Blog - Blitzstar Guitar

Introduction

Blitzstar Guitar Instructional Series

Hello and thank you for reading my blog.

This first phase of the Blitzstar Guitar Instructional Series provides an overview of music theory as it relates to guitar playing.

In my blog I present and explain important music concepts and provide many of the tools needed (chords, scales, arpeggios…) to apply them.

The blog is progressive. It lays a foundation of basic music principles and logically builds and expands upon them. The posts are intended to be read in order. The information needed to understand each post is contained in the previous posts.

While the theory ranges from basic to advanced, the examples provided for each concept are relatively simple.

The Major Scale

We start our study of music theory as it relates to guitar playing with the major scale, which is the most important scale in Western music. It is the basis of most music theory and can be thought of as music’s primary building block.

Understanding the major scale is a prerequisite to understanding how the various chords and scales are constructed and how they relate to each other.

This post will cover how to construct a major scale. It will also provide a common fingering for the scale, along with instruction on how to play it on a guitar in any key.

Triads and Chord Formulas

A chord is defined as three or more notes played together.

A triad — as the name implies — is a three-note chord.

This post will cover how to construct the various triads and provide examples for each type of chord.

It will also provide common fingerings for each type of chord, along with instruction on how to play them on a guitar with any root note.

Power Chords

A power chord is a two-note “chord.”

I put the word chord in quotes because technically a chord contains three or more notes, whereas a power chord only contains two notes, which makes it a diad.

However, you will almost never hear it referred to that way. It is commonly referred to as a power chord and I will use the same terminology throughout this series.

This post will cover how to construct a power chord. It will also provide common fingerings for the chord along with instruction on how to play them on a guitar with any root note.

Seventh Chords

We continue our chord study with an analysis of seventh chords.

A seventh chord is a four-note chord consisting of a basic triad plus a fourth note, the seventh degree of the major scale with the same root note.

This post will cover how to construct various types of seventh chords and provide examples for each type of chord.

It will also provide common fingerings for each type of chord, along with instruction on how to play them on a guitar with any root note.

Harmonizing the Major Scale I: Triads

The process of harmonizing a scale involves building chords on each degree (note) of the scale, using only notes from that scale.

This post will:

Take us through the process of harmonizing the major scale with triads.
Analyze the chords that result, along with the Roman numerals assigned to each chord.
Show the relationship between the chords in a harmonized major scale and the scale itself.
Provide instruction on how that relationship relates to soloing on a guitar.

Harmonizing the Major Scale II: Seventh Chords

The process of harmonizing a scale involves building chords on each degree (note) of the scale, using only notes from that scale.

This post will:

Take us through the process of harmonizing the major scale with seventh chords.
Analyze the chords that result, along with the Roman numerals assigned to each chord.
Show the relationship between the chords in a harmonized major scale and the the scale itself.
Provide instruction on how that relationship relates to soloing on a guitar.

The Minor Scale I: The Relative Approach

The minor scale (a/k/a the natural minor scale) is a seven-note scale and the second most important scale in Western music behind the major scale.

There are two approaches to understanding the minor scale:

The relative approach.
The parallel approach.

This post will use the relative approach to construct a minor scale and provide instruction on how to play one on a guitar in any key.

The Minor Scale II: The Parallel Approach

Relating a minor scale to the major scale from which it is derived — the relative approach — is one way of thinking about a minor scale.

Viewing a minor scale as an independent scale and comparing it to the major scale with the same root note — the parallel approach — is another way of thinking about the scale.

This post will use the parallel approach to construct a minor scale and provide instruction on how to play one on a guitar in any key.

Harmonizing the Minor Scale

The process of harmonizing a scale involves building chords on each degree (note) of the scale, using only notes from that scale.

This post will:

Show how a harmonized minor scale relates to its harmonized relative major scale.
Analyze the chords in a harmonized minor scale, along with the Roman numerals assigned to each chord.
Show the relationship between the chords in a harmonized minor scale and the scale itself.
Provide instruction on how that relationship relates to soloing on a guitar.

Diatonic Chords: Triads

A harmonized minor scale contains the same chords as its harmonized relative major scale, but with the chords in a different order and with different Roman numerals assigned to each chord.