Guitar theory lessons
Read the complete lessons, play the examples and try the exercises. No account needed.
Start with the notes on your guitar, learn to count and hear rhythm, then build scales and chords. A free account saves your progress through the guided course.
The Map
The twelve notes, where they come from, and where each one lives on your neck.
- Why only twelve notes?
Every song you have ever loved uses the same twelve notes. Here they are.
- Where the twelve came from
One plucked string already contains a chord. That is the whole origin story.
- Half steps and whole steps
Two distances. Every scale formula in this course is written in them.
- Sharps, flats, and the two gaps
Why B goes straight to C, and why there is no such thing as E sharp.
- How the six strings relate
Standard tuning has one deliberate irregularity, and it explains a lot of chord shapes.
- The same note in five places
One note you know becomes five notes you know, without counting anything.
- Naming the neck without memorising 72 dots
Anchors plus octave shapes beats brute force, and it is faster to learn.
Time
Rhythm is half of theory and it comes early, before any scale.
- Find the pulse before you count
A rhythm can leave holes. Your count must keep going through them.
- How fast is the pulse?
Twice as many notes does not automatically mean twice the tempo.
- Divide the beat without moving it
Long and short notes are fractions of the same span of time.
- Read the rhythm before the pitch
A single line can tell your picking hand when to move.
- Put the halfway point in your voice
The & exists even when you do not play it.
- Silence, sustain, and another attack
Two empty-looking spaces can ask your hands to do opposite things.
- Make beats 2 and 4 speak
The loudest sound is not necessarily the beginning of the bar.
- Move the attack. Keep the pulse.
A groove leans forward when an unexpected place gets the emphasis.
- Let some hand movements pass silently
The pattern is a selection of movements, not a new clock for each strum.
- Six notes, two different balances
3/4 and 6/8 can contain the same amount of written time and still lean differently.
- Three equal parts inside one beat
The number 3 changes a division, not the speed of the pulse.
- Change the space between the notes
Straight and swung eighths can share the same attacks on paper.
- Begin before the first full bar
The first sound of a phrase does not have to be beat 1.
- Change the weight without changing BPM
A slower-feeling drum part can sit over the same numbered pulse.
- Make seven feel like groups
2 + 2 + 3 gives your ear places to stand inside 7/8.
- Let two equal patterns disagree
Three attacks and four attacks can share the same beginning and ending.
- Hear a rhythm across two bars
The five attacks belong to a cycle, not two unrelated measures.
The Ruler
The major scale, the thing every other scale and chord gets measured against.
- Choose a note collection
A scale limits your ingredients; it does not write the melody for you.
- Build the major scale from distances
Keep the pattern; move its starting point.
- Number the notes around a home
C can be degree 1 in one key and degree 4 in another.
- Let the key signature remember the alterations
G major needs F# wherever F appears, not only in one octave.
- The same fret can need another letter
A# and Bb sound alike here, but only one spells F major clearly.
- Same collection, another home
C major and A minor share notes; the music decides what feels central.
- Build minor without a detour through major
Natural minor has its own distance recipe.
- Keep the home; change the collection
Parallel minor changes the third, sixth, and seventh while keeping the tonic.
- One collection, several routes
A position is a way to reach notes; it is not another scale.
- Move the melody, keep its relationships
The numbers travel with the phrase; the letter names adapt to the new key.
- Use all twelve without losing the home
A chromatic note can connect a phrase without turning it into another key.
- Build the scale in two four-note pieces
Two matching halves reveal why a neighboring key changes only one note.
- Give the degrees their traditional names
Leading tone is a distance relationship, not every possible seventh degree.
- Same sounding key, different written map
F# major and Gb major share pitches here while naming every degree differently.
Distance
Intervals, once you have a scale to measure them inside.
- The third: happy or sad
One note. One fret. The most useful interval on the instrument.
Keys & Progressions
Why certain chords belong together, and why a song sounds finished.
- Why do so many songs use the same four chords?
They are not copying each other. They are drawing from one small family.