Guitar Intuition Quickstart StudyGuide

Quickstart Edition VOLUME ONE

Getting Started with Guitar presents:

guitar intuition

®

with

Lisa McCormick © 2009 Lisa McCormick. All rights reserved. Guitar Intuition is a Lisa McCormick Music, LLC publication.

Guitar Intuition Study Guide

A Companion to Guitar Intuition Quickstart Edition

Guitar Intuition Study Guide - Introduction

Introduction

Welcome to Guitar Intuition, a unique ear-training program for guitar learners.

Did you ever wonder why some people just seem to be able to figure things out on the guitar, without specific instructions or sheet music? It’s because their musical intuition (or “ear) is strong.

But even if you are not one of those lucky “naturals”, musical intuition is a skill that can be learned and improved with practice, using a structured ear-training program.

What is ear training?

Ear-training is an educational listening process by which musicians can learn to identify chords, rhythms, sequences, and other foundational elements of music.

Ear training is a central component of any professional track music study program. However, many guitar players learn to play on their own, or in less formal settings than a music school.

© 2009 Lisa McCormick

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Guitar Intuition Study Guide - Introduction Ear-training is frequently overlooked by self-taught or independent learners – and yet it is vital to a well-rounded musical understanding of the instrument.

When a musician says, “I play be ear”, this translates roughly to, “I do pretty well figuring out the music without specific instructions or sheet music. I just seem to be able to make good guesses.”

In other words, this person’s musical intuition is strong. Guitar players with a good ear for music seem to be able to guess at figuring out the right chords for a song, for example.

What is musical intuition?

Intuition is defined as: understanding without apparent effort. Imagine if you could just intuitively figure out how to play the songs you want to play without all the frustration of trying to decipher complicated sheet music or tablatures.

How does the Guitar Intuition Program work?

This Guitar Intuition program is designed to exercise the intuitive side of your musical brain, allowing you to develop a deeper “gut-level” understanding of music and your guitar. © 2009 Lisa McCormick

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Guitar Intuition Study Guide - Introduction It is a Left Brain approach to learning, focused on developing a holistic and natural feel for the music.

Specifically, Guitar Intuition addresses the following skills, as they relate to the guitar: Chord recognition, discernment between major chords and minor chords, and the ability to analyze sequences of chords.

Chord recognition, discernment, and sequence-identification are the exact skills that guitar players with a “good ear” draw on when figuring out how to play songs on their own, without written music or instruction

Why Guitar Intuition? Why not a full-fledged ear-training course?

A good full-fledged ear-training course can be an excellent resource for music learners. However, the vast majority of these courses are quite extensive in nature, perhaps going far beyond the scope of your needs or interests. Complete ear-training courses are often costly and time-intensive, and not specifically aimed at the interests and needs of a beginning guitar player.

Guitar Intuition gets right to the core of what you, a beginning or self-taught guitarist, need to know to become a better guitar player. © 2009 Lisa McCormick

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Guitar Intuition Study Guide - Introduction Who created the Guitar Intuition program?

Guitar Intuition was created by Lisa McCormick. Lisa is a professional guitar instructor with over 25 years experience teaching guitar. With a degree in Education, plus extensive special training in teaching adult learners, Lisa’s signature teaching methods have earned her a loyal following of beginning-to-intermediate guitar students worldwide, thanks in part to her teaching via the Internet.

Lisa McCormick is also a professional guitarist, songwriter, and recording artist in her own right.

What’s included in the Guitar Intuition program?

Guitar Intuition Volume One contains five chapters of structured lessons and listening exercises. Each chapter opens with an explanation of the central concept, followed by a step-by-step lesson aimed at honing your listening abilities.

Each lesson is followed by a brief recap and review of what was covered in the chapter. And each chapter concludes with an additional set of listening exercises, for extra practice.


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Guitar Intuition Study Guide - Introduction The Study Guide text contains thorough explanations of the lessons, answers to all chord-identification and sequenceidentification exercises, and a glossary of terms used in the program.

How should I use this program?

The Guitar Intuition Program may be listened to start-to-finish, or you may skip around from chapter to chapter, as you prefer. You may listen to the program at any time via your MP3 player, transforming your commute to work or your walk around the block into valuable guitar practice time.

It is not necessary to master one chapter before moving on to the next. The very fact of listening and paying attention to the sounds you are hearing helps train your musical brain, even if you are not yet able to correctly solve all the exercises.

While each chapter contains distinct information and exercises, some of these new skills may come more easily to you than others. However, each of these skills will improve with repeated listening and practice.


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Guitar Intuition Study Guide - Introduction How can I reinforce the skills I am learning with Guitar Intuition?

When you have your guitar in your hands, review the chords and sequences you have been studying with Guitar Intuition. Play the chords and sequences on your own guitar, and listen for the qualities and characteristics that were pointed out to you in the program.

Experiment with creating your own chord combinations, and notice how they sound. Experiment with figuring out the chords to a simple song or two, just by ear.

Listen to some fairly simple guitar music, and see if you can begin to recognize the chords and the sequences being played.

Will this program work for me?

Guitar Intuition will help you learn to recognize the unique quality and characteristics of the most commonly played basic guitar chords. You will also learn to discern major chords from minor chords, and begin to learn to decipher a sequence of chords, by ear.


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Guitar Intuition Study Guide - Introduction Every person’s learning process and pace is different. The speed at which you become comfortable and conversant with your new skills is an individual thing.

Who is the program right for?

Guitar Intuition Volume One is an entry-level program. It is designed for absolute beginners through advanced beginners, as well as more experienced self-taught players who may have missed the basic foundations of ear-training in their independent learning process on the guitar.

Volume One covers learning to identify the most commonly played major and minor first position chords, namely: C, D, E, F, G, A, Dm, Em, and Am. Volume One also covers discerning the difference between major and minor chords, as well as unscrambling chord sequences containing a mix of two chords played in random order over four measures.

If these skills are not yet under your belt, then Guitar Intuition Volume One is likely a good fit for you.

If, however, you feel you are ready for more advanced concepts and skills than these, you may wish to wait for the more


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Guitar Intuition Study Guide - Introduction advanced levels of Guitar Intuition, which are currently in development.

Let’s get started!

Guitar Intuition is a downloadable audio course. Place it on your MP3 player or burn it to a CD, and you can begin your eartraining course right away.


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Chapter 1: Chord Recognition: Major Chords in the First Position Chapter 1: Chord Recognition: Major Chords in the First Position Identifying Major Chords by Their Sound

Introduction: In this chapter we are going to work on chord recognition. We are going to listen carefully to several different major chords, and we’re going to pick them apart a little bit to learn to discern what gives each of those chords its unique sound and quality.

Even if you don’t know how to play some of these chords, that’s just fine. What is important here is that we are teaching your brain to discern the difference in sound between one chord and another.

Lesson:

This segment is on the chord C. The C chord has 5 strings in play. Some chords on the guitar have more strings in play than that and some chords on the guitar have fewer strings in play than that, so that puts C kind of in the middle of the road. It is not the deepest, richest chord in the world but it is also not the lightest, airiest chord either. It is kind of right smack in the middle.


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Chapter 1: Chord Recognition: Major Chords in the First Position

This segment is on the chord G. The G chord uses all 6 strings. Because G uses all 6 strings, it is has a beefier deeper sound than chords that use fewer strings than that. Remember some chords use 5 strings, some chords use only 4 strings, but the G chord is one of the deepest, richest chords on the guitar because it uses all 6 strings.

This segment is on the chord D. The D chord only uses 4 strings. As opposed to some chords that use 5 strings or 6 strings, the D chord has a lighter, airier sound to it because there are just fewer tones in play at once. The open D bass note (4th string) gives the D chord a certain resonance.

This segment is on the chord A. The A chord uses 5 strings. It is not as deep and rich as a chord that uses all 6 strings, and it is not as light and airy as a chord that uses only 4 strings. With 5 strings in play, the A chord is in the middle ground. The open A bass note (5th string) gives the A chord a certain resonance.

This segment is on the chord E. The E chord uses all 6 strings. Additionally, the lowest note of the E chord is the open low E string. That is the lowest note that


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the guitar makes, and so that gives the E chord the boldest, most rooted and resonant sound of all the guitar chords.

This segment is on the chord F. The F chord uses only 4 strings. As opposed to chords that use 5 strings or chords that use 6 strings, F has a bit lighter, airier sound to it.

Recap and Review:

In this section, we listened to 6 commonly played major chords, as played in first position on the guitar. We listened to the chord C, the chord G, the chord D, the chord A, the chord E, and the chord F.

We talked about the fact that some chords use all 6 strings, some chords use 5 strings and some chords use only 4 strings.

In that collection of chords we were just listening to, two of them use all 6 strings. These chords are E, and G. These are the two biggest boldest sounding chords on the guitar because they use all of the strings, and they contain the fullest range of notes.


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We also listened to two chords that use only 4 strings. These were the D chord and the F chord. With only 4 strings in play, these two chords tend to have the lightest, thinnest sound of the collection.

We also listened to two chords that use 5 strings. These were the C chord and the A chord. With more that 4 strings, but fewer than 6 strings in play, these two chords occupy the middle ground of this collection of guitar chords.

Notice also that a chord that uses an open string as its bass note will have a slightly different tonal quality than a chord that uses a fretted note as its bass note.


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Chapter 1: Chord Recognition: Major Chords in the First Position Additional exercises for extra practice

NOTE: This page contains the answers to the 2 sets of practice exercises for Chapter One. You may wish to listen to the exercises before looking at these answers.

Extra Practice Exercises: Set 1 Example 1: G Example 2: A Example 3: D Example 4: C Example 5: F

Extra Practice Exercises: Set 2 Example 1: E Example 2: D Example 3: G Example 4: C Example 5: A


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Chapter 2: Chord Discernment - Comparing Major Chords

Chapter 2: Chord Discernment – What’s the Difference? Introduction

In this chapter, we are going to be listening to pairs of chords. We will work on training your brain and your ear to recognize the difference between two chords just based on the way that they sound. Learning to discern one chord from another based on their sound will help develop your guitar intuition.

Lesson:

Scrambled Chord Pair 1: D & G

The first pair of chords that we will work with is D and G. Listen carefully to the differences between these two chords. D uses just 4 strings, so it has a smaller, more delicate sound. And G, which uses all 6 strings, digs down into the deeper base end of the guitar, giving it a richer and bolder sound.

Now I am going to play a pattern of four strums, and it will consist only of the chords D and G, in random order. Listen carefully and see if you can tell me what order I am playing the chords in. (answer: G, G, D , G)


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Chapter 2: Chord Discernment - Comparing Major Chords Scrambled Chord Pair 2: A & E

This time I am going to play the chords A and E. First let’s check out the difference between those two chords. The A chord uses 5 strings, occupying the middle zone of the guitar tonality. It is not the lowest, boldest chord in the world, but it is also not as high and light as a 4-string chord.

And then we have the E chord. The E chord uses the lowest open string of the guitar as it’s base note, so it is the richest, beefiest chord you can play on the guitar.

Now I will play 4 strums and tell me if you can figure out the order I am playing these chords in. What order are we playing those chords in? (answer: E, A, A, E)

Scrambled Chord Pair 3: C & F

This time we are going to work with the chords C and F. Notice that the chord C uses 5 strings, and sonically hangs right in the middle of the tones of the guitar. It is not the lowest boldest chord in the world but, also not especially high and delicate.


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The F chord uses only 4 strings, so it is a little bit more delicate. Now listen to these four strums and see if you can tell me what order I am playing these chords in. (answer: F, C, F, C)

Scrambled Chord Pair 4: A & D

This time we will work with the chords A and D. Listen once again to the difference in tone of those two chords.

Now here are four strums. Can you tell what order I am playing those in? (answer: A, A, A, D)

Scrambled Chord Pair 5: F & G

Here is another pair. This time we will work with the chords F and G. Listen carefully to the differences in tonality between those two chords.

And are the four strums. Can you tell what order I played those chords in? (answer: F, G, G, F) © 2009 Lisa McCormick

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Chapter 2: Chord Discernment - Comparing Major Chords Scrambled Chord Pair 6: E & G

This time we will work with the chords E and G. Now this is a little trickier because both of these chords use all 6 strings. This makes them slightly more similar to one other than the other pairs we have worked with so far. The difference in sound between E and G is subtler than the previous pairs we have been working with. Listen carefully.

Now I will play the four strums. What order did I play those in? (answer: G, E, E, G)

Scrambled Chord Pair 7: C & A

Here is another pair of chords that share the same number of strings, so their sound is going to be a little bit closer to each other than some of the other pairs we worked with. We will work with the chords A and C. Both chords use 5 strings.

Listen to the four strums. Can you tell what order the chords were played in? (answer: C, C, A, C)


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Chapter 2: Chord Discernment - Comparing Major Chords Scrambled Chord Pair 8: D & F

Let’s do one more pair where the chords share the same number of strings, making them sonically a little more similar to each other than some of the earlier pairs in this series. We will work with the chords D and F. Both of these chords use only 4 strings so they both have a pretty high delicate sound, yet each has kind of it’s own personality and character.

Here are the four strums. What order did I play those in? (answer: F, D, F, D)

Recap and Review: In this chapter we worked on listening to pairs of chords, and learning to discern one chord from another just based on the quality and character of its sound.

We also got started listening to chords in sequence, and discerning what order the chords were played in.

Both discernment of chords and discernment of sequence are fundamental foundational skills in guitar playing.


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Just as your physical guitar skills get better with practice, your guitar intuition gets better with practice too. Every time you are listening to this program, you are practicing the guitar, whether or not you have the guitar in your hand. Strengthening your guitar intuition will help you become a better guitar player faster.


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Chapter 2: Chord Discernment - Comparing Major Chords Additional exercises for extra practice

NOTE: This page contains the answers to the practice exercises for Chapter Two. You may wish to listen to the exercises before looking at these answers.

Extra Practice Exercises: Example 1: D, E, D, E Example 2: A, F, F, A Example 3: G, C, C, C Example 4: E, A, E, E Example 5: G, G, A, A


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Chapter 3: Chord Recognition A Companion to Guitar Intuition Quickstart Edition

Chapter 3: Chord Recognition - First Position Minor Chords Minor Chords Played in the First Position Identifying Minor Chords by Their Sound

In this chapter we’ll get to know 3 commonly used minor chords. We’ll listen to the chords E minor, A minor, and D minor.

The formal music theory of what differentiates a major chord from a minor chord is beyond the scope of this program. But what I want to point out is that the minor chords have a very distinct mood and feeling to them.

Minor chords sound different than major chords, and that is what we will take a look at here. Minor chords tend to have a more melancholy and sad feeling than their major counterparts.

Lesson:

Let’s listen to the chord E minor. It’s got a melancholy sound to it. And E minor is very full and resonant, because it uses all six strings, and many of them are played open.


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Chapter 3: Chord Recognition - First Position Minor Chords

Now here is the chord A minor. A minor uses 5 strings, and again, has a moody, sad sound to it. It’s not quite as bold and dark as the E minor, because it uses only 5 strings. And here is the chord D minor. Again, you can hear that sad tonality, but this time using only 4 strings.

Recap and Review:

In this chapter, you were introduced to 3 commonly used minor chords on the guitar. We listened to the chord E minor, using all 6 strings, and noticed its deep, dark sound.

We listened to the chord A minor, using only 5 strings. A minor also has a sad a moody sound, but not quite as deep and dark as the E minor.

And we listened to the chord D minor. D minor is also on the sad side, but not as weighty as the others, as it uses only 4 strings.


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Chapter 3: Chord Recognition - First Position Minor Chords

Additional exercises for extra practice

NOTE: This page contains the answers to the practice exercises for Chapter Three. You may wish to listen to the exercises before looking at these answers.

Extra Practice Exercises:

Example 1: A minor Example 2: D minor Example 3: E minor Example 4: D minor Example 5: A minor Example 6: E minor


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Chapter Chapter4: 4:Chord ChordDiscernment Discernment - Major vs Minor Major vs. Minor Determining Major-ness and Minor-ness by the Sound of the Chord

In this chapter we’ll work on discerning major chords from minor chords, based on their mood and feeling. Remember that major chords have a more upbeat and cheerful feeling, and the minor chords have a sadder and more melancholy feeling.

It’s common shorthand among musicians to say, “A” when you mean “A Major”, or to say “E” when you mean “E major”.

But when you have a minor chord, you always say “minor”. You say, “A minor”, or “E minor,” or “D minor”.

Lesson 1: Major vs. Minor: Let’s Compare

Listen to A major and A minor chords being played back to back. Notice the difference in mood and feeling between the major and the minor chords. Notice how your feeling or mood shifts when I change from one chord to the other.


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Chapter 4: Chord Discernment - Major vs Minor

Let’s listen to the difference between E and E minor. E major has a bold and stable sound, while E minor is also rich, deep, and resonant, but sadder.

Now let’s compare the chords D and D minor. The D major uses 4 strings, and has a bright and cheerful sound. The D minor also uses 4 strings and has a similar tonality, but it’s sadder.

Now let’s listen to some pairs of chords. I will play 2 chords over the course of 4 strums, in random order. The chords will have the same letter name, but one will be major and one will be minor. See if you can discern what order the chords are being played in.

1. Am, A, A, Am 2. E, E, Em, Em 3. D, D, Dm, D


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Chapter 4: Chord Discernment - Major vs Minor Lesson 2: Major vs. Minor: Mixed Chord Sequences

Now let’s listen to some mixed pairs of chords. I will play 2 chords over the course of 4 strums, in random order, and I will tell you the names of the chords in advance. See if you can tell what order they are being played in.

1. G, Am, Am, G 2. Em, Em, D, Em 3. F, Dm, Dm, F 4. Em, A, Em, A

Recap:

In this chapter, we worked on learning to discern the difference between major chords and minor chords, based on the feeling and mood that they evoke

Major chords tend to have a happy and cheerful sound, and minor chords sound a little sadder and a little darker.

Your sensitivity to these differences will improve with practice.


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Chapter 4: Chord Discernment - Major vs Minor Additional exercises for extra practice



I will play 2 chords over the course of 4 strums, in random order. Don’t worry about the letter names of the chords just yet. Just see if you can tell which ones are major, and which are minor. I will include the letter names below for more advanced practice.

Example 1: Minor, Major, Major, Minor (Am, E, E, Am) Example 2: Major, Major, Major, Minor (F, F, F, Em) Example 3: Major, Minor, Major, Minor (D, Am, D, Am) Example 4: Major, Minor, Major, Major (C, Em, C, C) Example 5: Minor, Major, Major, Minor (Dm, G, G, Dm)


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Chapter and Discernment Chapter5: 5:Chord ChordRecognition Recognition and Discernment in Music in a Musical Context Sounds Nice, But…What Is It?

In this chapter, we’ll work with pairs of chords once again, but this time I will play them in a musical context using a rhythm pattern, rather than just over the course of 4 strums.

This will help you work on chord recognition and discernment, as well as sequence recognition, but in a much more “real-world” musical context.

For instance, if I were to play a D chord, rather than just playing one single strum I would play a full measure of a rhythm pattern.

In previous chapters we may have had a 4-chord sequence that went D, G, D, G, where each chord got just one strum. Now we’ll have a full measure of a rhythm pattern for each of those chords.

The first pair we’ll look at is A minor and G. I will play these 2 chords over the course of 4 measures of a rhythm pattern, in random order. See if you can tell what order they are being played in. (answer: Am, G, Am, G)


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Chapter 5: Chord Recognition and Discernment in Music

The next pair we’ll listen to is C and E minor. Again, I will play these 2 chords over the course of 4 measures of a rhythm pattern, in random order. See if you can tell what order they are being played in. (answer: C, Em, C, Em)

Now let’s listen to a pattern using the chords A and E. (answer: E, E, A, E)

Next we’ll listen to the chords D minor and C. (answer: Dm, Dm, C, C)

Next up are the chords A minor and D minor. (answer: Am, Dm, Dm, Am)

Let’s do one more pair, A minor and E. (answer: Am, Am, E, E)

Recap: In this chapter, we brought together all the skills we’ve been working on in Volume One of Guitar Intuition. We brought together the skills of chord recognition, discernment between major and minor, the identification of sequence, and then we put it all in a musical context.


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Chapter 5: Chord Recognition and Discernment in Music Additional exercises for extra practice



I will play 2 chords over the course of 4 measures of a rhythm pattern, in random order. See if you can tell what order the chords are being played in.

Example 1: / D / Em / Em / D / Example 2: / G / D / G / G / Example 3: / C / Am / Am / Am / Example 4: / Dm / C / Dm / C / Example 5: / D / A / A / D /

Advanced Extra Practice:

I will play 2 chords over the course of 4 measures of a rhythm pattern, in random order, but I will not tell you the names of the chords in advance. See if you can tell what the chords are, and what order they are being played in. © 2009 Lisa McCormick

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Chapter 5: Chord Recognition and Discernment in Music

Example 1: / Am / E / Am / E / Example 2: / F / F / G / G / Example 3: / Em / Em / Am / Em / Example 4: / C / F / C / F / Example 5: / Dm / G / G / Dm /


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Guitar Intuition Study Guide - Glossary Glossary of Terms Used in This Program Bass Note: the lowest-sounding note played in the chord. In first position on the guitar, some chords have their bass note on the 6th string (E and G, for example), some have their bass note on the 5th string (A and C, for example), and some have their bass note on the 4th string (D and F, for example). Chord: a collection of different tones (notes) all played at once. Discern: to differentiate one from another Ear-Training: an educational process by which musicians learn to identify chords, rhythms, and other foundational elements of music, by way of listening exercises. First position: The lowest 3-4 frets of the guitar. Holistic: Relating to the whole entity, rather than separating it into parts Intuition: Immediate understanding or recognition without conscious thought. Perceptive insight. Left-Brain learning: Intuitive, subjective, synthesizing, holistic learning. As it relates to learning music, left-brain learning draws on the learner’s senses, impressions, and experiences of the music. Right-Brain learning: Analytical, objective, logical, rational learning. As it relates to learning music, right-brain learning draws on the learner’s logic, analysis, and structural understanding of the music.


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Guitar Intuition Quickstart StudyGuide

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