Guitar theory

Nine notes, in order, building on each other. The whole arc is one argument: sargam and Western theory are the same system, taught twice and almost never side by side.

Read them in this order the first time. After that they stand alone.

1. The fretboard — six strings, twelve frets, one octave — #music/fretboard
2. Sargam and the scale — sa re ga ma pa on the strings — #music/sargam
3. Sharps, flats and the twelve — why there is no E♯ — #music/accidentals
4. Chords — why three notes make a chord — #music/chords
5. Beyond the triad — sus, add, and what Dsus2 and Cadd9 really are — #music/voicings
6. The capo — a movable nut, and the physics of it — #music/capo
7. Rhythm and tempo — beats, taal, BPM, time signatures — #music/rhythm
8. Reading music — staff, tab, and the symbols on the page — #music/notation
9. A melody, worked through — one tune, in sargam, tab and theory — #music/melody

The one thing worth knowing first

Sargam is movable. Sa is not a fixed pitch — it is whichever note you decide to call home. Choose C and you are in C major; choose D and every relationship stays identical, just higher. Western solfège calls this movable do, and it is the same idea.

That is why the fret patterns work anywhere on the neck. Learn the shape once and you have it in all twelve keys — and it is why a capo works at all: it does nothing but choose a different Sa.

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