Classical Guitar Blog Launches Music Theory 101 Course for Guitarists

Classical guitar guru Christopher Davis has announced that he will be launching a Music Theory 101 course through his popular website the Classical Guitar Blog. The course will hit the web on Friday October 15th and can be purchased using PayPal through the member’s area of the site.

The course will be designed to introduce elements of harmony and modulation to musicians of all styles and backgrounds. Though the material will be taught using traditional, music theory principals and vernacular, these concepts can be applied to shred metal as easily as they can a Bach Prelude.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about music theory, but didn’t want to buy a big, bulky book, or pay for a class at your local college or conservatory, then Music Theory 101 could just be the course you’ve been looking for. As Chris describes it, participants in the course will learn “how to construct a scale,” before moving on to “constructing and identifying intervals and chords.” Then finishing up “these preliminary lessons” by “learning Roman numeral analysis and…functional harmony.” And for those participants who want to go further, they’ll “also get a basic intro to modulation.”

As well as covering a wide range of harmonic material, including roman numeral analysis and modulation, the material will be presented in a variety of mediums, including text, musical examples, images, audio examples and video. Students will also get a PDF worksheet that they can download and use alongside the eight different lessons that are presented in the course. By including text, images, audio and video, Davis has covered all the bases and ensured that participants will not only learn a ton of material during this course, but will have fun doing so.

Besides breaking down individual concepts and theories, Davis will also use two classic guitar compositions to demonstrate and apply these ideas to a practical situation and real-life piece of music. The two pieces that Davis has chosen to use are Bach’s Prelude in C major and Sor’s Etude in B minor. Though both of these pieces are of a classical-guitar nature, the harmonic vocabulary is still as relevant today as it was when the pieces were written, and can easily be applied to any style or genre of music.

Before starting the course, Davis does suggest that “You need to have a good grasp on reading notation, and you need to understand the difference between a whole and half steps,” so you might want to brush up on these basics before diving into this course in order to gain the maximum out of each lesson.

Topics covered include:

• Lesson 0: Things You Should Know
• Lesson 1: Scales and Solfege
• Lesson 2: Intervals
• Lesson 3: Chords
• Lesson 4: Roman Numerals
• Lesson 5: Chords Have Jobs
• Lesson 6: Working with the Minor Scale
• Lesson 7: Modulation and Tonal Indexing
• Lesson 8: Cadences

If you’re looking to brush up on your theory chops, or if you’ve ever wondered why something sounds the way it does, or why certain chords sound great together while others don’t, then check out the Music Theory 101 course. The price is right, the material is well written and Davis will be a trustworthy and capable guide along your journey to music theory mastery.