Guitarists of all levels will find a wealth of practical music knowledge in this special book. Veteran guitarist and author Tom Kolb dispels the mysteries of music theory using plain and simple terms and diagrams.
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Music Theory For Guitarists – How Key Signatures Work
All those mysterious little sharps and flats sitting in the key signature are way easier to understand than it looks like. Let me give you the tricks to understand the system and make you a more informed guitar player.
First of all, remember that music notation in general is a just a set of instructions for playing the song. Learning to read it is just like when you were learning to read books back in second grade. It takes a little time, but quickly becomes very natural if you know a few tricks.
They key signature is there to tell us which notes in the scale are sharped for flatted. From that you can tell what key the song is in, which gives you additional information before you even start playing.
The key signature can contain anywhere from 0 to 7 sharps or flats. You’ll never see them mixed. Just one or the other. The sharps and flats are placed on the line or space of the note that they correspond with. So if you see a sharp on the top line of the staff that tells you that you’re going to play F# every time you see an F in the music. If you see a flat on the middle line of the staff, that tells you to play Bb wherever you see a B in the music.
Why do they do this? There’s two reasons. First, some keys have a lot of sharps or flats in them. Without a key signature we’d have to write that sharp or flat next to the note every time it comes up. That would make the notation really messy and much more difficult to follow. Second, when our current system of notation was invented (in the 17th century) ink and parchment were very expensive. And the poor monks who were hand copying all this stuff looked for any shortcut they could to save time and ink. Key signatures are a big help when your hand is cramping up from writing a zillion sharps.
The sharps and flats come in a particular order: Sharps: F C G D A E B – sharps appear in an order of 5ths Flat: B E A D G C F – flats appear in an order of 4ths.
If you have two sharps in the key signature they will be F# and C#. Three flats will always be Bb, Eb, and Ab. You’ll never see something like two sharps and they’re D and E. Won’t happen.
Now you know how to read the individual sharps and flats in the key signature. How do they tell you what key you’re playing in? First let’s clarify the concept of “key”. The “key” simply tells you what scale the composer used to write the piece of music with. Think of a scale like an artist’s palate of colors. He has blue, red, white, black, purple, etc. And mixes those colors and throws them at a canvas to make a painting. We take the seven notes in our scale and throw them at the page to make music.
There’s a couple quick tricks to tell what key you’re in based on the key signature. For sharp keys, take the last sharp and go up a half step (one fret) and that’s the name of your key. So if you have four sharps (F# C# G# D#), the you go a half step up from D# and find you’re in the key of E majaor. Simple!
For flat keys you take the second to last flat and THAT is the name of your key. If you have 3 flats (Bb, Eb, Ab) then you’re in the key of Eb. The key of F major, which has just one flat – Bb – you unfortunately have to just memorize.
And the advantage of knowing what key you’re in? You’ll be able to know some of the chords you’ll see before you start playing. Primarily the I, IV, and V chords which you’ll see in nearly everything you play.
Let’s say you have a key signature with 4 flats in in. Look above to see what those are…. (Bb Eb Ab Db) – If we look at the 3rd flat you’ll find you’re in the key of Ab major. In that key your I, IV, and V chords are Ab, Db, and Eb7. Now you know you’ll be running across at least those chords.
So, the key signature gives you a lot of information right off the bat to help you get through the song. And now you’ve got all the tricks to figure them out. And you’re a better guitarist because of it!
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Dispelling The Myths About Left Handed Guitar And Left Handed Guitarists
There are a few things left handed and right handed guitarists need to get straight in their heads about the subject of left handed guitars and left handed guitarists.
There are various “ideas” floating around about this subject, which not surprisingly have been generated by ignorant right handed guitarists, or money-only motivated sales staff at musical instrument shops who are on kickbacks from some particular guitar brand, and sometimes even from bitter and twisted left handed guitarists who somehow feel “cursed.”
Mainly these myths have sprung up because of lack of overall knowledge with the unfortunate consequence of these false data influencing people in their choices of playing or learning guitar.
Let’s get one thing very straight. These common misconceptions ARE myths.
A myth ceases to be a myth once it has been dispelled. It is dispelled by providing TRUE DATA, ie. “the Truth.”
So, left handed guitarists and right handed guitarists can equally learn something here. You may be very surprised to know some new things here or have some misconceptions dispelled. I hope so!
MYTH ONE. ”A guitar is like a piano. There is only one way to play it.” (The “one way” is right handed.)
This is one of the biggest, outmoded, ignorant, and totally incorrect statements there is on this subject. Yes, a piano is played one way. No, a guitar is not played one way.
In fact, the way people play guitars these days, right handed people – 80% of the Earth’s population – in actual fact should be playing guitar left handed. That would mean they have their “stong” hand on the fret board doing all the work – like they do in Life!
Way back in the old days when a guitar was just a “strumming instrument” it was applicable that a right handed person would play the guitar with their “weak” hand on the fret board and their “strong” arm to strumso as to keep time. There weren’t drummers and bass players in those days! Wake up! It is the 21st century. People don’t play like that any more. Guitar playing has EVOLVED. Isn’t it surprising that some of the world’s best guitarists are left handed people playing guitar right handed – the reverse scenario?
MYTH TWO. “It is harder to learn guitar left handed in a world dominated by right handed teachers and right handed instruction books.”
This is a doozer. In fact learning guitar left handed is EASIER from a right handed teacher than a left handed teacher because everything the teacher shows you is a MIRROR IMAGE of what you are doing and easier to follow! Right handed guitarists learning from a right handed teacher have to do a mental switcheroo to get what they are doing right! There is an extra step a left handed learner does not have to take!
And books? There are books for left handed instruction. They exist and they are not hard to get. There aren’t as many but that is a good thing. Less possibilities of confusion. Right handed guitar instruction materials are so abundant that there is an OVERSATURATION of material which frankly makes anyone giddy when trying to make sense of it all.
MYTH THREE. “You can’t get many left handed guitars.” Or “It’s hard to find a left handed guitar.”
This WAS true until 2006 when an Australian company called Gaskell Guitars emerged . (www.gaskellguitars.com) Gaskell Guitars makes left handed guitars and basses only, and is the only company in the world that makes left handed instruments exclusively. Gaskell has grown in the last few years to be the number one brand in the world for left handed guitars. Several major guitar brands have stopped making left handed guitars – Gibson, Paul Reed Smith, Rickenbacker. They stopped due to “lack of demand.” That is another myth.
MYTH FOUR. “There is not much demand for left handed guitars”
This is the biggest myth of the lot.
This idea is definitely a right handed guitar manufacturer’s point of view. The existence of Gaskell Guitars proves that this is false. Although there are much less left handed guitarists in the world there are still MANY. Many leftys need left hand guitars. And they are not all “old people.” There are MANY young and old lefty guitarists in the world. This is a fact. This is a fact that right handed guitar companies will never be aware of because they operate on TURNOVER and their turnover consists of right handed guitars – for the majority. Understandable, but not true!
If you are a left handed guitarist reading this realize this: there are plenty of people like you in the world – PLENTY!
These are the first 4 myths. There are more. More will be covered in the next article. Stay tuned.
Kevin Gaskell is the business owner and designer of Gaskell Guitars which is a manufacturer of left handed guitars and basses, located in Sydney Australia. Gaskell guitars are available world wide.
Jerry’s Breakdown composed by Jerry Reed, played by Antoine Dufour and Tommy Gauthier on a single guitar. Please visit: myspace.com/antoinedufour myspace.com/tommygauthier Video Rating: 4 / 5
Left Hand guitar players the world over have always had a problem with availability of left handed guitars.
Many left handed people newly learning to play guitar end up learning to play right handed out of frustration. Many experienced left handed guitarists have simply become apathetic and given up looking for that which is abundant for right handed players. Not only is there a limited range of guitars, but the resources for learning are also pretty limited. This situation is the same in every country in the world.
It is not hard to understand. Of the world’s population, left handed people are a minority compared to right handed people. Within this minority there is a further minority of left handed people who play guitar left handed. Despite the small percentage of left handed guitarists, there have been a number of iconic left handed players who have made a huge impact on the music scene. These include Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Tony Iommi, and Kurt Cobain.
Many of the big guitar manufacturers do not offer left hand versions of some of their popular guitars. to be fair, US guitar manufacturers, have been facing harder and harder times, year after year. We all know that ALL industry (that is trying to do the right thing and being honest) is suffering and this is proportional to the decline of education (kids can’t learn, can’t hold jobs), the rise of drugs (thank you psychiatrists for getting rich by doping a whole generation into a state of useless-ness while brainwashing parents into believing frying kids brains with drugs is good) and increase of social hardship due to the world economic crash that’s going on (thanks Oil companies, banks, and government suppression) So it is tough for all.
Some guitar manufacturers offer left handed versions of their guitars through their Custom Shop. And although this is an attempt at service, the costs and waiting times can be quite painful.
Well, not any more! GASKELL GUITARS is a small Australian guitar manufacturer that makes only left hand guitars. Gaskell guitars are high quality, yet affordable instruments, that can be gigged with as they are or further upgraded or modified and still come in well under the cost of a custom shop order for the same kind of instrument!
Being situated at the “bottom of the world” and to some degree away from the noise of the collapse happening in other continents, we are able to operate intelligently and with focus on producing well-made, high quality left handed guitars that are not available as left hand models by original manufacturers.
Go to : http://www.gaskellguitars.com
You will find left handed guitars that you have not seen before in left hand and probably never thought you would! Some dreams do become reality.
