Hey, how you doing? Justin here.
Today I wanna talk about music theory, and why I think
you should get involved with it as soon as you can.
I know music theory's one of those things
a lot of people put off even by the name of it.
I think sometimes at school they use it to put children off music,
and they teach...really stuff that's not practical, it's not interesting, not fun,
and it's just...
I don't understand why music's still taught like that in some schools.
The music theory that I will teach you is fun and practical,
and it will enable you to make music faster and better.
Sure there are people like great musicians, Eric Clapton springs to mind,
who don't study music theory, don't really understand the harmony,
or at least say they don't, but they can still make incredible music.
One of the things like the older generation,
they spent a lot more time playing guitar than most people get to these days.
So there's this kind of disparity between...
if you're practicing half an hour, an hour a day,
you're gonna progress at a different rate
than somebody who practices 8 or 10 hours a day for 20 years, or something.
And music theory is almost like a little shortcut, it can teach you ways
of using skillsets to make music very quickly.
Particularly when it comes to improvising and making up stuff.
In my Music Theory Course, I spent a lot of time on doing things like
chord manipulation. So rather than trying to learn loads of different chord grips
as separate entities, you learn one chord grip,
and how to manipulate and change it into other chords.
If you understand how the chords are constructed,
and how you might change one into another, you don't have to memorize
so many shapes.
When you learn things like chords in a key,
when you're working out a song, you can just go,
"Oh it seems like we're in the key of C, so the likely chords I'm gonna find
in this key are these chords". Like you find one chord and you go,
"Well the related chords are these ones" and you know which ones to try next.
It can speed up the process of learning songs,
especially if you're doing ear training.
The combination of ear training and music theory,
it's very, very strong indeed. Stronger than either one individually,
if you can study both of them.
Music theory gives you shortcuts, it gives you musical ideas, it teaches you...
it explains some of the things why in Grade 2 of the Beginners Course,
we learn Sus chords, and you can replace major and minor chords with Sus chords.
If you understand the theory of how that works, it's like,
"Oh! I understand how that works and it makes practical sense".
And all of the theory I teach you is practically based.
In the very early stages with where you are right now,
just knowing things like the notes, sharps, flats, what sharps and flats do,
that kind of thing is really helpful.
As soon as you learn about the major scale, and how it's constructed,
and learning to improvise and stuff, it's amazing,
and it's accessible for beginners.
Right? It's not just something that more advance guitar players can do.
Beginners can get involved with improvising, and making up solos,
and making up songs, and writing songs.
As soon as you can play.
If you're at the end of Grade 1, and you know your 8 chords,
and some strumming patterns, you can write a song!
Absolutely you can write a song.
You don't even need any theory rules to learn how to write a song,
but it can help. If you get the idea of, these chords are likely to
sound good together, it gives you a nice starting point.
And you don't have to do it.
You don't have to study music theory to play guitar.
If you just wanna play songs and have some fun by the campfire,
and you've got no aspirations for songwriting or improvising or...
jamming with other musicians, that kind of thing,
then maybe it's not for you, but...
I think it's a really beautiful thing.
If it's taught the right way, and you understand the reasons why
you're learning each thing, it can be a really inspiring and fun thing to do.
Now, in order to try and coax you into doing that,
and getting involved with music theory,
I've kept the first 2 grades of my course for free.
So...
Grade 1 and Grade 2, and a whole chapter on
why music theory is useful and important, is all free.
I do charge after that, cos the boy's got to make a living,
and I spend a lot of time helping out in the Music Theory Course,
answering questions, and making new lessons, all that stuff.
Do go and check it out. Like I said, it is a paid thing,
so I'm kinda selling it to you,
but I really honestly believe music theory is an amazing part of the journey
and I'd love you to get involved with it. Please do check it out,
and hopefully it will inspire you to continue your journey
in understanding, as well as practical playing.