basic intervals/scales lesson for beginners

[GregP]

It's possible that your guitar isn't tuned properly.

low E string, 5th fret is an "A". That'll fit into the backing track like a glove, and if it doesn't, your guitar needs to be re-tuned. I'll see if I can post something up later.

Greg

[Curtis P]

nope, its tuned right, i always tune it up before i play, if i am playing with friends (like i did today) i use my friends tuner to make sure its completly perfect, and i check every so often while playing

Curtis

[westhemann]

i understand none of this

[Curtis P]

yea, i dont understand the first page of stuff

Curtis

[the third eye]

lol well that doesn't help..

take it slow and tell me what exactly you're having trouble with, so i can help

[westhemann]

lol well that doesn't help..

take it slow and tell me what exactly you're having trouble with, so i can help

just explain it in proper english...then i will tell you why you don't make sense

[the third eye]

give it a chance, it's all there

i tried to make it with beginners in mind but...

the more feedback people give me the better it can become

[truerussian558]

its not written in laymans terms, give me a seocond to type it up and ill elaborate

i do have a basic knowledge in theory to do this

[the third eye]

you just gotta use a little musical common sense and you can start intervals and modes from scratch if you work through what i wrote

[the third eye]

i'm editing it a bit to explain a few things better

[the third eye]

edited

[truerussian558]

now for my grand finnaly

my primer

Ok so, lets just look on the fretboard, concentrate on the 6th string for now

now lets say your root note is e (open string) so the first fret would be called the min (minor) 2 of e (1 half step) , 2nd a maj (major) 2 (2 half steps), and so one (look at the chart) until the 12th fret and then it starts all over again, so you must be realizing that that the difference between an interval and the next one is always a half step, once you get that its as simple as butter . so lets start with the basic, major scale, as we are on the guitar i will keep everything in the scale of e. so e (open 6th string) is your root. to find the next note is 1 whole step up or a maj2nd of e. thus the second note would be on the second fret of the 6th string, which is f#. now your probably (or not) asking why is it f# if its a whole step up, well this is because there are 2 pairs of natural notes that the difference between them is 1 half step, these are, b and c, and e and f. A good way to establish this is too look at a piano, there are 2 keys the have no black key in between, which also brings us to how major scales are constructed(again). the pattern for a major scale (whole step, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half) is because if you start with c on the piano, and move to the right one key by key (no black keys), the pattern, will turn out to be this, because again, 2 pairs of natural notes have a halfstep (not a whole) step between them.

so lets construct a major scale (again )

first there is the root, e (open string)

the next note is the maj2nd (2 halfsteps up) of e, being f# (2nd fret)

the next note is the maj3d (4 half steps) of e, which is g# (4th fret)

the note after that is the per4th (5 half steps, remember, this is where e and f would be in the c scale) of e, which is A (5th fret)

the next note is the perf 5th (7half steps) of E, which is B (7th fret)

the note after that is the is the maj6th (9 half steps!) of e, which is c# (again because the dist between b and c is 1 half step) (9th fret)

the next note is the maj 7th (11 half steps) of e, which is d#

the final note of the e scale is the octave (12 half steps, not 13 because this is the difference between b and c in the c major scale) note of e, which is e (on the 12th fret)

now that you know that you can construct any major scale, just by following the interval that goes next. you can alos show of your skills and play the major scale on several strings, so you dont have to jump all over the place on 1 string.

ok so after quick primer #1 (or is it 3?) lets talk about modes, the mode of a major scale, is in lamens terms a modification of the scale hence the name mode. lets talk about the aeolion mode of the e major scale (commonly known as an e minor scale). now if you look in the chart on third eye's original post. the difference between the 2 scales (aeolian and ionian, aka minor and major) , is in 3 notes.

1. instead of a maj3d (4 half steps) we replace is this a minor 3d )3 half steps)

2. instead of a maj6th (9 half steps) we replace it with a minor 6th (8 half steps)

3. and finaly instead of a maj 7th (11 half steps) a minor 7th (10 half steps) is used

this makes us a familiar e minor scale . which is

 

----------------  E

----------------  B

----------------  G

-----------0 2--- D

- - - 0 2 3------ A

0 2 3 ----------- E

 

now i wont rewrite out all the modal intervals that third eye said because this would be an insult to his (and my) time, but if you look at the chart he posted and try to understand them, then you should be able to make the mixolydian (funny names...) mode of the f (or e#) (first fret of the 6th and 1st string for you tabbers) major scale

now if people found this helpfull i can be able to and go and explain pentatonic and blues scales and such

[the third eye]

cheers russian, the reason i didn't talk about steps was i thought it would add another(small) learning curve to someone who's just starting

i've edited the first post a bit BTW....

[truerussian558]

for some strange reason i find theory quite interesting

but it sure sucks to have 2 people write out full page explanations of the same thing to have some idiots (j.k. ) understand theory fundamentals,

also 1 minor addition,

a half step is one fret up (on the guitar)

also as a sie note, i am in no way saying that i am a theory master, i just have grusp the fundamentals quite strongly. i actually learned the fundamentals, for this, about a midnight a few weeks ago, while reading in a teach yourself guitar book (actually i was reading up on improvising)

[the third eye]

part 3 added, hope someone is finding this stuff useful

[Curtis P]

OK, the stuff i dont get is the A minors and majors and #$%^$ crap if you told me what A minor on the fret board was and how your progressed it then i would understand

Yea, i am that beginer

Curtis

[Ki swordsman]

slow down, where exactly are you stuck?

tell me what paragraph you don't understand or what topic exactly?

and how far through are you?

do you understand how to find each interval from the root?

[truerussian558]

a is the openm second string, to make a minor, you go

root (open)

maj2nd (2nd fret)

minor third (3d fret)

perf fect 4th (5th fret)

perfect 5th (7th)

minor 6th (8th)

minor 7th (10th)

and octave (12th)

or on all the strings

-------------0-2 (3d string)

------0-2-3 (4th string)

0-2-3 (a 5 ths string)

sorry for the bad tab but im to my guitar class.

[Ki swordsman]

curtis, are you saying you don't know how to find notes like A..etc?

[truerussian558]

i think that might be the problem...

just to clarify it for you, a minor is not a note (unless your a wierd person )

a is the note, minor is the mode of the scale,

you might be thinking of A flat

ki swordsman/ third eye, we might have to do a primer on notes and very basic music theory

[Curtis P]

ohh, i know that opens are the names of the strings, EADGBE and such, but i dont know how to make them minor and major, thats the only part i am stuck on

Curtis

[Ki swordsman]

not sure what you mean...

a note on it's own isn't minor or major

example: open E is simply E, 1st fret F, 2nd F#,3rd G...etc

were you thinking of sharps and flats? like F#(sharp) Gb(flat)?

something is only major or minor once you add other notes to create a scale or a chord(if the notes in the chord are taken from a minor scale the chord is minor)

and minor or major can also refer to intervals(what i talked about in that first post)

in which case we are not dealing with notes but distances

(like once you find your root, how many frets to go to get to the minor7th or major3rd...etc)

if you're up for it have a go at going through the tutorial at the start paragraph by paragraph, there isn't any need for other theory...as long as you have a very basic musical knowledge, as soon as you get stuck just let me know and i'll help you out

[truerussian558]

i think hese stuck at the intervals

ok so lets say in the key of e. you have the major 3d on the fourth fret, (4 half steps up). now you want to make the minor scale, so you need to use a minor 3d, which is a flat major 3d or otherwise called a minor 3d. sometimes in certain books where they show, interval diagrams of scales, they say a flat 3d or just 3d instead of minor 3d and major 3d

just for intervals though if you say a minor(interval), it means one half step down, or flatted., but people will look at you wierd, if you say, oh you accidentally hit G minor instead of G (as opposed to g flat)

[GregP]

One thing about scale theory that you might be able to help me out with here or in a separate thread--

None of it means anything to me unless I know which chords to put underneath. How can I choose chords that have more of the scale's flavour? Or in general, how do the two relate? What I'm getting out of this so far is that for the 8 (or was it 7... I'm a good teacher but a crap student. <laff>) basic modes, the 'shape' is basically the same, except 'shifted' by varying degrees.

For example, a major scale is:

tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone. Let's say the first note is a C, just to make things easy. Now we have a C-major scale:

C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C

and one of the modes (dunno which... just throwing this out there) might be starting on the SECOND tone-- resulting in tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone, tone

D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D

so that everything's just shifted along. I dunno what the resulting scale would be, but it would be called "D something", no?

Both of those scales will still be in the same key-- C major (or its relative minor, A minor)

(NOW, at this point in time, I may have messed it all up and gotten it 'wrong', in which case the crux of this post is off the mark and should be disregarded:)

So if it's the same key... what the hell is the point of it all? <laff>

Sorry, but I've never ever studied modes before, so I just haven't had that "epiphanic" moment where suddenly I make that first connection that creates the snowball effect that results in learning and understanding it. If you can make the first connection, which for me MUST be the relationship between the key, the chords, and the scales-- then I'll be set.

[Curtis P]

my friend has my book with all the flats and sharps, but yes thats what i was thinking

so i could just go with A and make a scale from it?

example

E-------------------------------0234

A-0234------------------0234------

D-------0234------0234------------

G-------------0234------------------

B-------------------------------------

E--------------------------------------