Practical Guitar Theory

Name: Practical Guitar Theory
Rating: 4.4 (276 reviews)

Learn how to apply music theory practically in your everyday playing.

(276 ratings)

1,437 students

Created by Darryl Syms

Last updated 9/2018

English

English [Auto]

What you'll learn

Construct and recall Major, Minor, Augmented, and Diminished Triads and Inversions in all keys across the neck.
Use Triads in both Rhythm & Lead playing, helping you to expand your musical vocabulary.
Construct Major, Minor, Augmented, and Diminished Triad arpeggios in all keys, as well as understand how to build your own arpeggio sequences.
Blend the Pentatonic shapes into one memorable palette of notes across the entire neck.
Be confident at playing the Modes of the Major Scale across the entire neck in any key.
Be able to improvise comfortably across the whole neck in both Major & Minor, whilst understanding how to convey different feelings & emotions in your playing.
Gain Interval Awareness and understand the relation between notes in chords and scales.
Visualise your whole Guitar neck at ease with a mixture of different approaches.
APPLY all of this knowledge in real-world scenarios.

Requirements

A guitar, preferably electric.
Basic techniques & ability are recommended, but not essential.
Basic understanding of barre chords, power chords and open chords.
An interest in music theory and developing your knowledge.

Description

What is "Practical Guitar Theory"?

"Practical Guitar Theory" gives a comprehensive foundation to music theory on Guitar. This course contains the most useful and essential theory knowledge for guitar enthusiasts, and will demonstrate how to APPLY the knowledge in your daily playing. This course is tailored for people who have little to intermediate theory understanding. Perhaps you already have some basics but you find yourself lost, or you really want some structure and goals in your learning process. Whether you have zero theory knowledge, or you feel like there are many gaps in your current understanding, this course has you covered!

Why should you listen to me?

I have 11 years of experience which is really hard for me to condense into a single paragraph, but allow me highlight some key points...

I have over 1 million combined views on my social media platforms, of which the majority come from my YouTube channel.
Music is my full time job, therefore I dedicate 100% of my energy and knowledge into projects like this course because it's my most passionate interest.
I have personally taken lessons from (and performed with) some of the best guitar players and teachers IN THE WORLD such as Christophe Godin, Guthrie Govan, Tom Quayle, Andy Timmons, Paul Gilbert, Mika Tyyska, and Nick Johnston. These players, among many others, have shaped my playing and ability into what it is today.
I have been an active session musician and performer since my mid teens.

So how will these key points benefit me?

I realise that not everyone has the opportunity or money to watch the musicians I have mentioned above play live - let alone take lessons with them! I am also aware that there is no obvious and easy route to guitar mastery. With these points in mind, I have taken my knowledge and experience, and crafted it into guided, easy to follow video lessons. This course is genuinely something I wish I discovered in my earlier days of playing the guitar.

What makes this course any better than free YouTube lessons?

It can take so much effort and time searching through the web to find the relevant and correct information that you need to improve your guitar playing. YouTube is an incredibly useful tool, but it's very easy to become overwhelmed and lost.

This course will make your learning process much more structured and engaging, and it's exclusively tailored towards guitar theory! With my years of experience and array of positive testimonials and comments from my students, and on my youtube videos, you can be certain that I know what I'm talking about. Don't waste time sifting through lessons that may not be teaching you the right or relevant things - "Practical Guitar Theory" is what you've been looking for.

Ok I'm interested, but what exactly does this course entail?

A lot! Let me give you an overview of the sections...

Section 1 of this course covers the absolute basics of musical understanding and how to read. This knowledge is recommended as prerequisite knowledge, but just in case you're an absolute newbie then this section will ease you in.
Section 2 of this course focuses on Scale knowledge, which is the foundation of all music theory. In this section you will gain great confidence finding notes across the neck from scales such as: Minor Pentatonic, Major Pentatonic, and the 7 Modes of the Major scale. Not only will you be able to recall the notes from these scales quickly, but I will also teach you how to use the shapes with real-world examples, and I will also give you a greater understanding of how the notes work together using Interval awareness. By the end of this section you will be able to use these scales to aid your improvisation and melodic freedom.
Section 3 of this course focuses on Chord knowledge. We can use the previously learned Scale knowledge to help us construct Major, Minor, Diminished, and Augmented Chord shapes across the entire neck. Not only will you learn how to build these chords yourself, but you will also be able to understand their structure and how to play these chords in many different ways across of the neck. Towards the end of this section we will be able to combine all of the knowledge that we have learned so far into one visualisation method, helping you to navigate across the neck without your brain exploding!
Section 4 of this course focuses on building Arpeggios. This section is almost like a blend of the previous two sections where we will learn how to build Major, Minor, Diminished, and Augmented arpeggios in different areas of the neck. Not only will I give you templates to work with but I will also teach you how to expand on this and create your own arpeggios. You can use this knowledge to highlight specific chord tones in your playing, which will compliment the chord you are trying to highlight.
Section 5 of this course entails some bonus inspirational content that is relevant to the things that we've previously spoken about.

Still not sure?

If you buy the course and it turns out that you already knew this stuff, or you believe that it's way beyond your understanding at this moment in time, then take advantage of the 30 day money back guarantee. I do believe that this course is very thorough and easy to follow, but if you find yourself struggling at all then don't hesitate to get in touch! I am VERY responsive. If you have a question, would like me to expand on a lecture, or have any feedback for improvements, then I really encourage you to let me know. As I already mentioned earlier, music is my full time job and most passionate interest, so I give my students my full support and help where possible.

Who this course is for:

Those who may already be great players by ear, but want a greater understanding of music theory.
Relatively new players who want to learn more about Guitar music theory.
Those who want to expand their options and strategies when playing across the Guitar neck.
Those who want to learn how to improvise more freely.
Those who hope to pursue a career in Guitar performance or songwriting.
Those striving toward higher education in music, either in high school or college.
Those who want to learn how to use theory practically in their playing.

Darryl Syms

Session Guitar Player, Performer, and Instructor

4.6 Instructor Rating
284 Reviews
1,479 Students
2 Courses

I began playing guitar at the age of 13 after being inspired by my former high school guitar teacher. My first Guitar was given to me on my 13th Christmas, it was a budget Stratocaster style copy. Whilst most of my friends were occupied with the latest trends, girls, nights out in the park, and gaming, I spent every hour possible practicing guitar accompanied with regular lessons until about the age of 17.

As high school was approaching an end, I needed to make some impending career decisions. I was always very passionate about playing guitar so I became committed at this point to begin turning my hobby into my career. My first “job” was in a Pit Band performing disco tunes for the musical “Grease”, which was quite challenging at the time since it involved a lot of sight reading which I was very new to. I then became involved in 3 different bands, which was great fun at the time but I couldn’t foresee a future with any of them. High school had ended and I needed to find a paid job asap to pay my rent. I created a website and advertised guitar lessons in my city. It was a slow start, so I had to get a job in retail whilst I was building my clientele. I couldn’t afford to drive at this point so I would often cycle between students across the city.

At 20 I considered myself to be very competent in the business. I had a range of students, worked as a guitar teacher in two schools, managed to save up for a car, and could go full time as a teacher & session guitarist. I quickly realised that not everybody was into the same music as me, so I forced myself to develop my abilities across a mixture of genres. I spent a lot of time studying Fingerstyle, Jazz, Blues, Classical, Disco, and Metal, as well as maintaining my previous abilities in Pop/Melodic Rock styles. This mixture in genres not only helped me to engage with students with different interests, but also helped me pick up a number of sessions over the years.

Since early adulthood I’ve had some incredible opportunities where I’d performed, and even had lessons, with some of the most talented guitar players on the planet such as Paul Gilbert, Andy Timmons, Guthrie Govan, Nick Johnston, Tom Quayle, Christophe Godin, and Mika Tyyska. These Guitar Players have been very influential in my playing, among many others from a variety of different musical styles. In summer of 2016 I joined the band “Ten Zero One” who are a Melodic Rock band from Tavistock, UK. Together we performed their debut album across the South West of the UK. Notably our biggest and most memorable show was on Plymouth Hoe opening for the British Fireworks Championships, where thousands of people were present.

As 2017 was approaching, I decided to dedicate a lot more of my time into YouTube. Inspired by the feedback I received on YouTube and the enjoyment of making video content, I released two comprehensive online instructional guitar courses at the beginning of 2017. This year was definitely the year of the internet for me, since I’ve spent (and continue to spend) a lot of my time developing my content and following across different social platforms.

TBC...