Simple theory questions answered........or not.

Answers to frequently asked theory questions

Q. What is a key?

A. Simply put, a key is writing a song using the notes of a particular scale. For example, if the song is in the key of G Major, the notes used are from the G Major scale. This means that certain chords will be present and there will be one sharp note, F#. The theory definition of a key is simply notes taken from a scale and made into a song.

Q. What is a chord progression?
A. A chord progression is a term used to describe chords that follow each other in a certain order. Sometimes you'll hear someone refer to a 1, 4, 5 or something similar. This is the number system used to describe the chords in a scale. Each scale note has a chord that goes with it and the number tells you the chord's place in the scale. For example, the C Major scale notes are: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, so a 1, 4, 5 in C would be the C, F and G chords. That's not all that's involved, but it's the basic idea.

Q. What's the melody?
A. The melody is the tune that you sing. If you were to sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, that's the melody. I was explaining to a banjo student how he had to pick a little harder to bring out the melody and he looked at me and said "what the heck's the melody?" I was sure I was making things as plain as can be!

Q. What does transpose mean?
A. Transpose means to change a song from one key to a different key. So using the example above, if the song was in the Key of G Major and you wanted to transpose to C Major, you'd substitute the C scale notes for the G scale notes.

Those are some of the common theory questions I get when I teach. If you have any others you'd like answered, leave a post in the comment section or send an email to: blguitars@sbcglobal.net.