Guitar Lesson Five - Theory Part I

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Guitar Lesson Five - Theory

Part I

One of the keys to interpreting standard notation is to understand how the notes on the staff translate to notes on your instrument. This requires, not only, a thorough understanding of clefs and key signatures, but also an understanding of CONCERT PITCH and TRANSPOSED PITCH.

Concert pitch is the actual pitch of an instrument, whereas, transposed pitch is the position within the staff that notes for the instrument will be written in order to facilitate ease of reading.

Before we look at the concert pitch vs. the transposed pitch of the guitar, we need to cover what is called MIDDLE C. The easiest way to visualize middle C is by using the GRAND STAFF and the piano keyboard.

The Grand Staff is a bass clef staff and a treble clef staff grouped together with a BRACE and the bar lines extended through both staves. It's primary function is for notating piano music, and it looks like this:

In lesson 4, we learned that the top line of the bass clef staff is A (Grizzly Bears Do Ferocious Acts), and the bottom line of the treble clef staff is E (Every Good Boy Does Fine). We also learned that LEDGER LINES are used to notate above and below the staff, and that the notes on and between these ledger lines are a sequential continuation of the notes on the staff itself.

Now, for the purpose of demonstration, let's move the two staves close enough together that only one ledger line will fit between them and see how the notes line up:

You can see from the diagram that there are only three notes (not counting sharps or flats) between the top line of the bass clef staff and the bottom line of the treble clef staff. The C note between the two staves is refered to as MIDDLE C (Obviously, It's smack-dab in the middle, between the two staves.)

This concept of middle C is very important, for it is the note that defines the pitch of the three clefs.

If we notate middle C on three staves with each of the three clefs, we get this:

All three of these notes are the exact same pitch. It's just a matter of where that pitch is found relative to the clef being used.

So, where is middle C on the guitar?

Before we can answer that question, we need to take another look at how the notes are arranged up, down and across the fingerboard:

Each color represents one octave. Any repeated notes within the same color are the same pitch. For example, every blue C is the same pitch, every red C is the same pitch, and every green C is the same pitch. (Also, this diagram only covers 17 frets. You need to figure out the rest of the neck for yourself.)

One look at the diagram should tell you that, except for the first few frets of the low E-string and the last few frets of the high E-string, all other pitches can be found at several locations. This can make the job of reading standard notation a little difficult, but it also gives you the freedom to play any musical idea in more than one location on the fingerboard. If you find yourself struggling to play a given passage, always look for a different location that might make the part easier to play. This is actually a luxury that few other instruments share.

Now, it is within the red octave that we find middle C. That puts roughly half of the available notes on the guitar below middle C and half of the notes above middle C.

If we take another look at our three clefs, it is obvious that since the tenor clef has middle C nearest the center of the staff, that clef would be the best choice for notating guitar music:

But somebody decided that it would be easier to read guitar music if it were written in the treble clef, and saddled guitar players with the onus of having to understand TRANSPOSED pitches.

When you transpose something, you move it up or down from it's original pitch. In the case of guitar music, you'll find that it's written an octave higher than it actually sounds.

Let's have a look at the pitches of the open strings, notated at concert pitch, using the tenor clef:

The same notes in the treble clef would be written here:

Instead, the pitches for the open strings are written one octave higher:

It's as if middle C is in the blue octave instead of the red. This is how you must think in order to read music that is written specifically for the guitar.

So, when reading music that is written for the piano, middle C is in the red octave, but when reading music that is written for guitar, middle C is in the blue octave. Keep in mind that I only used red, blue and green to show you the different octaves. If you go into your local music store and start talking about the "blue" octave, people are gonna think you are loco.

It can become a juggling act to keep both the concert pitch and the transposed pitch in mind when reading music. Luckily, most of the available music is written for either piano or guitar.

Now, once you have middle C firmly established on your instrument, all the other notes on the staff can be determined from that pitch. Whith consistent practice, you'll quickly get the hang of it.

To this end, beginning with this lesson, I will no longer provide TAB with any musical examples. The exception to this will be in the music part of each lesson.

This lesson is divided into seven parts:

Tuning

Theory Part I

Theory Part II

Theory Part III

Left hand Technique

Right hand Technique

Music

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