Music Principles for the
Skeptical Guitarist
Volume One: The Big Picture
(©1997; ISBN 0-9665029-0-6)
136 pages

Notes and pitches
The layout of the notes
Tuning the guitar
Chords and chord quality
The Big Fifteen chords
Playing in different keys
The 1-4-5 system
C-A-G-E-D examples
Chord Families
The 1 and 5 chords
Songs in different keys
The 1, 4 and 5 chords Songs in different keys
"Silent Night" in all 5 keys
Choosing the right key
Using the capo
Quiz time for the 1-4-5's Finding the starting note
Adding the Minor chords
Songs in the Keys of G and C
"Rhythm Changes" Secondary Dominants Bunches of useful chords (A-G)

The Chromatic scale
Layout on the neck
The Major scale
The Key of C
Scale degrees and other keys
The Key of G
Worksheet for Major scales
Traveling by Fifths
Major scale summary
The flat keys
The fretboard and the keyboard
Major scale exercises
Back to Chord Families
The C Harmonized Diatonic scale
Major chords versus Minor chords
Four combinations of Thirds Other
Chord Families
Worksheets for Chord Families
C-A-G-E-D Chord Family summary Example: "Morning Has Broken"
Full Chord Family summary
Transposition chart
Details of the 1-4-5 relationship
The Dominant 7th chord
Overlapping Chord Families
Chord substitutions
Triad spellings
My Bio
The Circle of Fifths
More on Secondary Dominants
Examples in the Key of C
Down by a 5th = up by a 4th
Backcycling through all the keys
C-A-G-E-D Chord Family examples
Mixing in the Minor chords
The Jazz Turnaround
"Morning Has Broken" again
Yuletide Backcycling in a the C-A-G-E-D keys Starting notes
Shortcuts in terminology
The 4th of the 4th
Major 7th and Minor 7th chords
Minor keys
C Major versus A Minor
Three kinds of Minor scales
Carols in the Keys of Am, Dm, and Em
Appendix 1: Why the number "five"?
Appendix 2: Key signatures
Volume One in a nutshell
One last quiz