This article uses Fretspace to explore minor scales. Minor-scale harmony is based around minor chords instead of major chords. The tonic, subdominant, and dominant chords are all minor in Aeolian harmony (i iv v instead of I IV V), and the tonic and dominant chords are also minor in Dorian harmony. However, the minor dominant … Continue reading Minor scales

This article uses Fretspace to explore the Major scale and its modes. The Major Pentatonic scale can be regarded as a simplified version of the full Major scale, which has seven notes and is the foundation of western musical harmony. Alternatively, the Major scale can be regarded as an extension of the Major Pentatonic scale. Chords, … Continue reading The Major scale

This article uses Fretspace to explore pentatonic scales. The Major and Minor Pentatonic scales are a basic tool that guitarists use to improvise (or compose) solos. They are also a starting point from which we can explore more complex scales. The first scale that most guitarists learn is the Minor Pentatonic scale. There are five shapes that are … Continue reading Pentatonic scales

This article uses Fretspace  to explore chord progressions and voice leading. One way to create interesting guitar parts is to use a succession of chords in which the notes are static (the same note is used by successive chords) or change only slightly from the previous chord. This is known as voice leading. If you use four-note … Continue reading Chord progressions and voice leading

This article explores chord inversions, and shows how Fretspace can be used to create an organized set of four-note chord charts in just a few simple steps, starting from a single (well-known) chord shape: According to music theory, a chord in which the lowest note is the root note is known as a root-position chord, … Continue reading Chord inversions