- So you've got a guitar
and you've been learning the basics of it,
but maybe you're having trouble
seeing the big picture as far as
how do all these chords go together.
Or maybe you've heard some people say,
hey, you need to learn some music theory,
but you're thinking to yourself,
man that sounds really complicated,
I don't know if I can do it.
I'm Nate Savage and in this video
I'm going to give you eight steps
that you can go through to really start
understanding the basics of music theory.
And the cool thing about this is
that you can either go through
steps one through seven
really intently and get
them done very well,
or you skip to number eight and just use
the PDF cheat sheet that I
have for you in this lesson
that lists some of the most common keys,
or major scales, that
you're going to experience
when you play the guitar.
The first idea or concept that
I want to take you through
is just called pitch within an octave.
And let's say you have
this note, so number one.
Let's say you have this note.
(humming)
And let's say you have another note.
(humming)
All the way up here.
That's just one octave higher.
Same note it's just one octave higher
than the note that you started on.
That is just the same
pitch an octave higher.
That's the first thing
that you need to have down.
Second thing applies
directly to this, too,
and in our system of Western music,
we divide an octave into twelve steps.
So we have this note
here and this note here
that are the same, just an octave apart.
And you divide that into
twelve different tones.
And it ends up looking
something like this.
Get this written out for you.
So one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.
Okay, and then you end
up back at an octave.
So twelve notes and then the octave,
that's our entire musical system
and this repeats over and over again,
below or above whatever note you start on,
but that's the second
little concept that you need
to be familiar with,
so just remember that.
Octave, and then twelve
notes within that octave.
Alright, the third point
for music theory is just the
idea of whole steps and half steps
and we're going look at this
in three different ways.
The first way is just our series
of twelve notes right here.
If you start on any one of these ticks,
a half step would be just
to the very next tick
either up or down, so
that's pretty simple.
On the guitar, an easy
way to think about this is
if you start on any fret
and go up just one fret,
or down just one fret
from where you started,
that's going to be a half step.
Now, same thing here, a whole
step on this little scale
right here that we have the twelve steps,
is going to be when you
skip any step or any tick
up or down, so if we start
on this note and skip a note,
that's going to be a whole step.
If you go down, or the opposite way,
that's still going to be a whole step
just in the opposite direction.
On guitar, a whole step
is when you skip a fret
and that can be up or down as well.
Probably the best way to
think about this though
is on the piano because
it's super easy to see
and I'll show you what I mean.
One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine.
Here is a piano keyboard.
And let me draw the black keys right here.
This is just easiest to
see on a piano keyboard
that's why I want to show you this way.
Your piano keyboard, that's
one octave of a piano keyboard
and if you start on any note,
doesn't matter if it's white or black,
and go to the very next note,
that is going to be a half step, okay?
If you start on any note, that same note,
and skip a key, that's
going to be a whole step
and you can go backwards
or forwards so just realize
that half steps and whole
steps, that's the way they work
on piano, guitar, or this
little scale we have over here.
Number four, the easiest one
out of all of these probably,
is just the natural musical
alphabet and that's just
the first seven letters
of the regular alphabet.
A, B, C,
D, E, F, and G
and these are all natural notes,
that means that they
don't half sharps or flats
attached to them, and we'll
get into that in just a second.
But just realize that the
natural musical alphabet
is just the first seven letters
of the regular alphabet.
Okay right into number five,
and that's just the idea
of sharp and flat notes.
If you raise a natural
note by a half step,
you're going to get a sharp.
If you lower a natural
note by a half step,
you're going to get a flat and
a really good example of this
is just take the note A.
If we raise it by a half step
we're going to have A sharp,
if we lower it by a half step
we're going to have A flat.
So you could have an A sharp
right here if you raise it
a half step, or you could
have an A flat right there.
It's a really easy way to think
about that and a sharp sign
just looks like a hashtag
or a tic tac toe sign,
and then a flat sign just
looks like a lowercase b.
Before we get into number
six I just want to label
the notes on our twelve
note chromatic scale here
so let's go ahead and do that.
We're going to start on A, just because
first letter of the alphabet,
it's an easy place to start.
A, then after that you
can have an A sharp,
or a B flat.
And when you have a note
that can be called by
more than one name, that's
called an inharmonic note
and that's just something
you have to kind of accept
and realize for now, remember
that, an inharmonic note.
So after that you have a B.
And then after that you have a C.
C natural, B natural and then C natural.
Then a C sharp, or you can call that
a D flat.
You have a D natural.
Then you can have a D sharp or an E flat.
You have an E natural then an F.
Then you have F sharp
or G flat.
You have a G,
and you have a G sharp
or A flat, and that's
your twelve notes and then
back to an A at the end.
Now hopefully you noticed something there,
and this leads us into our sixth point,
called the BC and EF rule.
Let me write that down real quick for you.
Number six,
BC and EF rule.
And this is probably the
hardest part of music theory
to understand, as far as
the foundational things
and the thing that I
mentioned to you about,
hopefully you noticed this,
is that there are two
natural notes without
an inharmonic note in between them,
or without two natural notes
that are just one half step
apart from each other, and
that's B and C right here.
And then E and F right here.
Every other two natural
notes, like A and B, C and D,
have a whole step between
them and this is where
the BC and EF rule comes in.
The BC and EF rule states
that any two adjacent, natural
notes in the musical
alphabet have a whole step
in between them except
for B and C, and E and F.
Let me say that again
for you because I know
it's a mouthful, any two
adjacent, natural notes
in the natural musical alphabet
have a whole step between them
except for B and C, and E and F.
And again, this is probably
the toughest thing to get down
but really check this out.
A and B, two natural notes, right?
They have a whole step in between them.
B and C are two other
adjacent natural notes,
but our rule says that those only have
a half step in between them.
C and D, two adjacent natural notes,
have a whole step between
them, same thing for D and E.
And then you have E and F here,
which our rule says E and F only have
a half step in between them.
And the coolest thing
about this is the piano.
If you go back to the piano
keyboard, you're going to see
two spots within an octave
where there's only a half step,
or there's no black key in
between two of the white notes
and guess what those notes are?
They're B and C, and E and
F so this is a really good
visual way to remember the BC and EF rule
and it's super important
for building major scales
that we're about to get into.
Okay we're cruising along here
and if you need to stop the
video or just think about
one step at a time, that's totally fine.
You can come back to this
video any time you need to.
If you're feeling good about
what we've gone over so far,
let's go ahead and go over number seven
which is the Major Scale Formula.
All the Major Scale Formula
is, is a series of whole steps
and half steps that's always the same
that you can use to build any major scale
and the formula is whole
step, whole step, half step,
whole step, whole step,
whole step, half step.
And let me write that out for you.
So you have whole step,
whole step, half step,
whole step, whole step,
whole step, half step.
And that may seem like a lot for you.
One way that I shorten this is to remember
two wholes and a half,
three wholes and a half.
And all a major scale is it's
a series of seven notes that
follow this specific formula
of wholes steps and half steps.
So let's go through a
build a C major scale
and all you have to do to
build any major scale is
start on whatever note you
know is the name of the scale,
in this case it's the C.
And then follow you're Major Scale Formula
while keeping the BC and EF rule in mind.
So, first off we need a whole step.
One whole step is D, which
is great, works perfectly.
We need another whole step, so skip that
D sharp or E flat and go to an E.
Now we need a half step,
which is great because
from E to F is just a half step because of
our BC and EF rule.
So that's our next note.
Now we need three more whole steps.
So go from an F, skip a note to a G.
Another whole step from G
to A, so we're back around
kind of over here, if you
will, on our little scale.
We need another whole step to a B.
Great.
And then finally we need one half step,
and from B to C is a half
step, so that's perfect
and the key of C major,
or the C major scale,
has no sharps or flats and
that's why a lot of people
start with this scale
because it's really easy
to understand, but that is how it's made.
I know that's a lot to
think about so let's do
one more major scale, or one more key.
Let's do the key of G major,
this is going to bring up
a really important point, so
write down your Major Scale Formula again.
Whole step, whole step, half step,
whole step, whole step,
whole step, half step.
Okay?
So do the same thing,
come over to a G note
and then just start
plugging in your formula
so start with a G.
Then I need a whole step to an A.
So let's go back around here
to this A just for ease of use.
Need a whole step to a B.
Now we need a half step
to a C, great, no problem.
Whole step to a D.
Whole step to an E.
Now here is where things get tricky,
this is where you have to
be really aware of your
BC and EF rule along with
your major scale formula.
We're on E, but we need a whole step.
That means we don't need
an F, we need an F sharp,
we have to force that F
natural up to an F sharp
because of our Major Scale
Formula that's calling
for a whole step and
because E and F only have
a half step in between them.
So that's the tricky part,
that's where your key signatures
come from, your sharps
and flats and whatever key
you're playing in, right?
So the last little bit is
just another half step,
so if you're on an F sharp,
the next note over is just a G.
So that gets us back to our
tonic, or our root note, of G.
So G, A, B, C, D, E, F sharp,
and G that means the key
signature for the key of G major
turns out to be one sharp,
and that note in there
that's sharp is an F sharp.
Alright those seven steps so far
hopefully you've been able
to follow along with it,
if not just go over this
video multiple times
and you will start to
get it and it will become
more and more clear to you.
Now, step number eight
is where you can pull up
your cheat sheet and just
use that if you want to,
or you can kind of fully
understand everything
we've talked about here so far
and go from it, kind
of attack it that way.
Number eight has to do with the idea
of major and minor chords,
which chords in each key
are naturally major or minor.
Let me just tell you every
note in a major scale
has a certain type of chord
that goes along with it
whether it's major, minor, or diminished,
we're not going to worry
about diminished for now,
we're just going to stick
with major and minor.
But there is a formula
that you can use with
your cheat sheet just to see
what chords occur naturally
in any given major key and
the rule here is that major chords
are based on the first, fourth, and fifth
scale degrees of any major key.
And then minor chords,
actually let's do this in blue,
just get a little bit of contrast in here,
minor chords cause they're sad,
they're blue, right?
Sounding?
Are based on two, three, and
six, let's do that two again.
There you go.
So this is one really simply
way to just be able to look
at a major scale, or your cheat sheet,
and tell what chords are
in that key really quickly.
So let's apply this eighth
principle to the two keys,
or major scales, that
we wrote out earlier.
Let's go ahead and do
key of C major first.
So go one C,
two D,
three E,
four F,
five G,
six A,
and the seven B.
So that's your C major scale
numbered one to seven, right?
Now all you have to do is look at
your major scale cheat sheet,
or your major key cheat sheet,
and look at one, four, and five,
they have uppercase M's next to them.
Uppercase M's signify major chords
and then lowercase m's
will signify minor chords.
So all you have to do is plug that in.
So uppercase M's here on
the one, four, and five.
And those will be your major
chords in the key of C major.
Those aren't the only
chords that you can use,
but they're a good
starting point and they're
the most common ones, right?
As far as the minor chords,
two, three, and six, right?
So, I'm just going to
write lowercase m's here
with a little line over them
to signify minor chords.
And seven is diminished
but you don't need to
worry about that for now for
the context of this lesson.
So, at a glance, you can
see what chords are in
the key of C major that
you're probably going to
see popping up a lot.
So if you see a song going
by that uses loads of Cs,
F majors, and G majors,
then you can kind of assume
that you're in the key of C
major, it's a really good hint.
Let's do the same thing
for the key of G major,
just go through and write out that scale.
G,
two A,
three B,
four C,
five D,
six E,
and seven,
don't forget your sharp, F sharp.
And then go through and do the same things
and this is just
something that you need to
memorize overtime, it'll
come to you the more you
look at the cheat sheet and
the more songs you learn.
The first, fourth, and fifth
chords are going to be major,
so you have a G major in
a major key, in G major.
And then your four
chord will be a C major,
five chord will be a D major.
And then for your two, three, and six,
you're going to have
minor chords, great, so
if you see a song
with lots of E minor, G major,
B minor, and D major, for example,
you can say, ah yeah, I bet
we're in the key of G major.
So I know that seems like
a lot of information but
really, these eight
steps are the foundation,
or the critical parts, to getting
to understand music theory
so go through them as
many times as you need to
and just remember, there
are only eight of these
so number one, pitch within an octave.
Number two, the twelve tones
in our system of music.
Number three, the difference between
whole steps and half steps.
Number four, natural musical alphabet.
Five, the difference
between sharps and flats.
Six, the BC and EF rule,
only a half step between
B and C, and E and F.
Number seven is going to be
just the Major Scale Formula,
two wholes and a half,
three wholes and a half.
And finally number eight
is just how to tell
which chords are major
and which chords are minor
in each key, one, four, and
five, and two, three, and six.
So as you continue to
learn more about the guitar
and as you continue to learn more songs,
keep this cheat sheet with
you and it's going to help you
understand how keys
work more and eventually
you're gonna be able to look
at a chord chart and be like,
I bet this song is in the key of A major,
or whatever key it's in.
If you have any questions
at all about this
music theory stuff, you can
leave them in comments below.
I know this can be a
super intimidating topic
for a lot of people and it can be tough
to get into, but you can do it and
if you need some help in
getting in to the first stages
of playing the guitar, I
have a link to a free course
that you can go through
to learn your first song
below in the description.
I'll see you later.
