Guitar Theory in Depth

The one thing this website is not about, although it is about guitar theory, is COLD theory. Here, at GTiD, theory is all about developing your intuition, unleashing your creative genius. Here, it's all about knowing exactly what you need to know, nothing more, nothing less. Keep it simple: don't saturate yourself with unecesary information! Identify the key concepts, and chuck the rest.

Develop your intuition through knowledge -through true understanding, through practical theory!

Integrating Guitar Theory -The Three-Fold Process:

1.Visualize 2. Analyze 3. Incorporate

The best way to get to the point where you don't need to think about guitar theory any more, where you have integrated every aspect of it, is the natural way in which we process new information. Once we sense that certain information is useful, our brain goes to work immediately. By making this process conscious, we can boost our understanding, and save precious time. This process is best understood by dividing it into 3 stages:

1. Visualization:
The first way our brain aprehend information is by focusing on it, without judging. If we have a clear visual -and auditory- representation of what we want to learn, all the better. So close your eyes, and picture this image in your mind's eye -and ear- in as much detail as possible. Don't judge at this stage: just visualize. Our brain is working for us all the time, in the background. TRUST IT!

2. Analysis:
The next step is to analyze the internal relationships between the elements of the information we have just visualized. This leads naturally to analyzing its relationships to other information. The more connections, the better. However, make it a point to spot fundamental relationships rather than superficial likeness, or you will wind up working with -and from- a faulty system.

3. Incorporation
If we follow steps 1 and 2 to their natural conclusion, and handle the information often enough, it becomes part of our system, part of us.

Once this three-fold process has been achieved, we may replace it by one single concept: Integration

We are not done yet, though! We must now further integrate this with the remaining 2 spheres of guitar knowledge: technique, and style specifics. Otherwise, we will not be able to apply this in practice.

One caveat, though: remember to keep it simple at all times: too much information produces paralysis by analysis. Just like "chord bibles", or extensive scale pattern collections do.

The 3 Spheres of Guitar Knowledge

1.Guitar Theory 2.Guitar Technique 3.Style Specifics

No guitar theory system is complete -or even useful- if there is no integration to the more evidently practical aspects of music making. So we next need to chart out the terrain. The 2 remaining spheres of guitar knowledge are technique and style specifics.

1. Guitar Theory:
Understanding the possibilities in your instrument -How does general music theory relate specifically to the guitar? In other words, how do YOU relate to the guitar, from your mind and understanding?

2. Guitar Technique:
how do you relate, from your body, to the guitar?

3. Style Specifics
knowing the specific characteristics, both theory and technique-wise, of the style(s) you are interested in.

The truth is that proceeding in this order may be hard to some. After all, what attracts us to music, and the guitar, is generally a specific musician, with his or her own specific style.
Even so, these spheres can best be visualized as follows:

This means that each successive sphere is contained in the previous. All of what you learn at each level will hold true in the more specific, even the ultra-specific.

So the best way to go about tackling this is by balancing learning the specific style you are enthusiastic about, with learning the more general... as the latter is what will open most doors!

The rest is art. No one can teach you it! Enjoy!

Note: Actually, this representation is not completely accurate. The reason is that the second sphere, technique, is based partly on theoretical principles, and partly on principles of body motion. It draws from two different sources:

However, this schematic representation serves for ease of visualization...