Basics

Introduction

Before being able to understand the next lessons, one should understand the basics of musical theory and the basics of guitar. This lesson might be very boring for people who already know the fundamentals. But at the same time it might be overwhelming for the beginner. So Bare with me… Here goes:

Notes and Tones

Every body should’ve heard about Do Re Me, right? Long time ago, we were able to distinguish 12 specific frequencies by which we can play music. Those 12 frequencies were called: Do Di Re Ri Mi Fa Fi So Si La Li Ti… and that this pattern repeats itself again and again. Each repetition or, let’s say group, is called an Octave. So when we move from “Do” to a sharper (thinner) “Do” we called the second “Do”, a higher octave. So the higher the octave, the higher it’s frequencies are. Note that Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti are the white keys in a piano, the other five are the black ones. Later, those 12 notes were named by alphabetical numerals ie : Do: “C”, Di: “C#”, Re: “D”, Ri: “D#”, Mi: ”E”, Fa: “F”, Fi: “F#”, So: “G”, Si: ”G#”, La: “A”, Li: “A#” and Ti: “B”.

The musical distance between each note and the next one is half a step, also called Semitone.

Oriental instruments like the Aoud (3ood) have more than just 12 notes! Each note CAN BE a quarter step below the actual frequency. But this doesn’t mean that Arabic scales have 24 tones, although it does, because when a certain tone is selected to be a quarter lower, it stays like this for the whole song… most of the time.

Guitar Tuning

Different stringed musical instruments are tuned differently. For instance guitars have different tuning than the Aoud (3ood) for example. And even the guitar itself has many famous tunings,,, may be you can invent your own one day. The standard guitar tuning which is used more than %90 of the time is as follows:

Starting from the 6^th string which is the thickest and topmost: E, A, D, G, B, E.  When a string played open, ie without using your left hand on the fret board, the strings should make the sounds of EADGBE. On each string (except the 3^rd) the string under it is tuned to the fifth fret of this string. For example, the 5^th fret of the 6^th string has the same sound of the 5^th string open (which is “A”). See the diagram.

Names Of Notes, Sharps & Flats

Notes can be represented by sharps: "#" or flats "b".

A "#" note represents a note (half step) after the sharped note (sometimes called "Augmented").

For example C# is one note after C.

A "b" note represents a note before the flattened note (sometimes called "Diminished").

For example Eb is one note (semitone) before E.

Thus, a C# is the same as Db.

Note that 2 particular notes don't have sharps and they are B and E, after a B comes a C and after an E comes an F.

Some people say that an E# = F and a B# is a C... I don't see why that can be wrong.

Here is a simple diagram which represents the sharps and their flat equivalent beneath them:

A - A# - B - C - C# - D - D# - E - F - F# - G - G# - `A - `A# - `B - `C - `C#, and so on....

A - Bb - B - C - Db - D - Eb - E - F - Gb - G - Ab - `A - `Bb - `B - `C - `Db, and so on....

Most people, including me, prefer #’s over b’s.

What Are Chords

When 3 or more notes are played together, this is playing a chord. A chord (pronounced cord NOT tshord) is usually named by the name of the root note. The root note is the bass note of the chord meaning that it has the lowest frequency. Most famous chords are the Major chords and the Minor chords.

There are however many more types of chord like Diminished, Augmented, Sustained, etc… Needless to say, you can always invent you own chord and name it!

Power Chords

are special types of Minor/Major chords! They, however, are not composed of three notes; they are only composed of 2 notes. Hence the reason why they can replace any Major or Minor chords. Power chords are also called fifths, reason will be apparent in the next lessons (Intervals, chords).

Scales

A scale is a group of notes not usually played together but rather one then another. When a song is played in, say, C major scale then ALL the notes in the song will belong to the CMaj scale, which has only 7 of 12 notes.

Glossary

Neck: the long stick of the guitar, which has the strings and the frets.

Fret: the metal strips that separate different notes.

Fret board: the side of the neck, which has the frets.

Bridge: the metal piece where the strings come out of the body.

Scale: particular set of notes.

Chord: 3 or more notes played together.

Interval: musical distance.

Semitone = Half step = The immediately adjacent note.

2 Semitones = Full step = distance of 2 frets on a guitar.

References:

Will show all notes and tones, their names and sounds:

http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/appendix/scales/solmization/syllables.html

Names of guitar parts:

http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~desmith/guitar/acoustic/info/parts.htm

Names of notes on the fret board:

http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~desmith/guitar/chords/images/fretboard.jpg

Tuning Your guitar:

http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~desmith/guitar/acoustic/info/tuning.htm

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