---
title: 'MUSIC THEORY for guitar'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=o-qNepGpI3U'
video_id: 'o-qNepGpI3U'
date: 2026-06-29
duration_sec: 1106
---

# MUSIC THEORY for guitar

> Source: [MUSIC THEORY for guitar](https://youtube.com/watch?v=o-qNepGpI3U)

## Summary

This video covers the fundamental elements of music theory, including scales, chords, and harmony, with a focus on guitar or piano.

### Key Points

- **Basic elements: note, rhythm, pitch, melody, chord** [0:00] — Music begins with a single note. Adding rhythm gives pulse; different pitches with rhythm form melody; multiple notes together form chords. The basic components are melody, harmony (chords), and rhythm.
- **Interval: half step** [0:29] — Distance between two notes = interval; smallest is half step (adjacent frets on guitar, adjacent keys on piano).
- **Major scale: pattern and example** [1:57] — Major scale has 7 notes, pattern: whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half. Example: C major scale = C D E F G A B C (all white keys on piano).
- **Major scale: transposition and key signature** [4:55] — Pattern applies to any start note; e.g., F major requires B flat to maintain half step. Circle of fourths helps determine sharps/flats.
- **Minor scale: pattern and relation to major** [9:32] — Minor scale pattern: whole-half-whole-whole-half-whole-whole. A minor uses same notes as C major (relative minor/major).
- **Building chords: triads** [11:03] — Triad: root, third, fifth. Major triad: root → major third (2 whole steps) → minor third (1.5 steps). Minor triad: root → minor third → major third.
- **Triads in key of C major** [13:13] — In C major: C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, B diminished. This progression applies to all major keys.
- **Conclusion: core principles of music theory** [17:09] — Understanding scales and chords lets you create music (melody + harmony + rhythm). Theory helps speak the same language; balance between expectation and surprise keeps music engaging.

### Conclusion

This foundational guide shows how to build scales and chords, empowering you to create music with confidence and understand the underlying structure.

## Transcript

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