Theory

Warning: You must have read the articles “Reading music” 1-3 before you read this page. The topics discussed in this article are closely related to those found in the “Reading music” articles, and an understanding of the information in those articles is crucial to the success you will have with “Reading guitar music.” You can [...]

Notes

These are the notes that appear on the staff. Each note has it’s own “time” value, meaning each note lasts a certain time, or takes up a certain amount of a measure. Each note has it’s “rest” equivalent too. Rests are silences in the music, and they too last certain times depending on the value [...]

Accidentals

This is a “Sharp” symbol. When placed in front of any note, it increases the note’s pitch a half-step higher. In guitar terms, it raises a note up one fret.

This is a “Flat” symbol. When placed in front of any note, it decreases the note’s pitch a half-step lower. In guitar terms, it lowers a [...]

The musical alphabet uses the first seven letters of the alphabet.
A B C D E F G (These letters represent musical notes).
These letters keep cycling in this order over and over.
A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G etc…

This is a [...]