So, where does one start, after playing years and years by ear? I have gotten by pretty well playing by ear. But, I do know, all too well, how much I am limited by lack of theory. Two of my bandmates go into "music speak" and sometimes i get lost in the terminology.
Again, where does an intermediate ear player begin? Suggestions?
****EDIT***** *I know my major/minor scales but start to lose it in chord structure,etc
First off i take you will do this on your own because the best way is to get a teacher, but I would apply what you do know out your theory and expand it from there. Take all the songs you know, analyze them and see why they work with what you know. Before you move on and introduce and learn new ideas you really should fully understand what you do know, because that will show you what you don't know and that will be what you learn....a sort of fill in the blanks approach.
Now when you say chord structure to you mean as a whole, or the first part of chord structure which is chord construction? There are four groups of chords
Major, minor, augmented and diminished into which commonly go all degrees of the chromatic scale,so that is 11 notes as roots, so 11 versions of each four standard chord groups.
These groups can all be defined with three notes in the form of a triad, the simplest of chords, so that is 4 x 11 which is 44 basic triads you should know and be able to identify.
Each triad has 6 permutations or inversions so that is now 6 x 44 which is 264 different uses of just those four chord groups as triads.
Sounds a lot, but it can be all learned as the original four groups then expand it.....if need be to as much as you want.
I can count to a million if I want to, but never have done, but what I have done is write out large numbers, or do large calculations, which I can do, because I know how to construct and order the numbers, because I learned units, tens, hundreds, thousands....four groups that will let me expand what I know and learned for when I need it.
So to the four groups you now add the most common of extentions the 7th, now the triad can be seen as an arpeggio, so now that is now another 18 rather than 6 inversions we had.....and so on.
Again it was just the addition of one new learned element that increases the amount of original information that can be applied. That's why it is important to order what you know and learn in sequence to have that solid foundation to build on, which means each new piece of information added, no matter how small or irrelevant it may seem, will expand and increase what you know and can apply.
All this information from four groups expanded and all you have to do is learn the basic construction of each chord group which is root, triad, arpeggio, 7th, 11th, 13th, diminished, augmented then add the new group Dominant 7 to the thinking and it all expands again.
Then new extentions like suspended (sus), sharp5, flat5, 6ths etc can all be added and built on what you learn because you have the correct foundation to do so.
Because of the way a standard bass is tuned in 4ths this means that this info will have shapes and patterns that transfer around the fretboard. So the shape of a C Major triad is the same for all 11 degrees, as is the shape for minor, diminished, augmented, 7ths etc.
It can all be learned and understood on just one note if need be, then expanded because the construction will be the same, just the root will be different.
After construction, it is application, interaction, functionality to melody and harmony etc and that is a different set of lessons and thinking.
But as far as construction goes its four basic groups that have sub sets that then expand in to five groups and sub sets. A few days to a week will see construction learned then you can move on and let it support other ideas.
