more confused than ever. It's kind of like Life…we aren't capable of fully understanding the magic and mystery but CAN live it :-)

This guitar lesson and video is designed to keep you on track as you examine some of the theoretical details of what makes music "tick." You don't want to lose sight of the forest as you examine the trees within! If you're at a more advanced level than this, great! But in my experience with students, a lot of people don't have a solid grasp of the fundamentals. As always, I'd love to hear your questions, comments or feedback.

What Is A Chord?

Do you know what a chord is? How many notes make up a chord? How are the sounds organized? What types of chords are there? Where do the sounds even come from in the first place?

I'm sure you've heard that music is very similar to mathematics. And the name for this type of "musical mathematics" is Harmony. And harmony describes the mathematical laws of the Universe as they relate to the sounds in music. Kind of like the G-Forces of sound. All sound vibrations (such as a guitar string) create ripples. These ripples are called overtones. They move in a mathematical "continuum" that we call the Overtone Series.

Entire music libraries at Universities are filled with books on Harmony! Let's keep it simple :-) Certain overtones in certain relationships create harmony/chords that are pleasing to the Human ear/brain. We don't know why and it doesn't matter! At least not to me…I just wanna shut-up n' play my guitar :-)

What DOES matter is that we know how to apply guitar chord theory to our guitar playing. How? By knowing that 3 notes make a chord…this is also called a Triad. These 3 notes are constructed in 3rds. And that we are working with Minor Guitar Chords, Major Guitar chords and Dominant 7th Guitar Chords. For our humble purposes as guitar players, all of those crazily named guitar chords that you see in books can be categorized under one of these 3 qualities of chords!

sidenote: You may hear that you only need to play 2 notes on your guitar to get a "chord." This is sometimes true but it's an unimportant confusing detail right now. It's also useful to know that there are diminished and augmented chords…however, they are basically a subset of the dominant 7th family and this guitar theory lesson is intended to give you a simple but powerful overview.

Important Tip That Could Save You Lots Of Frustration!

Blues, jazz and a lot of rock don't exactly follow the same principles that classical and traditional theory teach. Throw in the guitar modes which in truth,don't exist…(they are merely models and "devices") and you've got a whole lotta confusion!

For now…all the guitar chord theory you need to know in order to both simplify and deepen your understanding has been said above. The guitar lessons video will help to make things clear for you. And here's a checklist to help you stay on track. Keep it simple!

• There are 3 notes in a chord
• Those 3 notes are built every other note in the major scale. They are called the Root(1), 3rd and 5th.
• These 3 notes form 3 different Qualities of chords depending which note of the scale a chord has as its root.
• They are: major, minor and dominant 7th.
• If you lower the 3rd of a major chord by a semitone (1 fret) you get a minor chord. You'll have "modulated" and moved temporarily into a different Key though. But the 3rd is the difference between a Major and Minor chord.
• If you start on the 1st or 4th note of the scale you get a major chord.
• If you build up from the 5th note you get dominant 7th. See Guitar Keys For More.
• Building from the 2nd 3rd or 6th degree of the major scale creates minor guitar chords.
• Get a keyboard and start finding and singing a few chords!
• Always remember…music comes from the overtone series. 12 equally divided notes do not exist in Nature. This is called tempered tuning and is a blurred approximation. It's highly useful for us as guitar players though…because now we can play in any key and be approximately in tune. It's all good, says J.S. Bach ;-)

Notice how the 3rd in D major on String One moves 1 fret lower when it's D minor?

See the guitar lesson online video for a great visual overview of this lesson.

That's everything you need to know about guitar chord theory for now. Don't complicate it. Being able to clearly identify the simple points above will carry you far toward your destination. I would recommend being able to hear these chords also. That's why I suggested a keyboard. All the guitar theory lessons at this website fit together so take your time and enjoy :-)

If you have any questions about guitar chord theory or any feedback I'd love to hear from you! Thanks again for tuning in and tuning up :-)

Dave

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