Music Theory for Guitar II | 1 | Chords in a Key
Added 2025-01-13 17:37:29 +0000 UTCWhere to Start • Lesson Archive • Recommended Lesson Plan • Book a Private Lesson
Hi Everyone!
In this series you’ll learn one of the most important concepts in music theory: what it means to “be in a key.” We'll use popular songs as examples to help you understand chords in a key, secondary dominants, 7th chords, harmonic minor, and melodic minor. Download the attached PDF for access to the homework section.
This series will give you a strong foundation in music theory, making it much easier to write music, play solos, learn new songs quickly, learn ear training, and play music with other people.
If you’re not familiar with Major Scales, Minor Scales, Intervals, the Circle of Fifths, and Triads - you should watch Music Theory for Guitar I first!
Use this Community Forum thread to post homework and discuss the lesson. Have a question? Ask on the weekly live Q&A, called Office Hours. Also, check out Practice Thoughts if you need help figuring out how to practice.
How to Join the community forum.
Once you’re done with this lesson, move on to the next in the series - I'll post the next one soon!
Music Theory for Guitar II | 1 | Chords in a Key (current lesson)
Music Theory for Guitar II | 2 | Roman Numerals
Music Theory for Guitar II | 3 | 7th Chords
Music Theory for Guitar II | 4 | Chords in a Minor Key
Music Theory for Guitar II | 5 | Harmonic Minor
Music Theory for Guitar II | 6 | The V of vi Chord
Music Theory for Guitar II | 7 | Melodic Minor
Music Theory for Guitar II | 8 | The V of V Chord
Music Theory for Guitar II | 9 | What's Next?
Comments
Hello Scott, outstanding production there, the question: when you are discussing about "why the chords in a specific key 'sound good' together" and you claims that it is because we can make the chords within the specific scale like Am chord in a G scale, yet there is no rule that we can only move in M3 and m3, so what about A-B-C as a chord as A-B-C are within the G scale, does it supposed to sounded good together? Or I am missing something here? Thank you!
NeoZXC
2025-08-04 11:33:21 +0000 UTCI think I covered this in a recent office hours post, but now I can't find it. Did we get this question squared away?
Scott Paul Johnson
2025-07-11 17:16:53 +0000 UTCIts my secret! A lot of research and development went into it
Scott Paul Johnson
2025-07-11 17:12:50 +0000 UTCHello, Scott, may I ask what software do you use to make this animation, that's so cool.
秋昊 陈
2025-06-24 05:11:50 +0000 UTCIs there an easy way of discerning what the name of a chord is when viewing the fingering on a page. For example, on the practice page of lesson 7 you have a series of chord progressions with the names of the chords. What if you didn't show the chord names. How can we know the name of the chord if we do not know the root note? Am I having a brain fart!
Scott Moore
2025-06-06 13:45:55 +0000 UTCLove it!
Nancy T. Carnahan
2025-04-02 18:36:27 +0000 UTCI just did! I'll keep updating as I release more episodes
Scott Paul Johnson
2025-01-21 18:54:54 +0000 UTCHi Scott. Great stuff here. Can you put a link to this series in your "Recommended Lesson Plan?" I can't find a way to get here without going through the email you sent us. Thanks
Mark Fletcher
2025-01-21 17:10:43 +0000 UTCNice work! Clear and concise 👏👏
Tasha McManus
2025-01-14 01:36:02 +0000 UTCWow I feel that video was made for the question I asked at the last office hours. Thanks Scott!
Robin Dlargent
2025-01-13 19:12:50 +0000 UTCHey Scott, having gone through all of your lessons, I've been setting out to go over them again as a refresher, but the videos are pretty long so I really have to set time aside to do that, even though they are great. So it was a nice surprise to see this very short one that is perfect for me to "cut right to the the chase" as someone who has gone through everything else. This comes at a great time for me, thank you! Looking forward to the rest of the series :)
Bill MacDonald
2025-01-13 18:25:03 +0000 UTC
