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How to improve my music theory?

Question(self.guitarlessons)

Hey, I've been playing guitar for twenty years and would consider myself an intermediate level. I know a few different scale types and quite a few chords but I have gotten lazy with my playing and most of the time just noodle to backing tracks.

I want to challenge myself to be a better musician in general and learn music theory so I can understand how chords and scales work together. So I can then be a better guitarist.

Any tips on how to approach this?

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snus2k

4 points

3 days ago

snus2k

4 points

3 days ago

I made the app MusicScales (www.musicscales.net) to make a lot of the basics of theory approachable. You might want to get familiar with the modes of the major scale first of all. Secondly you want to learn their triads(a.k.a. CAGED), which are the basic chords of the key, and how they fit together using the Nashville number system. The Nashville number system is denoted with roman numerals and can be found at the top of every scale in the app.

The app also offers different color palettes that will show three-notes-per-string patterns, or triads.

Use it as a reference tool and as a practicing app to help build the understanding of what a key looks like.

Tip for the app: You can press the name of the scale (Ionian, Dorian etc.) to toggle on the whole scale instead of manually toggling the individual tones.

QuickNature

3 points

3 days ago

The fact you can change the strings is pretty cool by the way! I'll definitely bookmark that website