# Guitar/Learning Songs

Now that you\'ve got a few chords under your belt, you\'re ready to
start learning some songs. Great! There are several ways to learn songs,
and some are more accessible than others.

## General Tips

There are two basic forms that appear in thousands of songs. They are
the twelve bar blues and the thirty-two bar ballad. Both forms are used
extensively in all genres. The blues and rock \'n \'roll genres both use
the twelve-bar blues form and many songs by Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran
and Buddy Holly are twelve bar blues and therefore very easy to learn.
If you are trying to learn a jazz standard then you will find that many
of them are of the thirty-two bar form. Practicing and understanding
these two basic forms is essential for the guitarist who wishes to learn
songs.

Practice the song slowly (especially if it\'s a fast song) until you can
play it flawlessly. Then, when you are confident with the notes you are
supposed to play, increase the speed until you can play along with the
song.

Using a drum-machine or metronome when practicing is essential. An
alternative method for improving timing is to play along with your
favorite artists.

## Methods of Learning

### Sheet Music

The best way is to find sheet music for the song you are trying to
learn, like a tab book, available from any guitar shop. Tab books are
good, because they are almost always accurate, and they not only show
the notes you\'re supposed to play, but they give good sense of how to
play the notes. Generally they include both the rhythm and lead part,
even written on the same page if they are played at the same time.

Tab books are expensive and there\'s a learning curve associated with
fluent tab reading, especially if you have no prior knowledge of music
notation. Understanding music theory, even
just enough to properly (and easily) read a tab book is a challenge but
not insurmountable. Being able to read music, whether it\'s tab or
notation, will improve your playing.

### Online Tab

A much quicker, cheaper and often faster way to learn is to search for
an online tab of the song you\'re looking for. Simply type \"Artist Name
Song Name tab\" into your favorite search engine, and \"voila!\", you
have dozens to choose from. The online tab community is thriving, and
there are many popular sites where you can find tabs for most popular
songs. Some sites even feature a MIDI of the song, to make learning even
easier.

There are several downsides to online tab, some of which are outlined in
the Tablature section. The biggest
problem is lack of accuracy. Always remember that online tabs are not
made by professionals like tab books, and that somewhere down the line
someone was sitting at home with a CD and figured it out by trial and
error. Thus, the more complicated the song, the less likely the tab you
are reading is 100% accurate. But since most people don\'t play a song
*exactly* as it sounds on the album (even the recording artists!), this
isn\'t such a big deal.

Another down side is that there is a huge amount of stealing in the
community, and if you are looking for an obscure tab, you might only
find one actual tab, with copies of it on every site you visit. Some
sites allow for multiple versions, and some use voting or comments to
give you a sense of how accurate the tab is. However, don\'t let voting
alone determine which tab you read, because if the people who vote
don\'t know how to play the song either, then they might vote a terrible
tab really high. In general, you should read two or three tabs for a
song, and then from that determine how you intend to play the song.
Comments on a song can contain slight revisions or alternate fingerings
for chords, so it is good to check those out.

### By Ear

Songs can also be learned \"by ear\", with no sheet music. Essentially
you just listen to the song and try to figure it out, with nothing for
reference. Knowledge of music theory is particularly helpful for this
method. It probably sounds a lot harder to learn this way than it is,
but it is a really good way to practice whatever music knowledge you
have. And it is especially rewarding being able to figure out a famous
musicians piece and saying \"I could have made that up!\"

First, you should always try and figure out the key (or scale) the song
is in. Knowing the key essentially tells you two important things; what
the root notes are of the chords they are playing, and the scale that is
used for soloing. When you know the scale, you can also probably figure
out which scale degree is supposed to be major or minor.

To figure out the key, try playing random notes on the fretboard, and
when one \"works\", play a major or minor pentatonic scale beginning
with that note. Once you have figure out a few more notes, you will
probably have a good idea of what scale is being used. If that doesn\'t
work, try humming the chords being used, and then match those tones on
the guitar. Be careful you don\'t accidentally start humming the lead
vocals, because although that will help determine the key, the chords
are likely different.

Once you know what key the song is in, the rest generally follows pretty
quickly. Some of the tricky bits can be one-note riffs, arpeggios, of
specific voicing of the chords they are using.

If have no experience of keys and their relationship to writing songs,
then figuring out songs by ear is more difficult. Essentially you need
to just find the same notes or chords and write them down or remember
them. Generally this involves a lot of trial and error, but working this
way provides excellent ear training.

### Other Guitarists

This is perhaps the best way to learn. Playing with another guitarist
gives you the opportunity to ask questions about chords and rhythms, and
it gives you a chance to see and hear what the song is supposed to be
like when it\'s performed live. However, the down side is that often a
guitarist learns to play a song \"their way\", and they don\'t care
about how it\'s \"really\" supposed to be played. Thus, you might not be
learning the song exactly, but rather a slightly different version.

### Concert Videos

Another place to learn is by watching concert videos, especially on DVDs
where they allow you to pick camera angles. Often they will have a
camera never breaks away from lead guitarist. By following along, you
can learn exactly how a particular guitarist plays a particular song
live.

The downside of this is that not every artist (especially new ones) has
a concert DVD. Also, the guitarist may be playing the song differently
live than on the album, so depending on how accurate you intend to be
with your learning and playing, watching a video may not be the best
way.

## Chord Progressions

Songs are created using chords. Chords are derived from scales. The
chords that are derived from one diatonic
scale never change. If you learn the seven
chords in the key of C major, then when you find a song in that key, you
can quickly work out the chord progressions that make up the song.

_Chords in C major_

```{=html}
<div style="font-family:'Courier New'">
```
File: C major chord for guitar (open).png\|**C major** File: D minor
chord for guitar (open).png\|**D minor** File: E minor chord for guitar
(open).png\|**E minor** File: F major chord for guitar (open).png\|**F
major** File: G major chord for guitar (open).png\|**G major** File: A
minor chord for guitar (open).png\|**A minor** <File:B> half diminished
7th chord for guitar (root 1st position).png\|**B half diminished 7th**

```{=html}
</div>
```
Note that the chords in the key of C major consists of 3 major chords, 3
minor chords and 1 diminished chord. This holds true for all major keys.

### Chord Theory

Songs in the key of C major will start with a C major chord and end with
a C major chord. The tonic chord of C major is the chord that defines
the key ( the name tonic is derived from the word tonal). If you think
of music as a journey then the tonic chord is the starting point and the
return point. The notes in the scale of C major are named:

I is the Tonic

II is the Supertonic

III is the Mediant

IV is the Subdominant

V is the Dominant

VI is the Relative Minor

VII is the Leading Note

VIII is the Octave

Tonic - is the first note of the scale and it is this note that
determines the tonality or key, hence the name Tonic.

Supertonic -- the word "super" comes from the Latin verb "superare"
which means "to be above". The second note of any scale is always above
the tonic.

Mediant -- the mediant refers to the fact that this note lies halfway
between the tonic and the dominant.

Subdominant -- the word "sub" means \"to be below\". This note is below
the dominant.

Dominant -- this note has this name because with the tonic it sets the
tonality or key. The tonic and dominant notes, more than any of the
others, determines the tonality of a piece of music. The fifth note of
the scale is therefore a dominant factor.

Relative Minor -- so called because this is the tonic note of the
corresponding natural minor scale. Every major scale has a corresponding
natural minor scale that contains exactly the same notes. So the
relative minor of the C major scale is A natural minor. It is also
called the submediant because is lies three notes below the octave as
the mediant lies three notes above the tonic.

Leading-note -- whenever you play a scale and arrive at this note, you
will find that it naturally wants to move up to the octave note. People
have a psychological expectation of music. The most important need is
for the "musical journey" to have a start and end. If you were to play
the C major scale and stopped at the leading-note, you would always have
the sense that the scale is incomplete.

Octave -- the same note as the tonic but an octave higher in sound and
the end of the musical journey that a scale takes us on.

All the chords in C major take the same names given to the degrees of
the scale. You can refer to the dominant note or the dominant chord.

### Common Progressions

The tonic, subdominant and dominant are called the tonal chords. The
supertonic, mediant and relative minor are called the modal chords. The
tonal chords define tonality (key) and the modal chords suggest
modality. If you play only the modal chords Am and Em from the key of C
major the listener will eventually interpret the music to be in the key
of A minor (aeolian mode). It must be noted that Am and Em has to be
stated over a lengthy period of time. Analyzing chord progressions
starts with the tonal chords:

Step One: Try the progression I-V (Tonic to Dominant)

Step Two: Try the progression I-IV (Tonic to Subdominant)

Step Three: Try the progression I-VI or I-III (Tonic to Relative Minor)
or (Tonic to Mediant)

Step Four: Try the progression I-II (Tonic to Supertonic)

If you know the song starts with a C major chord and none of the above
works then the song may contain chromatic chords. It is common practice
to change the modal chords which are minor into their major
counterparts. So D minor becomes D major and E minor becomes E major.
The chromatic supertonic and the chromatic mediant are a common
compositional device. Even though you have added chromatic chords the
listener will still interpret the key as C major.

Try playing this progression: **C - E major - Am - G**

```{=html}
<div style="font-family:'Courier New'">
```
File: C major chord for guitar (open).png\|**C major** File: E major
chord for guitar (open).png\|**E major** File: A minor chord for guitar
(open).png\|**A minor** File: G major chord for guitar (open).png\|**G
major**

```{=html}
</div>
```
In the above chord progression you have played a chord that doesn\'t
belong to the key of C major. The tonality of the piece is preserved by
the following chords which are diatonic to the key.

### How To Continue Learning

-   Take formal lessons from a qualified teacher. Be sure to seek
    testimonials and references.
-   Watch others play. Notice what they have to pay attention to and
    what seems like magic.
-   Practice arbitrary scale runs. Go up and or down 3 or 4 notes and
    then move up the scale with the same interval.
-   Jam up with friends who are better than you as frequently as
    possible
-   Get some friends along who are at the same skill level and form a
    band of your own
-   Listen to your favorite music and try to envision what the guitarist
    is doing to make the notes come out as they do.
-   Listen to different music. It may open your mind to techniques and
    phrasing you never imagined using before. It may also expand your
    musical library. Pick any genre you\'re not familiar with. Get a
    feel for the timing and note choice. Into classical? Try bluegrass.
    Headbanger? Pick up some jazz or blues. Then move on to your hero\'s
    heroes. Find out what musical influences got Jimi Hendrix, B.B King
    or Eric Clapton primed for stardom.

A great way to continue learning if you can already play is to teach
guitar to other people.

