[Newsletter] Learning music theory, the basics of Blues, hearing the same notes in different keys
The first one!
Hello!
This is the first edition of the Just Play The Thing Newsletter.
I write mostly for self-taught guitarists who learn online. Without one-on-one lessons, it’s hard to know if you’re on the right track. I try to provide tips and strategies for these people to practice guitar efficiently, create good habits, and stay motivated.
Send me a message! Let me know if you think this is useful, shitty or anything else that comes to mind.
Something to think about
Frameworks, ideas, and methods to be a successful self-taught guitarist.
Why everyone should learn music theory (beyond the names and labels)
In this video about learning guitar in the internet age, Rhett Shull tells a story:
After 10 years out of music school, Shull runs into one of his professors. The professor said the difference between students from 10 years ago and students now is huge. Before, when Shull attended, he showed up to college self-taught and with no in depth musical knowledge. Students that show up on campus today have a a lot of musical knowledge, but it’s a patchwork. The concepts aren’t connected - this random scale, that random chord progression, etc.
Online guitar education has blown up over the last 10 years and it’s easier than ever to gather knowledge. It’s harder than ever, though, to develop the fundamentals that knowledge needs to sit on.
Music knowledge is only helpful if you understand how it all connects.
Music theory isn’t just understanding Lydian, 7/8 or Eb9#13 - it starts with knowing how things sound and feel together.
Much controversy around music theory comes from the feeling that, by learning it, a guitarist will lose their innate creativity and just follow the “rules” of playing the right notes at the right time.
But music theory doesn’t have to be this way. Just like language comes before grammar, music comes before theory. Not the other way around. The idea that “music theory describes” is the best way to think about it for your own musical development.
By having a strong understanding of the sound of notes and chords relating together (not so much the labels and terms), you will develop an anthill of interconnected concepts rather than an archipelago of random ideas.
For example:
If you play a random C note on your guitar, it’s kind of meaningless. There’s no context.
But if you play that note and add an E on top, now you have two independent things interacting. Now you have a certain mood and emotion - peaceful, consonant, resting. If you play that interval followed by playing a D and an F note, you’re developing a story. The first interval means something different when it’s in context with another interval.
If you come across something that moves you, you can place it into a framework by knowing what the intervals are and how they relate.
You played a major 3rd into a minor 3rd a whole step higher. When you want to achieve this mood, emotion, or story next time, you have the concept in your head in a neat little package that is communicable to yourself and others.
Learn theory to develop a strong foundation of interconnected ideas. Use it to describe what you’re playing from the bottom up rather than top down.
Music theory will only stunt your creativity if you let it.
Something to watch
My favourite performance or lesson I’ve seen this week
It’s easy to jump around from one thing to the next, but you can leave behind some bread and butter shit along the way.
Corey takes a first principles approach to his lessons that help self-taught guitarists learn on their own. He recommends using what you know instead of jumping straight to advanced ideas.
This lesson lets people starting out with Blues playing hear the chord changes in their head. Playing the pattern with no backing track leaves out a lot of information that could otherwise act as a crutch. If you can play the form and hear the changes in your head, it helps develop the language of the genre.
I appreciate how Corey emphasizes playing with hammer-ons and pull-offs to get more expression out of the same thing. Expression is one of the fundamental aspects of musicianship and it can and should be worked on at all levels.
This is a great watch. Following the principles of this lesson will be helpful for a lot of self-taught guitarists.
Something to practice
If you’re going to bother to practice, you might as well make it worth it.
Start to hear how the same notes sound different in different keys
Take a 4 or 5 note section of the scale and play it on two strings.
For example, try playing the notes D and E on one string then G and A on the next string anywhere on the fretboard. For clarity’s sake, we’ll say 3rd fret B string, 5th fret B string, 3rd fret high E string, 5th fret high E string.
Try coming up with some melodic ideas using just these four notes. Keep it short and simple. You’re focused on developing a complete phrase.
Next, find a backing track in G major you like and try more melodic ideas over it. Again, just sticking with these four notes and coming up with different simple ideas.
After you feel like you have played something satisfying with that backing track, find a backing track in a different key that still uses those same notes. In this case, you can try a backing track in C major and D major.
What you will notice is how those four notes have a different sound when played in a different key. If you play a melodic phrase that ends on the note G, it will sound resolved over the G major backing track, but there will be tension over the D major backing track.
This is what “playing in a key” means.
Those same four notes are FRAMED DIFFERENTLY depending on the key. If you don’t understand the theory of it, it’s totally fine. By doing this enough, your ears and fingers will learn the theory behind it (which notes have tension and which notes feel resolved depending on the key) before your brain does.
How to scale this exercise:
If you don’t know the theory of keys (knowing which notes are in which key), you can just look it up.
Find a few keys that share some of the same notes
Find those notes on the fretboard
Find a comfortable fingering (rule of thumb: one finger per fret)
Play melodic ideas using those same notes in different keys
No tricks, no hacks, no complicated knowledge required. Just the work of being a musician.