[0:00] it all starts with a single note which
[0:01] on its own isn't music but if you start
[0:03] playing it with a pulse or a rhythm
[0:05] we're getting a bit closer here now if
[0:06] the pitch which is how high or low it
[0:08] sounds goes up or down we get different
[0:10] notes play these different notes with
[0:11] rhythm you get a melody or if you were
[0:13] to play them all at the same time you
[0:15] get a chord and it's these three
[0:16] components that make up the base
[0:18] elements of music The Melody is the
[0:19] single note line it's the tune it's the
[0:21] thing that the singer would sing the
[0:23] chords make up what we call the Harmony
[0:24] and the rhythm is the pulse that this is
[0:26] set to as it unveils itself over time
[0:28] now between two notes there is a
[0:29] distance in their pitch this note is a
[0:31] little bit lower than this one this one
[0:33] is much higher than this one the space
[0:35] between two notes is called an interval
[0:36] and the smallest spacing that we'll
[0:38] concern oursel with is called the half
[0:40] step the distance between these two
[0:41] notes is a half step and we symbolize it
[0:43] with this marking on a guitar when you
[0:45] go from one fret to the one beside it
[0:48] same string either up or down that's the
[0:50] distance of a half step on piano when
[0:52] you go from one key to the key directly
[0:54] beside it that's a half step sometimes
[0:56] the half step takes you to a black key
[0:58] sometimes it takes you to a white key
[0:59] and as far as we're concerned the half
[1:00] step is the smallest musical interval
[1:03] next is unlocking scales so check out
[1:04] this Black Friday deal when you sign up
[1:06] for my weekly lessons in the samurai
[1:08] guitar Dojo you're not only going to get
[1:09] in for half off $7.50 a month but you're
[1:12] also going to gain access to all of my
[1:14] other courses free with your monthly
[1:16] subscription every week in the dojo we
[1:18] do a lesson on a single topic and the
[1:20] idea is this is the kind of stuff that
[1:21] you can get under your fingers with 15
[1:23] to 30 minutes of work four to five times
[1:25] a week when you sign up you gain access
[1:27] to the entire bat catalog and the stuff
[1:28] that I teach here is a stuff that helps
[1:30] you elevate your playing from the
[1:32] intermediate to the advanced level now I
[1:33] also have a number of full
[1:34] professionally animated courses on stuff
[1:36] like where you go next with this music
[1:38] theory stuff soloing rhythm guitar
[1:40] there's a whole bunch there for Black
[1:41] Friday you're going to gain access to
[1:42] all this for $7.50 a month hit that link
[1:46] in the description I'd love to see you
[1:47] there so here's the thing if I pick up a
[1:49] guitar and I have no idea how music
[1:50] works there are so many places that I
[1:53] could put my fingers the options are
[1:55] overwhelming where do you even start
[1:57] well it's a major scale that begins to
[1:58] narrow these options down and most of us
[2:00] first learned this as do M fa so T do
[2:04] there's seven different notes the eighth
[2:05] note the second do is the same note as
[2:08] the first o but it's an octave higher
[2:10] which means it sounds the same it's just
[2:12] higher in Pitch now the easiest place to
[2:14] find this on the guitar is starting on
[2:17] the third fret of the a string and we're
[2:19] going to keep everything on one string
[2:20] for now for Simplicity sake and it's
[2:22] also important to point out that we give
[2:23] our musical notes names these names
[2:25] correspond with the letters of the
[2:27] alphabet from a to G if I go back to my
[2:29] third fret on the a string that musical
[2:31] note is called a
[2:33] c and I get a major scale if I first
[2:36] play that c then play the fifth fret
[2:39] seventh fret eighth fret 10th fret 12th
[2:45] fret 14th fret 15th fret and if we refer
[2:49] to these notes as the names from the
[2:50] musical alphabet C D E F G A B C on the
[2:59] piano it's all all the white notes from
[3:00] C to
[3:03] C and so what we've done here is we
[3:05] played a major scale starting on a C
[3:07] note ending on a C note and that's
[3:09] called a C major scale and the easiest
[3:11] way to start creating musical ideas or
[3:13] Melodies is take a scale like this one
[3:15] and start mixing around the notes from
[3:17] it and since all these notes are coming
[3:18] from the same place the c major scale or
[3:20] what we refer to as the key of C we hear
[3:23] order within them when they're playing
[3:24] close to each other listen to how it
[3:26] sounds as I jump around to different
[3:27] notes that all come from this place
[3:33] whereas if I jump around to unrelated
[3:35] notes it sounds like random
[3:37] chaos the major scale is one of the base
[3:40] elements of Music we build our entire
[3:41] system relating everything back to it so
[3:44] it's important to thoroughly analyze it
[3:45] and understand it so we've got our C
[3:47] major scale c d e f g a b c let's look
[3:52] at the musical spacing between each one
[3:54] of these notes and remember from one
[3:55] fret to the next is a half step when we
[3:57] go from our C to our d we're going up
[4:00] two Frets that's two half steps we can
[4:02] call that a whole step from C to d
[4:05] That's up two Frets that's a whole step
[4:07] from D to e also two Frets also a whole
[4:11] step but from E to
[4:13] F that's up one fret so that's a half
[4:16] step F to G whole step G to a whole Step
[4:22] A to
[4:23] B whole step B to C that's a half step
[4:27] and if you look at a C major scale in
[4:28] piano it's especially easy to visualize
[4:30] this so if two white notes have a black
[4:32] note between them they're a whole step
[4:33] apart if they don't have a black note
[4:35] they're a half step apart and so we've
[4:36] just unlocked the first big piece of
[4:38] this music theory puzzle the spacing in
[4:40] a C major scale is whole step whole step
[4:43] half step whole step whole step whole
[4:45] step half step this series of whole
[4:47] steps and half steps is actually
[4:49] Universal to all major scales if I start
[4:51] on any note and follow that set of
[4:53] spaces I'm going to get a major scale so
[4:55] why don't we try this starting on an f
[4:56] and we'll use a piano to visualize this
[4:58] one so we got our F then we need to up a
[5:00] whole step we go to the G perfect then
[5:02] we go up another whole step to the a
[5:04] it's all working and then we need a half
[5:06] step we've run into a problem here from
[5:07] the white key a to the white key B
[5:10] that's a whole step and we need a half
[5:11] step so what we do is instead of hitting
[5:13] that white button the B we go back to
[5:15] the black note between the A and the B
[5:17] this note is a lowered version of B so
[5:19] we call it a B flat and in doing so it
[5:21] gives us the half step that we need for
[5:23] that major scale pattern and having made
[5:24] that modification the rest of the notes
[5:26] all follow the pattern let's try another
[5:28] example using the guitar this time time
[5:29] we'll start on the G on the low E string
[5:31] which is the third fret we go up a whole
[5:34] step to the A and why don't we play the
[5:36] open a here same note different place so
[5:39] we have G whole step to the open a whole
[5:43] step to the B half step to the C
[5:46] everything's working great so far whole
[5:48] step to the D whole step to the e but if
[5:51] I go up to the F that's a half step and
[5:55] I need a whole step here so instead of
[5:56] playing the f i play the note that's a
[5:59] half step Higher One fret the fshp so
[6:03] now I have between my e FSH whole step F
[6:07] Shar to G half step and that all
[6:10] fulfills my major scale
[6:16] formula and playing things horizontally
[6:18] like this it's a little bit clunky on
[6:20] guitar what if we played it more
[6:22] vertically and I jumped up to the next
[6:24] string every time I could I would get
[6:26] this g a b c d e fshp g and I could keep
[6:34] on going up the neck g a b c d e f g so
[6:42] the first thing you do when you're
[6:43] creating music is you narrow down which
[6:46] notes you're going to be using by
[6:47] picking a scale to draw them from if I'm
[6:49] composing I pick a scale to start if I'm
[6:51] jamming with someone else we agree that
[6:53] we're going to be all drawing Notes From
[6:55] a Certain scale I mean watch as I come
[6:57] up with something using only notes from
[6:59] that g scale that we just worked
[7:00] [Music]
[7:04] out now there are 12 different notes
[7:07] that we can build a major scale off of
[7:09] and it would be a lot to think about if
[7:10] every time I went to play music I picked
[7:12] my note to make my major scale off of
[7:15] and then had to analyze the whole steps
[7:17] and the half steps to figure out which
[7:19] notes were available to me there's a big
[7:20] shortcut here and that's what we're
[7:21] looking at next how to spell any major
[7:23] scale what you're seeing here is called
[7:25] the circle of fourths and around this
[7:26] circle we have all 12 different notes
[7:29] and potential neutal key is and we can
[7:30] use this to figure out what scales have
[7:32] What notes remember C is the neutral key
[7:34] it has no sharps or flats but every
[7:36] scale on this side of the circle will
[7:39] have flat notes added to it and every
[7:41] note on this side of the circle we will
[7:42] add sharp notes so the D major scale for
[7:45] example has sharp notes in it a flat
[7:47] major has flats and to figure out how
[7:49] many notes are sharp or flat in the
[7:50] scale we count how far away we are from
[7:52] the neutral keyc so a for example which
[7:55] is on the sharp side of the circle is 1
[7:57] 2 three spaces away from C
[7:59] it will have three sharps in it d flat
[8:02] on the flat side of the circle being 1 2
[8:04] 3 4 five spaces away from c will have
[8:07] five flats in it and then to figure out
[8:08] which notes are sharp or which notes are
[8:10] flat we have two nonsense sayings that
[8:12] help us remember this for Sharp notes we
[8:14] use Father Charles goes down and ends
[8:16] battle if you need one sharpen a scale
[8:18] you take the first word father and take
[8:21] the first letter F that's the note that
[8:23] needs to be sharp fshp if you need two
[8:26] sharp notes in a scale you take the
[8:27] first two words Father Charles the first
[8:30] two letters of those two words are the
[8:32] sharp notes so you would have an FP and
[8:34] a CP three Sharps farther Charles goes
[8:37] FP C gsh and so on for Flats we're going
[8:40] to be doing the same thing here but we
[8:41] have a new phrase which goes battle ends
[8:43] and down goes Charles father if you
[8:45] needed four flats you take those first
[8:46] four words battle ends and down B flat E
[8:50] flat a flat and d flat and those would
[8:52] be the flat notes in your scale so let's
[8:54] do an example here we're going to pick a
[8:55] key and figure out what notes are in it
[8:57] from top to bottom how about I don't
[8:59] know e major so first I see that e is on
[9:01] the left side of the circle so I'll be
[9:03] adding Sharps it's 1 2 3 four spaces
[9:05] away from C so I'll be adding four
[9:07] sharps the first four words of my Sharp
[9:09] saying are Father Charles goes down f c
[9:12] Shar G sharp dsharp so in order to play
[9:14] an E major scale I would make those
[9:16] notes sharp let's see if it works e f g
[9:19] Shar a b csharp dsharp back to e and
[9:24] with this information you can now spell
[9:26] any major scale now when you listen to a
[9:27] major scale it has an inherent
[9:29] joy and happiness to it but music's
[9:32] definitely not always happy you
[9:33] sometimes hear a sad dark character and
[9:36] this is called minor and when you listen
[9:38] to this set of notes it has that
[9:40] Melancholy built into
[9:42] [Music]
[9:46] it that is the minor scale let's start
[9:48] breaking it down we'll keep things all
[9:50] on the a string and to get the minor
[9:52] scale we go open a b c d e f
[9:59] G A and on the piano it's all the way
[10:02] keys from an A to an
[10:04] [Music]
[10:06] A and when we go and analyze our
[10:09] spacings we see that from the first to
[10:10] second note we have a whole
[10:12] step then a half step then a whole step
[10:17] whole step half step whole step and then
[10:22] a whole step if you start on any note
[10:25] and play this set of spacings you get a
[10:27] minor scale and if we look at the notes
[10:28] from the C major scale and the notes
[10:30] from the a minor scale we'll see that
[10:32] it's actually all the same notes just
[10:35] organized slightly differently there
[10:37] must be some relation between these two
[10:38] right the c major scale is the relative
[10:40] major to a minor and the a minor scale
[10:43] is the relative minor to C major every
[10:45] major scale has a relative minor with
[10:47] the same set of notes and vice versa as
[10:49] you can see I've laid them all out now
[10:51] on the circle of fourths you can take
[10:52] any major scale start it on the sixth
[10:54] note play it to the sixth note an octave
[10:56] higher and you've got its relative minor
[10:58] and now you know how to spell any minor
[11:00] scale next step in unlocking the
[11:01] mysteries of music is playing multiple
[11:03] notes at the same time or playing chords
[11:05] to start looking at this we're going to
[11:06] bring back our nice neutral scale C
[11:08] major so what we're going to do is we're
[11:09] going to pick any note from the scale to
[11:11] be the lowest note in our chord it's the
[11:13] note that we're going to build things
[11:14] off of we call this the root note we'll
[11:15] start with the c and what we're going to
[11:17] do is we're going to skip over the next
[11:19] note in the scale the D then go up to
[11:22] the E and we're going to play this e
[11:25] alongside our root note C now on guitar
[11:28] I have bit of a problem because I can't
[11:30] play these two notes at the same time
[11:32] since they're on the same string so what
[11:33] I'll do is I'm going to take this e note
[11:36] play it
[11:37] here and when I play these two notes
[11:39] together I get this sound so to this
[11:42] point we have the root note C and then
[11:45] this next note that we've added to the
[11:46] chord the third note in the scale is
[11:47] called the third these are two pieces of
[11:50] a chord they are the root and the third
[11:54] but we're going to keep adding here and
[11:55] to do so we continue up the scale in the
[11:57] same way so we were at the e skip over
[12:00] the next note on the scale the F and
[12:03] then take the next note the G and add
[12:06] that to our root in our third so now we
[12:08] have c e and now
[12:12] G and now we have three notes in our
[12:15] chord we have the C root note we have
[12:17] the E which is the third and the g which
[12:19] we call the fifth root third fifth and
[12:23] these three notes make up what's called
[12:25] a major Triad let's do some analysis
[12:27] here from our C root to the third e
[12:31] we're going up 1 2 3 four Frets four
[12:34] half steps which is two whole steps and
[12:37] we call the spacing of two whole steps a
[12:39] major 3 so from the root to the third is
[12:43] the musical interval of a major third
[12:45] from the third of our chord E to the
[12:47] fifth G we're going up 1 2 three Frets
[12:52] three half steps three halves makes one
[12:54] and a half whole steps that spacing is
[12:57] called a minor third and so when the
[12:58] spacing from the root to the thir is a
[13:01] major third and from the third to the
[13:03] fifth is a minor third that gives us a
[13:06] major Triad and it's called major
[13:08] because it has that happy tonality and
[13:10] it's called a Triad because it has three
[13:12] different notes in it now let's try the
[13:13] same thing off of the next note in our
[13:15] scale the D that becomes the root note
[13:17] we skip following note in the scale the
[13:19] E add the next one F so the F becomes
[13:23] the third we have a d and an
[13:26] F go back to the F skip over the next
[13:29] note in the scale which is the G and
[13:31] then add the a to the chord so now we
[13:33] have the D the F and the a now already
[13:36] we can tell that this chord sounds quite
[13:38] a bit different and that's because this
[13:40] is a Minor triad let's take a closer
[13:42] look at it from the D to the F we're
[13:44] going up three Frets so that is a minor
[13:47] third spacing here and from the F to the
[13:49] a we're going up four Frets that is a
[13:52] major third spacing so our spacings from
[13:54] the root to the third of the chord are a
[13:56] minor third and our spacing from the
[13:58] Third to the fifth are a major third and
[14:00] when you have a chord with this spacing
[14:02] It's A Minor triad and if we compare
[14:04] this chord to a major Triad we see that
[14:06] the distance between the root and the
[14:08] fifth stays the same however from the
[14:10] root to the third in the Minor triad the
[14:12] third is a half step lower than it is in
[14:14] the major Triad and so in A Minor triad
[14:16] we refer to the third as the flat third
[14:18] or the minor third which gives us root
[14:20] flat thir Fifth and these two Triads the
[14:23] major and minor Triad form the basis for
[14:26] just about all the harmony that one will
[14:28] ever come across and we continued at the
[14:29] major scale doing the same thing we get
[14:31] a Minor triad off of the E major Triad
[14:34] off of the
[14:36] F major Triad off of the G Minor triad
[14:40] off of the A and then off of the B
[14:43] something interesting
[14:45] happens for this B Triad the notes are b
[14:48] d and f from B to d That's a minor third
[14:51] spacing and from D to F that's also a
[14:54] minor third spacing which is unlike
[14:56] anything else we've come across so far
[14:57] so this chord has a root a flat third
[15:00] but now it also has a flat Fifth and
[15:02] when you come across a chord with these
[15:04] notes this spacing that's called a
[15:06] diminished Triad diminish Triads aren't
[15:08] nearly as common as the major and minor
[15:10] chords but it is worth acknowledging
[15:12] their existence and so now we have all
[15:14] the different Triads available to us in
[15:16] the key of C and much like how you can
[15:18] make a Melody picking out notes and
[15:19] mixing and matching them from this scale
[15:22] you can create a chord progression by
[15:23] mixing and matching these chords
[15:26] C A minor
[15:29] E
[15:30] minor F D minor G C and you might be
[15:36] thinking well wait a second Sammy G I
[15:38] was watching your fingers there and you
[15:39] weren't just playing three notes for
[15:41] those chords what's going on so assuming
[15:43] that you're keeping the root note as the
[15:45] lowest note in your chord you can take
[15:47] some liberties with the other notes you
[15:49] can double them move them up in octave
[15:50] and it doesn't really affect the
[15:51] character of the chord like take the
[15:53] open C campfire chord for example we
[15:55] have a c e and a g that's our Bas Triad
[15:59] but then we also have another C here and
[16:01] then we have another
[16:03] G or check out the c bar chord with this
[16:06] we have a c g c now we get an e there's
[16:11] the G and another C we still only have
[16:15] C's e and G's the C is the lowest but
[16:17] the other notes kind of get flipped
[16:18] around and duplicated and so like the
[16:20] spacings of the major scale are
[16:22] Universal for all major scales the
[16:24] series of chords that we use here
[16:27] applies to all major scales as well any
[16:29] major scale the first chord will be
[16:30] major the second chord will be minor
[16:32] third minor fourth major fifth major
[16:35] sixth minor seventh diminish Tri and if
[16:37] we bring minor scales into the mix well
[16:39] we know that the notes between a
[16:40] relative major and it's relative minor
[16:42] are the same set of notes well the
[16:44] chords that we attach onto these notes
[16:46] stays the same let me show you what I
[16:48] mean we know the chords in C major and
[16:49] all the chords in a minor stay the same
[16:51] they're just a different order so now
[16:53] you can take any key you know which
[16:54] notes are available to you in it you
[16:56] know why they're available to you and
[16:57] you can start using those to build a you
[16:59] also know what chords are available to
[17:00] make a chord progression to make your
[17:02] Harmony you combine your Melody with
[17:04] your Harmony set it to a rhythm and
[17:06] you're making music and right there you
[17:07] have the core principles of
[17:09] understanding music that first piece of
[17:10] the puzzle is laid out for you you can
[17:13] speak the same language as everyone else
[17:15] who knows this stuff and the more time
[17:16] you spend with music the more you
[17:17] realize that all the stuff that we just
[17:19] looked at is merely the most common
[17:21] expectation but it would be incredibly
[17:24] boring if everything just followed the
[17:25] expectation music often toes this fine
[17:27] line between expect and surprise and
[17:30] balancing both Keeps Us engaged this is
[17:32] really just the beginning but what I
[17:34] would encourage you to do is going
[17:35] forward try to see your musical world
[17:37] through this theoretical lens that we've
[17:39] started to unravel today look at chord
[17:41] progressions look at Melodies and ask
[17:43] yourself do these make sense with what
[17:44] I've learned so far if it does great if
[17:46] not well it's cuz there's always another
[17:48] puzzle on the horizon to solve and the
[17:50] more puzzles you solve the more you
[17:52] realize the more of them there are out
[17:54] there ladies and gentlemen there you
[17:56] have it that is the foundation of Music
[17:57] Theory if you're looking for more more
[17:59] in-depth look at this stuff I've got a
[18:00] chorus on that if you're looking for the
[18:01] next steps in music theory I've got a
[18:03] chorus on that I've got courses on
[18:04] soloing rhythm guitar and a bunch more
[18:06] now I also do weekly lessons in the
[18:07] samurai guitar dojo and for Black Friday
[18:09] if you sign up for that you're going to
[18:10] gain access to all my other courses as
[18:13] part of the monthly membership it's only
[18:14] $7.50 a month you can gain access using
[18:17] the link in the description until next
[18:18] time thank you all for watching look
[18:20] after yourselves look after each other
[18:21] look after the planet I'm Sam Ray
[18:23] guitarist and I'll see you again soon