This is shred and today I'm going to teach you music theory in 10 minutes....which is a lofty goal to be sure. The music theory professor says, come on, it's not rocket science. The rocket scientist says, come on, it's not music theory! In this video you'll learn the core concepts necessary to make music theory your b%$#@. Muhahaha. Names of the notes, Major and minor scales, Intervals, chords and key signatures. The standard notation and tabs will be at my patreon page below. Just meet me at the crossroads at midnight and hand over your soul... that gets you hundreds of youtube video lessons, topical playlists, scale bible, chord bible and more. Now put on your thinking caps and let's learn music theory Muhahaha First up, let's learn how to identify musical notes. The musical alphabet starts on A and ends on G...A-B-C-D-E-F and G...there's no Zed or W notes mhmhmhm (Piano demo). Here they are on guitar. Now, in between each note there are sharps and flats, except in between E and F and B and C. A-A#-B-C-C#-D-D#-E-F-F#-G-G# and back to A. When you descend a scale try using flats. A-Ab-G-Gb-F-E-Eb-D-Db-C-B-Bb-A. Now here's the trick...this F# note is the same as a Gb. By raising an F, we get to F#. By lowering a G, we get to Gb. Same note, just two ways to label it. You can do this with any sharp or flat... it's called enharmonic equivalents. Mind blown What is a scale? I'm not talking about checking to see how fat you are, (666 pounds) I've become quite large. A musical scale is just a series of notes connecting an octave. Here's the C major scale. The C major scale contains the notes, C-D-E-F-G-A-B and back to C. The formula is W-W-H-W-W-W-H. Here's how it works....A half step is from C to C#, or 1 fret on the guitar. A whole step is from C to D, or two frets on the guitar (Demo). Use this formula starting on any note to make a major scale. Start on the note G to make a G major scale. To make a minor scale, use the formula W-H-W-W-H-W-W. Here's the A minor scale. How about a minor scale in the saddest of all keys, D minor? The sadness causes WAP water to well from my eyes (crying) An interval is the distance between two notes. As I mentioned earlier, from C to C# is a half step, or a minor second interval. And from C to D is a whole step or major second interval. The most important intervals to know are thirds because they define the tonality of chords. If you're in a happy mood, try a major third....too much optimism for me though. Let's dash those dreams with a minor third. Muhahaha, that's better. By the way, you can now get my evil laugh as a ringtone on gumroad....link in description wink. For the overachievers, here's all the intervals in the octave. Chords are 3 or more notes played together. I'm a huge fan of chords because they communicate a powerful range of emotions. Major chords produce an uplifting quality (C major). To make a major chord, play the 1, 3 and 5. In other words, C is the 1, the 3 is the major third E and the 5 is a perfect 5th G. Spoil the party with some doom and gloom by playing a minor chord (HB in minor). All you have to do to a major chord to make it minor is flat the third. . Now....there's two more basic chord shapes to know about. The diminished chord....oooooh, very scary. Flat the 5th of a minor chord to make it diminished. This is a very important chord in metal and classical music. And finally we have the augmented chord....very creepy sound used in horror movies. Just raise the 5th of a major chord to score an augmented triad. You can hear this chord in Richard Wagner's "Ride Of The Valkyries." Key signatures tell you what notes are in a key. The circle of 5ths is a diagram that illustrates each of the 12 musical keys. Before I understood keys, I used to sound like this (wonderwall)....but now that I've learned the circle of 5ths I sound like this (0-3-5) muhaha. Here's how it works, at 12 o'clock, you have the key of C with no sharps or flats. Each time you move clockwise you go up a 5th in the musical alphabet....C-D-E-F-G, So our next key after C is G. After G, find the next key by going up another 5th, G-A-B-C-D. And thus, D is the next key...and that's why it's called the circle of 5ths. Because each key is 5 notes apart. The sharps found in each key are also a 5th apart. F#-C#-G# and so on. Once you internalize this circle, making sense of the music you hear becomes much easier. Reading music doesn't make you a real musician or anything, however, it does make it easier to absorb musical ideas. And that's why I'd recommend all musicians should work on their reading chops. If you ever want to learn how someone like Igor Stravinsky or John Williams orchestrates their music, reading is a must. Now, here's the notes on the staff. E-G-B-D and F are the notes on the lines. Try using the acronym Evil Guys Bring Danger Fun to remember them.....(looks around)....muhaha. The notes on the spaces are F-A-C and E, spelling the word face. As in, I want music theory all up in my face bro. Now let's practice reading an evil version of twinkle twinkle little star. You can get more exercises for reading in my music theory course below. It only costs $666 dollars. And that pretty much covers the basics of music theory. It's definitely not rocket science but it does take some time to wrap your head around. My music theory teacher used to say, write it, sing it, say it, play it. Shout out to Phil Shackleton. And I really think that's true. Confirming your musical knowledge from different angles makes it stronger. Get the full tabs and transcriptions for this lesson at my patreon page below. Access to my scale bible, chord bible and all my youtube lessons are also below....let's be honest, I'm talking way below muhahaha. Until next time, stay evil my friends muhaha