- 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.