Skip to content
TonaliaJoin the waitlist

For guitarists

Music theory for guitarists who already know their chords

You know the shapes. Theory is knowing what they do: which chord is home, which one pulls, where the borrowed one came from. Learned by ear, it turns a chord chart into something you can hear before you play it.

Hear the key, not the shapes

A shape is a place on the neck; a chord is a job in a key. In E major, E, A and B are I, IV and V, and the same jobs exist in every key. Learn to hear the jobs and a capo or a new key changes nothing.

I IV V I in E major · E major
  1. EI
  2. AIV
  3. BV
  4. EI

Why rock progressions work

The flat VII in a major key is borrowed from Mixolydian, and I ♭VII IV is the sound of a great deal of rock. Hear it as a colour against home, not as a wrong note.

I ♭VII IV I in A major · A major
  1. AI
  2. G
  3. DIV
  4. AI

Modes over a vamp

Modes make sense on guitar when you hear them over a vamp, not as fingering patterns. Over Am7 to D7, A Dorian fits because D7 holds F♯, Dorian's raised sixth. See the modes for all of them, brightest to darkest.

A Dorian vamp · A Dorian
  1. Am7i7
  2. D7IV7
  3. Am7i7
  4. D7IV7

No notation, ever

Tonalia has no staff notation. Chords are written as symbols and roman numerals, the way they appear on a chord chart, and every question plays before you answer it. Section 1 is free: intervals, triads, the chords of a key, cadences and sevenths.

Every chord on this page is spelled and voiced by Tonalia's music engine.

Tonalia for iPhone

Learn this by ear, five minutes a day

Daily lessons where every question plays before you answer it. Section 1 is free forever. Tonalia is in beta; join the waitlist for one email when it is on the App Store.

No spam, no sharing. Unsubscribe from any email in one tap. Privacy