The 1st string & a few more chords

Okay so you've learned a little something about rhythm & how to count. Don't get too lost in the concept of counting. We're mostly going to be counting to 4 for a while and that's about it.

So now let's look at the notes on the first string. And remember, that's the little string at the bottom of the neck. The open string plays the note E. The 1st fret is an F & the 3rd fret is a G.

We're going to start out by picking up, down & around these 3 notes. So try to play through the following piece. Watch your fingering & take your time until you have it down smoothly. It doesn't matter at this point whether all your pick strokes are downstrokes or alternating downstrokes & upstrokes. But we will begin alternating our pick strokes soon. So you're welcome to try playing this piece using a down/up/down/up picking stroke. Then you'll be ahead of the game!

This might seem kind of dull at first. But there is a method to the madness. You'll see what I mean as we learn the notes on the adjacent string & beyond. For the time being, you can be proud of the fact that you've just learned 3 notes on the C scale.

And since we're talking about the C scale, let's go ahead & learn the C major chord. Here is the C major chord grid:

C major starts out so many popular songs. It's a very popular chord! Consider "Imagine" by John Lennon, "Like A Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan & "Don't Look Back In Anger" by Oasis just as a few. Or "The Star Spangled Banner" by Jimi Hendrix!

Strum through the C major chord a few times until you can play it smoothly & clearly. Once you have it down, you can move on to the next chord we will learn today: the G major chord.

G major, like C major, is an extremely popular chord. It starts off & forms the basis for thousands of songs! Consider "Night Moves" by Bob Seger, "Pink Houses" by John Cougar Mellencamp & "Under The Boardwalk" by the Drifters.

The C major & G major chords almost make a tune by themselves. They go together quite well! And there's a good reason for that. You'll learn why when we start talking about music theory. For the time being, just strum the C major chord followed by the G major chord & back again.

And congratulations! You've learned all the first position open major chords. These are the CAGED chords, like we talked about in the first chord lesson. C-A-G-E-D! Play them all, one after the other. They don't sound like they go together do they? But they do!

Play C major, then G major, then D major, then A major & finally E major. Recognize that progression? It's "Hey Joe" by Jimi Hendrix. Bet you didn't think you'd be learning any Hendrix this soon, did you? Now you can impress all your friends! And here's the sheet music to practice with:

I hope you enjoyed this lesson. Next time, we'll learn some notes on the 2nd string & put them together with the notes we just learned on the 1st string. Plus we'll learn a few more chords. Until then, rock the house!

Rhythm Lesson 1

Since we learned a few chords in our last lesson, now it's time to talk about rhythm. Music is all about counting. You have to know how long to stay on one note before going to the next note. And then how long to stay on that note. And so on. And the same could be said for chords. Musicians depend on counting to know when to come in or when to lay out in a song.

This is the standard notation for music in the civilized world. It is called the treble clef staff. The little symbol to the left is the treble clef, also sometimes called a G clef. There are some other clefs that get used in music, depending on the instrument. But here we will only be concerned with the treble clef & tablature, or tab for short. We'll go over tab notation later.

The staff is made up of the horizontal lines you see going left to right. This is where the notes will be represented. And it is through this representation that musicians can communicate with each other. It is the language of music. Think of the staff as a graph. The tone or pitch of a note is represented on the vertical and the length of time you spend on each note, or the rhythm of the piece, is represented on the horizontal. So higher pitched notes will appear near the top of the staff & lower pitched notes near the bottom.

The numbers next to the treble clef tell us the time signature for this piece of music. In  this example, it is called 4/4 time, pronounced "four four". It is written as a fraction. The top number means there will be 4 beats in each measure. The bottom number means a whole note gets 4 beats. Sounds like a foreign language doesn't it? Well don't worry. Keep reading & I'll explain.

Here we have a breakdown of what the different notes on the staff mean, as far as rhythm goes. Start at the top. A whole note gets 4 beats in the first example. So, every time you see this note, no matter where it falls on the staff, you will pick that note & hold it for 4 beats.

Two half notes make up a whole note, since each half note is literally half of a whole note. A half note gets 2 beats. And a half note is made up of 2 quarter notes. Each quarter note gets 1 beat. So there are 4 quarter notes for every whole note. This means that you will play each quarter note for 1 beat before moving on to the next note.

Here is another example of what the notes represent, as far as rhythm or timing as concerned. When you see a whole note, you will pick that note - an F in this case - and count 1, 2, 3, 4 before going on to the next note. The other notes are counted as you see in this example. Let's try an exercise:

You can click on the picture above & print it out on a full page if you like. This is the A major chord you just learned. Notice the notation. Don't worry about the notes on the staff yet. We'll get to that. Just play the A major chord like you learned in the last lesson. In the 1st measure of this example, strum the chord once & count 1, 2, 3, 4 before moving to the next measure. Then, in the 2nd measure, you'll strum once & count 1, 2 & then strum again, counting 1, 2. In the 3rd measure, you'll strum the chord once for each beat. So you'll strum it 4 times. Practice strumming downward the first time, then upward the second time, alternating each time. In the 4th measure, you'll strum 8 times - up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down. And so on.

See? It's not that difficult. Incidentally, the TAB that you see underneath the staff is a different way of notating music, called tablature, as mentioned earlier. We'll get into that in the next lesson & learn a few more chords. Until then, keep strumming the above example until it is smooth as silk. See you next time & rock on!

Your first 3 chords

Okay it's time to play some music! You've tuned your instrument & you've learned something about the basic parts of a guitar. Now let's go over some basic chords & strum your first chord patterns.

We're going to start at the beginning of the alphabet with the chord A major. The A major chord is a first position chord. The first position chords are C, A, G, E, D. See? They make an anagram: CAGED. There are a few others, but these are the simplest to start with.

In the diagrams on this page, the guitar neck is represented as a box. The vertical lines are the strings & the horizontal lines are frets. Except for the top of the box, which represents the nut. So it's basically a graphic representation of the first 5 frets on your guitar. Get used to this graphic, because we will use it over & over again.

Notice the numbers in the diagrams. They tell you which fingers to use & where to put them. Look at your fret hand - for a right handed guitarist, this is your left hand, obviously. Your fingers are numbered 1, 2, 3 & 4 left to right, which corresponds to your index, middle, ring & pinky finger. If you're a left handed guitarist, then it's just the opposite.

So, for the A chord we're using fingers 1, 2 & 3 behind the 2nd fret. And you strum from the A string down. That's why there's an "X" over the E string, indicating that you don't play it on this chord. Therefore, the A chord is sometimes called a 5 string chord, since you're only using 5 strings to play it.

Strum the A major chord a few times. Don't press down too hard. Just enough so that the strings sound clearly & cleanly. You don't want to hear any buzzing when you strum. Let your fingers relax for a second & then try it again.

Sounds cool doesn't it? There are so many popular songs which start with this chord! "Southern Cross" by Crosby, Stills & Nash & "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by the Beatles & "Jessica" by the Allman Brothers Band - just to name a few.

It's hard to play a song with only one chord to choose from, however. And it would get pretty boring anyway, banging away on the same five strings & holding down the same three fingers. So let's try another chord to go with A major.

The next diagram is the E major chord. Go ahead & give it a try, paying attention to the indicated finger placement. Notice on this chord, all six strings come into play. So you strum from the top string all the way down, all six strings. E major is therefore a 6 string chord. Strum the E major chord several times, until you can play it cleanly. Simple huh?

E major is another chord that leads off some very popular songs. Think of "Peaceful Easy Feeling" by the Eagles or "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash or "Back in Black" by AC/DC. All these start off with an E major chord.

Try strumming A major & then E major & back again. See? You've almost got a song going there. In fact, you could easily write a song with just those two chords. But let's add a third chord into the mix, for some more variety.

The last diagram shows the D major chord. Notice the finger placement. On a D major, you only play the bottom four strings. That's why the E string & A string are crossed out. So D major is a 4 string chord.

George Harrison of the Beatles once said there are probably a million songs that can be written around the D major chord. You'll see what he meant later on, when we get into some variations. Let's just say that it is a very popular chord among guitarists! And it's also one of the first chords you learn.

For now, just strum D major a few times to get used to it. Once you can play it cleanly, try strumming A major, then D major, then A major again & then E major. Sounds like a song, doesn't it? Well it is! You're essentially playing the chord pattern for the intro to "Peggy Sue" by the legendary Buddy Holly. How cool is that?

Congratulations! You've just learned your first 3 chords! Next time, we'll start learning about rhythms & counting. Then you'll be able to keep a beat while you play. And that will open up an entire world of music to you! In the meantime, keep playing A major & E major & D major. If you feel ambitious & your fingers aren't too sore, try some different combinations. You can't really go wrong with A, E & D. Rock on!

Know your instrument!

Before you get into playing, you should spend a moment looking over your guitar & familiarizing yourself with what the basic parts are. This is so we can all be on the same page when I mention the nut or a position marker as a reference point for a chord or scale. You'll need to understand these reference points, as I will make use of them many times over the course of the lessons.

So let's start from the top. Note the diagram above. The first things we see at the top of the image are the headstock & the tuning keys - also sometimes referred to as machine heads. As noted in my last post, this is where you tune your instrument. When you get around to changing your strings, you will become much more familiar with this part of your guitar, as well as the bridge.

The next part is where the strings pass from the headstock onto the fretboard. It is called the nut. It can be made from bone or plastic & is integral in maintaining the initial height of the strings above the fretboard. It is not really adjustable except by a professional guitar technician.

Next is the fretboard itself, where the frets & position markers are located. Frets are made of thick wire which is pressed into the fretboard at each fret location. The number of frets varies, depending on the overall length of the fretboard. They also vary in thickness & shape from one guitar to the next. When a string is said to be open, no frets are used, naturally. When a note is indicated at a particular fret, you place you finger on the corresponding string behind the indicated fret. The notes on a string vary in pitch depending on which fret you are on.

Position markers - sometimes called inlays - are literally the dots that you see on the fretboards shown above. They can generally be found behind the 3rd, 5th, 7th & 9th frets as single dots. Then 2 dots at the 12th fret. And another series of single dots marking the 15th, 17th, 19th & 21st frets. It depends on how many frets there are on a particular fretboard. These markers are only there as points of reference so you can quickly locate a position on the fretboard. Hence the name! They have nothing to do with the sound of the instrument.

After that we come to the body of the guitar, which can be hollow - as in an acoustic guitar - or solid - as in an electric guitar. Although some electric guitars can be semi-hollow, so that part is hollow & part is solid - like where the pickups & the bridge are located, for example. Notice that the fretboard generally extends onto the body of the guitar a little ways, where the two pieces are bolted or glued together. The amount that the fretboard overlays the guitar body can be more or less, depending on the guitar. Your guitar may or may not have a pick guard, but most do. It's just there to keep you from scratching the body as you strum.

An acoustic guitar will then have a sound hole, over which the strings pass. This is where the sound comes from when you pluck the strings. On an electric guitar, the strings pass over the pick ups, where the sound is literally picked up & then amplified by an amplifier, via a cable that plugs into the guitar. Sometimes, names make perfect sense don't they?

The strings then pass over the saddle, which has to do with maintaining the height of the strings at the body end of the guitar, much like the nut does at the other end. The saddle is generally a single piece of bone or plastic on an acoustic guitar. On an electric, there is usually one saddle for each string, which can be adjusted up or down as well as back & forth slightly. This has to do with setting the intonation of the instrument. We will get into how this works later.

Then the strings are then anchored into the bridge or just past the bridge. It depends on the manufacturer. And that completes our overview of the basic parts of a guitar. Now, let's strum some chords & start making music!

Tuning your guitar

You can't begin to learn the first thing about playing an instrument if you don't know how to tune it correctly. This is true of any instrument, whether it be string or wind actuated. There would be no point in trying to play a scale or a chord if the notes weren't in harmony with each other. Right? So let's get your strings in tune together. Then we can begin to play a few chords!

There are six strings on a guitar. From top (the thickest) to bottom (the thinnest), the notes in standard tuning are E-A-D-G-B-E. See the diagram below. There are other tunings that you can use later to create virtually unlimited voicings. But for now we're only concerned with standard tuning. If you have a tuner, either plug it into your guitar - if your guitar is electric or acoustic/electric - or if your tuner has a live mic, simply set the tuner on your knee in front of the guitar as you hold the instrument. We'll get into proper posture later. For now, just rest the guitar on your leg so that it feels comfortable. Some tuners clip on to the headstock - the part of the guitar where the strings wind around the posts, which are geared to the tuning keys. This type of tuner is as good as any for our purpose here. And by the way, if your guitar plugs in, turn the volume knob clockwise so it's at full. A tuner has to be able to hear your instrument in order to work.

The notes of the open strings on a guitar in standard tuning

Turn the tuner on & sound the top string with a pick. This is the largest string, which we will call the low E string. I know, it's the uppermost string in order on the fretboard, but it sounds the lowest note. Trust me! Depending on whether your tuner has a dial & needle or a simple LED display, you should see movement on the tuner. The correct pitch should be straight up (think 12 o'clock) on the dial or dead center on an LED display. If the needle or LED moves to the left, your note is flat. So it needs to come up in pitch. If the needle or LED moves to the right then your note is sharp & needs to come down in pitch. Turn the corresponding tuning key on the headstock so that you raise or lower the pitch until you're in tune according to your tuner. Sound the string again. And continue the adjustment until you're satisfied that the string is in tune as best it can be. If you want to hear what the note should sound like, you can click here: Classic Guitar Tuner or here: Guitar Tuner on your computer & then click the "E" which is next to "A". And that is what the note will sound like when you're tuned to standard pitch. If it sounds the same as the low E on your guitar, your low E is now in tune. Isn't that cool?

Now tune the next string below the low E - the A string - in the same fashion. Then the D string, then the G string, then the B string & finally the high E string, which is the bottommost string. Once you've tuned all 6 strings, you'll want to go back through them again to make sure they are all correct. Sometimes you'll have to readjust some of them slightly. You can check what each of your strings should sound like at the tuner links listed above. And viola! Your guitar is in tune! You are ready to begin learning how to play your guitar. And we will start with the first chord - the A chord - in the next lesson. Congratulations on completing this first - but extremely crucial - step!

For those of you who are interested, I use a Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner when I'm playing live or in the studio. On my pedal board - shown below - it's the 2nd pedal from the right. The reason it's 2nd in the chain is because I use it every time I switch guitars and, fairly often, in between songs as well. It probably gets the most use of any of my pedals. And it comes right after my Boss LS-2 Line Selector, farthest to the right, which allows me to have up to 3 guitars plugged in at once. That way I can switch between electric & acoustic, or between a 6 string & a 12 string - or any combination - on the fly & without a lot of hassle. And don't worry, we'll go over pedals & pedal boards in a future post.

My pedal board for live gigs & studio recording

About guitars #1

My first guitar came from a local pawn shop. It was an electric - a black Encore copy of a Gibson Les Paul. It was pretty beat up. Although at the time, I thought it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. And it worked, in that it made a sound & that sound was what I was interested in. My little Global amplifier was about as basic as you could ever have. One volume knob, one tone knob, no gain channel, no reverb, one tiny little 6" speaker. I've never seen another one like it. I still have the guitar, believe it or not. But the amp got lost in the shuffle over the years. I have no idea what happened to it.

If you have a guitar already, that's great! You can learn to play on any guitar, provided that it will hold its tuning. When I started, I knew nothing about action or intonation or playability. And I will address those things in future posts. For now, let's just say that your fingers will hurt a little at first, no matter how well your instrument is set up or what kind it is. An electric guitar is easier on your fingers than an acoustic because it uses a smaller string gauge - the strings are literally smaller from top to bottom. But as you train your fingers to play, it will become easier, no matter what kind of guitar you have.

If you don't have a guitar yet, you obviously need to purchase one. Personally, I would recommend an acoustic guitar for beginners. One can be found relatively cheap at a pawn shop or a music store or an online retailer. There's really no point in starting out with the most expensive guitar you can find. But suit yourself. Generally speaking, the more expensive a guitar is, the more likely that it will be well built. But that is not always the case. As a last resort, if you can borrow a guitar for a few days a week, that will be better than not having one at all.

One nice thing about an acoustic guitar is that you don't need an amp to hear it. The hollow body of an acoustic guitar makes more than enough sound for learning & instruction. Plus, as a bonus, you won't bother your parents or your girlfriend or the neighbors or anyone else while you're playing your first notes. You probably won't be ready for the world to hear your playing just yet anyway. Electric guitars need amplifiers & amplifiers are loud. Period! One alternative, if you have an electric, is to buy a headphone amp so that you won't disturb anyone as you learn. You can also plug an electric guitar into a smart phone these days with an adapter. So that is another option to consider.

For the record, my second guitar - the first one that I ever bought with my own money - was an acoustic. It was a Yamaha FG-410. A very basic instrument! Less than $200. And I bought it for the reason listed above - I could play it anywhere & not bend anyone's nerves. Also, acoustic guitars are very portable. Just throw it in the case & you're off. No amps, no cables, no heavy lifting, etc. I still have it. It is my go-to guitar when I'm sitting around the house, either coming up with an idea for a song or hearing a song I wish to learn.

Don't worry about brands or styles just yet. If you've never played a guitar, you wouldn't know what questions to ask or what to look for in an instrument anyway. So why worry yourself over it? Just get a guitar! After you learn how to play a little, and you begin to understand your instrument's playability, then you can always upgrade to a better guitar, if necessary. For now, if it has six strings on it & can be tuned without breaking anything, that's enough to get started. Next we'll talk about strings & tuning...

Hello!

My name is Gene Brigham. I've been playing guitar since I was 14 years old. I took a few lessons when I was 15, for about 4 months. But as soon as my parents found out I was taking lessons without asking them, I was told to stop. So I had to quit taking lessons. But that didn't stop my desire to learn how to play this fascinating instrument. I wanted to be a musician! And I wanted to play guitar & sing just like the Beatles. So I continued to plod along, lessons or not.

Believe me when I say that I figured it out the hard way. I bought several music books. But they didn't get me very far at first, because I didn't know how to read music. And I didn't understand how notes went together to make music in the first place. Fortunately, I had a pretty good ear & I could pick out the notes from a song & translate them to the fretboard relatively easily. In other words, it was a love affair that involved hours, weeks, months & years of tiresome trial & error. And a whole lot of plain old dumb luck. I knew nothing about chords or scales or music theory. I only knew that what I heard on the radio & on records was played on guitars & I just happened to have a guitar.

My first guitar was a black Encore Les Paul copy that my grandmother bought for me at a local pawn shop. An electric, of course. And it came with a small Global amplifier with a cheap 6" speaker. Two knobs: volume & tone. And that was it! The thing sounded like garbage, but it did make a sound. And that was good enough for me. I could play along with my records or the radio & hear what I was doing. I could watch bands on MTV & try to mimic what I was seeing & hearing them play. So I thought I was all set.

Well... I thought wrong. There's a lot of technique & understanding of music that goes into playing an instrument. Any instrument! And learning things the hard way, one string at a time in the beginning, is a difficult task. A lot of people would have given up out of sheer frustration. And I wouldn't have blamed them! But it doesn't have to be that way. Learning to play the guitar can be fun & exhilarating! You don't have to stumble along blindly, the way I did. And I can show you how!

After playing guitar for the last 32 years, I have a very good command of the instrument. I can play anything & everything; every style & rhythm, acoustic or electric. And I love it! Let me show you how to do it the right way. In no time at all, you'll be able to play at a level that took me many years to master. I promise you won't be disappointed! It's actually not that hard. Of course, it takes some dedication & concentration & a lot of repetition. But the reward is that you'll have a real sense of personal achievement & you'll be able impress almost anyone you know. And how cool is that? So let's get started!

Welcome to my blog! Think of it as a free series for learning to play the guitar proficiently, taught by a guy who learned everything the wrong way & then had to relearn it all the right way. I simply call it Beginning Guitar!