You’ve got the guitar basics down: You can strum your guitar and play a few of your favorite songs, but you’re ready to take the tunes to the next level. In Guitar Scales and Chord Progressions you’ll expand your knowledge of scales, chord fingerings, and common chord progressions. You’ll also learn important skills for soloing, creating melodies, and adding depth and dimension to your guitar playing.
This course is not only for the aspiring guitarist who has taken Berklee’s Guitar for Beginners, but also for guitarists who have let their six-string gather dust for too long, and want to brush up on techniques.
Each lesson covers the four basic aspects you’ll need to sharpen your guitar chops: scales, arpeggios, chord progressions, and rhythm. Amanda’s practical approach to learning these important elements is fun and helps you to use what you’re learning and practicing in a real musical setting. You’ll improve your playing and creativity, whether it be as a singer-songwriter, a guitarist accompanying a singer, or a player in the band. By the end of this course, you’ll be more comfortable playing throughout the neck, and you’ll gain a better understanding of chord structure and how each chord relates to tonal centers or keys. You’ll also be able to solo and improvise by playing simple lead guitar lines based on the minor pentatonic scale. Whether your preference is for acoustic or electric, the curriculum is designed to turn you into a real guitarist.
Status: Music
Music
Status: Music Theory
Music Theory
Intermediate·Course·14 hours
Featured reviews
4.0
·Reviewed Jul 13, 2019
Good, interesting topic, but it does not go deep on anything so I was visiting Youtube after every time I finished a chapter in this course.
5.0
·Reviewed Oct 28, 2020
This course presented a new perspective in doing scales and chords which was really beneficial in my playing as a professional; guitarist.
4.0
·Reviewed May 18, 2020
Teaches major and pentatonic scales, arpeggios, chord progression and 12 bar blues. Essential knowledge for beginners. Lectures are nice and easy to follow. Overall a great course for beginners.
5.0
·Reviewed Dec 20, 2021
A great course which has something to offer to guitar players of all levels and this course really provides a strong foundation to your scales and chord progressions and a lot more.
4.0
·Reviewed May 6, 2020
Definitely a great intro (or refresher) to guitar scales and chord progressions. Amanda does a great job with the lessons and making assignments clear!
4.0
·Reviewed Aug 7, 2020
Pretty good for novice guitar players, as well as some good practice tips and techniques for more advanced players. Really liked the instructor.
5.0
·Reviewed Aug 16, 2020
Excellent, very helpful, the instructor was fantastic, I learned a lot. Would appreciate more examples of putting it all together. I enjoyed the process, even with my busy schedule.
4.0
·Reviewed Jan 27, 2019
Good beginner/early intermediate course which touches on some typical chord progressions and arpeggios and the ionian major scale (but not inversions or other modes and scales)
5.0
·Reviewed Jun 27, 2020
A good course for a guitarist who knows its basics. The professor taught really well. The course content was also apt and carefully constructed. Overall a good course.
5.0
·Reviewed Feb 20, 2021
I loved this course. It taught me so much about theory that I was never able to understand before, and gave me a deep & solid foundation to keep studying it on my own.
5.0
·Reviewed Sep 7, 2023
I am very happy to be able to finish this course. I will keep learning & keep practicing. Thank you for all the Happy Teaching..
5.0
·Reviewed Oct 28, 2018
very useful if you play guitar or want to learn a solid base of basics thanks Amanda Monaco from Berlkee College of Music
All reviews
Showing: 20 of 137
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Y
Yann
2.0
·Reviewed Dec 31, 2018
Does not feel like a higher education course at all. There is very little content or theory, and I don't feel like the teacher talks to me like I'm an adult.
The content "is" useful, but really not enough to justify paying for it... especially with all the resources available online.
Please, MOOCs need higher quality content if we ever want it to be taken seriously.
A
Aditya
5.0
·Reviewed Jun 28, 2020
A good course for a guitarist who knows its basics. The professor taught really well. The course content was also apt and carefully constructed. Overall a good course.
P
Polina
5.0
·Reviewed May 10, 2019
I play guitar for 15 years and yet I found useful info in this course. Really good for beginners!!!
A
Ankush
5.0
·Reviewed Apr 18, 2020
This course has helped me to learn the scales and major chord patterns (major, minor, diminished &augmented). Thanks a lot to Amanda and the team !!
A
Arsena
5.0
·Reviewed Jan 27, 2020
Loved this course! Great for intermediate guitarists. I'm a self-taught guitarist. I've been playing for ten years, but really needed this course to brush up on somethings that my beginner skills needed to outgrow.
V
Vasilis
5.0
·Reviewed May 19, 2020
I'm playing guitar with no formal education and I found this lesson very helpful, inspiring and fun.
Thank you Amanda and coursera crew. Keep up the good work!
N
Nick
5.0
·Reviewed May 13, 2020
Amazing quality of content and order of learning things worked perfectly. Loved the final submission at the end also. Thank you for such a great course.
E
Eduardo
5.0
·Reviewed Oct 29, 2018
very useful if you play guitar or want to learn a solid base of basics
thanks Amanda Monaco from Berlkee College of Music
A
Arnaud
4.0
·Reviewed Nov 22, 2019
A very good introduction to guitar scales and chord progressions if you are not familiar with those. It is good for beginners or experienced guitar player who want to learn the theory. I hope there will be a more advanced one soon.
M
Maria
5.0
·Reviewed Jun 5, 2020
Great course if you are coming from the begginers course of the how to play guitar specialization. I'm really pleased with the material and the way Amanda explains things, she is fun and the information comes in bite size videos. I missed some more downloadable theory but if you get the Berklee e-book you will find quite a lot in there.
J
Jerome
5.0
·Reviewed Feb 10, 2022
The Guitar Scale and Chord Progressions class was fantastic! So far, I have enjoyed two extremely rewarding and satisfying classes on the guitar, and look forward to the next class.
M
Mario
5.0
·Reviewed Aug 17, 2020
Excellent, very helpful, the instructor was fantastic, I learned a lot. Would appreciate more examples of putting it all together. I enjoyed the process, even with my busy schedule.
J
Jose
5.0
·Reviewed Jan 3, 2019
Great course for beginners. You can learn a very important knowledge to be familiar with guitar basics. I highly recomend this course.
T
Thomas
5.0
·Reviewed Jun 12, 2020
A fine opportunity to slow down and pay attention to important details in guitar technique. Great material, excellently presented.
P
Peter
5.0
·Reviewed Nov 25, 2018
Great run through scales , chord progressions & arpeggios whether experienced & reviewing your skills or just getting started.
F
Fredi
5.0
·Reviewed Apr 26, 2020
Excellent Course! Enjoyed the course very much. I learned a lot in this informative course.
Highly recommend it.
A
Angelo
5.0
·Reviewed Apr 23, 2020
Very good and clear introductory course on guitar chords strumming, melody and progressions!
J
John
4.0
·Reviewed Sep 3, 2020
The course is well presented with sufficient basic content for this level. The course culminates in a piece of recorded work which is peer reviewed. Your reviewer is instructed to follow the stated rubric, awarding points for each category of the work. However, the ability of students varies widely on this course which can result in a miss-match between student and peer assessor. It would better if students ability levels were assessed and graded at the beginning of the course, for example, by completing a questionnaire. This could then be used to better match student level to assessor level at the peer review stage. Also where there's a disagreement of the final score, when asked by the student, the assessor should respond, justifying their assessment.
N
Noah
3.0
·Reviewed Oct 22, 2020
This is a very beginner level course. If you're an intermediate or advanced player you're not going to get much out of it. Beginners will find it useful.
T
Tanel
5.0
·Reviewed May 2, 2020
Guitar Scales and Chord Progressions is encouraging 4-week video-course series with a peer to peer community. The course reminded to use the metronome beats to keep the tempo, to focus on accuracy over speed (to play slow), encouraged to make mistakes. The instruction videos were clear to understand and setting week goals kept motivating to continue. It was nice to read other students comments and analyze self-progress in every week. Most rememberable were arpeggios and 12-bar blues. Also opportunity to study theory along with practice. It´s a great way to pick up the instrument and commit to practice regularly.
