Music theory lessons for classical guitar. This is the main index page for the theory lesson section of our curriculum for classical guitar. Here I will be teaching classical music theory lessons and relating it to the keyboard and guitar to see the implications of music theory on the instrument. Also see my recommended theory books.
This page is new, check back often for the next lesson.
These are in-depth lesson but there will be a quick-study review at the end of each section for those who want a summarized version.
Section 1 – Orientation to Pitch and Time
Lesson No.1a – Pitch Direction and Letter Names – High and low pitches and the basic letter names used in the musical alphabet.
Lesson No.1b – Musical Time – A discussion on terminology for pulse, beat, tempo, meter, and rhythm.
Lesson No.2a – Why do we use music notation? – Written Pitch and Rhythm allows for a relatively consistent performance in a universal musical language.
Lesson No.3a: Staff and Clefs – A discussion on the staff and an introduction to clefs in music notation.
Lesson No.4a: Notes on the Staff – The anatomy of notes, steps and skips, treble clef notes, bass clef notes, introduction to middle C.
Lesson No.5a: Middle C, Grand Staff, Octave Indications – Introducing middle C, the grand staff, and octave indications.
Lesson 6a: Pitch, Octaves, Register Pitch Class – How do we name pitch in a universal way and indicate if it is high or low? What exactly is an octave? In this lesson we discuss pitch itself and how it relates to register in music.
Lesson No.7a: Guitar Notation and Sounding Pitch – A look at the octave clef used for guitar and how it relates to middle C. – Coming Soon
Lesson No.7b: Should the guitar be written on grand staff? – Coming Soon
Lesson No.8a: The Full Musical Alphabet – Learning the 12 pitches in the musical alphabet and enharmonic equivalents. – Coming Soon
Lesson No.9a: Rhythm – The Idea of Note Values and Rests, Meter and Time Signatures, Barlines.
Lesson 10a: Basic Rhythmic Values – A look at basic rhythmic value separate from meter (time signatures)
Lesson 11 – Section Review – A quick-study overview of the section for those who want a summarized version of all the section lessons.
More lessons coming soon.