I am hear to learn more tools that will help with songwriting.
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I always wanted to be a musician and form my own band, but I was always afraid of taking the first steps into forming a band. I felt musically incompetent, Iām very exited with this course and hopefully I can one day be competent enough on the guitar to be ready to start playing confidently. So far Iām loving this Practical Music Theory course! Thank you Justin!
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Being able to improvise is one of my main goals, just holding the guitar and feeling like I just know it. I can convert a tune I think of on the guitar. This will help me jam out, be in a band, build the confidence to perform in front of others, and most importantly, make music.
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Music Theory Module 3, Lesson 1: Summarizing my āWhy?ā for studying Music Theory:
I think, for me, the reasons are two-fold. The primary reason, I think, is that I feel it will help me understand what I am doing on the guitar better, and that will help me be a better guitarist, and overall musician. Basically, I feel it will complement my guitar learning journey. To make an analogy, itās like being a writer. Sure, you can be a writer without studying language arts, but, studying language arts will give you a richer, fuller vocabulary with which to write, or a bigger color palate for a painter.
Related to that first reason, I want to write my own songs eventually, and so I will want that bigger palate of musical knowledge.
The other reason isā¦ Iām just a very curious person. I have a very analytical mind, and have always excelled at things like math, logic, and science reasoning in school. Iāve also taught logic and critical reasoning at the university level. Basically, I love learning about systems. So, this interests me as another logic-based system to learn. Itās variables, functions, sets, and operators, at the end of the day.
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Hi, i enrolled in this course because iām enjoying a lot the guitar course and the first two modules got me hooked on music theory, i hope to understand better what i do and to not feel like an āintruderā among other musicians who actually know music theory and understand music a lot better than me.
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My only contact with music theory was in highschool and it was very boring to me, didnāt understand most of it and i think it was poorly explained.
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Now i got the chance to play with my band in a lot of cities and i have contact with a lot of very good musicians and i envy a lot when they talk about scales, modes, chords, keys ā¦ i canāt understand a thing and i really want to, so i think this course is perfect for me and will help me to reach the best musician in me.
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I started guitar about 50 years ago when I was 12(?) and when I did the teacher that used to come to my house taught me both music theory and a new song each week. I was young and the music theory part of the lesson was not interesting to me, I did not understand the benefit and did not put in the time and effort. I stopped playing about 4 years later and had not played until this past January when I felt a call to pick up the guitar again. I have a different mindset now and Iām all in on Justinās Guitar Lessons - re-learning chords, strumming and now Justinās Music Theory. Now at 62, my mindset is not only that I want to learn and play songs but also that I want to understand music so I can do more than just memorize a song - I want to be creative with music, not necessarily write, but to have a style founded in an understanding of music.
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I am learning music theory because I want to be able to improvise. Been playing guitar for a while just doing covers of songs and solos, but I never truly saw myself as someone who knows how to play the guitar. More of someone that copies songs whoās no different from a robot. I hope that music theory will help me get started on improvisation and actually be able to create music that is mine, like how kids can doodle on a blank sheet of paper and make art that is theirs.
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I am learning theory because i dont want to simply play the guitar. I want to understand what i am doing, I want to create, not just vomit out memorization of songs. I have tried learning the guitar several times in the past. While i can play chords and play scales i dont know how to use these tools. So learning theory i hope will allow me to really āplayā the guitar.
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Hi Justin, Justinās team, and fellow learners. I was a low-intermediate player about 30 years ago, and I learned some of the basics of music theory - just things I picked up from other players, guitar magazines, etc. I had two years of guitar in junior high but basically viewed myself as a punk-rock, DIY, self-taught kind of player.
I started working through JustinGuitar lessons a couple of years ago to get my skills back and hopefully expand them beyond where I once was. Basically, in terms of both playing and music theory, Iād like to be fundamentally sound, and these lessons help me do that in a more organized way than Iāve done before.
My big goal (BHAG) is to be a good enough player (say high-intermediate or low-advanced), both rhythm and lead, to hold my own in a jam and maybe even start a cover band.
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First, Justin & Team, I want to tell you how much I am enjoying your courses. They are top notch and being able to do it all online makes it so convenient. You couldnāt do it it this way when I was a kid (Iām 70). Thank you!
Why study theory? Iād like to develop an intuitive feeling for my guitar. Iāve always been amazed at those who can sit down with others and just start playing music, i.e. jam. Iād love to get to that point, and suspect it has (at leastlpartly) something to do with understanding music theory. Weāll see.
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I started learning the electric guitar 3 years ago and music theory seems mystifying to me but, at the same time, quite logic and mathematical, some of my favourite traits in life 
so Iām learning theory for the curiosity of it but also to understand what I am doing when Iām playing. āWhy moving two fingers changes a major to a minor scale?ā, āWhy is a power chord named āA5ā?ā, this sort of thing.
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I have been able to play guitar & some piano for some time, but never properly learned music theory. I get too scattered - looking to learn in a more structured way, and I want to know why Iām playing what Iām playing. I kind of know the basics, but never really learned how to tie scales, modes & arpeggios together on the guitar. I am hoping the knowledge provided will help me to apply this in a practical manner to write songs - both on guitar and other instruments.
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I want to study music theory to understand music as a whole better, and to be able to improvise and create my own melodies/chord progressions to create original pieces. Another big component is that I want to be able to express sounds/ideas to other musicians so we can play together more easily. I have learned a bit of theory in the past, but I quit because I got overwhelmed with how much there was and I was unsure of a good progression of things to learn.
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Iāve been playing guitar since 1968 mostly travis picking and the occasional classical or sometimes more complex stuff like Big Love by Buckingham - however when I play with serious musicians I always feel a bit inadequate because I donāt read music and still take quite some time to work out which key/ what goes with the key etc. The first few modules are quite simple but they are already filling in the gaps so I hope to gain confidence by knowing not just HOW to play that song but also WHY it goes like that.
Forgot to say that whenever anyone asks me to teach them guitar I ALWAYS point them at Justin first.
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Been playing for a few years. I learn a popular song, and imitate what I learned. Iām beginning to realize that I canāt jam, write a song, improvise, etc. - I simply regurgitate a song. I want to learn theory with the hope of moving beyond the āmonkey see monkey doā paradigm. Itās all for personal enjoyment - retired, 70 years young, and love learning. Thank you, Justin, for making this available.
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My father is a luthier and gifted me a guitar this year. Iām 40 and have never played, thought I didnāt have the artistic talent. I lean more toward engineering / math kind of thinking. I found the Justin Guitar music lessons and it clicked really quickly. As I learned more I was surprised to discover that music IS math, and Iām hooked.
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I am studying music theory because I want to be able to pick up any sheet music and be able to play the song. My long term goal is to play slide guitar but I want all the fundamentals of theory first before going down the track of what I love. I want to know the āwhyā of everything and how it all fits together. I also picked this course because I found Justin to be so generous in sharing his free courses and wanted to support him by signing up for this paid course.
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Hey Justin,
Dan from Thailand. Loving your website.
Why Iām I here. At 69 I decided I had wayyy too much idle time on my retired butt and needed a hobbie. So? Guitar. Now at 71 Iād spent the last two year hopping from guitar lesson site to another. None of them gave me what I was looking for.
āOk Dan from Thailand, what where you looking for?ā
I know my learning style. I learn best in highly structured environments. None of the sites that I subscribed to presented course material in highly structured ways that also were comprehensive as well as integrated.
āComprehensive?ā
Yep. Not just learning a set of chord shapes followed by some tab, or discussing theory that goes so far above me head that I go numb, or seeing how fast I can play a scale that I learned from rote and donāt really understand.
Comprehensive - pulling all the aspect of playing music and songs together and presenting them in an integrated manner.
āIntegratedā
Yep. Your course integrates playing chords, strumming, basic theory, ear training, and scales right from the beginning and point all the knowledge at a goal! Being able to play songs!!!
āSo Dan from Thailand, why Music Theory.ā
Because from where I stand, learning the skills to play the songs is a journey of combining techniques as well as knowledge to facilitate the playing of those songs.
Let me give you an example from today. These two post pretty much explain it in video form.
Ear training leading to an understanding of intervals
And intervals as applied to learning scales - anywhere on the fretboard. āPresto - magic!ā
Bottom line? Itās challenging and itās fun. For the first time in two years of playing? Iām having fun! And Iām learning songs! Thatās why Music Theory!
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I want to feel fully conversant all over the guitar fretboard and have technique be second nature so I can explore creatively!
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My reasons for learning music theory are that I enjoy understanding the mechanics of music. Why do certain notes sound good together (or bad)? Also I believe when I understand these mechanics, Iāll be a better musician, Iāll be able to improvise and embellish. I also want to learn music theory as I want to apply it to other instruments, like electronic music and chord progression, learning through guitar is just an accessible entry point for me.
Way back in highschool, I didnāt get into music theory because I thought it was boring, I didnāt understand the practical application.
And my BIHAG is that I want to play confidently, and perform for others. iād also like to create electronic music with guitar.
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