re: Official: Guitar beginners question and answer thread.

well, there are 12 notes. 7 whole notes, 5 sharp and flat notes. A chord is built from 3 or more of these notes, played together. The key of a song, usually means The chord where a song begins, and the certain group of chords that generally follow, in a melodic way. That is called The Progression.

That's where the wheel come in.
The most simple songs only have 3 chords, played over and over in a repeating pattern.
Example: in the key of C, the other 2 chords most commonly used will be F and G.

Now go look at the top picture of the wheel, and tell me what is on each side of The C.

If print out a copy of that wheel, and turn it, so that the key that you want to play in, is on top, The most common chords to use will be on each side your key. Every time.

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This is confusing and will lead to issues down the road. Saying there are 7 whole notes is incorrect, since a whole note is a measure of duration.

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I think for beginners, it's just the easiest way to explain it, at the start. Just now learning to play some chords and string them together to make a song. As they progress in ability, they will realize that these aren't absolutes and try to learn more. let them just have fun at first, if they stay interested they will learn more.

Maybe I should say Full notes, instead of whole notes? meaning not sharp or flat. We would all be better off probably, if there were no sharps or flats, just 12 letters.

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Maybe I should say Full notes, instead of whole notes? meaning not sharp or flat. We would all be better off probably, if there were no sharps or flats, just 12 letters.

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No, this makes no sense either. This is why I explained both a C major scale and an A major.

Each scale is a relationship of whole and half steps. Most of our western scales are heptatonic, 7 notes. (There are others used in western music with more or less notes, whole tone scale is 6 notes per octave, Octatonic (also called the diminished scale(s) is 8 notes)

By saying "full notes" what are you really trying to say? If you mean "whole step" then that is incorrect as well. The distance between E and F, both white keys on the piano, is a half step (as is from B to C). As I illustrated in my post, the C major scale is made up of a certain combination of whole steps and half steps. The way that falls on the piano is all white keys.

If you were to play only whole steps starting on C you would get the aforementioned whole tone scale (6 notes before the octave)

C - D - E - F# - G# - A# - C

This combination of whole and half steps is the same for EVERY major scale. For the guitar this becomes one of the easier things. Once you learn the pattern for a major scale, move it up two frets and you have another major scale. On piano, this requires one to better understand keys and accidentals.

As for not using 12 letters, this likely has more to do with the way instruments were constructed and music was performed before equal temperament came into play and is far beyond the scope of this. If you started the letters at the same point (A) with each half step being the next letter of the alphabet, what we know as a C Major scale would be spelled

D, F, H, I, K, A, C, D

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Saying there are 7 whole note in a scale is just wrong. A whole note is a unit of duration, not interval. A whole note is four beats in 4/4. That has nothing to do with a scale.

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No one is disagreeing with you. I just don't know how to answer all of their questions over the internet, and I hate typing a lot. I am just trying to help them play some songs, and they can go from there.
Do you want to start a thread and just give a class? That would be cool.

Auggies answer is how I learned it recently. Easy to digest.

I also did deeper research and got into the step/half step explanation. Using the piano to visualize as an example like a poster did above helped a lot in my understanding of it.


Also, I bought a small poster that has major/minor/7 chords on it and then the fretboard with all all notes labeled. I practice with it in front of me and frankly just staring at the damn thing has helped me understand how it’s all connected

Maybe in this thread (at least for some time) we have an understanding that we are using Key of C the most commonly used in popular western music?


Correct me if I’m wrong

What is a standard guitar tuned to?

Is this true: you can find the same note on each strings (at diff frets) but they will all sound slightly different? What factors contribute to this?

Awesome, ty.