To a beginner the world of music theory can seem a daunting one. There are a lot of terms, phrases and ideas that can seem so foreign that they may as well be a different language. Understandably this puts a lot of new players off from starting to learn music theory and apply it to their playing. I was the same until I’d been playing for three years or so and decided start learning some theory to help take my playing up a notch. It has been many years since and I’d like to share some things that I used to get started, and to guide you through the first basic steps of learning to apply music theory to your guitar playing. For the purposes of this article I’m going to assume you’ve taken the first step towards learning theory and learnt wh guitar strap locks ere all the notes are across the neck. If not, then go do that now! Knowing the notes is extremely important to start applying theory. The first thing I did was learn scales and how they are put together starting with the major key, I used C major. The major scale is made from seven different notes. The first note is called the root note, the note that you start the scale with. The root note is where the scale gets its name from. In this case the root note is C, and so the scale is C major. Each fret on a guitar is a half note, or a semitone. To play a major scale go up the neck in the following increments; Root, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, and then a half back to your root one octave higher.