Music charts
Almost nothing a musician has to learn early on is difficult. It is invisible, which is a different problem: which notes the key signature carries, where the same shape sits three frets up, how long a dotted quaver actually lasts. A sheet on the wall answers that without the instrument leaving your hands, and that is the whole difference between looking something up and losing the thread.
Three kinds of sheet sit under this tag. Theory that does not change — the circle of fifths, note values, intervals. The geography of an instrument — the notes along the fretboard, the layout of the keyboard, first chords for guitar and ukulele, the pentatonic box, scale fingering, and the alternate tunings from drop D to open C. And two working references for anyone who records rather than only plays: which instruments occupy which part of the spectrum, and where things usually sit across the stereo field.
They are made for a practice room, the wall above a piano, or the space beside a desk in a small studio. A3 is the sensible default; A4 only if it hangs within reach of the stool.
BARRE CHORDS
two shapes, twelve chords each
CIRCLE OF FIFTHS
12 keys · key signatures · relative minors
THE ELECTRIC GUITAR PICKUP
one coil or two · six builds · where it sits along the string, and how high above it
FIRST CHORDS
15 chords every beginner starts with · standard tuning E A D G B e
NOTES ON THE FRETBOARD
standard tuning E A D G B e · first twelve frets
THE PENTATONIC
three positions · the root is marked
TONEWOODS
density, hardness, export · what is measured kept apart from what is taste
THE STEREO FIELD
what stays centred · what is spread · why the low end is not panned
NOTE VALUES
from whole to thirty-second · how many fit a 4/4 bar
C MAJOR FINGERING
right and left · one octave and two
THE KEYBOARD
three octaves · every key and its note on the staff
DADGAD
D — A — D — G — A — D