The Coker Variations

hello fellow musicians. I've recently only began my own delving into the wonderful world of theory and am amazed constantly how much sense it makes and how it has helped me in terms of my playing, writing, and everything music related in general... so my goal here is to try and teach the things I have learned about theory in as simple a manner as possible to try and get anyone started on theory.

I neglected theory for quite a while myself only until recently when certain things prompted me to start learning theory (mainly being at a standstill with my abilities on guitar) in order to improve. And much to my surprise i have become addicted to theory. I try to learn as much as i can about it. I analyze nearly everything I do on the guitar and whatever other instruments I use to see how and or why it works or why it doesn't. and i want to share that love because i know that theory can only make you a better player.

Now after that little introduction I'm going to start right at the very beginning. In this lesson we will learn the very basics of music theory itself and hopefully answer some questions you might have such as what is music theory? What use is theory to us? Why do i find theory so hard to understand? How can i apply theory to my playing? Ending with a basic rundown of the fundamentals of theory

-------------------------------
What is theory?
-------------------------------

OK. The first and foremost thing about music theory is to answer what exactly is music theory. Well humans have been playing music since the very beginning, ever since that caveman picked up a log and banged it against a big rock. Its something thats very instinctual in all humans. Music is a huge part in our lives even if we are unaware of it, ad's on television, driving to work with the radio on, even when your doing something such as cleaning or working out in the gym you most often will find yourself working to a rhythm even when theres no music playing or if there is music playing you might find yourself trying to work in beat with it. Music is now also being used for things such as mental therapy for disabled people and to sometimes great response. music is a very human thing, everyone experiences it whether they like it or not.

Music theory is the basic human urge to categorize, label, compare and identify everything we do. Basically theory is just that, analyzing what makes music work, why certain things sound good together and why they don't.

Theory is usually an afterthought, most musicians (as far as I'm aware) don't think about theory when they come up with a beat/melody/rhythm, they just feel their way through, trying to get it all to fit a mood and sound nice to the ear. Its not until afterwards when looking back on what sounds we've just made that we analyze why they work or why they didn't work. As well as what we can do to make certain things sound better or more suited to what we're aiming for in the piece.

Music theory can be very helpful if you get stuck in a rut while writing a song or need to figure out the key of a song so you can play a nice sounding lead over it.

Alot of people don't bother to learn theory simply because it seems so complicated and they think they can just feel their way with an instrument, while its possible to be competent on an instrument without any theory knowledge (eg. jimi hendrix). It certainly takes a lot longer to learn all the sounds your instrument can make and what sounds good with what. It might take you maybe 20mins or so of noodling around to come up with a decent sounding solo for a song whereas someone well versed in theory would be able to know what notes to play, how and when, to get what sound they were looking for without having to waste any time noodling around.

Expanding on people not learning because it seems to hard. This is usually because they try to understand intermediate-advanced theory concepts without a thorough knowledge of the basics (which much to my frustration a lot of resources do not explain terribly well). and an easy to understand guide is what I'm looking to create here.

hopefully after all that rambling I've persuaded you to consider to start your own theory journey as it will be very rewarding if you do. Now after all that if you wish to delve into the world of theory please continue reading


(looking back now I realize that maybe I went a little overboard on that intro, but I think if you don't know anything about theory then its a good little introduction)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just want to say first before we get into it, guitar is my first and main instrument so I will be using it to explain the practical side of theory along with the piano which I'm less experienced at but I find it makes theory a lot easier to understand. But you must realize that theory applies to all music and its instruments.


Now for the nitty gritty music stuff:

First up, the first thing you should know about music is the musical alphabet. The musical alphabet consists of 7 letters taken form the first seven letters of the English alphabet

A-B-C-D-E-F-G

as well as these 7 letters we also have 5 flats or sharps (which one we use depends on the key which we will discuss in later lessons)

a sharp is commonly denoted as a hash symbol while a flat is commonly denoted as a tilted b (usually just a lowercase b in computer text)

sharp = #

flat =♭
or more commonly = b

these sharps or flats go in-between every note except between B-C and E-F. so if we add the sharps and flats on we get

A- A#/Bb - B - C - C#/Db -D - D#/Eb -E -F - F#/Gb - G - A

You'll notice I have separated the sharps and flats like X#/Xb
thats because they are exactly the same, and represent one note. An A# is the same as Bb, same note but just a different name, this is important to know but we wont be discussing which one to use when until later lessons. For now just remember that they are only one note.

You'll also notice after going through all 12 notes once we start back again at the first note (in this case its A), this second A sounds at a frequency exactly twice as fast as the first A. This means we hear it as higher version of the first A note, all the notes from the first A to the G are called an octave. When we reach that 2nd A we've gone up one octave and after that we just repeat the notes again. From the 2nd A we go A-A#-B-C-C# and so on until we reach A again. Now we've gone up another octave. We can continue to do so until we run out of notes on our instrument. Theoretically we can do this until the frequency is so high its impossible to hear.

Likewise we can go the opposite way. Starting at A and going down through the notes until we reach A again (A-Ab-G-Gb-F-E-Eb-D-Db-C-B-A), this 2nd A sounds at a frequency half the speed of the first A and means we've gone down one octave. The pattern continues to repeat until you run out of notes on your instrument.

Another thing you need to know about is whole-steps (tones) and half-steps (semi-tones). These are basically the degrees of separation between the notes. If we take a whole step (2 frets on the guitar) up from A we get to B and if we take another whole step up from B we get C# (remember theres no B# or Cb) and another whole step to D# and so on.

Where as if we take a half-step or semi-tone up from A we get A# and if we take a half-step up from A# we get B and another half-step up from B we get C (remember theres no B# or Cb) and its the same going backwards. Take a half step down from C and you get B, take a whole step down from B and you get A. Practice this now just using the musical alphabet you know and you should understand what I mean

If you don't understand what i mean, i guess an easier way to explain it is, if you start at A, to take a whole step you just skip the next note. Which in this case is A#, which brings you to B (make sense?) and to take a half step you don't skip any notes and just go to the next one. Again if we start at A we go straight to A# and thats a half-step. i think thats an easy way to look at it

(remember this as we'll need to know the steps for the next lesson)

So what you need to remember from this section is:

- There are 12 notes in the musical alphabet (7 naturals, 5 flats and or sharps) which consist of the first 7 letters of the english alphabet (A-G)
- If we pass through 7 notes (eg. A-G) thats called an octave. after which the pattern starts again (at A) until we run out of notes
- The whole step or tone (2 frets on the guitar)(skip a note)
- The half-step or semi-tone (1 fret on the guitar)(straight to the next note)


and now for some visual adds:

On a Guitar in standard tuning (EADGBE) the notes are laid out like this



The blue numbers indicate the fret and the first letters on the left are the notes of the open strings on a guitar in standard tuning (EADGBE). The first E at the top of the diagram being the top string on your guitar (the bass E) and the last E being the bottom string on your guitar (the high e).

- First thing you'll notice is I've left out the sharps and flats so its not to crowded and difficult to read. Dont disregard them however, they are just as important as the rest of the notes
- Second thing you'll notice is that the 12th fret notes are the same as the open string notes. This is where the 2nd octave of that string starts and the notes start at the beginning again.
- Thirdly you'll notice that the low E string and the high E String are identical


Now for guitarists (as for every musician) its very important to learn where all the notes on your instrument are located and to be able to locate them without even having to think so heres a few little exercises for guitarists.

- Draw a crappy fretboard such as I have done in ms-paint or anything and print out a huge amount of copies (or just draw one by hand if you dont have a copy with you). Whenever you have a spare moment fill out the entire fretboard including sharps and flats and this will go greatly towards improving your memory of where the notes are on your guitar while playing.

- Whenever your playing your guitar, take a moment and try to figure out which notes your playing. This will also help you remember where the notes are.

- Another thing to try is to pick a note at random, and just locate all its positions on the fretboard.

- If your nowhere near your guitar you could try visualizing a riff or solo that you might know and try breaking it down to all the notes your hitting when you play it.

All these things and anything else you might think of will go towards improving your knowledge of the fretboard. Why do i need to know all the notes on my fretboard you might be asking? Well if you want to make life a hell of a lot easier to apply the theory you are going to learn then this is absolutely essential. You don't want to be spending 20seconds figuring out where the notes you want to play are.

Knowing them off by heart will take a bit of time but you'll get the hang of it and it will definitely make everything else we are going to learn a lot easier.


As for piano players, well the layout is pretty easy. I think pianos were designed to make theory easy


You'll notice on a piano the flats and sharps are easy to identify as they are seperate from the rest of the keys, yes the big black ones, those are the flats and sharps. Pianos also continue to go up straight through the octaves with each 12 keys (including the black keys). Thats an advantage you have over guitar. I think the piano can certainly make theory a lot easier to understand because of the arrangement and the separation between the natural notes and the flats and sharps. But since i learned my theory on guitar i don't have very many exercises for piano. If anyone has some suggestions please feel free to add.

Overall id like to think your starting to get a grasp on the basics of theory now and hopefully aren't to confused. If you don't think I've explained something well enough please don't hesitate to ask for a better explanation, I'm glad to help. I know all this probably seems very daunting but it becomes much easier with time, just like when you first started playing your instrument. You just need to keep utilizing and practicing to make it easier.

A note to any theory buffs reading this, if you notice any mistakes I may have made please tell me so I can correct it straight away.

Thanks for reading and hopefully I'll see you next lesson.
Until then keep practicing

*next lesson.... the major scale*

__________________
It comes to us all,
It's as soft as your pillow

 

MusicMan

Very nice, thanks a bunch for offering to help educate the masses with regards to Music Theory. Please try and capitalize the first word of sentences and instances of "I" anywhere in a sentence, like "I've". I look forward to seeing more lessons from you.

__________________



Rules! A definite must-read

How to upload music to the Music Showcase. How to embed a YouTube video.

Send me a PM if you need any help with anything.

The Coker Variations

thanks musicman, il go over it and try to space it out and fix up some grammar, i just hope its not to confusing for people. i was surprised how much i wrote when i finished it

*edit - fixed up the grammar and punctuation now (almost laughable how many times i said "so" instead of starting a new sentance*

__________________
It comes to us all,
It's as soft as your pillow

Aqualung

Wow, great tutorial! I'm still trying to learn about theory, so this will definitely come in handy. Thanks a lot for posting it.

__________________


Here we go. Mushu cereal for breakfast with duck sauce.

bocephusfreak

great lesson man, can't wait till the next one arrives, i'm guessing after the new year.

__________________
Get a life raft everyone,
cause the resurgence of rock and roll is coming
and it's gonna flood the nation!!

The Coker Variations

at the earliest after the new year yeh, got lots of stuff i want to do atm but might try and get it down in the next week or so

__________________
It comes to us all,
It's as soft as your pillow

Hero Of The Day

Ah man, how did i miss this? Great lesson and thanks for the advice, gotta learn this stuff tomorrow, post some more lessons soon!!

Rock N' Roller

A meelleeun ooff thunks tu yuoo Cuker. Thees es helped me-a a lut feegooreeng oooot zee beseecs ooff mooseec zeeury, voo, reelly mun, I eppreceeete-a thees, Bork Bork Bork!

Thees is a leenk vhere-a yuoo hefe-a zee fretbuerd in a perffect stete-a.

Cuker, du yuoo hefe-a uny leenk vhere-a I cun cunteenooe-a my zeeury velkthruoogh , I'd eppreceeete-a it ifee mure-a.

Boot sereeuoosly doode-a, cun't thunk yuoo inuoogh, I treeed seferel teemes tu leern zeeury veet oon-leene-a lessuns, boot thuse-a lessuns I treeed tu understund vere-a tu hersh und herd, thees oone-a in zee oozeer hund, I cunseeder perffect (100% understundeble-a).

__________________
... In need of some real affection

The Coker Variations

Thanks guys, I'm glad I could help you out. Unfortunately I'm pretty busy lately just having started university, which is why I haven't really been round here lately. Whenever I get some free time I'll try and get some more lessons done for you

__________________
It comes to us all,
It's as soft as your pillow

Black Sky

Nice, very well written, but I still either overlooked or didn't quite understand what it's for How will knowing this improve my guitar playing :p

Rock N' Roller

Becoose-a is mooseec zeeury, it's beee eruoond fur leeke-a mure-a thun oone-a thuoosund yeer :

__________________
... In need of some real affection

Neverlife

wow all that music crap they taught us in choir, was theory? well then....i cant wait for more

__________________

Divaneko

Wow this was incredibly helpful! Thanks!

eztuxer

Well done ! Thank you, keep it on.
The knowledge of theory, gives you an edge, as it tells you where notes are, and what their names are, plus other details as duration, pitch, volume, vibrato, etc...
It's like driving with a map and reading street names in a city, you can get where you need faster than if you have no map, and don't know how to read what is written on the street signs, (like in China where they use a different alphabet).

__________________
Don't poop it down... Pup it Up ! http://pupitup.org/