Lesson 2. For example, God is so Good in the key of Bb, would look like:

Transcription

1 Lesson Theory The (Western) Musical Scale For each KEY, the musical scale corresponds to the 7 (out of 1) commonly used notes for that key. In Lesson 1, you learnt how to figure out which seven notes are used for the Major Key. [The 8 th note is always the 1 st note repeated.] The Musical Scale has been best popularized by the song Doe a Deer in the Sound of Music. Whatever note you start on, you can sing Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do and those would be the 7 notes for that KEY (which in this case is just the starting note). Music Theory uses a different approach to define which 7 of the 1 notes you should use for a particular Key. This is designated with a KEY SIGNATURE. The Key Signature tells you which notes should be sharps and flats. For example, Music Theory will tell you that the key of C Major has NO Key Signature, i.e. no sharps and flats. The 7 notes that form the musical scale are C D E F G A B C. In the key of D major, Music Theory will tell you that the key signature is F# and C#. Hence, the 7 notes are D E F# G A B C# D. Notice this is exactly the same result you would have derived from the rules in Lesson 1. Here are the Music Theory Rules: Major Key Key Signature Major Key Key Signature C none C none G F# F Bb D F# C# Bb Bb Eb A F# C# G# Eb Bb Eb Ab E F# C# G# D# Ab Bb Eb Ab Db (can you figure out what comes next?) How to Transpose Transposition is to play a song in a different key than it was written. When you only know a few chords, transposition is very helpful! For example, God is so Good in the key of Bb, would look like: Bb F F Bb Bb Eb Bb F Bb He s so good to me Guitar_in_six_lessons:Lesson -1 jkua-jan00

2 How did the transposition work? In the key of D, the notes are: D E F# G A B C# D And in Bb, they are: Bb C D Eb F G A Bb Hence the CHORDS can be transposed in the same way that the NOTES are transposed. Triads So far we have been using NOTES and CHORDS rather interchangeably but there s actually a slight difference. A CHORD is generally a triad of notes. The 1 st note shares the same name as the Chord. The other two notes are the rd and 5 th notes. For example, the chord D is composed of the notes D, F#, A which are the 1 st, rd and 5 th notes respectively. The chord of G is composed of G, B, D and the chord A is composed of A, C#, E. Notice that the chords follow the Key Signature of the Key that you re in, i.e. the three notes in D are not D, F, A or D, F, Ab. Does this mean that the composition of a chord can change depending on what Key you re in? Is the D chord different in the Key of D versus the Key of G or the Key of A? It turns out that its NOT different, and that s the beauty of how the Western Scale works! (To convince yourself try and work them out!) Another way to make sure that that you have the three correct notes in the Major triad is to count SEMITONES. 1 st rd note SEMITONES 1 st 5 th note 7 SEMITONES (or rd 5 th is SEMITONES) The Relative Minor In Lesson 1, we learned that the three principal chords in the major key are I, IV, and V or the Tonic, Subdominant and the Dominant chords (triads) respectively. The three secondary chords are VI, II, and III. These are all Minor chords. The reason they are ordered this way is that VI, II, and III are the relative minors or I, IV and V. In the key of D, the principal chords are: D G A And their relative minor chords are: Bm Em F#m (What are the three notes in each of these Minor triads?) Relative Minor Keys have the same key signature as the corresponding Major Key. Guitar_in_six_lessons:Lesson - jkua-jan00

3 New Chords With just two new chords, you can play in two new KEYS! This is what C looks like: C x You can now play the three principal chords in the Key of G. The I, IV, V chords are G, C, D. And this is what E looks like: E You can now play the three principal chords in the Key of A. The I, IV, V chords are A, D, E. (If you have time, you can transpose your D songs into G or A and play them in these new keys!) We will also learn two of the relative minor chords, Em and Bm. They are shown below. Em is easy, and Bm is a little more difficult! Em Bm 5 x Em is the relative minor of G; Bm is the relative minor of D. In "Hosanna" (key of G), you will see how two progressions work: I-V-VI-IV as G-D-Em-C I-VI-IV-V as G-Em-C-D Guitar_in_six_lessons:Lesson - jkua-jan00

4 Down Strum In general, the down strums come in between the up strums. For / Time, the down strums come on BEATS 1 and. Hence the up strums come on beats and as shown below: 1 For / Time, the down strums come on all four beats. So the up strums come on the half beats. 1 Generally, the first up strum is left out to add emphasis to the FIRST BEAT of the bar. Hence: 1 Homework Necessary: (1) Play "God is so Good" in / and / with both up and down strums. () Play the other "D" songs from Lesson 1 and Unto thee O Lord with both up and down strums. () Play "Lord I lift your name on high" with at least the down strums (but even better if you have both up and down strums) Optional. () Play "Hosanna" in / with at least the down strums (but even better if you have both up and down strums). (5) Practice holding the Bm chord. We aren t doing any songs with it this week but it is going to show up very soon being quite a common chord in the key of D. Hosanna (G /) G D Em C D Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest G D Em C D Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest C D G (Em) Lord, we lift up your name C D G (Em) With hearts full of praise C D G Em Be exalted O Lord My God C D G Hosanna in the Highest G D Em C D G D Em C D C D G Em Note that you C D G Em need some quick chord C D G Em changes for this song! C D G Guitar_in_six_lessons:Lesson - jkua-jan00

5 Unto Thee O Lord (A /) A E Unto Thee O Lord, do I lift up my soul E A Unto Thee O Lord, do I lift up my soul A D O my God I trust in Thee A E A Let me not be ashamed, let not my enemies triumph over me (Show me thy paths, thy paths O Lord...) Now if you have a normal limited voice range like most other people, this will be very hard to sing in the key of A. (The idea was to give you practice in this key.) Now try transposing it to the key of D and you should find it easier to sing along. Lord I lift your name on high (G /) Lord I lift your name on high Lord I love to sing your praises I'm so glad you're in my life G C D (C D) I'm so glad you came to save us G C D C G You came from heaven to earth to show the way C D C G From the earth to the cross, my debt to pay C D Em C From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky D G Lord I lift your name on high Guitar_in_six_lessons:Lesson -5 jkua-jan00