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Chapter 7 - Tonic and Dominant chords, Scales and Arpeggios explained



Excerpt from 'Guitar Playing and how it works' © Peter Inglis 2003 - Image © Peter Inglis - The Whole Guitarist - www.thewholeguitarist.com.
The double page spread at page 85 looks like this.

From page 85:

This chapter contains the basic building blocks of music in practical and usable fingerings for the guitar. Scales and arpeggios are the living, breathing language, the alphabet or "common phrases" which when put together form a musical language.

The material can be played in duet, or with any number of players.

Tonic and dominant chords are shown alone, and also as they relate to the basic scales. The chord voicings used don't follow any strict rules beyond some contrary motion in the outer voices and being easy to play on the guitar.

Practicing with this type of material prepares the student for "real music". The material also progresses around the cycle of fourths, travelling through all keys, with the appropriate cadences. Each section ends with a dominant 7th to tonic (perfect cadence).

The material overall is limited in complexity as it is intended to be memorised - and then practised from memory, not strummed through while staring at the printed page!

Excerpt from 'Guitar Playing and how it works' © Peter Inglis 2003 - Image © Peter Inglis - The Whole Guitarist - www.thewholeguitarist.com.
Mr. Tonic and Miss Dominant... or is it the other way around?

How to use the material.

Practice from memory, not from reading.

Join up adjacent keys as learned and then follow the progression around the cycle of fourths. This trains the student's ear to hear this most fundamental of key and chord progressions so that the fingers are not being exercised in an abstract, non - musical context.

The material in Classical terms would cover First Grade up to the middle grades. Teachers can decide which keys are to be tackled first, and assign material relevant to the pupil's level of experience and current repertoire.

For example, a beginner might first learn the C major scale on one string ... then the C and G7 chords ... then perhaps the C and G7 basic arpeggios in 1st position. Or they might learn the basic chords in a few keys first.

The final chapter of this book contains examples of how to create practice material from your repertoire.



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