EXCERPT 1 How to Use this Book

The course of study presented in this book assumes that the reader has absorbed the information and terminology from Music Theory Workbook for Guitar Volume One ISBN # 0-9648632-4-3. Both of these books are information intensive and crucial questions may naturally arise. Muse-eek presents a forum where relevant questions will be answered by the author. Please visit our website at www.muse-eek.com first to see if your question has already been answered. If not, use the form on the website to e-mail your questions. This book is divided into 5 sections. 1. Basic scale theory 2. A discussion of each scale and corresponding chord progressions 3. Chord scale possibilities for each chord type 4. Worksheets for scales 5. Answers for scale worksheets First read through the basic scale theory section to familiarize yourself with the basic theory behind scales and their construction. Proceed to the discussion of each scale. As you learn about each scale do the corresponding worksheets. Use the answer section in the back of the book to check your answers. As you get more familiar with each scale, check out the "Chord and Possible Scale Usage" section located on pages 28-38 for further information concerning the application of each scale to different chords.

Make sure to improvise with each scale over the chord progressions presented to be sure you have a working knowledge of each scale.

Use the extra linear page at the end of this book to write out each scale starting on all strings. This will ensure that your knowledge of each scale is complete.

The first thing a student must tackle is learning how to read music. A detailed description of the development of music notation is beyond the scope of this book and some inconsistencies (which will appear in italics) have stayed in musical notation, in the course of that development. For the beginner these inconsistencies can be very confusing but inconsistent as it may be, music notation does have a standard for expressing itself visually and by understanding this system a whole new world of music is open to you.

In this system a series of lines and spaces are employed to create a visual representation of sound. Each line and space corresponds to a pitch. Each pitch is given a name A, B, C, D, E, F, or G. A clef sign is also used to designate what names each line and space will receive. The reason for the many types of clefs will be explained momentarily. First let us look at the treble clef. The treble clef places the note sequence in the order listed below. This complete system of lines and spaces with a clef sign is called a staff.

As can be seen in the examples each line and space corresponds to a different tone. If you want to have pitches higher or lower than the 5 lines and four spaces you can extend the staff by using ledger lines. Ledger lines give you the ability to represent higher and lower pitches by extending the staff, these extended pitches are called ledger line notes.

If we extend this idea we run into trouble as can be seen from the example below. When excessive ledger lines are used, reading music becomes very difficult. To alleviate this problem other clefs are employed to make reading these notes that are out of the treble clef's range easier. The note in the previous example would be found in the bass or F clef on the 2nd space.

The following example shows where the notes fall in the bass clef. We will only use the treble clef in this book but a basic understanding of the bass clef is important.