Let’s start by learning what a few terms mean. If you already understand scales, keys, octaves feel free to jump over the first part, but I wanted to include this for those who want it explained in an easy way.
What Is A Scale In Music?
A scale is a set of notes that follows a pattern with regard to the pitches of these notes. The different pitches are what we hear and are caused by the strings of the guitar ( or similar) vibrating at a certain frequency.
What Is The Key Of A Song?
The key of a song contains the notes of the scale that are found within the song. For example a song in the key of G contains the notes of the scale of G Major: G A B C D E F# G
The F# is included in the key signature at the beginning of each line of music rather than writing it every time an F# is played:
We can tell the key of a song by how many flats and sharps there are in the key signature and therefore in the scale. See the PDF at the bottom of the page if you want to know which key is given by each key signature.
If you want to use your ears rather than look at music manuscript, use this tip:
The last note of a song is often the same as the key note but not always. However the last chord of a song is almost always the same as the key of a song.
What Is An Octave In Music?
An octave in music is so-called because there are 8 note names between the start and the end. The letter names of a scale go from A-G and then start back at A again. That 2nd A is an octave above the first A. The note that is 1 octave above is vibrating at twice the frequency of the lower note.
You can see this in action if you play an open string and then fret that string at the 12th fret. If you measure between the nut and the bridge and half that distance, you will see that you are at the 12th fret. The vibrating part of the string is half as long and vibrates at twice the frequency.
Naming The Parts Of A Scale
Apart from just naming the parts of the scale as 1,2,3 etc. there are a couple of other naming systems that are worth mentioning so that you can see how all these conventions fit together.
Roman Numerals can be used to refer to the notes of a scale rather than our usual numbers ( especially when referring to chords). Plus, there is another way of referring to these notes: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti which may be already familiar to you.
It might seem a bit strange that I’m now going to start talking about the key of C Major when we are often using G because of the way the guitar is tuned G D G but there is a reason for it.
The scale of C Major has no sharps or flats ( no black notes on the piano) For this reason I will use the key of C and the scale of C to illustrate a few points.
Firstly you may have noticed that I dropped the word Major in that last sentence. If we just say C, the Major is implied. (Unfortunately there’s another bit of confusion where C is also used to mean C power chord when we are in open tuning)
The table below is a summary of how the same thing can be said in lots of different ways. This is the information for the scale of C Major:
| C | D | E | F | G | A | B | C |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII |
| Do | Re | Mi | Fa | Sol | La | Ti | Do |
There is another way of naming these notes as tonic, supertonic etc. but I won’t go into that here. I’ll just say if you ever hear mention of the tonic, it just means the 1st note of the scale.
It is rare that Do, Re, Mi etc. is used when guitarists talk, but Roman numerals are often used so it’s worth knowing them.
What Are Power Chords?
Power chords contain the 1st and 5th notes of the scale without the 3rd note of the scale. They are really easy to play on the 3-string Cigar Box Guitar in open 1 5 1 tuning because just strumming the open strings plays a power chord.
In open G that chord is G power chord.
In open E B E tuning that chord is an E power chord
Fretting across all the strings on the same fret raises all the strings by the same amount. This means that the new chord is also a power chord e.g. fretting at the 5th fret of a G D G tuned guitar makes a C power chord.
Power chords can stand in for both major and minor chords.
For more information on simple 1 finger power chords see this article: how-to-play-a-cigar-box-guitar-with-one-finger/
and for as more detailed look at different shaped power chords see this article : power-chords-on-a-guitar-with-3-strings/
Why Can Power Chords Stand In For Major And Minor Chords?
Playing a power chord that contains just the 1st and 5th notes of the scale misses out the 3rd note that tells us whether a chord is Major or minor.
The minor chord contains the flattened third with respect to the major chord
eg
C Major C E G
C minor C Eb G
By missing out that third note, our ears can hear a major chord or a minor chord depending on what other chords are around it. It’s as if our imagination fills in the missing note.
What Does Open G Tuning Mean?
Cigar Box Guitars are often tuned to open G where the bass string is G, the middle string is D and the top string is also G but an octave higher than the bass string. This tuning can also be called 1 5 1 tuning because if we count 5 letters on from G we get to D:
| G | A | B | C | D |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
So 1 5 1 tuning means the bass string is the first note of the scale, the middle string is the 5th note and the top string is also the 1st note of the scale but raised an octave.
Other common 1 5 1 tunings for Cigar Box Guitar include E B E, D A D and A E A. See this article if you want more information on alternative tunings: 9-different-tunings-for-a-cigar-box-guitar
Open 1 5 1 tuning makes it really easy to play power chords.
What Does Moving Up One Fret Do To The Pitch Of The Note?
Each fret raises the pitch of a note by something called a semitone. This is half a tone, so moving up 2 frets means raising the pitch by a tone.
Try to remember that to move up a semitone, you need to move up just one fret as this will help you when we move onto looking at sharps and flats.
A More Detailed Look At Scales
I described earlier how scales are patterns of note pitches. Major scales are made in a different pattern to minor scales and that is why they sound different.
It’s not just the starting note of the scale that makes the difference; it’s the pattern of the gaps between the notes. Some gaps are tones and some are semitones.
If you want to hear the difference try playing these 2 scales on the bass or top string of your G D G tuned guitar:
G major 0 2 4 5 7 9 11 12
G minor 0 2 3 5 7 8 10 12
You can see that the gaps are different in a few places.
I won’t go into too much complicated theory here but I will just point out that for any Major scale the gaps are like this:
| Scale number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Number of frets from last note | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Note gap from one note to next | zero | tone | tone | semitone | tone | tone | tone | semitone |
You can use this information to work out any Major scale ( you might have to move across to another higher string if you run out of frets though)
For the scale of C Major on the G string, the note names and fret numbers are:
| Note name | C | D | E | F | G | A | B | C |
| Scale number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Fret number on G string | 5 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 17 |
| Number of frets from last note | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Note gap from one note to next | zero | tone | tone | semitone | tone | tone | tone | semitone |
What Are The Notes On The 3-String Cigar Box Guitar In G D G Tuning?
This chart shows the names of the notes on the guitar fretboard:
Notice that some notes have # and b signs after them. Please note that I need to use a b sign rather than a proper flat sign when I’m typing my articles but I put the proper looking symbol in my own graphics.
What Do The # and b Symbols Mean?
The # sign means that the note is raised by one semitone and the b sign means that it is lowered by one semitone. ( Did you remember that this means raising or lowering by one fret?)
This means a note can have 2 names because it can be the sharp of a lower note or the flat of a higher note. e.g. C# is the same note as Db
If there is not a # or b sign the note is said to be a natural which can be shown by this symbol If there is no symbol after a note, it is a natural note:
The Scale Of G Major Described In Different Ways
Since we will often be playing in the key of G ( Major) it seems sensible to look at how the notes of that scale can be referred to. You will see that instead of F we now have F#. We don’t really need to go into why that is the case at the moment but I’ll just say it is because of the tone and semitone pattern that I showed you above.
| G | A | B | C | D | E | F# | G |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII |
| Do | Re | Mi | Fa | Sol | La | Ti | Do |
The Scale Of D Major Described In Different Ways
As our last example for now, we will look at the naming systems for D. Notice that the key and scale of D have 2 sharps – F# and C #.
| D | E | F# | G | A | B | C# | D |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII |
| Do | Re | Mi | Fa | Sol | La | Ti | Do |
Intervals
An interval is the difference in pitch between 2 notes. These can be major or minor, diminished or augmented, perfect or imperfect. You really don’t need to know very much about intervals when you are starting out, but you might want to find out a bit more if you are working out harmony.
Sometimes 2 or more notes played together sound good and sometimes they sound bad and that is really to do with the interval ( or gap) between the notes. And that’s probably enough for you to know.
Key Signatures
I have made a PDF for you to download if you want a handy reference of key signatures:
Companion Guide
In this article I explain about the I IV and V chords and the circle of fifths: