Guitar & Musician Forums

Has anyone here learned music theory just from free resources online (no courses)? I’m a very beginner guitar player — I can only play a few songs — but I started feeling like learning music theory might be a better way to keep improving on guitar. If you learned theory this way, what helped you the most? Any resources or advice for beginners?

I always used to use this website for excersises when I used to be a little more dedictated probably 20 years ago. Nice to find the site still going strong.

https://www.musictheory.net/

The tools are really good for ear training and learning the notes on the fretboard etc if that is your sort of thing. I have not visited the site in quite a while but it looks like they have added some additional lesson material. No experience on the quality but I would thing it would be good based on the quality of the tools.

I highly recommend checking out Scotty West's Absolutely Understand Guitar series on YouTube. It's a great free resource for beginners looking to learn music theory.

I personally learned a lot from the Applied Guitar Theory website. It's mostly free and has some great resources for beginners looking to dive into music theory.

A French guy on YouTube has a complete music theory course that I found really helpful. Definitely worth checking out for free resources.

I suggest listening to the Music Student 101 podcast. Music theory can be applied to any instrument, so don't feel like you need something guitar-specific. It has really helped me improve my understanding of scales and chords.

I've learned a ton of theory online as well. There are so many resources out there, you can pretty much learn everything except reading notation. Keep exploring and you'll find some great free options.

Desi Serna's Fretboard Theory book is also a great resource for beginners looking to learn music theory. It's around $20 but definitely worth the investment.

I've been using the Justin Guitar beginner course videos and they have been a great help in understanding music theory. Definitely recommend it for beginners.

This will explain why Justin’s tuning method can never work. After that, it really isn’t worth digging deeper into his world.

https://islandguitarstudios.com/tuning- ... ml#methods

You might also find JolyMusic useful:

https://jolymusic.com/en/

Full disclosure: I’m the developer, as well as a musician.

I built it because I wanted a more interactive way of connecting music theory with what we actually see, hear and play on an instrument.

Rather than just presenting pages of theory, JolyMusic lets you explore things like intervals, chords, scales and modes visually, hear the results, and see how the notes map onto the guitar fretboard.

One of the main ideas is to make the connection:

theory -> visualization -> ear -> fretboard -> playing

There are also tools for exploring chord/scale relationships and play-alongs for putting some of this into practice.

I wouldn’t suggest using any single website as your only way of learning theory - books, ear training, analysing actual music and playing with other musicians are all important. But interactive tools can be a useful companion when you’re trying to understand why something works rather than simply memorising it.

If you give JolyMusic a try, I’d be very interested to hear whether the visual approach helps you.

https://jolymusic.com/en/