Synopses & Reviews
Learn to:
- Look at theory from a guitar player's perspective
- Understand how music "works" on the fretboard
- Unravel the secrets to your favorite songs
- Navigate the fretboard like the pros
View video demonstrations and listen to audio tracks online
Serious about understanding and creating guitar-driven music? Easy.
Guitar Theory For Dummies goes beyond guitar basics, presenting information on how music works and gets applied to the guitar fretboard. It provides the guidance you need to play songs and improve your improvisational and compositional skills. Plus, access to audio tracks and video instruction online help you master the concepts and techniques covered in the book. If you already have a handle on the basics and want to take your understanding and playing of guitar music to the next level, Guitar Theory For Dummies has you covered.
- Guitar Theory 101 — find out how guitar theory will change the way you hear and learn music and navigate your way around the fretboard
- From the ground up — discover how major scale triads make chords (and what those little numbers mean in chord names) and play any major or minor chord using the guitar CAGED system
- Make progress — understand where chord progressions come from, how related chords are grouped together, and why musicians play by number
- Don't scale back — start using popular scale patterns to play guitar solos, melodies, riffs, and bass lines
- Guitar Theory applications — explore popular songs and music to help you with your playing style and in creating your own original music
Visit Dummies.com to: Improve your skills by listening to and playing along with audio tracks and viewing videos demonstrating concepts and examples from the book
Open the book and find
- Why certain elements of music go together
- How to form chords, assemble chord progressions, and apply scales
- Popular song and guitarist references
- Ways to identify tonal centers, keys, and key changes
- Ten guitar songs worth learning
- Sample scale patterns
- Tips on putting guitar theory into practice
- Access to audio tracks and video instruction
Synopsis
Serious about jamming, understanding, and creating guitar-driven music? Easy.With an approachable and engaging style, Guitar Theory For Dummies goes beyond guitar basics, presenting the guidance intermediate to advanced players need to improve their improvisational and compositional skills. Plus, with access to audio tracks and video instruction online you can master the concepts and techniques covered in the book.
Key content coverage includes: pentatonic and major scale patterns; the CAGED chord system, chord progressions, and playing by numbers; roots, keys, and applying scales, plus modes and modal scales; intervals and chord extensions; popular song references and theory applications that help you understand how to play popular music and contemporary guitar styles, and create music of your own.
- This title also features companion audio tracks and video content hosted online at Dummies.com
- The expert instruction and easy-to-digest information provides comprehensive guidance on how to apply music theory concepts to fretted instruments
If you already have a handle on the basics and want to know more about the building blocks and theory behind guitar music, Guitar Theory For Dummies has you covered.
About the Author
Desi Serna, hailed as a music theory expert by Rolling Stone magazine, is a guitar player and teacher with over 10,000 hours of experience providing private guitar lessons and classes. He owns and operates one of the most popular guitar theory sites on the web, guitar-music-theory.com.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1Part I: Getting Started with Guitar Theory 5
Chapter 1: Guitar Theory in a Nutshell 7
Chapter 2: Navigating the Fretboard Like a Pro 15
Part II: Working with Chords from the Ground Up 33
Chapter 3: Harmonizing the Major Scale to Form Triads and Chords 35
Chapter 4: Forming Chord Shapes with the CAGED System 41
Chapter 5: Adding Chord Tones and Extensions to Chords 71
Part III: Getting to Know Keys, Modes, and Chord Progressions 91
Chapter 6: Playing Chord Progressions by Numbers 93
Chapter 7: Knowing Music Inside Out: Identifying Tonics, Keys, and Modes 103
Chapter 8: Following Key Changes 129
Chapter 9: Dominant Function and Voice Leading 143
Chapter 10: Filling the Gaps with Passing Chords 153
Part IV: Playing Guitar Scales 165
Chapter 11: Preparing for Riffs and Solos with the Pentatonic Scale 167
Chapter 12: Playing Music’s Primary Melody Maker: The Major Scale 187
Chapter 13: Playing in Modes and Using Modal Scale Patterns 205
Chapter 14: Exploring New Patterns with the Harmonic Minor Scale 225
Chapter 15: Playing the Blues 239
Part V: Part of Tens 251
Chapter 16: Ten Guitar Songs Worth Learning 253
Chapter 17: Ten Sample Scale Applications 265
Chapter 18: Tens Ways to Put Theory into Practice 269
Appendix: Audio Tracks and Video Clips 273
Index 277