Essential Theory and Technique for Guitar

Learn proper guitar technique, and understand the "why" behind what you are playing on guitar

4.45 (536 reviews)

Udemy

platform

English

language

Instruments

What you will learn

Gain a solid understanding of basic music theory and how it relates to guitar, how to play guitar with proper technique for left and right hands, how to play the Major Scale, how to create chords and play them on guitar

Why take this course?

The Essential Theory and Technique for Guitar course is designed for two main types of people; the beginner guitar player who has no guitar or musical experience and those who can play guitar a little bit but are wanting to understand the music theory behind what they are playing and to improve on their technique.

Music Is A Language

Learning music is like learning a language. Music notes are like letters of the alphabet. When you learn how to combine them, you can create chords, which are like words, and with words you can create sentences and tell stories.

There are some great guitar players who don’t necessarily know all of the theory behind what they are playing, but using the above analogy of music as a language, imagine the potential that is being missed out on by not fully understanding what you are playing. If you were taking a trip to France, you could buy a translation book that could tell you how to say certain phrases in French, such as “Where is the bathroom?” or “What time is it?”, but imagine how much more you could communicate if you were able to construct your own sentences and phrases in French? You could say whatever you wanted without limits. Music is similar; by understanding the “why”, and practicing the “how” you reduce the limitations and open up a world of opportunity to express yourself with your instrument.

The course includes a full color PDF E-Book which is over 50 pages and provides further explanation of the material in the videos as well as guitar neck diagrams for your reference.

This course is 2 hours and 20 minutes long and should provide you with weeks worth of material to work on.

The topics you will learn in this course include;

Part 1: Parts of the Guitar

Part 2: The Musical Alphabet

Part 3: Notes on the Neck (Watch for free on this page)

Part 4: Neck Diagrams

Part 5: Holding the Guitar

Part 6: Holding the Pick (Watch for free on this page)

Part 7: Picking the Strings

Part 8: Left Hand Technique (Watch for free on this page)

Part 9: The Chromatic Scale (Watch for free on this page)

Part 10: The Spider Exercise

Part 11: The C-Major Scale

Part 12: What is a “Key?”

Part 13: Standard Notation

Part 14: How Chords Are Made

Part 15: Playing Chords on the Guitar

Part 16: Other Major Scales

Part 17: Other Major Scales on the Guitar

Part 18: The G-Major Chord

Part 19: Conclusion

Screenshots

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Reviews

Randy

January 10, 2023

I've been playing guitar for years and have taken many online courses. This is the first that clearly demonstrated to me the relationship between a chord and it's major scale and how to use the scale to pick out a melody.

Hitesh

November 28, 2020

Really good guitar course for the beginners! I had earlier got interested in playing guitar during college days, learned basics with some professional help for few months but never came across techniques taught here by Troy (especially Spider exercise)....Also, unfortunately I straight away started playing some famous guitar oriented songs after learning open chords without ever understanding the Music Theory......Focus was 'how' rather than 'why', but thanks to this course, I'm planning to pick up that guitar again for a fresh start... Thanks Troy!! Great work with this course....loved it...

Kirtan

November 25, 2020

I am part of a business plan. Looking forward for the kick starter series being available through the business plan soon.

Donald

August 28, 2018

It seems clear, concise and knowledgeable. I don't like getting these rating prompts so early in any course.

Anonymized

August 16, 2018

This was an amazing course, learning a foundation of the guitar by watching these vids absolutely taught me how to play a large amount of songs. As a beginner this was necessary.

Gordon

May 29, 2018

This is a good beginner’s explanation of music theory linking to the fretboard. The explanation of the patterned finger placement for the C Major scale was excellent. Troy is a knowledgeable guitar player who explains the concepts clearly. I particularly was impressed by explaining thumb placement on the neck and how correct positioning gives you greater flexibility for producing good clean chords.

Bryan

April 20, 2018

As someone who holds a music education degree, I take exception to the idea that there is no such note as B# or E# or Cb or Fb, but since this course is for novice instrumentalists I do understand.

Akshay

April 14, 2018

It was a great course. I have learnt how chords are formed. The spider exercise was also very helpful in improving my skills.

Russell

March 17, 2018

TroyDavidson is an excellent instructor and this is an excellent course. He includes an extremely nice E-book with alot great information and to use for future reference. One thing I liked among many is the Spider technique, a great simple learning exercise that builds strength, dexterity and confidence. Troy is patient and encouraging every step of the way. Thank you Troy for a great course. I’m going to go over the course information and exercises and continue to increase my knowledge and abilities.

Andrew

February 1, 2018

This instructor goes through basics in an excellent way. He breaks down things very well and has you build chords from scratch. I have been playing for about four years and the practice of building chords yourself is incredibly important. For someone who has some experience the first videos were mostly review and a bit slow but essential for building blocks to learning. Also, his instruction would be incredibly helpful to anyone with a vague understanding of piano notes. Many beginning instruction tutorials don't give you the building blocks he provides; they may seem excessive but are extremely important to making things simple and easier later on. His experience as a guitar instructor for 30+ years shows. I would highly suggest this course. Something to think aboot: He's probably Canadian or from Minnesota because he says "aboot" instead of "about."

Johnrobertson

September 29, 2017

this is a great beginner course that shows you where it starts from very important to know so the rest does not stump you like where did that come from .you learn the note, keys, chords and to me most important what a scale is and what it shape means thank you very much Jack

Julián

September 22, 2017

Hablo español pero aún así se entiende perfectamente su inglés. En cuanto al contenido nunca mejor explicado. La fluidez del dictado logra mantener la atención en cada tópico.

Mukesh

June 25, 2017

I am learning guitar since last year, took this course to revise basics. This guy is amazing. Best lesson for beginners i guess on internet and as the name of this course says - essential theory. This man taught all the basic concepts of music theory in such a simple way that even a f goat can learn. Those finger exercises were fantastic to open up your fingers. Thank you man. Lots of love and blessing for this course.

Sheila

May 22, 2017

This is a quick and complete fundamental overview. If you are a novice, this is a great place to start. The instructions are well organized and thoughtful to the beginner. Explanations and examples are clear and easy to follow along. The instructor is engaging and knowledgeable

Eddie

April 15, 2017

I rated this course high as I feel it included much information that I hadn't gotten from taking a few months of one-on-one guitar instruction. The music theory portion is great so now I understand how major scales and chords are formed. The only criticism of this course I have is that a significant portion of the course is a bit too slow, almost agonizingly so. It has some great drills that can be done on your own and you learn your first few chords.