luckylarry
Student Of The Blues
This course is very cool. Griff really does break it down into learnable and usable chunks. I already knew about the clefs and notes, rests etc. from playing sax in a senior beginner concert band. I knew almost nothing about theory as it applies to guitar. Lesson 1 one on half and whole steps is pretty basic so no problems there.
Lesson 2 on reading notes on a staff was not for me a problem. Someone else may take a little (but not much longer as it is again straight forward).
Lesson 3 is where it gets your feet wet s it is about constructing scales (you use the knowledge from the first 2 lessons to understand this. Again very easy to grasp the concepts and use them.
Lesson 4 is about the circle of 5ths...which I now understand. Thanks Griff. BTW, I have a copy of the circle that I keep by my book as it is invaluable in doing some of the exercises. It is like a cheat sheet. I just glance at it if I need to know how many sharps or flats in a key. The lesson very simply taught me the order of the sharps and flats so I could see some of this stuff coming around.
Lesson 5 is on intervals. I had to review this lesson a couple of times to get it but after a review or 2 it became clear. The exercises really helped.
Lesson 6 is basic chords or triads. This again Griff makes something I thought would be complicated very simple. Just 3 or 4 easy formulas to remember.
Lesson 7 is about tall chords. This builds on the earlier lesson. I loved this lesson because I now know what some of these theory gurus are talking about when they talk about a chord with an added 9 or a diminished chord, or a minor with a sharp 13 etc. How cool is that?
Lesson 8 is about slash chords and is a fast lesson. Not much to it but there are a few new chords to learn.
Lesson 9 is chord progressions and the Standard Harmony Rule. This lesson I think is the meat of all the beginning lessons. This is where I am presently and expect to be here for a couple of days. This lesson puts it all together and gets you practicing what you have learned to this point on your guitar. Now that is Way Cool. The bottom line is I was very leery of taking a theory course but now I realize it can be a lot of fun. One piece of advice I have is to copy all the lesson exercises and write on the copy not in the book. If you are like me you will need to review a lot so it is better to review with no answers in front of you so you can re-do the exercises for practice if you want..and your theory book isn't written all over if you make a mistake and have to change an answer.
The nice thing about this course is you can just fit it in when you want..over coffee, on vacation,...waiting for the better half to finish whatever women do in the bathroom when they say, "I will just be a minute". This normally means you have time to review at least one lesson. LOL
Lesson 2 on reading notes on a staff was not for me a problem. Someone else may take a little (but not much longer as it is again straight forward).
Lesson 3 is where it gets your feet wet s it is about constructing scales (you use the knowledge from the first 2 lessons to understand this. Again very easy to grasp the concepts and use them.
Lesson 4 is about the circle of 5ths...which I now understand. Thanks Griff. BTW, I have a copy of the circle that I keep by my book as it is invaluable in doing some of the exercises. It is like a cheat sheet. I just glance at it if I need to know how many sharps or flats in a key. The lesson very simply taught me the order of the sharps and flats so I could see some of this stuff coming around.
Lesson 5 is on intervals. I had to review this lesson a couple of times to get it but after a review or 2 it became clear. The exercises really helped.
Lesson 6 is basic chords or triads. This again Griff makes something I thought would be complicated very simple. Just 3 or 4 easy formulas to remember.
Lesson 7 is about tall chords. This builds on the earlier lesson. I loved this lesson because I now know what some of these theory gurus are talking about when they talk about a chord with an added 9 or a diminished chord, or a minor with a sharp 13 etc. How cool is that?
Lesson 8 is about slash chords and is a fast lesson. Not much to it but there are a few new chords to learn.
Lesson 9 is chord progressions and the Standard Harmony Rule. This lesson I think is the meat of all the beginning lessons. This is where I am presently and expect to be here for a couple of days. This lesson puts it all together and gets you practicing what you have learned to this point on your guitar. Now that is Way Cool. The bottom line is I was very leery of taking a theory course but now I realize it can be a lot of fun. One piece of advice I have is to copy all the lesson exercises and write on the copy not in the book. If you are like me you will need to review a lot so it is better to review with no answers in front of you so you can re-do the exercises for practice if you want..and your theory book isn't written all over if you make a mistake and have to change an answer.
The nice thing about this course is you can just fit it in when you want..over coffee, on vacation,...waiting for the better half to finish whatever women do in the bathroom when they say, "I will just be a minute". This normally means you have time to review at least one lesson. LOL