Music Theory Guitar Modules 1 2 3 and 4

All guitar courses imparted through private group lessons  or  masterclasses abide by the following guidelines that summarize all 6 levels  of learning. This is a generic summary indicating what the guitar student will be able to do in the first two modules of learning electric, acoustic and nylon string guitars (classical, flamenco or Spanish).

General objectives: Music Theory Guitar

The guitar student, upon completion of any level, will learn to play the guitar in contemporary styles of music creating artistic expression as a soloist, accompanist and composer. The more modules we complete, the more diversified our artistic expression will be.

Guitar students in all lessons will develop skills in:

Performance: Melody, accompaniment, improvisation.

Ear training: To help us compose, memorize a composition, improvise with ease, transcribe our favorite songs and write our own songs.

Harmony: Music theory to help us play and compose with uniqueness using the guitar as our tool.

These three major skills are thoroughly developed step by step in all levels of learning.

Let’s take a look at a specific skills we need to develop in order to achieve a satisfying self-expression through our guitar.

Melody skills

A guitarist must be able to play a given melody of the selected composition, with or without accompaniment with fingers or pick. I define the melody as what Nick Jagger would sing in a song as Angie.

So how can we play the melody on the guitar?
We need to sound as if we were the lead vocalist. For such we have to learn how to talk on the guitar as a lyrical instrument.

 In Module 1 we learn how to play melodies in:

• in one octave

• in two octaves

• in 3 positions

The guitarist, through my lessons, will discover how the same melodies can be played in different parts of the guitar and why we need to master such ability.

In Module 2

We learn how to add our personal expression to a given melody. We modify the melody to make it our own to tell our own story. We accomplish this by:

• adding more notes

• adding more rhythm

• changing timbre

• adding articulation