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The sound of success: Owosso guitarist hopes he has what it takes
OWOSSO - To some, he sounds like Stevie Ray Vaughn. For others who hear him on guitar, they swear it's B. B. King. Certain spectators even relate him to Brad Paisley.
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Many beginner guitar players wonder whether learning music theory is a good idea. After all, it seems like a lot of trouble to go to and when you are starting out, all you want to do is play. Guitar theory has its place in any style of music. The theoretical base of music is a database of ideas you can use to explore areas of music you haven't tried before. You can try improvising in a new key or mode, you can take a passage you've been playing as whole notes and break it up into a series of triads.
Once you have a few songs under your belt and you can improvise a little, you can begin to grow as a guitar player. But not indefinitely. Expanding your physical control of the guitar - increasing the number of techniques you can use is one way to grow, another is by learning some guitar theory. Guitar players who have learned theory often refer to their study of theory as a shortcut to being a complete musician. You can become accomplished on your instrument by spending your time learning many songs, riffs and licks but having the music theory in your head will save you some unnecessary time spent.
An important element of guitar music theory is the circle of fifths so let's use it as an example of how learning a little music theory will expand your capabilities as a guitar player. The way the circle of fifths works is if you start a scale from the fifth note of another one, then start a new scale from the fifth note of the previous one, and keep going like that, you will end up with the scale you started with. There are no sharps or flats in the C major scale. All the other keys contain some sharps or flats. Here is a formula that might help you learn some of the characteristics of the major scales: if you start a scale from the fifth note of any other major, your new scale has one more sharp than the first one. So, if you begin with the C major scale, your next will be the G major, the next D major and so on.
So, if you start a scale from the fifth note of the C major, you will end up with the G major which is G A B C D E F#. If you build another scale from the fifth note of the G major, you'll get the D major which has two sharps. The next is A major which has three sharps and E major has four. This is the idea behind the circle of fifths. Now you can tell what key a piece of written music is in by looking at the number of sharps or flats at the start of the music.
Until you actually start writing songs the circle of fifths is more of a tool for the understanding music rather than something you can put into practice. The circle of fifths is used a lot in chord progressions and the more you explore chord progressions the more you'll see how the circle of fifths works.
With the circle of fifths you can organize each of the twelve possible major scales into a key signature. The "key" is the note that starts the scale, otherwise known as the root. The term "key signature" is a reference to how many sharps or flats are in each key. You can easily organize scales by the key signature because no two major scales have the same amount of sharps or flats.
Do not forget that learning music theory not only helps you with your guitar playing but enables you to understand other musical instruments as well. One practical advantage that springs to mind is that if you have studied music theory you can translate a piece written for the piano onto the guitar. Many musicians who have not studied their theory need fake books to play unfamiliar songs but players who have studied theory have the know-how to work out the chords for new songs. The possibilities are endless, and remember nobody has ever wished they had not studied music theory.
Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.
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