1. Topics of discussion

In this one, we're gonna take a look at how chords are built and what chords are part of major scales and minor scales. So, get on the square and on the level, and let's go.

2. Understanding thirds

In music, a third is a musical interval comprised of 3 different notes. Musical Intervals are of course measured between two distinct notes but in order for that interval to be a third, the total number of notes, including the two, must be 3. So in essence, we have the starting note, one in the middle, and the end note.

Musical intervals are usually measured between notes from a major or minor scale and thirds are no different. We have two types of thirds:

• major thirds - which occur when the first and second notes are separated by 1 step (or 2 frets on your guitar) and the second and third notes are also separated by 1 step (also 2 frets on your guitar); such an example is C-E, because C-D is one tone and D-E is another tone.
• minor thirds - which occur when the first and second notes are separated by 1 step (or 2 frets on your guitar) and the second and third notes are separated by 1 half-step (1 fret); such an example is D-F, because D-E is one tone and E-F is a half-step; the tonal distances can be swapped (i.e. E-G is still a minor third, with E-F being the first 2 notes, which are separated by 1 half-step)

3. Triads and basic chords

In music, a triad is obtained by playing 3 notes at the same time. Now these notes can be any notes, but in our case, we are interested in 4 particular types:

• major triads - formed by playing 3 notes, the first 2 forming a major third and the second two forming a minor third; one such example is C-E-G
• minor triads - formed by playing 3 notes, the first 2 forming a minor third and the second two forming a major third; one such example is D-F-A
• augmented triads - formed by playing 3 notes, the first 2 forming a major third and the second two also forming a major third; one such example is C-E-G#
• diminished triads - formed by playing 3 notes, the first 2 forming a minor third and the second two also forming a minor third; one such example is B-D-F

What does this have to do with anything you ask? Well, in order to play a basic chord (i.e. major, minor, augmented, or diminished), it's enough to play the corresponding triad formed on the note.

Of course, when it comes to guitar, the triad is not always present. For example, in the D major chord, which can be played as D-F#-A, The A, while being present, is in a lower octave than F#.

4. Chords of a scale

Major scales have 7 different notes, and therefore, each major scale has a total number of 7 different chords. The minor scale functions in a similar manner.

But what chords are part of the major scale? Well, the answer is simple. If we are to take a look at what type of triad can be on each note of a major scale, then that will give us the corresponding chord type. Let's visualize this for the C major scale:


See the correspondence between triad type and chord type? The triad type also gives you the chord type.

Let's now play all the chords of the C major scale:

For minor chords, the chord types are the same, just in a different order. Let's take a look at the chords of the A minor scale:


That about covers it for this one.

Hey everyone! Welcome to the Family, I just wanted to introduce myself and say that I go by David or Dave either. I’m delighted to have this opportunity to come here and learn with all of you who are also still progressing, advancing and new and climbing through the ranks of music alike! I’m 26 I’m from Wv and I’ve been playing for 8 years I’m a big fan of the band, and was inspired to play by them. I enjoy succeeding in keeping others creative-minded, intuitive and introducing music to them and creating my own riffs and fun kadoodles on guitar, I also know the piano some! I can’t wait to start the curriculum and do my best on the tests and hopefully improve & expand my abilities. Creativity, positivity, and compassion is going to be my key components that I bring to the table and I can’t wait to see what the rest of you have to share!
Thanks all,
Good luck!

D.S.

Hi everyone, I'm Avery! I'm new to the site bit I've been playing guitar for about 11 years. I also play piano (13 years), cello, bass, and drums! Last year I started doing covers and I'm hoping to work on some original music this year. Super stoked to be here

Hi Everyone
New to the site, been playing guitar 8 years.
Studying a part time music degree.
Here to learn and apply music theory to my guitar playing that I have been learning.
Also looking to improve my solo skills.
Been playing covers for a while but want to focus on finding my own sound.

I've seen a lot threads on here asking about how people can get a guitar tone like Syn or Avenged Sevenfold. While this tip won't get you all the way there, I figured I'd share this information with everyone since I have it.

Fred Archambault, who engineered on Waking The Fallen, City of Evil, Self Titled, and Nightmare, revealed to me a few years ago that a good chunk of Syn's lead tone is the Boss CS-3 Compressor Pedal. Fred and I also briefly discussed it a few months back when I bought the Bogner from him.

Before you run out and buy this pedal, please understand what a compressor is and what it does. If you go and buy one and plug it in and turn it on, you might be a little disappointed because you don't notice it doing much, unless you're on extreme settings. To put it simply, a compressor is used to control dynamics. The guitar is a relatively dynamic instrument, especially when playing leads. In order to control those dynamics and sort of even out the volume and depth of each note, people will use a compressor. Compression is generally a subtle effect, and most people have to train their ears to even hear and recognize compression, unless it's used drastically.


Here's a description of this specific pedal from Boss:

"The CS-3 Compression Sustainer pedal compresses louder signals while boosting lower signals, providing smooth sustain without degrading the original sound quality. Onboard Level, Tone, Attack and Sustain controls for precise tonal shaping, and the low-noise design allows super-quiet operation. This is the perfect pedal for guitarists and bassists who want to sound their best."



This thread isn't meant to dive too far into the science of a compressor, so please do further research if you'd like. I don't know Syn's settings on this pedal, but to me, his leads sound like they have a fair amount of Attack and Sustain, and not overdoing it on the actual compression. I'm sure he uses the Level as a slight boost in order to make the leads pop out a little. I also don't think he uses this exact pedal live anymore, as the Axe FX has built in compressors he can use. He did use this pedal at one point, and is a great price friendly option.

Sorry for sharing your secrets, @Syn Gates!

Does anyone else have an A7x song that completely describes their state of mind? I somehow have two

I wrote a song for dark metal. From reverb nation. Want to get a thread going for anyone else that does this kind of music.

here is what I posted for an example:

I want to learn scales as much as i can learn.But i guess every scales has more than one positions.How can i learn them ?

What’s the first A7x song you heard?

Please post your entries here, remember the rules please!

Hello everyone! I just wanted to say that everyone here has been so encouraging and Rejuvenating to be around. I am so thrilled to be able to share my musical journey with you all and to part of anyone else's. You all mean so much to me and I'm so thankful to be around so many other brilliant musicians that I look up to and learn so much from.
I made this post just to tell you all that I love you and I'm so grateful for you and SYN and Papa G. Hope everyone's new years is going well! Keep going and never stop learning from each other ( :

- Ian

It would be awesome to see more graphics on the homepage that gives everyone an awesome, inspirational reminder of the greats behind this endeavor. It just looks like a social media page at the moment. Something even like a badass photo of Syn wearing his new badass merch on the left with a text that says "Learn the exact techniques that you need to become a rockstar!" Or "The only 100% FREE online guitar school". Something like that! You could have Syn on the left and Papa on the right. Anything that just brings more color and eye appeal to the site instead of just text and buttons.
Also! I get a lot of questions about "where should I start in the school?" it would be awesome to have a feature like that RIGHT when you enter the site and create an account for the first time. It's like a thing that pops up that says "Many students are unsure where to start their lessons. Would you like to take our complimentary placement quiz for a suggestion of where to start?" And even make it a feature on the MAIN PAGE that all current students can see.

I'm still learning how these forums are formatted / broken down, so if this should go somewhere else or is not allowed, please let me know.

I, female guitarist, am joining forces with a female drummer and male multi-instrumentalist in the Seattle area. Our female vocalist is currently located in CA. We are looking for one or more other guitarists to move forward with our heavy and melodic project. I will state up front two things: we are hoping that this guitarist lives local to the northwest, for ease of collaborating. And we are preferring to spotlight a female guitarist, due to the fact that our band is already majority female.

That said, we are open to working with anyone that gives us the right vibe, so I am reaching out here. I'm not super active in posting, but I read the threads often and appreciate all of the open-mindedness and like-mindedness of this community.

The previous incarnation of our band has some recordings so you can get the idea of our direction. However, we will be restructuring the songs.

Influences: A7X, Parkway Drive, Deftones, In This Moment, In Flames and many more

We are vaccinated, and assume you are too.

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Hey guys!! Im trying to make a custom guitar for syn and I could really use your help to get him to see this!! Please click the link and share the best you can thank you!!

Good day everyone!

I come to you with a little special announcement... in order to start this year on a good note and to celebrate the new merch drop, we thought it would be fun to do a little contest for y'all! And so I introduce to you the Synners on display contest!!!

Okay so what is it about? Well it's very simple, all you gotta do is take a picture of you with Synner merch BUT you gotta make it as original,funny,creative,etc... as possible. Goal is to really make it as accessible to everyone as possible! And so, we decided to add a little twist: we will allow ''DIY'' merch! So what the hell is DIY merch? Well, if you want to be creative, all you gotta do is take a piece of clothing OR an object really (who remember the Synner mug and bed sheets?) and just gotta add either the logo or Synner on it! Again, be creative!!! Don't half ass it!

How to participate:
- Take a photo of you with Synner merch (either bought or DIY)
- Submit it to this thread: https://synner.com/threads/synner-on-display-submissions.5968/
- ???
- You already won because Synners are winners
- 1 person will be selected to win

Rules:
- One entry per person. However, if you wish to change your entry, you are allowed to do so as long as it’s done before the deadline!
- Synner merch must appear on the photo and if you want to ‘’create’’ the merch, you have to make it clear that it’s Synner related with either the logo or the name. Object and clothing accepted
- No photoshop or heavy editing accepted. We will allow filters but for the moment, we want to challenge you to keep it ''raw''.
- One entry per person. Since there can only be on individual winner, we advise against team up entries.
- No offensive content. Let's remain respectful.
- No plagiarism. If anyone has any suspicions that someone else copied their photos, we invite them to DM any of the mods and we will investigate the claim.

Contest duration: The contest will start RIGHT NOW and will end on January 16th at midnight PST.

How will we choose the winner? Ah this is the fun question but unfortunately, I only have a vague answer to give: we will know who the winner is once we see it! We gave you some rules but other than that, we give you complete freedom to be as wild and creative as possible! And so, when the contest ends, us moderators will take a look at the submission and select a winner!

And now...

The prize: Again, have you seen the new killer merch??? Well you should go check it out because if you win, you could chose 1 piece from the new OF YOUR CHOICE* / 3 months of legend+ upgrade as well as a contest winner banner on your profile. I think that this is a pretty rad prize if I may say so...

*as long as the size/item you want is available since they are limited in supply

And so may the new contest BEGIN!

- Rad Synner

Hey family!
So, I'm working on putting together a set of topics to cover in tomorrow's stream (12pm to 3ish-pm CST) and wanted to see what anyone might want to be covered?
I am definitely going to do some A7X song breakdowns...so, for that: what songs are you interested in? What parts?
I could do tips & tricks for beginners that relate to anything you're curious about, I could demonstrate any of the lessons, or etudes, in the school.
Let me know what you guys think! There will be a VOD of the stream so anybody will be able to go back and watch/rewatch it.

Cheers,
jooshellis

Hey everyone!

We're super excited to announce that streaming is officially coming soon! I know we made an announcement about streaming earlier this year because we were so excited about it, but after several months of hard work on this platform, we can finally say that it's coming to the site soon!

AND we want you all to be involved by having your own channel! By having your own channel, you'll be able to share your guitar tips with other students, host gaming events or contests, or just hang out on stream and chat to name a few things you can do, but the possibilities are endless! Let us know if you're interested in streaming and having a channel of your own by filling out the survey below

If you're interesting in having your own channel fill this out -> Survey

Welcome to the NFT A7X ROC BBQ super fiesta extravaganzza!

Ph9nes at 2 percent.

Is there any bonus for referring people to the app? like bringing more traffic to the site for more engagement?

If not, should there be? like being sent a random NFT for inviting..idk 5 or 10 friends?


Just a thought

So i just got a new Schecter Omen Elite 6 for Christmas, and i tried tuning to D# to learn some Alice in Chains songs and ill get each string to perfect tune then about 30 seconds later if i play the string again its out of tune like almost a half step... i have a floyd rose and its still slipping out of tune even with the tuning nuts. Can anyone help me figure out how to fix this? Is this something i can fix on my own or should i take it to Guitar Center to have it checked out?

There's a youtuber named "TheDooo" who is capable of hearing songs and reproducing them on guitar, and they are usually between easy and medium difficulty (They don't have jazz chords or stuff like that) and I'd like to learn to do that because I think it'd be helpful as a musician. How can I develop an ability like that? and how much time does it requiere to improve on that?

I never learned the scale shapes with the Caged system, just the chord shapes but I decided to learn the belonging chord with them according to CAGED.
Basically the Caged scales shapes are Lydian, Aeolian, Locrian, Dorian, and Phrygian? I feel like it's missing the original major scale.

Edit: I'm referring to modes as the shapes, not to different scales.

I was almost asleep when an idea struck me and i had to post it. First off, looooove the app. Its so much fun to learn how to use it (its very intuitively designed, like a better,far more streamlined, and far less genocide provoking version of FB haha)and interact with all the SYNNERS out there. Anyway back to the main subject of this thread.

Perhaps there should be a thread dedicated to community feedback on their interactions with the app, and possible upgrades/updates in the future could be discussed as well.

One such idea: What if, while using the MEDIA tab and posting riffs, we could just record a video on our mobile?

It would then be uploaded to the app as an mp4 or other local video source. in addition to what we have to do currently. Having to post to our instas or youtube or whatever online media source you like to post, and copy that link and then paste into the field desinated for that link, and waiting for the link to clear to post it.

Im sure there are justified, totally valid reasons for why this isnt a thing. just a thought.

Also, another idea. Unless this is already a thing and i just dont remember seeing it.

A tutorial for navigating the app? like a Synner clippy. haha


Okay im gonna try and sleep (Play Halo for an hour before bed and its currently 3:10 am)

Hey everyone, I'm really looking forward to being a part of this community and pursuing the lessons here - In a sense, I'm posting this to hold myself accountable to being active on this site. I've been playing for over 12 years and have a decent amount of technical skills (always love playing through a7x songs) but have realized I am seriously lacking in truly grasping the full depth of the guitar. I've always leaned on tabs, and have stunted bit of growth in terms of playability, especially amongst others in group sessions.

I'm looking forward to powering through the lessons here!

Hey there synners and kittens...

I had some deep thoughts that I wanted to share with all of you and maybe you'll find it comforting or helpful, or maybe you'll just have some thoughts to add to it.

Anyway, my life has changed so much since I moved to a new place. It's hard. But in a good way. For the first time in my life, I'm not living under the umbrella of anyone else. Even when I lived on my own several times before, my family ALWAYS had their nose in my business telling me what to do. But now it's different. And that means, for the first time in my life, I can truly express myself and find out who I really am. I'm gonna try to break this down a bit. From what I learned about myself FROM OTHERS and what they told ME I was:

I am a narcissist
I am manic bipolar
I am lazy
I'm unmotivated
I'm a slacker
I have a sugar addiction
I'm terrible with my finances
I'm an impulsive spender
I have depression
I have an obsessive compulsive disorder with my weight


Listen to all of those negative things that others have made me feel believe I am. It's a huge list. Next thing I know, I'm micromanaging every task and thing in my life trying to "fix" these other things people have said about me. And it becomes overwhelming. Just because you enjoy a glass of wine or a beer after work, does not make you an alcoholic. Just because you get random bouts of energy and go on a cleaning frenzy, doesn't mean you're manic. Just because you sulk and you feel for a day or even a month, doesn't make you depressed.

I was talking with a friend a few days ago, and their therapist suggest them to change their coping mechanisms. My friend was told things like "you need to change your behavior" (I'm just paraphrasing what was said), and I told my friend, "but what if this is who you are? Is what you're doing TRULY negative and harmful to yourself and to others?"

At what point do we start changing who we actually ARE in order to be who people PERCEIVE we should be? If you ask me, this seems like this mentality continuously places the blame on OURSELVES instead of OTHERS who have done us harm. We have become a culture accustomed to "self-awareness" and "mindfulness" that we are starting to overlook that well, maybe we're just fine how we are. Maybe this is who we are. And maybe we don't have anxiety, maybe it's trauma from the horrible things people have done to us.

Have you ever noticed that people will say "I have anxiety" instead of "my parents abandoned me and I was raped when I was 12." Or how about people will say "I'm an alcoholic" instead of "my wife stresses me out and I'm really miserable about my job."
I personally feel like when we place this weight on ourselves, we carry that burden of ruminating faults within our very being. I'm not saying blame others for your problems. And if you actually DO have a problem, then it should change.

Like do you have anxiety and randomly lash out and beat your child because of it? Or are you just anxious?
The first example is clearly an issue that needs to change. But the latter is just a personality trait.

Anyway, I'm getting off on a tangent. I hope I'm making sense. What I'm trying to say, is I've learned a lot about myself and I've clarified the following...


I am a narcissist No, I just have confidence and I get upset when people view me as unworthy
I am manic bipolar No, I get motivated and have creative sparks where I realize I took on more than I could handle
I am lazy No, I just enjoy my downtime and relaxing
I'm unmotivated No, I just don't feel guilty for not being a slave to success
I'm a slacker No, I'd rather just be doing something else because the task I'm "slacking on" is of no interest to me
I have a sugar addiction No, I just enjoy sweet stuff as a part of fun things in life. I can go weeks without it if I need to.
I'm terrible with my finances No, I manage my money just fine. I just choose not open up 10 thrift savings plans or IRA accounts
I'm an impulsive spender No, I just find joy in finally being able to afford little things I like for once in my life
I have depression No, sometimes I just feel like sulking and being in thought and reflective
I have an obsessive compulsive disorder with my weight No, I'm tired of being obese my whole life and I'm on an inspired path to change that


I would like to iterate that I am not demeaning or devaluing ANYONE'S mental health or professional diagnosis. I was just truly thinking that sometimes we project our own demands of life onto others. And just because you go to someone else's house and their dishes aren't done, doesn't mean they're a slob.

So my final question is: are you being who you want to be confidently? Or do you ever find yourself changing who you truly are to fit the narrative of someone else that's been in your ear far too much?

I've let a lot of this go, and I've never been happier.