Ok, I started playing guitar about 2 years ago. I know quite a few chords and can follow along with numerous tabs, blah blah. Well, I d/loaded an instructional video that seems to be very helpful, but there's one problem. I don't know the basics about music ie "theory". I know a lot of people say it's garbage and you don't need to learn it blah blah. From what i've seen it seems to be the building blocks to understanding what music's all about. I've been trying to learn pentatonic scales and blah blah, but I still have no clue what i'm doing or what it means or how it will benefit me. I regret not learning/discovering music at an earlier age. My question is, what is the easiest way to understand music theory? I know it's not something I can learn tonight and shred tomorrow, but I want to start with the basics and apply myself. I've found a couple "...for dummies" books on music. Any suggestions?? recommendations??

Dude, I understand exactly where you're coming from. I started teaching myself guitar about 3 years ago. I've gotten to the point where I know plenty of chords and can read tabs alright, but like you, I don't really know the theory behind them. I've had some more knowledgeable friends show/teach me some things, but other than that, I haven't gotten very far. What I really want to do is to take some lessons. I live pretty close to a couple community colleges, so I'm thinking next Spring I may sign up for an intro guitar class.

http://www.amazon.com/Edlys-Music-Theor ... F8&s=books

?SHRUGS?

In answer to your question, yes, you will need a knowledge of musical theory in order to have a true understanding of music. If you are looking to be able to play really technical stuff and are truly interested in scales and such, then it's probably a good idea to learn it.

Speaking from experience though, i started learning music theory and notation during my high school years and i found that it completely sucked all of the enjoyment out of playing for me. Playing guitar was a release and an expression for me, and losing that element was very troubling so i decided to quit my lessons. It was a choice i'm glad i made. Someday i may go back for lessons to break some of the bad habits i've picked up over the years but i'm content where I am for the moment.

What are some of these "bad habits?" Just curious.

Shit, I might get that myself. That's a good thing to put on my Xmas list for my girlfriend to get me.

Well, the way i hold my hand on the neck really limits the strength and reach of my fingers. I know the right way to play, i just don't do it. The right way, being to use your thumb for leverage (instead of just resting your palm on the neck), that way you have more strength in your fingers when you press down on the strings. There are other things too...like my fingerpicking style. I've sort of adopted my own lazy version of it where i sort of ignore my pinky finger.

There are probably other things as well that i'm not even aware of.

first off...just learn the blues scale and train your ear and practice. if you're trying to play a solo and go wild, it's not like you're gonna have time to think "let's see, i'm playing in E minor and I'd like to get kind of a dark sound here, which means I should invoke the doric mode, so I need to count back down four steps, but since this is a blues song I should probably flatten the seventh anyway, and I do like the ringing sound of a suspended second."
By the time you've figured out what to play, the drummer's taken over and started playing a drum solo, and nobody wants that. you really do need to learn to play by feel (which isn't to say i can do it, mind you).

that being said, there is some easy stuff to learn that will at least help you understand the nuts and bolts of how music works, but i'd wager most of what you need you could find on the web. I'd start about by googling/wiki "circle of fifths" and go from there.

Some musical basics are definitively useful when learning the guitar (or any other instrument, but I'll only speak based on my experience).

I've started learning from tabs you find in any guitar magazine, trying to keep in mind how to play each chord. If you try to figure out why a chord is called major, minor, sus4 or anything, you'll learn many things about intervals, scales, train your ear to different sounds, experiment with different progressions, create your own chords... Just learning what a minor or major third is, and expanding knowledge from that, it brought me a lot in my guitar playing.

That's more a rhythm thing, but on the solo side, learn the pentatonic scale, check some trademark leads (Alive, Highway to Hell, ...), you'll see how to "get out" of the pentatonic scale, find intervals and licks you'll enjoy, and develop your own style. Train your ear to different intervals (I've got a software with exercises, but I forgot its name...), it will also help to expand your playing.

I think it's really important to strike a balance between learning theory and playing for enjoyment. To really get to new levels you need both going on.

The first thing I'd do is start working on basic theory. Learn how to spell all your chords and scales. Learn how to harmonize the major and minor scales. Learn the basic 12 bar blues progression. If you've been playing for a few years you'll get the basic theory down pretty quickly.

What I find is that after studying theory for a while a lot of connections get made in your brain. A common tip for learning guitar is to try and picture the neck as a roadmap, and as you learn more about intervals and scales, the neck will start to open up for you naturally.

Analyzing solos and tabs is much easier and much more rewarding when you've got a handle on basic harmony. You'll retain more because you'll understand how the licks function and why.

Music really is a language, and theory is like the vocabulary. The more you learn, the more complex sentences and thoughts you can express. Just memorizing tabs without understanding what's going on underneath is like just learning how to ask "Where's the bathroom?" in a foreign language. Sure, you know how to ask that question, but that's it. You can't have a full conversation or express any of your own ideas.

I used to get a lot of theory books off of musicbooksplus.com. Basic theory books are all pretty similar, so you can't really go wrong in most cases.

Last thing I'll say is that learning from a book is good, but learning from a real person is the best. It's especially true when you're just starting out because you're gonna have a lot of questions, and there's no dialogue with a book.