GUITAR: Theory and Performance

The Anatomy and Key Mantras

• Chopping Wood and Carrying Water
• Practice, Discipline, Hard Work, Focus, and Fun

Learning the Guitar

• Body Parts: Neck, bridge, tuning heads, truss rod, guard, frets, nut, braces, classifciations.
• Basic Guitar Care and Maintenance: Restringing, neck adjustments, humidifying (dampner).
• Learning Proper Technique: Picking, strumming, posture, stretching, excersizes.
• Tuning the Guitar: 1.string to string; using the A string; harmonics; using tuner.
• String and note location – Learning the Fretboard.
• Reading Sheet Music and Guitar Tablature.

Music Theory

• The Basic Language of Music: Staff, treble and bass clefs; reading the dots.
• Sound in Time: Tempo, meter, rhythm, note and rest values.
• Time Signatures: Duple vs. Triple: 4/4; 2/4 ; 3/4 ; 6/8 ; 12/8.
• Chromatic Scale: The 12 notes, sharps, flats, naturals.
• Intervals: Recognition, consonance and dissonance; begin ear training.
• The Major Scale: Tetrachords; formation and structure; names of scale degrees.
• Key Signatures and the Circle of Fifths: Degrees of Kinship.
• Chord Construction of Diatonic Triads: major, minor, diminished, augmented.
• Chord Construction with Extensions: sus2, sus4, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th. (Flat and Sharp).
• The Clock of Tonality: Tonic, dominant, subdominant, mediant.
• Chord Patterns and Cadences: Authentic, plagal / amen, deceptive. Contextual usage.
• Learning Familiar Progressions and Forms: I - V7 - I I - vi - ii - V7 - I ii - V7 - I I - IV - V7
• Dressing Up Progressions: Chord substitutions; moving lines; half-steps, turnarounds
• The Modes: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian.
• Songwriting 101: Using a rhyming dictionary. Contours and shapes. Borrowing chords. Direct modulation.

Performance

• Soloing / Improvisation: Grouping, phrasing, telling a story.
• Keys to Articulation: Bending, Sliding up / down, Hammer-ons, Pull-offs, Vibrato.
• Practice Schedule Development: Methods, Time Management, Stamina, Diligence.
• Songwriting Strategies: Recording, Notating, Finding a Melody.
• Writing Chord Charts and Composition: Using Sections (A,B,C); Repeat, D.S, D.C., Coda, Head. Getting the Basics of Song Parts and Forms. Using Finale.
• Arranging: Knowing the Instrumentation. Giving Texture and Depth.
• Production: Getting a Sound that Works.
• Basic Sound Engineering: The Rudiments of Recording, Mixing, Sampling.
• Tips for Going Into the Studio: Costs, Expectations, Realities, Preparedness.

Evaluation and Grading

• Attendance / Participation 25%
• Homework / Quizzes (5 total) 25%
• Final Project and Performance* 25%
• Final Theory Exam 25%
* You will present and perform an original composition.