Ahh yes… The age old question that has crept into every guitarists mind at some point. Should I learn theory? A task so daunting that it feels like it would be easier to learn to a tribal language or assemble a Boeing 747. All of the confusion, the effort, the snobbery surrounding it, why not just sip whisky, read tabs and play power chords until the sun goes down? And while this might be a satisfying enough way to play guitar, you’re never going to get to know your instrument. You won’t know why things sound good, you won’t know how to recreate them, and if the internet goes down and you’ve got no one to copy and no tabs to read, what then? Can you still play without simply practising what you’ve already learned? I didn’t think so.

Theory teaches you not just the ‘how’s and the ‘why’s of music, but how to think about music. If you can learn and understand music as a system, I guarantee you will transform into the player you’ve always wanted to be, instead of “I just play with feel bro”. And whilst you can stumble upon good music this way, wouldn’t it be easier if you had a map that showed you the way? A map that shows you exactly how to create the sounds you want to create? How to develop them into full songs, how to improvise and adapt them and modulate them, how to talk about them with other musicians? Well, that’s theory.

Learning theory doesn’t have to be difficult, but if you try to go it alone, chances are you will get lost in the fog. Music theory is complicated, and it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to understand it, but with the right guide and the right tools, you will surprise yourself with how quickly you pick it up. You can think of music theory as a language. It has rules and it has structure, it has standardised ways of expressing things so that everything you hear on guitar connects to this centralised system. Without understanding our own language, we wouldn’t be able to decipher what other people were saying, or come up with sentences of our own. We’d only be able to parrot what others have said before. Learning the language adds order to the chaos, and whilst much creativity emerges from chaos, you need to be able to capture it and then understand it if you want it to flourish. Once you break through the barriers of understanding how it all works together, you get an unparalleled moment of clarity. Suddenly the fog lifts and you can see the way forwards, and this is the moment where you really start to feel like a musician. This is the where being a guitarist takes off and you are transported to the next level. This is where you’ll be able to do everything you set out to achieve when you first picked up the guitar, and you will reach new heights that you never expected to get to.

Theory isn’t just for the nerds, it isn’t just an optional extra to playing guitar. It is the best way to become the guitarist you have always wanted to be. Don’t just take my word for it. If you’re brand new to theory, go and checkout out Foundations – Guitar Theory Made Easy, a course designed to ease you into theory without any technical jargon or confusion. In this course, I show you the fundamentals of music theory and I make it as easy as possible for you, to show you that there’s nothing to be intimidated by when you have someone guiding you through the storm. For the price of a single hour of 1-1 lessons, you will have a detailed guide that you can access for life, in multiple formats, on the core foundations of guitar theory. Don’t worry though, once you’ve mastered that, there’s always more to explore and dive into at PJL Guitars, go and check out my free lessons, and the intermediate theory course is already underway, so stick around and let’s go on this guitar journey together. I promise, you won’t regret it.