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To understand how songs are made or indeed, how chord progressions are made we need to understand their relationship to keys.

We have all heard of musical keys  - some songs stay within a key, others move from it.

First we need to understand how a key is made up.

Here is the major scale

C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C

Nice and easy as we have no sharps or flats.

now to make a major chord we take the first, third and fifth note from the major scale to get the major chord. So to get a C major chord we take the first note (C) the third (E) and fifth (G)

We can actually do this with each note of the major scale.  This is also known as harmonising the major scale.

Here is where you need to know all your keys - If we take the second degree of the C major scale - the D. Lets take the first, the third and the fifth note of the C major scale but starting at the note D. This gives us D - F and A.

Now if we know our keys we will know that in the Key of D there are 2 sharps - F# and C#

This means that if the above chord was a D major chord we would not have an F but an F#. Again - using our theory knowledge we know that to create a minor chord we take the first, flattened third and the fifth or a major scale. This would be D - F - A. This means that building a chord off of the second degree of a major scale will result in a minor chord.

If we continue doing this with each note you will find that the chords work out like this -

Major - Minor - Minor - Major - Major - Minor - Diminished

If you play through the chords this way it will sound like you are playing the major scale but in chords.

Play these chords and check it out.

C - Dm - Em - F - G - Am - Bdim - C

If a song was written purely in the key of C then it would only use the above chords. Of course this can be extended to 7th chords which we will do another time.

Whichever key you choose the formula will remain the same so get into your head :

Major Minor Minor Major Major Minor Diminished.

We label these chords with roman numerals so they can be transposed into any key you like very easily.

I - II - III - IV - V - VI - V11 - I

so if someone said to you to play the I - IV - V progression in the key of C then you would play C - F - G

I hope this makes sense - there is plenty more to learn regarding this which I will go into -

Any questions?

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Hi Guys

I wonder how many of you have used a Floyd Rose tremelo system on your guitar. They are common on Ibanez Guitar and Jacksons as well as many others.

Satriani and Vai use these systems as well as many others.

basically the bridge pivots on 2 pins which allows you to use the whammy bar in both directions. The bridge stays in position via a fine balance between the springs on the back and the tension of the strings.

The first time I tried to string up one of these I had a nightmare. As soon as you manage to get something in tune it puts another string out. I spent hours trying to do it. Very frustrating indeed.

These days It takes me about 10 minutes to totally restring a guitar and have it in perfect tune - and stays in perfect tune.

Here is how I do this.

The first important step is to put something under the Floyd Rose bridge to stop is moving back once you have loosened the strings. I usually use a folded piece of card or even my empty string packet to do this.

Now remove all the strings and fit the new ones to the bridge. Tighten all the strings so they feel tensioned.

Now remove whatever you had holding the bridge up. Hopefully the bridge should now be sitting in pretty much it's normal place.

Check that no strings are excessively tensioned. ~If they are there must be another string that is excessively loose. Tighten the loose one first then take the tension off the the tight string.

Now here is the important part - before tuning you want to stretch the strings otherwise they be constantly going out of tune. To do this rest the palm of your hand on the string by the bridge. Put your index finger under the string and lift the string up. Hold for 5 seconds and release. It's important not to overstretch the string here so don't pull on it too hard.

Go through each of the strings and do this. Once done you will want to bring your guitar pretty much in tune. This should be quite easy now. Don't accurately tune any strings, just get them all so they are within one or 2 notes of being tuned. You will find as you adjust some others will go out of tune. This is normal.

Once this is done you need to go though the stretching procedure once more on each of the strings.

Now tune your guitar so it is accurately in tune. Again, do not concentrate on one string. bring them all to pretty much in tune then tune them individually.

Finally one last stretch of the strings. Hopefully by now you will only have some of the stings ever so slightly out of tune. Tune those back up and and you are done. Perfect.

Any questions then fire away.