Week 1

- Learn the names of all the notes on the guitar neck.
- Whole steps and half steps.
- Major scale pattern of whole steps and half steps (2212221)
- Learn our major scales on a single string in all twelve keys.
- Circle of 5ths/Cricle of 4ths
- Key signatures.

Handouts:

- Welcome to Fingerboard Theory

- Class Packet

Week 2 - Studied the sections of the class packet regarding "Chords and Harmony", "Harmonizing Chords in a Key"
- Learned the formulas for Major (R 3rd 5th), Minor (R b3rd 5th), and Diminished (R b3rd b5th) triads.
- Discussed the importance of Diatonic triads but especially the One (I), Four (IV) and Five (V) Chords (the "Three Chords and the truth"..
- The "Nashville Numbering System", otherwise known as Roman numeral chord analysis.
- Practice Suggestion:
Look at the handouts for California Stars/Wilco and Leaving on a Jetplane/John Denver (front and back of the same page) and do a roman numeral analysis of the chords. Then practice playing both songs in all five of the "guitar keys" (CAGED). This would be a great oportunity to practice your scales in those keys as well using the Groovebuilder tool at wholenote.com
Week 3 - Continued our discussion of  Roman Numeral Chord Analysis (ie. Nashville Numbers) and how it relates to transposing.
- Introduced the capo and how advanced players use it as an indispensable tool. See the handout "How to capo like a pro".
- Learned about sus4 and sus2 variations of the major triad. Click here for the handout.
- For a practice excercise, I handed out this worksheet using the song "Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison to combine the cpao, transposition and the sus4/sus2 lessons.
Week 4

- We spent most of the class reveiwing and answering questions about the material from last week.

- Learned about intervals.
Week 5

- Started our discussion on Intervals. Specifically thirds. Check out this handout. We covered the first three lines. Also refer to the intreval section in the packet for more info.

Week 6

- Discussed Diatonic 7th chords in more depth and handed out this worksheet.

- Played through several songs while trying to incorporate any of the various new ideas we've learned so far, and had a rollicking good time to boot.

Week 7

- Discussed a new concept known as Secondary Dominant Chords. We learned this in relation to the song "Crazy" by Willie Nelson/Patsy Cline.

- Assigned a little homework: Take the five Guitar Keys (CAGED) and for each one write out the Diatonic Triads, The Diatonic 7th chords, and the "Non-Diatonic" Secondary Dominant Chords. Check your work here

- Started our discussion of the CAGED system

Week 8 - Continued our discussion of the CAGED system.