Enough of the easy stuff, back to work! In this post, and maybe

the next, I’d like to talk about harmonic categories. This is a

concept I learned at Berklee, and it has helped me quite a bit

over the years. First I’d like to give a little background info on

keys.

A key consists of a 7 note scale and 7 chords built from that

scale. There are 12 keys, one starting from each note in the

chromatic scale, and each is different. (If you have no idea

what I’m talking about, either skip this post or get a copy of

my book, “Take Control: for guitar” available on Amazon).

I will be using the key of C in this post, to make it easier.

The key of C major consists of a C major scale ( notes; c, d,

e, f, g, a, b, etc.) and the chords built off of those notes;

C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, and

B diminished. For a musician, the practical meaning of this

is you can combine and play any sequence of chords from

this group and solo/sing the scale notes over it (again in any

sequence) and it will always work. Understanding how

chords and scales fit together in a key is helpful in jamming,

composing, and transcription. Enough about keys, now let’s

talk about harmonic categories.

In any key, the 7 chords contained will fall into 3 harmonic

categories; Tonic, Subdominant, and Dominant. The chords

in each of these categories sound similar to one another, and

occupy the same harmonic space (or function) in the key.

Before I explore this concept further, I will list the chords in

each of the 3 categories, both by chord name in the key of C,

and by scale degree* so you can use this concept for any key.

TONIC: contains the root chord, C major (I),  E minor (iii),

and A minor (vi).

SUBDOMINANT: contains the F major chord (IV), and D

minor (ii).

DOMINANT: contains the G major chord (V), and the B

diminished chord (viiº).

*I hate to sound like a recording, but if you don’t understand

scale degrees ( those Roman numbers), get a copy of my

book, “Take Control: for guitar” and learn it! It’s quite handy.

The first practical use for this information is chord

substitution. Jazz players do this all the time! If a song is in

the key of C and you’re playing a C chord, try an A minor

instead. Or try an E minor, any chord in the Tonic category

for the key of C. You may like some choices better than

others, but they will all substitute for one another. This

works the same for the other 2 categories. In the Dominant

category, try substituting a Bº for a G7. It may be the only

time you can actually use a diminished chord!

Before I explore other uses, I will have to explain the

concept of harmonic function, which I mentioned earlier.

I will do that in my next post, see you then.

 

 

 

 

 

(Some of this post is taken from my book, “No Fail Guitar”,
,
available on Amazon) I’m finishing what I started in the

last post and discussing picks and amps for beginners.

-PICKS: There are a lot of picks out there! All shapes and

sizes and prices; from free promotional picks to $10 stone

picks and all points in between. In my book, I got to the

point and just recommended you buy standard shape thin

picks to start, because they were cheap and easy on your

wrist. Now I would like to expand a bit more…

WHY DO I HAVE TO USE A PICK? You don’t! classical and

fingerstyle guitarists either don’t use picks at all, or in the

case of folk/blues finger pickers, use finger picks. Also

some legendary players like Wes Montgomery (jazz), or

Jeff Beck developed unique, expressive styles using just

their fingers and thumb. As a self taught player, I played

without a pick the first 6 years, even gigs when I was 16

or 17. However, I found that a pick enables you to pick

down and up which is faster and more efficient, you can

play harder and louder (and cut through the band), and

finally, it saves your fingers (I was breaking my finger

nails after a 4 hour gig). So if you want to play classical

or fingerstyle exclusively, or forge your own creative

path, feel free, I’m just sayin’.

TYPES OF PICKS: Jim Dunlop USA Nylon picks come in

a variety of thicknesses, from .38 MM to 1.0 MM. The

size is printed on the pick, along with a raised waffle type

surface that allows a better grip. .38 MM is paper thin

and I use it a lot with my beginner students, who generally

have low wrist strength. They can move up the thickness

scale gradually, until they find the best fit. Faster more

experienced players generally prefer a heavier, “jazz” style

pick because it gives more control. Also, jazz picks are

smaller which allows for a better grip. I use Jim Dunlop

Jazz II’s, which are 1 MM thick. Heavier picks take some

wrist strength, so I would hold off on these until I’d been

playing awhile. Other manufacturers make fine picks;

Fender, Clayton, Gravity among others. Jim Dunlop is

the easiest brand to find around here, so that’s what I

use. Also, if I change my last name to Dunlop, I will have

personalized picks!

AMPLIFIERS: At the beginning stage you want fairly

small and cheap, you won’t be playing on stage any time

soon! $100-120, maybe a little less, will get you a 5-10

watt* amp with a 6-10 inch speaker. While more is generally

better (more watts, bigger speaker) quality and actual sound

count the most. Try before you buy! Also I think speaker size

is more important than power. An amp with a 6 inch speaker

is going to sound dinky no matter what. Fender, Peavey and

Roland among others, all make good inexpensive amps. If

you bump up $50 or so, you can get a Marshall MG series

or Fender Champion with 20-30 watts and a 10-12 inch

speaker. You could play small gigs with  those!

*watts are how an amps’ power is rated, more watts equals

more power.

TESTING THE AMP: Turn on the amp with the volume

down and without any cables plugged in at first. Turn up

the volume half way and listen for any loud humming or

hissing (not good). Now turn the volume back down and

plug in your guitar. Turn the knobs. Do they feel solid and

well built, or cheap and cheesy? Ask the salesman how to

get distortion, that heavy rock crunch we all love if that’s

important to you. In fact, if you don’t understand anything

about your amp, ask. Write down the answers if you need

to. It’s much easier to pry information out of that pesky

salesman before he gets his hands on your dough! You

will also need 1 0r 2 cables, and a cover would be nice.

(Although I have used trash bags in a pinch.) See if they

will throw it in as a package deal. This post is the end of

my back to basics. Next, more weirdness!

(Part of this post is taken from my book, “No Fail Guitar”,

available on Amazon.)

I’m taking a break from the theory stuff and getting back

to basics. In this post I will talk about a truly exciting

subject, guitar strings! It baffles me why so many guitar

players ignore their strings. They’ll happily shell out

thousands of $ for a great guitar and then play on a pathetic

set of crusty old strings until one pops. Strings are half your

sound! Strings are cheap! Take care of your strings; keep

them clean and change them regularly, every month or two.

Your guitar will play better, stay in tune better, and sound

better. First let’s talk about taking care of and cleaning your

strings.

I clean my strings after every session. I just use a piece of an

old cotton T-shirt and wipe them down, I also wrap the cloth

around the string and wipe the crud off from underneath. I

don’t purchase any of the specialty cloths or cleaning

products (you might if you have an expensive, collectors’

gem). When I change my strings I also clean my fretboard

by wiping it down with a little bit of linseed oil (be sure to

wipe it off thoroughly, so your neck doesn’t become a grease

fest). Not only does keeping your strings clean make them

sound better, they last longer too, saving you money!

Although there are many options when you buy strings, my

advice is to stick with a few basics at first.

BUY LOCAL: Local music stores will give you advice and

even put your strings on, for a few extra dollars. Watch and

learn! If there are no music stores in your area, it will have

to be on-line purchase and internet videos.

GET A DECENT BRAND: GHS, Ernie Ball, D’Addario, Fender,

DR, and Gibson among others, all make a good set of strings

for 7 to 10 dollars. Many larger stores/outlets have their own

label made by one of the big string makers, which they sell

for less. Buy those!

GET THE RIGHT TYPE: Buy extra light gauge*, round wound

strings for both acoustic and electric. Get bronze alloy for

acoustic and nickel-steel for electric. While you may eventually

settle on different strings, the above specs will get you a cheap,

good sounding, easy to play set of strings.

(Nylon strings are used only on classical guitars. The neck is

wider, and the strings are harder to keep in tune and put on.

I don’t recommend these guitars for beginners, unless you

only want to play classical.) To sum up:

Acoustic Strings: extra light gauge, bronze alloy, round

wound. (Ask for 10’s) 8-15$

Electric Strings: extra light gauge, nickel-steel alloy, round

wound. (Ask for 9’s) 6-10$

I will talk about picks and amps for beginners in the next

post.

*Extra light gauge refers to the thickness of your strings.

The thinner they are the easier to play, but too thin and

they’ll break easy and buzz. The gauge of a string is

specified by a number; which is the strings’ diameter in

fractions of an inch. (.010 means 10 thousandths of an

inch in diameter.) String sets are named after the diameter

of the first string, you don’t have to know all the string

diameters! For acoustic guitar; extra light strings are

called 10’s (first string is .010). For electrics; extra light

strings are called 9’s (first string is .009).

As I explained in my last post, “Blues Key Shapes 1”, the
easiest way to find out what chords are in a key is by
looking at the pattern they follow on the fretboard. To
do this, you must understand type 1 and 2 chords, degree
names, blues harmony, etc. Reading the previous 3 posts
will help and all of this is explained in greater detail
(and pictures!) in my book, “Take Control: for guitar”.
In the last post, “Blues Key Shapes 1”, I explained the
basic idea behind blues harmony and showed its “chord
shape” in the key of E blues. In this post I will compare
the chord shape of E blues with the chord shape of G
blues which would start 3 frets higher on the neck.

KEY OF E BLUES:E,G,A,B,C,D ( all major chords, although
E,A, and B can be minor as well).

fret#     degree     type1 chord     degree     type2 chord

0                  I                  E major                  IV                A major

1

2                                                                         V                B major

3               bIII               G major                 bVI             C major

4

5                IV                A major                  bVII            D major

As I said in the previous post, the root chord for this

blues shape chord pattern is always a type 1 chord.

Since we’re in E blues the type 1 chord is an open E,

all the rest of the chords follow the plus 3 fret/2 fret

spacing (with the addition of the V chord B, which is

type 2 and 2 frets higher than the root chord). In the

example below, I will move the blues key chord shape

up 3 frets, to G blues. This will give us a different set

of chords.

KEY OF G BLUES:G,Bb,C,D,Eb,F.(all major chords,

although G,C,and D can be minor as well).

fret#     degree     type1 chord     degree     type2 chord

0

1

2

3                 I                G major                IV                C major

4

5                                                                   V                D major

6             bIII               Bb major              bVI            Eb major

7

8               IV               C major                bVII              F major

Notice the degree numbers follow the same sequence

and are the same distance apart. The only thing that

changes are the new chords you have to make to match

the degree names 3 frets higher. You can move this

pattern to any fret on the fretboard (starting on the

type 1 chord) and find the chords in any key! As with

the major key pattern, memorizing the blues degree

pattern shape is much easier than learning the chords

in all 12 keys. One thing I didn’t mention in previous

posts (because it seemed obvious to me), is that you

aren’t limited to playing the chords only on the frets

in the pattern! The degree patterns are only used to

find out what chords to play, you can play any version

of a G or D (or whatever) chord you know!

My last 2 posts explained the concept of “key shapes”, an
alternate way to find the chords in any key by following
the shape and sequence the chords formed on the fret-
board. Those 2 posts referred to major keys, the next 2
posts will refer to blues keys. Blues harmony is the basis
of most modern music; jazz, rock, modern country, R&B,
etc. so even if you don’t like blues music you still need to
understand the harmony! As with the previous 2 posts on
key shapes, the theory behind blues harmony is advanced.
MY book “Take Control: for guitar”, explains this in more
detail, but the short answer is blues harmony equals a
major plus a minor key added together. This major/minor
combo gives it both a distinct sound and a distinct shape.
Blues keys jump 3 frets from the root, then 2 frets while
major keys jump in 2 plus 2 fret intervals. Below I list the
chords in the key of E blues followed by the physical
shape in a table. Just follow the fret number on the left,
notice any degree name to the right and play the chord
listed in the type 1 (6th string root), or type 2 (5th string
root) columns.

KEY OF E BLUES: E,G,A,B,C,D (all major chords, although
E,A, and B can be minor as well).

fret#     degree     type1 chord     degree     type2 chord

0                  I                  E major                * IV                  A major

1

2                                                                        V                    B major

3                 bIII              G major                 bVI                C major

4

5                *IV                 A major                 bVII               D major

(* I have repeated the same IV/A major chord in 2 different

locations to emphasize the 3/2 fret spacing)

Notice the root chord of the key, E major, is a type I chord

open. The root chord for this pattern will always be a type

I chord. The next chords go up 3 frets to G major and 2 more

frets to A major on fret 5. This plus 3fret/2 fret motion is

repeated in the type 2 column with C major and D major and

is what I use to identify blues keys. The only chord outside

this 3/2 fret pattern is the V chord (B), which is 2 frets above

the root chord. This illustrates an important point, the I,IV,

and V chords are in the same location for both major and

blues keys! (Check the previous 2 posts if needed.) This

means that if your song only contains I,IV, and V chords,

your key could be either major or blues! In the final post

I will discuss how to solve this problem, as well as show 2

different blues keys to further illustrate the key shape.