Practical Music Theory Workbook - Grade 1

[MeghanS]

Hi I’m reaching the end of Beginner Grade 1 and I’m taking Justin’s advice to spend a month working on cementing all the lessons learned to date, and adding Ear Training and Practical Music Theory. Thing is, when I try to add a comment directly on the lesson page (https://www.justinguitar.com/modules/notes-sharps-flats-octaves) the page glitches out and basically collapses, leaving just the header/menu and the footer for the web page.

So, I don’t know if I’m doing this correctly by trying to add a comment here but here goes:
How much time should Beginner students plan it will take to complete Ear Training Grade 1 and Music Theory Grade 1 if I am spending 30 min/day on ea. course (in addition to my practice routine)?

Appreciate any guidance anyone can share, especially the JustinGuitar experts I see are active on this board.

Thanks!
Meghan

[chris_m]

The “Leave Comment” button does seem to have a bug. Better to click on the “View Full Discussion” button which takes you to the relevant thread in the forum.

Honestly I don’t know the answer to your question, everyone will learn at their own pace. I’m a little further advanced in music theory. I am currently doing 2 practice exercises from grade 3 and 1 practice exercise from grade 4, for 5 mins each. I’m not sure how long that will take before I move on. Particularly once you get to grade 4 it’s not the sort of thing that you learn and then move on, it’s more like ideas that you can keep returning to for life.

[MeghanS]

Hey, thanks! My post was also a test to see if I was actually submitting it correctly after I clicked on the “view full discussion” link bc how to add a post wasn’t immediately obvious to me on the discussion board so I’m glad that worked… and thanks for the insights about practice and schedule and the differences between beginner and intermediate courses so I have that to look forward to.

[Gothomson]

Hi there, I’m hugely confused. I’m trying to answer a guitar theory question and it makes no sense to me, here is the question

“What note is one tone above Cb”???

What am i missing? I triple checked a few note circle diagrams and there is no “Cb”.

N.B. I’m using “b” for "flat’

Thanks
Gordon

[Richard_close2u]

Cb exists in theory.

Every note, in theory, has an enharmonic equivalent.

Start from what you know.

The note one semitone below C on your guitar is B.

Cb is also one semitone below C.

Therefore Cb = B.

BUT

If you were, for some reason, writing out the C flat major scale, and following the rules of major scale construction, you could not write:

B, Db, Eb, Fb, G, Ab, Bb

Because that uses letter name B two times. And it gives the incorrect name for the root note.
The last note must be Bb and the root must be Cb … because of the restriction of writing the C flat major scale.

You simply need to follow the rules.

Do not worry too much about this example. Cb never gets used as a key signature. It would always be given as the key of B, a much more sensible choice without he complications.

[Gothomson]

Thanks Richard, I thought I was losing it for a minute