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After "The Principles",the metronome is the most important
practice tool you can use. Used as shown in
" The Principles", it will increase your rate of progress faster than anything
else. Click
below for further info:
Why must I use a metronome?
What type
should I get?
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Here we begin acquiring some important knowledge of music theory concerning chords, scales, and keys. We also have on the bottom of page 27 some applications of these chords, in the form of "Accompaniment Styles".
It is very important for anyone who has gotten this far in using Mel Bay to realize that there is a vast amount of knowledge being represented here in the book at this point, far more than you can even understand fully under the best of circumstances (someone personally
explaining things to you and answering all your questions).
Much of this material is not really going to make sense to you, or be very usable by you, without a great extra effort on your part to supplement this material with other pertinent study material, and to apply what you are learning.
For instance, the Major scale that was explained on p. 26 is the foundation of our system of understand what whole and half steps are, and memorize that
formula, and think about it a
lot.
Use other resources, such as www.musictheory.net
to study these concepts. You must make an attack upon these things from many angles, and keep at it over a long period of time, things gradually become clear.
Go to the home page, and on the left sidebar, focus on the second set of
lessons that begins with "steps and accidentals", and goes on to
explain major scales.
The accompaniment styles at the bottom of page 27 will mean nothing if you do not apply them as soon as possible to a good number of songs. Pick out some things you like that use these chords.
I recommend that you get "The
Ultimate Folk Song Collection", available here, which contains a good selection of songs in many keys, and suitable for many
accompaniment styles. I will be using this book for this purpose with students as we go along, and suggest you take advantage of the guidance made available here.
Also, if you haven't' done so already, you should be studying
THE GUITARPRINCIPLES PATH LEVEL ONE:
CHORDS & RHYTHM. These lessons teach you the chords in the key of G, which is a better key to do songs in than the key of C, which Mel starts you on in this page. (The key of G comes later in this method, because Mel is
adhering to the "cycle of Keys", wherein C is first, then its relative minor, and then comes the key of G. This does make musical sense, but not "guitar sense", so I have done it differently.
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