Introduction To Music Theory

Music theory can be a very important part in helping you to become the best musician you can be. As we take a look at music theory, you may find it isn't really that hard to grasp. When I was younger I didn't think I needed to learn any music theory because I was just learning how to play my favorite songs and solos. However in order to take your playing to higher level, theory can help to assist you in reaching that goal. If I could go back in time, I would have learned theory at a much younger age. I hope you can learn from me and start learning theory now. I think you will find it fun to learn if you truly love your musical instrument, I have found that I really love it and believe it has greatly helped me as an overall musician.

The Musical Staff

Music is written on a staff which has five horizontal lines with four spaces between them. See diagram below:

In the figure above, the lines and spaces are numbered starting from the bottom moving towards the top. For example: the bottom line is line 1 and the next line 2 and so on. The first space between line 1 and 2 is space 1 and the space between line 2 and 3 is space 2 and so on. That is basically it, the staff contains 5 lines and 4 spaces.

Bar Lines & Double bar Lines

Within the staff we place vertical bar lines , these lines sperate the music into what is called a measure. The double vertical bar line is placed in the staff to end the piece of music or section. The double bar is made up of a regular sized line and a thicker line. Here is an example of 4 measures ending with the double bar. The space between the measure does not always have to be equal depending on the notes that are placed within it. We will cover the below tab ,time signature and Clef in another lesson.
Sometimes there is a need for notes that fall above and below the 5 staff lines. When this happens we use what is called leger lines. Below is an example of notes on the staff including notes on a few leger lines.
In the above example there are notes moving from low to high on the staff. The word Pitch represents the frequency of a note. For example the notes that are lower on the staff produce a lower sound and as the notes get higher up on the staff they produce a higher sound. If you were performing these notes on the guitar you would be starting on the bigger strings and moving up the neck or across to the smaller strings. Thus moving from lower notes to higher notes, now that's easy enough. The next part of the lesson is covering Music Notes, Rests, Time Signatures and Clefs.

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