Guitar Theory, Four Ways

Not a first guitar book. A way to understand the theory you keep running into.
This book explains the basic ideas of music, scales, steps, chords, keys and rhythm, from a different angle. Every idea is drawn four ways at once: in notation and tab, on the fretboard, on a piano keyboard, and in diagrams made for this book. If one view does not make sense to you, the next one often will.
Who it is for
Players who already have a guitar in hand and can press a string and strum, and who want to understand what they are playing. It does not teach you to hold the instrument or make your first sounds, and it will not teach you to play if the guitar is new to you. If you have never played, start with a teacher or a first-lessons book and come back to this one.
How it works
Short lessons explain one idea each: what a scale is, where a chord comes from, what the numbers in a chord diagram mean, how the circle of fifths sits on the neck. Then thirteen classic tunes put the ideas to work. On the left of each tune is the tune in tab and in notation together, with the chord names over the bars. On the right is what is behind it: the neck with the notes lit, the keyboard with the same notes lit, and the chords with their place in the key.
What is in it
• Lessons on the basics, each drawn on the staff, in tab, on the neck and on the keys.
• Thirteen tunes, from Ode to Joy and Amazing Grace to Greensleeves and Abide with Me, every one traced to a print that is out of copyright.
• The chords under every tune, in the open shapes of the key, and a plain sentence on why they fit.
• The circle of fifths and the chords of a key, laid out on the neck.
For guitarists who play a little and want to see how scales, chords and keys fit together, and for anyone who learns better from pictures than from paragraphs.


The text of this book was generated using an AI-based tool.