Guitar is one of the few musical instruments where one generally does not have to learn how to read music or learn music terminology to play. Do you believe it hurts or helps a guitarist over the long term? I personally believe that learning music and music theory is a must over the long term. While there are gifted musicians who do well with limited to no formal training in music, I have witnessed my fair share of one genre self-taught musicians over the years who struggle to play anything else. I am not the strongest music reader, but I can read music and I know music theory thanks to Guitar for the Practicing Musician and taking music theory in college. I also know why a minor chord is a minor chord and a major chord is a major chord and the ramifications that that difference has on soloing. I was shocked to discover that I was the only person in the audience at an Experience PRS master class that David Grissom gave who knew what a "no third" chord was and why it was important. We can do better than that as a community. Those of us who know music theory should help those do not and those who do not know music theory should not be hostile to those who do. Far too many guitarists who do not know music theory are stuck in the "pentatonic box," often playing the minor pentatonic over its parallel major progression. If one wants to use the minor pentatonic over a major progression, one needs to learn about a major key's relative minor key. For example, I have lost count of the number of guitarists who try to solo in G minor pentatonic over a G major chord progression. That is usually not a pretty sight. If one wants to use the minor pentatonic over a G major progression, one needs to solo in Em pentatonic because Em pentatonic and G major pentatonic have the same notes. The difference lies in the tonal centers.
Here's some food for thought. Here is a song that almost all guitarists with no formal training get wrong when they improvise the solo. The basic progression for Marshall Tucker's "Can't You See" is D/C/G. What is the key of the song? It is not G major, even though G, C, and D are the I, IV, V chords in G major. The song is in the key of D major. D and G and the I and IV chords with C being a lowered version the VII chord because it is using mixolydian mode (major scale with a lowered 7th interval). If you watch how Toy Caldwell plays the solo, you will see that the song is in the key of D major. He plays the solo between the 7th and 10th frets. The first chord in a progression is usually the I chord (tonic chord) in the key. That is a dead give away that the song is not in G major. Understanding music theory allows a guitarist to make quick work of songs that look like I/VI/V progressions on the surface, but are not I/IV/V progressions.
Here's some food for thought. Here is a song that almost all guitarists with no formal training get wrong when they improvise the solo. The basic progression for Marshall Tucker's "Can't You See" is D/C/G. What is the key of the song? It is not G major, even though G, C, and D are the I, IV, V chords in G major. The song is in the key of D major. D and G and the I and IV chords with C being a lowered version the VII chord because it is using mixolydian mode (major scale with a lowered 7th interval). If you watch how Toy Caldwell plays the solo, you will see that the song is in the key of D major. He plays the solo between the 7th and 10th frets. The first chord in a progression is usually the I chord (tonic chord) in the key. That is a dead give away that the song is not in G major. Understanding music theory allows a guitarist to make quick work of songs that look like I/VI/V progressions on the surface, but are not I/IV/V progressions.
) but I am exclusively a bedroom (office actually) player who enjoys playing along with my favorite bands. My goals are simply to improve the quality of my playing and to learn more songs. I do not like solos (leads and high speed fretboard gymnastics cause me to roll my eyes and change the song) and I often substitute rhythm parts when playing along to songs rather than learning/playing solos. Most of the music I play is punk, hardcore, or metal. In that context and with those goals, theory is not critical to my playing. Technique and rhythm are much more important to accomplish my goals. If I had to sit down and think about it, I could read a staff to see the key but I would not be able to name the notes in any particular mode. I might be able to describe the notes in a major vs minor chord. None of that matters for my goals. I play ~10 hrs a week, repeating the same 30-40 songs, while adding 1-2 songs a month, and I have a ton of fun with it.
