String Theory Chords Blog

Everything You Need to Know About Reading Guitar Tab

2010-12-28T09:10:00.000-08:00

This lesson covers all important symbols you will encounter when reading guitar tab. You can see how the strings are laid out and diagrammed in guitar tab notation along with many symbols like hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, releases and muting. Each of these items is then demonstrated for you in the video while displaying the associated symbol in tab form.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Write a Love Song on the Piano

2010-12-23T06:55:00.000-08:00

If you're in an intermediate stage of your piano playing and are comfortable moving between different chords, get ready to apply more creativity to your playing. Here is a great introduction to writing your own song with a few simple chords. By taking a root chord, 4 chord, 6th chord and 5 chord, and playing them together while sprinkling in notes between, you can turn out a very nice sounding love song.

See for yourself and give it a try. Pick out the four chords that I've noted in any key that you desire and just let your creativity flow.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Learn to Play Barre Chords on the Guitar

2010-12-18T09:59:00.000-08:00

One thing that seems pretty straightforward but many times burns out a lot of beginner guitarists is playing barre chords. Since the barre chord shape doesn't ever change as you move up and down the neck, it seems like an easy alternative to playing standard chord shapes. In fact, it is an easy alternative and once you train your fingers to hold this position, you can easily slide up and down the neck to produce different chords.

This video will show you how to set the barre chord shape on your guitar fretboard and then use it to play different chords. The key is to learn the shape and then put in lots of practice time so that your index finger is strengthened enough to barre over all six strings.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Play Blues Piano

2010-12-12T09:37:00.001-08:00

With this lesson, you are shown exactly how to unleash your hands from rigid standard piano playing and free them up to work the blues scales to their maximum potential. You can see in the video how he takes a common blues scale, memorizes it and then uses that scale to jump all over the keyboard, all while staying in the correct key.

This is why it's really important to really focus yourself on learning one of the popular blues scales and then simply grab notes from it as you move up and down the keyboard.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Learn to Play Country Bluegrass Lead Guitar

2010-12-05T09:25:00.000-08:00

We like to touch upon many different musical styles when learning guitar. This will help you to have a more rounded understanding of the instrument and have more under your belt.

Here is a great lesson on playing country bluegrass lead. Learn a great bluegrass-style lick and see the similarities to playing blues lead guitar.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Recognizing Notes on the Piano

2010-11-30T20:02:00.000-08:00

This video lesson is for anyone new to the piano and reading music. It will show you exactly how notes are named as you move up and down the keys on a piano. This will also allow you to visualize theoretically how notation on the music staff works.

Remember that sharps go up (to the right) and flats go down (to the left). Once you see how simple this system is, you can easily understand how an Eb = D# and an Fb = E and so on!

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Play Blues Lead on the Guitar Using the Major Pentatonic Scale

2010-11-24T13:06:00.001-08:00

With this lesson, we introduce how to play blues lead on the electric guitar by simply using the Major Pentatonic scale.

The G Major Pentatonic scale is used (G A B D E) in each of the examples.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Finding Chords on the Piano

2010-11-21T09:28:00.000-08:00

With this lesson you will find out how to really take your piano playing to the next level. This lesson is focused on the basics of finding chords easily on the piano. In order to be able to do this with ease, it's very important that you memorize the circle of fifths and scales for the key that you are playing in.

Once you have both the circle of fifths and the scales under your belt, the flood gates are wide open for you to grasp music theory and chord theory on the piano!

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Play Slide Guitar for Beginners

2010-11-17T18:27:00.001-08:00

Here's a video lesson that's great for any beginner guitarist or just anyone new to playing guitar with a slide. Slide guitar is great because it has a very cool sound, you can also play all kinds of different blues, bluegrass and surf music without worrying about complex fingerings!

This lesson covers the basics of slide guitar, to follow along and learn, simply tune your guitar to drop D tuning (D - A - D - G - B - E), or drop your lower E string to D from standard tuning. This tuning is the basis for many slide guitar songs because the slide needs to bar across different strings and create chords. This is possible with drop D tuning because it leaves your lowest three strings in a root-fifth-root configuration so that you can play power chords with a bar over the strings.

Enjoy one of the easiest guitar methods that any novice can pick up quickly and sound great right away!

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Play Piano Notes on the Bass Clef

2010-11-09T19:22:00.000-08:00

This lesson will guide you through how to read and play piano notes on the bass cleff. The bass clef includes notes which are located under the Middle C. This is why it's most closely associated with left hand piano playing.

The bass clef is necessary because notating music on the treble clef would require too many ledger lines to easily read.

Don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Change Chords on the Guitar

2010-11-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest challenges that a beginner Guitarist faces is learning to change chords. The best way to learn to do this is by starting out with chords that have very similar fingerings. You'll find that when learning to play chords this way, you actually rewire your brain to think of chords as shapes rather than fingerings. You can then begin to play more and more complex chords and easily move between them.

To see what I mean, view the video lesson and practice along with the different chords that are demonstrated. Once you've been able to play two chords in sequence, you can begin to put more together to form different songs!

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Play Basic Major Chords on the Piano

2010-10-28T15:57:00.000-07:00

This is related to the previous "How to Play Minor Chords on the Piano" post. Now you will learn how to play the basic Major chords on the piano. Pay close attention to the demonstration of how the chords are played. When you're ready to try it for yourself, pick out a few of the chords and start memorizing their fingerings.

Soon you'll be able to land on the chords without much thought and you can even begin to add in the Minor chords that you learned from the previous lesson to make up a song!

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Keep Your Guitar in Tune!

2010-10-25T12:20:00.000-07:00

Did you know that there was a proper way of tightening your strings when tuning your guitar so that it stays in tune better? A lot of experienced guitarists aren't even aware of this simple method to keeping your guitar IN TUNE!

View the video below to see how:

Don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Play Basic Minor Chords on the Piano

2010-10-18T20:18:00.000-07:00

Here is an introduction to playing Minor chords on the piano. Watch the demonstration of each chord being played and listen closely to how each sounds. Then, try it for yourself! Pick out a few of the chords that sound appealing and begin memorizing them.

Soon you'll be able to land on the chords without much thought and you can begin to add other chords to make up a song.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Write a Song on the Guitar

2010-10-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

Unlock your creative energy and begin writing your own songs! Here's how.

First, download the Major Key sheet for FREE at http://www.nextlevelguitar.com/pdf/chordsineachkey.pdf

Next, choose a row for a key to write your song in. I recommend the first row which is C Major for beginners.

Finally, after learning to play the chords, start picking out certain chords from that row and put them together to see how they sound. Once you find a nice sounding chord pattern, repeat it to form the basis of your song. Usually three or four chords together in a row works nicely (ever hear of three chord bands?)

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Play 5-Finger Patterns and Chords on the Piano

2010-10-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

With this piano podcast, you can learn to construct any Major chord with 5-finger patterns. This will allow you to play any Major chord that you may come across on sheet music or lead sheets.

For 5-finger chord pattern diagrams of all the Major chords on the piano, please see our books available at String Theory Chords.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Palm Muting on the Guitar

2010-10-02T12:43:00.000-07:00

If you've ever wanted to learn palm muting on the guitar, here's a quick video to show you how it's done. Remember to lightly rest your palm near the bridge of the guitar across the strings that you wish to mute.

It may take a little practice to find the right feel for palm muting if you are a beginner. Just keep in mind that you want to slightly dampen the strings to where they don't fully ring out.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Play Major Scale on the Guitar

2010-09-27T15:59:00.000-07:00

One of the first things that serious guitarists learn when just beginning on the Guitar is how to play the Major scale. The Major scale can be seen as an important building block of music, as he mentions. Once you learn the Major scale, you can expand upon it and apply it toward many other related concepts on the Guitar.

With this lesson, you will see the Major scale demonstrated along with an outline of the fundamentals.

Try it with G, C, D and so on.

Just remember the pattern: Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Whole, Half

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Piano Scales Fingering Technique

2010-09-22T15:06:00.000-07:00

The proper technique for playing scales on the piano! These exercises will show you how to form your hands in the correct posture while moving higher or lower on the piano keyboard. You'll also learn the logic behind fingerings and different scales.

By understanding scales you will have a high advantage when playing musical pieces or improvising. It will also help you improve your piano-playing motor skills to play faster and smoother.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Play Beginner Guitar Chords

2010-09-19T14:04:00.000-07:00

If you're new to the guitar, learning chords and be a difficult task. With this short video lesson, you can learn to play a handful of common chords without having to figure it out for yourself. Just watch how the demonstrator places his fingers on the individual notes to make up the different chords. Then, try it yourself.

Continue practicing each chord individually until you feel comfortable with them and are able to land each the notes which make up the chords accurately. Once you have the chords memorized and are able to properly form them with your fingers, you can begin to combine chords to make up songs!

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Blues Improvisation Tricks for Beginner Pianists

2010-09-16T15:42:00.000-07:00

If you're a beginning pianist and want to learn the blues, try out these helpful tips to get you started. You'll instantly be able to play blues licks on the piano and sound great doing it!

Take your blues soloing to a whole new level by learning that C blues scale as she demonstrates. Add to it or try it out with trills and thirds. Don't worry if you can't keep up with everything she is playing. Pick out a few hand positions that she uses and memorize those while adding in trills and thirds.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Learn to Build Guitar Chords with Simple Music Theory

2010-09-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

Learn all about chords and how they are built using simple music theory guidelines. This is a great way to step into a whole new realm and league with your guitar playing! By understanding chords and how they are built, you can begin to piece together all kinds of music theory fundamentals to play other chords, scales and musical compositions.

With this video tutorial you'll learn about scales, intervals and chord qualities such as sixth, ninth, diminished and so on. By understanding how each of these concepts work together, you'll have a much firmer grasp on not only guitar chord theory, but also music theory as a whole!

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Read Piano Notes on the Music Staff for Beginners

2010-09-06T17:35:00.001-07:00

If you're a beginner on the piano, learning how to read sheet music and notes on the music staff can be very intimidating. With this tutorial, it's spelled out for you in a very easy-to-understand format!

As long as you know your alphabet, you can count up and down on the music staff in the bass and treble clef to pick out any note you want. Just follow the guidelines that he introduces in the video and you'll be picking notes out of sheet music immediately!

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Beginner Guitar Lesson - How to Play Barre Chords

2010-08-29T09:40:00.000-07:00

If you're new to the guitar, playing and remembering chords can be a daunting task. Fortunately, there's a simpler way to play chords, without ever having to change the position of your fingers!

These are called barre chords and are played by using your index finger as the barre of the chord over all six strings while the rest of your fingers play all of the other notes. Once you have this fingering position set up on the fretboard, you can simply shift it up and down to play different chords!

Barre chords are a useful substitute, especially for the beginners, to playing standard chord shapes. As they require you to hold your index finger over all six strings, they also help you to develop finger dexterity, and the ability to hold chord positions for a longer period of time.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Read Piano Sheet Music Made Easy!

2010-08-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

Here is a great video tutorial which breaks down and simplifies reading sheet music specifically for the piano! The teacher in this video shows you exactly how you can read sheet music and visualize it on the piano before you apply it and actually begin playing. This is a must for anyone new to piano or sheet music staff notation and one of the best lessons I've seen on the subject!

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Play "Let it Be" by The Beatles for the Beginning Guitarist

2010-08-14T20:17:00.001-07:00

For beginning guitarists it can sometimes be very difficult to find a good first song to start learning. You want to pick a song that uses the same chords in both the verse and chorus. This way you only need to memorize a few basic chords.

Here is a lesson on playing "Let it Be" by The Beatles, a very simple and recognizable song which lends itself well to the beginning guitarist. This song uses the chords C, G, Am and F in different variations throughout. He shows you how to play each chord along with the proper order for the verse and chorus. Next, he plays some background music of "Let it Be" which he uses to demonstrate when to change chords in the song. Finally, he shows you how to strum each chord along with the chord changes to play the entire song!

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Learn How to Play the Piano in 10 Minutes

2010-08-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

If you're new to the piano, this is a great introduction to get you started in minutes! Learn all about locating the Middle C on the piano and then finding notes and chords. Before you know it, you'll have a few chords under your belt with a good understanding of how to play songs on the piano!

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How Do You Read Music Notes on the Guitar?

2010-07-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

This video tutorial will show you! Pay attention to how he breaks down the guitar into it's most simple, easy to understand components. Apply the fundamentals of the music staff to the guitar with this simple understanding of the guitar in mind. This will allow you to really visualize how notes are laid out on the guitar's fretboard and begin to read music.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Simple Formula for Remembering Chords on the Piano

2010-07-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

With this one short tutorial you'll learn the simple yet reliable formula for playing and remembering hundreds of chords on the piano! This tutorial covers the Major, Minor and Seventh chords but the concept can be carried over to any type of chords out there.

Just remember the rule of 7 and count upward from the root of the chord at the intervals specified in the video.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Learn How to Read Bass Clef on the Piano!

2010-07-15T08:34:00.000-07:00

Here is an excellent video tutorial on bass clef and how it applies to piano. You will learn all about the bass clef notes and how they are oriented along with the treble clef. Remember that the Middle C is positioned between both the bass clef and the treble clef.

Get out your piano or keyboard and follow along for more hands-on practice as this will help you to visualize and retain the different notes and keys on the keyboard!

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Barre Chord Basics

2010-06-28T23:14:00.000-07:00

Learn all about barre chords and how they are played with this video tutorial. What exactly are barre chords and what makes them so interesting? They are simplistic chords that can be shifted anywhere up and down the neck while retaining the same shape. This allows you to hold the same shape with your hand while moving up and down the neck to play different chords. No need to change finger positions!

hands

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Music Mastery Network

2010-06-17T17:02:00.000-07:00

String Theory Chords is proud to be a part of the Music Mastery Network! What's Music Mastery Network? It is a network of the BEST online music lessons and resources drawn from the Internet. You can use Music Mastery Network to easily search for specialized music resources from all over the Internet and then purchase them directly from the network.

All products fall into one of three categories:

Independent - A product not owned or subsidised by a major corporation or organization but an independent musician or group.
Original – A product that is not reworked or revamped and based on another product, but is a whole new idea, take, angle and spin on current musical concepts and products in the marketplace.
Specialized – A product which is highly specialized to help aid and focus on one core competency in music such as singing rock music, learning piano triads or playing guitar solos.

Visit Music Mastery Network to learn more!

www.MusicMastery.Net

How to Teach Piano to Kids

2010-06-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

In this video tutorial you are introduced to productive ways of teaching piano to kids. Kids are not always the easiest students to work with but the good news is that if they have not yet had much experience on the piano, then they haven't yet had the chance to develop any bad habits. This gives you the perfect opportunity to guide and shape their piano-playing.

If you are involved with teaching piano lessons to young students, or are yourself just beginning on the piano, pay close attention to the methods and techniques described in this video. You'll no doubt learn some creative ways to approach the piano.

Keep practicing and please leave me a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Proper Piano Playing Posture

2010-06-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

When learning to play piano we often don't pay very close attention or even give much thought to our playing posture. Interestingly enough, your posture can be just as important as learning your first chords. If you practice bad habits, you may end up learning to play incorrectly, hindering yourself from progressing as well as you could.

Pay close attention to how he describes proper hand placement, finger positioning, arm positioning and sitting posture in the video. Practice these habits and even make it a habit to concentrate on each of these posture exercises as you play. After you've practiced it enough times it will become second nature for you and you'll no longer even realize you're doing it!

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Learn Acoustic Blues Soloing

2010-05-23T11:54:00.000-07:00

I liked this video for the method that he uses to show the simplicity of the basic acoustic E blues scale. The acoustic E blues scale is typically what a beginning guitarist is introduced to when learning the blues. By learning to play the basic open E blues scale, you will already have down the basics for a nice riff that you can then go in and add other "blues notes" and hammer-ons/pull-offs as he demonstrates.

Practice this simple scale and then move it up the neck by barring your index finger across any fret to discover other bluesy scales and riffs.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Basic Piano Improv

2010-05-14T18:47:00.000-07:00

Learn how to improvise on the piano! This is a great video tutorial on how to choose random notes and apply basic left hand chords to them to create improvised songs. Notice how he uses only one finger on the right hand each time and then concentrates on the three finger chord with the left hand to match it.

With this basic pattern in mind you can move around anywhere on the keyboard and sound great doing it! Improv doesn't have to be complicated, you just need to pick out notes and match any type of corresponding chord to it.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Jimi Hendrix "Hey Joe" Guitar Solo Slowed Down

2010-04-27T18:32:00.001-07:00

Listen to the classic solo for "Hey Joe" by Jimi Hendrix. It sounds like it's all over the place, right? Now watch the video demonstration below and pay close attention to where his hand moves around on the fretboard...it's actually staying in almost the same place between the 13th and 15th frets the entire time!

The solo for "Hey Joe" is no doubt musically brilliant, but it's also actually quite simple. This video slows it way down for you and shows you the exact fingering positions for the entire solo including hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, etc. This is a great way to learn the correct notes before you begin to speed it up. Take the time to hit all of the notes and then continue to add in more of the vibrato and slides.

I'm sharing this video not only because it can teach you how to play "Hey Joe" with complete accuracy but also because it can teach you the fundamentals of soloing on the electric guitar. Although you can make it sound like there's a lot going on, you don't always have to be all over the neck. Keep it simple at first, learn to really work a solo between just a few frets and soon enough you'll be shredding like one of the greats!

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Read Piano Sheet Music

2010-04-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

This video provides a visually detailed introduction into reading sheet music on the piano. This lesson is intended for beginners on the piano and those who are new to reading sheet music.

Pay close attention to where the notes are located on the music staff. As you can see, note names move up the scale alphabetically as you move up the staff. After watching this video lesson, you should be more familiar with music notes and their positions on the piano keyboard and music staff.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Play Lead Electric Blues Guitar

2010-04-07T16:48:00.000-07:00

How to the lead blues guitarists do it, they make it look so easy!? -- Here's how.

This is an excellent video tutorial on soloing the blues in the style of BB King on the electric guitar. Blues soloing is comprised of various blues chords (which he demonstrates) and rhythms along with fills and solo licks made over those chords.

What I mean by "solo licks made over those chords" is positioning your hand as if you were to play a chord and then hitting notes which are a part of the pentatonic scale which makes up the chord. Put more simply, you just hit notes which sound appropriate to the chord (typically one or two frets up from the fret you are basing the bar of the chord on). This will take some practice to learn which notes sound right for the chord and which do not if you are unfamiliar with music theory.

Practice the different chord shapes and blues licks that he employs and then begin adding in some vibrato, hammer-ons, pull-offs and exaggerated bending. After you begin to feel more comfortable, start creating your own licks over chord patterns and see what you can come up with. This will help you to develop a more "improvisational" ear which is key to blues soloing.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Play Romantic Piano

2010-03-31T08:50:00.000-07:00

Here is a nice introduction to improvising romantic-sounding music and songs on the piano. The first half of the video is more pertinent to beginning pianists. Practice moving through the C, Fm and G chords while improvising notes with the right hand. This chord progression is at the "heart" of many romantic ballads and songs.

Here are representations of the C, Fm and G chords that he uses in the video.

Keep practicing and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Replace Strings on the Acoustic Guitar

2010-03-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

Here is a good video tutorial detailing proper string replacement on the acoustic guitar. All guitarists should know how to properly string their instrument as it can be very important to the longevity of their strings. This video aims to provide you with the tools and techniques that you need to lessen the stress of string replacement!

Remember to wind strings inside the tuning pegs (spin left pegs to the left and right pegs to the right when tightening).

Don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Learn Blues Improvisation on the Piano

2010-03-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

This short video tutorial gets into a bit of blues improvisation on the piano. By playing off a typical blues scale (such as C blues scale in this example), you can easily add in fills and improvise to create a nice blues solo improvisation.

This close-up look into blues soloing will teach you how to effectively take the concepts of blues improvisation to any type of blues music, just pick out the scale being used and have fun with it!

Keep practicing and enjoy and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Guitar Fingerpicking for Beginners

2010-02-21T11:19:00.000-08:00

This video tutorial jumps right into fingerpicking for the beginning guitarist. It teaches you the terminology, notation and proper technique which first and foremost must be understood before you begin learning how to fingerpick.

Remember to start out keeping your hand steadily hovered over the strings and then naturally pluck each string with the finger directly above it without moving your right hand. After it begins to feel more natural, try speeding it up a bit while concentrating on keeping your right hand steady and making your fingers do the work.

Keep practicing and enjoy and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

How to Play "I See You" from Avatar on the Piano

2010-02-13T17:47:00.000-08:00

Learn how to play "I See You" by Leona Lewis from the hugely popular film Avatar.

This video tutorial provides a slowed down overhead view of the pianist moving through the chords in the song. Also included are the notes for each chord as they play them.

Watch closely how the pianist moves through different chord changes with the right and left hands. This tutorial can also be a valuable lesson in chord progression and chord changes on the piano.

Keep practicing and enjoy and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

The Holy Grail of Memorizing Guitar Chords-Part 2

2010-02-06T15:27:00.000-08:00

Part 2 of the highly effective and helpful technique to memorize guitar chords. Remember not to "walk" the chords one at a time but "land" them all at once. It takes some practice but once you begin to utilize this technique regularly, you will begin to really see better results in memorizing and "grabbing" guitar chords however difficult they may be.

Let me know how it works for you, leave me a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

The Holy Grail of Memorizing Guitar Chords-Part 1

2010-01-23T19:43:00.000-08:00

The following video tutorial is not only good for beginner Guitarists, but for ANYONE wanting to quickly learn a new chord and remember it for good. I even tried this method for some of the more difficult chords that I don't really use that often and to my amazement, it works!

Who knew that memorizing Guitar chords could be so easy! By simply drawing a picture of the chord shape in your mind after forming the chord with your fingers, then a few repetitions and it's burnt into your memory.

Give it a shot, I hope that you find this useful, I did!

Let me know how it works for you, leave me a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Quickly Tackle Minor Chords on the Piano - Video Tutorial

2010-01-17T17:53:00.000-08:00

Here's part 2 of the basic piano chords lessons which help you to easily visualize minor chord shapes and remember how they are formed.

Keep in mind, minor chords are also very important to have under your belt along with the Major chords and once you do, you'll be able to play a large majority of songs out there! Sets of the diagrams that he is using are also available in our book selections.

Keep practicing and enjoy and don't forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!

Quickly Tackle Major Chords on the Piano - Video Tutorial

2009-12-08T18:04:00.000-08:00

Here's a great and very effective video that I found for learning to quickly play Major chords on the Piano! This is great for beginners to both visualize and hear how different tones make up a chord on the piano. Remember, he is counting up the scale as he moves up the keys on the piano (C, D, E, F and so forth).

Once you memorize the locations of notes, and formations of chords, you'll find that piano is very simple. After all, music notation was devised based on the piano! For diagrams of each of the chords he is using in this tutorial, check out our book selections!

Let me know your comments by clicking on the comments link or entering them in the form below!

Guitar and Piano Chords for iPhone and BlackBerry!

2009-12-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

String Theory Chords is pleased to announce the latest addition to the String Theory Chords family - a mobile e-Book for the iPhone and BlackBerry!

Enjoy all of the features of the original "String Theory: Guitar and Piano Chords in Parallel" e-Book on your mobile device! With our mobile e-Book you can take your Guitar and Piano chords with you wherever you are, even easier.

Convenient for:

Looking up chords while away from your home computer or reference materials
Calling up chords while playing your instrument
Cuing up chords for lessons and songs

Chord Inversions on the Guitar

2009-10-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

When discussing chord translation between the Guitar and Piano, one key concept is the difference in inversions typically played on each instrument. An inversion is simply the arrangement of notes in a chord. To help smooth this out, and look at the Guitar from the perspective of a pianist, we'll discuss how chord inversions can be easily understood (and played) on the Guitar:

First, the Piano is a lot more "loose" when it comes to standardizing simple chord inversions. There is no real de facto way to arrange the notes when playing chords on the Piano. Using the C Major chord as a simple example, a pianist can play it in the form of (first note-second note - third note) as C-E-G, C-G-E, G-C-E, and so on. Depending on the song and arrangement, a pianist may use many differing inversions when playing chords.

Guitar tends to be a lot more straightforward with chords usually being played in "root position". First, let's understand what a chord tonic is -- a tonic is the first note of a musical scale. Using C Major as our example, we have C-D-E-F-G-A-B, so C is the tonic. Root position is when the tonic of the chord is the lowest (bass) note. Again, for C Major the tonic is C. If we play a C Major chord that does not begin with C, then it is not in root position and thus is called an inversion.

How to create an inversion:

There are three common inversions called first inversion, second inversion and third inversion. Notes following the tonic of the chord are labeled as 3rd, 5th and 7th in each of these inversions. For C Major (C-E-G), C is the tonic, E is the 3rd because it is the first note after the tonic and G is the 5th because it is the second note after the tonic.

As such, every Major triad chord (Major chord with only three tones) has a tonic, 3rd and 5th of a Major scale. Every Major Seventh chord is made up of a tonic, 3rd, 5th and 7th of a Major scale. See the table below for other common of chord structures beyond this.

Common Inversions Summary:

First inversion: The 3rd of the chord is the bass note.
Second inversion: The 5th of the chord is the bass note.
Third inversion: The 7th of the chord is the bass note.

Using these chord constructions, you can mimic an inversion played on the Piano, on the Guitar! Practice breaking down the chord, finding the tonic, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th and then piecing it back together to form whatever inversion is desirable. Depending on the inversion and the tones making up the chord, it may be difficult to position all of your fingers around the chord, but keep practicing and you may even discover some unique more piano-esque chordal arrangements to use in place of the same old root position chords.

Guide to Forming Chords
Type of Chord	Chord Structure
Major Triad	1st (root) + 3rd + 5th notes of a major scale
Minor Triad	1st (root) + 3rd + 5th notes of a minor scale
Diminished Triads	1st (root) + flatted 3rd (b3) + flatted 5th (b5) notes of a major scale
Augmented Triads	1st (root) + 3rd + sharped 5th (#5th) notes of a major scale.
Major 7th Chord	1st (root) + 3rd + 5th + 7th notes of a major scale
Minor 7th Chord	1st (root) + flatted 3rd (b3) + 5th + flatted 7th (b7) notes (derived from a major scale)
Dominant 7th Chord	1st (root) + 3rd + 5th + flatted 7th (b7) notes of a major scale
Sixth Chord	1st (root) + 3rd + 5th + 6th notes of a major or minor scale.
Dominant 9th Chord	add a ninth to a dominant 7th chord (1st + 3rd + 5th + flatted 7th + 9th)
Major 9th Chord	add a ninth to a major 7th chord (1st + 3rd + 5th + 7th + 9th)
Minor 9th Chord	add a ninth to a minor 7th chord (1st + 3rd + 5th + flatted 7th + 9th)
sus2 Chord	1st (root) + 2nd + 5th notes of either a major or minor scale
sus4 Chord	1st (root) + 4th + 5th notes of either a major or minor scale

Embed Videos in Member Forums

2009-10-15T18:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a tip for embedding videos in your posts on our member forums. You can post videos from 60 popular video host sites and formats such as YouTube, Google Video, Myspace, Flash, DailyMotion, Revver, QuickTime and RealPlayer!

Follow these simple steps (for this example I will use a YouTube video):

1. Sign into our Membership site and go to the Member Forums.

2. Select to add a new post to one of the forum topics.

3. Select your desired video host or format from the "Video" dropdown list. The appropriate video tags for your selected format will be automatically input in the Message form.

4. Sign into YouTube and scroll down below the video to the right side of the page and copy the code in the "Embed" field.

5. Paste the code copied from Youtube between the video tags in the post Message field and click Submit.

6. Your video will now be visible in your post!

Here are some ideas for posting videos:

Videos of yourself playing an instrument
Videos of songs you wrote
Video lessons of yourself playing chords
Video lessons of others playing an instrument
Video demonstrations of playing techniques found on the Internet

We're on Facebook!

2009-10-15T12:54:00.000-07:00

US!

To allow for even more interactivity between our users, we've opened up a Facebook fan page, check it out Here.

Even if you're not a regular around String Theory Chords, join up, invite your friends and connect. We're trying for as much interaction as possible to explore and expand musical communication, cross-platform!

Create a Member Blog!

2009-09-09T17:16:00.000-07:00

We now have free member blogs available in our String Theory Chords member's portal! Join free, post your thoughts and comment on others' blogs.

After registering, click on the "My Blog" link at the top of the page to get started. Once in the My Blog section, you can select one of the following options in the upper right-hand side of the screen:

Write Blog - Write blog text, choose tags and upload relevant files.
My Blogs - View all of your previously posted blogs sorted by most recent.
Member Blogs - View all other members' blogs sorted by most recent.
Site Blog - View an index of this blog.

What types of things can you make posts about? Anything music-related will do, and as long as it abides by our General Terms! Let us know what's on your mind and share tips and tricks with other members. Also, keep an eye out for free lessons and news provided by our team from time-to-time!

Record Music and Collaborate with Other Musicians

2009-08-12T19:40:00.000-07:00

With Sonoma Riffworks T4, you can not only record your own songs, but also collaborate with other musicians from all around the world, for FREE!

The collaborative aspect holds a lot of potential. Up to four players can collaborate simultaneously and sync their recordings with drums. Songs can then be saved to RiffWorld.com for promotion or to pick back up at a later time!

If you're looking for an easy and quick way to record music, this is a great piece of software that I recommend. With seven effects and an InstantDrummer tool you can easily lay down your own tracks. If you're happy with your recordings, post them in the RiffWorld.com member community and see what others think!

Free Online Music Games!

2009-08-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

Here are some free and simple interactive online music games which can help you fine-tune your musical technique and have fun at the same time!

FlashMusicGames.com

These can be great for ear training. Let us know how you do!

Create and Print Blank Sheet Music Pages FREE!

2009-08-07T11:22:00.000-07:00

A FREE Customizable Sheet Music Tool from BlankSheetMusic.Net.

Use this site to create:

Piano Sheet Music
Guitar Sheet Music
Guitar Tab
Bass Tab
Percussion Music
Various Staff Paper
Sheet Music Templates
Choir Manuscript Paper

Plus, Print off or Save your configuration for later!

Practice Piano with Your Hands Separate

2009-07-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

One mistake that many new students of piano make is to practice new pieces on the piano using both hands at the same time. It is a great misconception that you can enhance your coordination by learning music and practicing using both hands at the same time. In fact, for beginners, practicing new songs with both hands can lead to much more frustration and fatigue of the hands. Entertaining the same amount of time separately on both hands can lead to much higher levels of developmental proficiency.

When learning new songs or difficult passages begin with the right hand playing a bar or two of the melody line and before it tires, quickly switch to the left hand playing the more rhythmic pattern of the same bar set. Do this switch once every 15 seconds or so. Soon you will find that you are not as bored by the repetition and that your hands are actually eager to continue practicing!

Free Piano Sheet Music

2009-07-09T16:22:00.000-07:00

Need piano sheet music? Check out this great blog!

Free Piano Sheet Music

Why Are Guitarists So Bad at Guitar Hero/Rock Band?

2009-06-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

Like many experienced guitarists that I've spoken to, I'm "digitally deadlocked" when it comes to playing guitar (and scoring well) on the Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games. I just can't seem get my fingers to work right and my rhythm is constantly off. It's as if I'm right back at the start again!

And in a way I am --

Whenever I hear the sound of the song quickly becoming derailed by my finger fumbling, I find myself asking, "why can't I do better than this, I have years of experience?" First of all, it should be noted that Guitar Hero and Rock Band (like any other video game) are constructed based on a simulated environment given by:

Visual feedback via a video screen and user interface + manual response via an input device (such as a controller mimicking a guitar in our case).

As we interact using our input device we are actually only providing data to a computer program which reads it in and passes it through programmed code to create an on-screen response. Not too surprising...This interaction is much like what we would expect to be occurring with a guitar fed into an amp through an effects pedal. The difference lies in the limitations, however great or small, specific to the video game program. Software applications are only programmed to respond to a "finite" or fixed amount of input triggers. Us humans are little more complex.

To explain a bit further, imagine a robot. Robots are run by a computer program which can sometimes be programmed to mimic behaviors and mannerisms of a human. Thousands upon thousands of subtle human qualities and tendencies can be reproduced by the robot. In a way, it would seem that we are interacting with a real human being, but it's the subtleties that humans can pick up on that tells us that it's not actually "alive".

Just the same, this very mechanical man-to-machine extertion produces motions that are very automated and more cause-and-effect rather than more fluid and improvisational which we are used to when playing an actual instrument. And that's not all, many musicians find that they are constrained by the choice of only five frets on the screen and that their brains don't seem to give orders to their hands to carry through properly -- Just like when a guitarist is picking up the new instrument for the first time!

But Why?

All of this is true because experienced guitarists have wired their brains to subconsciously feel out their musical surroundings "in real-time" and adjust tempo, pitch and even musical progressions accordingly. With a touch-and-go type of routine, musicians find it hard to re-train their brains to perceive music in a strictly methodical manner (and thus tell their hands to act accordingly). We feel the urge to pop out a solo, or break the chain of commands with a subtle tempo change.

So What Can All of This Teach Us?

The secret to understanding the language of music and mastering an instrument lies in the subconscious brain. We can study theory all we want, but it's the technique that you must ingrain into your mind that allows you to channel music through the mixture of sonic vibrations provided by the instrument out from your fingertips.

Proper technique is essential, especially very early on, and having a good and legitimate grasp on it is invaluable to your development on the instrument (as it becomes second nature). You will build upon the foundation that you create early on, and you'll find that breaking out of a bad habit is in opposition to everything you know up to that point. Make it a point to take the time to learn to do it the right way.

One final note, some have the argument of, "why would you want to play Guitar Hero or Rock Band if you're a serious musician?" The answer is simple -- they're actually pretty fun to play and (as obviously discussed above) a challenge for anyone! I don't believe that they're really meant to be a guide or lesson on playing the actual instrument. If nothing else, they can help with finger dexterity and rhythm!

So what do you think -- Can musicians really learn anything from Guitar Hero/Rock Band?

Best Guitar Tab Sites

2009-06-18T17:27:00.000-07:00

Where can I find Guitar tabs?

911Tabs.com - Over 4 million guitar tabs with links to every major guitar tab site on the net!

BL Guitar Tabs - Free guitar tabs added daily.

CountryTabs.com - Tabs to almost any country song imaginable.

e-Tabs.org - Tabs with links to music downloads for each song!

GuitareTab.com - One of the largest and most popular, allows for ratings of each tab.

GuitarTabs.cc - One of the easiest guitar tab sites to peruse, lots of tabs!

GuitarTabs.com - Nice search engine for guitar tabs on the net.

MetalTabs.com - Good assortment of metal tabs all in one place.

MXtabs.net - Has lots of guitar, bass and drums tabs together.

Tabcrawler - Tabs, lyrics, articles and more!

Tabs-Database.com - Massive collection of guitar tabs, bass tabs and lyrics!

Ultimate-Guitar.com - The behemoth, anything and everything guitar tabs!

How to Read Piano Tabs

2009-06-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

How to Read Piano Tabs

I ran across this nicely composed article on eHow which explains the principles of piano tabs and how they are interpreted. If you're new to piano, read through and practice the steps and you'll no doubt be amazed by the simplicity. Of particular interest is the idea that a capital letter in piano tab simply represents the sharpening (or moving up to the next black key) of a note, see below:

Musical Map

2009-06-02T18:59:00.000-07:00

A great image from the folks at http://www.12bar.de/.

This diagram helps to put staff notation, guitar tabulature, notes and pitches, piano keyboard and various other instrument ranges in perspective!

Click on picture to view full size image

How to Play Guitar Sheet Music on the Piano

2009-06-01T09:14:00.000-07:00

Here's a little lesson for any guitarist aspiring to play their music on the piano or the pianist who desires to take music specifically arranged for the guitar to the piano. The translation process is actually much easier than you'd expect (that is, if you have already memorized the specific chords on the piano -- see String Theory: Guitar and Piano Chords in Parallel).

Guitar lead sheets are typically arranged and written so that each chord change (or rhythm chord) is represented by the chord letter name above the musical staff while the leading notes (or soloing notes) are specifed in the staff notation. See the example sheet music snippet below (disregard the TAB notation, this is for guitarist use only):

In this example, notice the G-D-G-D-GC rhythm guitar chords above the staff lines. Typically a rhythm guitarist would play these chords along with the lead guitarist who is playing the melody line in the staff notation. In the same way, a piansist can play the rhythm chords with the left hand while the right hand carries the melody line!

How to Play a Line of Guitar Music on the Piano

In the example above the pianist would play the G Major chord (G B D) at the same time they strike the upper G and D notes with the right hand.

Next he or she would finish off that bar of the melody line until the D Major chord change.

Playing the D Major chord (D F# A) again with the left hand along with the upper D and A using the right hand they can then finish out the melody line for this bar and so on...

One can continue this throughout the song using the left hand to keep the beat and the right hand to play out the melody.

Keep practicing, if you are new to the piano, it will undoubtedly take some time. Before you know it though, you will begin to develop the coordination and the sense of awareness to recognize the tune of a song coming through!

The Differences (and Similarities) Between Sharps and Flats

2009-05-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

Sharps and Flats are used to denote the movement up and down in pitch from a Major-sounding tone.

Sharp

Flat

A Sharp occurs when you raise a tone in pitch by either one fret or move up from a white key by one black key on the piano.

A Flat denotes one tone lower by dropping down a fret or by dropping down one black key on the piano.

Determining Sharps and Flats

The rule for determining the name for the Sharpened or Flattened note is by looking at which note it is right next to in the musical alphabet. For example, a D lowered would be a Db and a C raised is a C#. Where it gets tricky, and where many new music students get hung up is understanding that both Db and C# refer to the same pitch. Here's how--

It's easiest to visualize the relations of the Sharps and Flats to Major notes by looking at the keys on a piano keyboard. A keyboard is a very linear instrument and stripes out the sequence of notes very intuitively. Notice how Sharps and Flats are always present on each black key, yet they go by two names - the Sharp form and the Flat form.

(*Note the exception to this rule for the B-C keys and E-F keys, as no black keys exist between them)

Learning Songs by Recognizing Patterns

2009-05-17T17:28:00.000-07:00

When I was first learning to play the guitar, I'll admit that I was completely overwhelmed by all of the the criss-crossing lines and dots on the music sheets that I was attempting to read off of. With all of the scattered cues and musical indicators I thought that you'd have to be a genius to make sense or more notably, music out of it!

What I soon discovered (with a little musical assistance) is that all of the scattered signals actually aligned into distinctive patterns that you could map throughout the entire song. Not only are songs broken up into larger chunks of verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus patterns, but they are also typically arranged into repeating chord progressions.

Repeating Chord Progressions

These chord progressions are what you recognize as the underlying rhythm tones for the verses and choruses, etc, such as a C-E-F-G, C-E-F-G progression. The building blocks that make up songs and musical pieces are much simpler than they appear! This realization alone brought my musical insight, and aptitude, to a whole new level that I'd never experienced before.

Predicting Notes

Learning to play songs on the guitar or piano is based securely on understanding this principle -- recognizing the patterns. You can also take this one step deeper; If you are able to recognize the notes composing a basic chord shape, you can predict which notes are played in that key for the song!

For example, say that you are playing in the key of C Major; By knowing each of the notes in the C Major Chord or Scale, you can better assess what the probable notes are in the melody line before you even look at the music sheets.

Coming Full Circle

Suddenly you are now armed with a palette by which you can paint many interesting melodies or even play off of existing melodies by musical interpretation. What I mean to say is -- You don't have to have perfect pitch to hear a song and play it right back! You also don't have to be well versed in music theory to understand how melody lines are stitched together and repeated throughout the song. It's all about pattern recognition.

Try it, practice it and most of all, develop it into a habit, you'll be amazed by the results!