guitar intuition quickstart studyguide

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guitar intuition

Getting Started with Guitar presents:

VOLUME ONE

2009 Lisa McCormick. All rights reserved.

Guitar Intuition is a Lisa McCormick Music, LLC publication.

with

Lisa McCormick

Quickstart Editio


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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? Its 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.

Guitar Intuition Study Guide - Introduction

A Companion to Guitar Intuition Quickstart Edition

2009 Lisa McCormick 2


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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 persons 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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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 specificallyaimed 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.





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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, Lisas signature

teaching methods have earned her a loyal following of

beginning-to-intermediate guitar students worldwide, thanks inpart to her teaching via the Internet.

Lisa McCormick is also a professional guitarist, songwriter, and

recording artist in her own right.

Whats 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.



2009 Lisa McCormick


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The Study Guide text contains thorough explanations of the

lessons, answers to all chord-identification and sequence-

identification 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, oryou 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 tothe 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 thanothers. However, each of these skills will improve with repeated

listening and practice.





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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 minorchords, and begin to learn to decipher a sequence of chords, by

ear.





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Every persons 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 IntuitionVolume 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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advanced levels of Guitar Intuition, which are currently in

development.

Lets 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 ear-

training course right away.





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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

were 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 dont know how to play some of these chords, thats

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.

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




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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 thechord 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 themuse 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 middleground 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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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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Whats 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 usesjust 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)

Chapter 2: Chord Discernment - Comparing Major Chords




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Scrambled Chord Pair 2: A & E

This time I am going to play the chords A and E. First lets 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 its 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 betweenthose two chords.

And are the four strums. Can you tell what order I played those

chords in?

(answer: F, G, G, F)





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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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Scrambled Chord Pair 8: D & F

Lets 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 its 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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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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Identifying Minor Chords by Their Sound

In this chapter well get to know 3 commonly used minor chords.

Well 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:

Lets listen to the chord E minor. Its 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.

Chapter 3: Chord Recognition - First Position Minor Chords




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Now here is the chord A minor. A minor uses 5 strings, and

again, has a moody, sad sound to it. Its 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 darkas 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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for Chapter Three. You may wish to listen to the exercises before



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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Determining Major-ness and Minor-ness by the Sound of theChord

In this chapter well 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.

Its 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: Lets 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.

Chapter 4: Chord Discernment - Major vs Minor




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Lets 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 lets 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 its sadder.

Now lets 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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Lesson 2: Major vs. Minor: Mixed Chord Sequences

Now lets 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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NOTE: This page contains the answers to the practice exercisesfor Chapter Three. You may wish to listen to the exercises before



I will play 2 chords over the course of 4 strums, in random order.

Dont 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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Sounds Nice, ButWhat Is It?

In this chapter, well 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 well

have a full measure of a rhythm pattern for each of those chords.

The first pair well 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)

Chapter 5: Chord Recognition and Discernment in Music




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The next pair well 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 lets listen to a pattern using the chords A and E.

(answer: E, E, A, E)

Next well 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)

Lets do one more pair, A minor and E.

(answer: Am, Am, E, E)

Recap:

In this chapter, we brought together all the skills weve beenworking 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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for Chapter Three. You may wish to listen to the exercises before



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.





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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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Glossary of Terms Used in This Program

Bass Note: the lowest-sounding note played in the chord. In firstposition on the guitar, some chords have their bass note on the

6th

string (E and G, for example), some have their bass note onthe 5th string (A and C, for example), and some have their bassnote on the 4

thstring (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 ofmusic, 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 intoparts

Intuition: Immediate understanding or recognition without

conscious thought. Perceptive insight.

Left-Brain learning: Intuitive, subjective, synthesizing, holisticlearning. As it relates to learning music, left-brain learning drawson the learners senses, impressions, and experiences of themusic.

Right-Brain learning: Analytical, objective, logical, rationallearning. As it relates to learning music, right-brain learning

draws on the learners logic, analysis, and structuralunderstanding of the music.

Guitar Intuition Study Guide - Glossary


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