Are you seriously considering studying a little guitar? for many of you the answer is a definite yes, but allow me to relieve some tension by saying that if you are one of those people who just wants to try it, just a little bit of studying can get you started. Why is it possible to teach yourself how to play guitar, even with no previous experience on the instrument? its possible for the same reason that teaching yourself to do anything is. I have three words for you - Search Engine Overload.
That's almost the problem though. Sure, you can find everything that you need to learn to play guitar right here on the internet, but sometimes it takes a simple article to get the most basic information down. This is where I come in, and as a self-taught, long time guitarist who has studied just about every musical genre known to man - I will show you how to unleash the amazing bliss of self created music. Let's get started!
THE STRINGS
The first thing that you need to understand to learn and master the guitar is how the strings run and their names. This is very simple. You have 6 strings. The thinnest string is referred to as the 1st string. Sometimes people reverse the order and say that its the 6th string, but you will see it labeled as the 1st string just about anywhere that you read about guitar. Every string up from the thinnest string is labeled 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. The thickest string is your 6th string.
We can represent each string with 6 lines, stacked on top of one another like this.
1st -----------------------------|
2nd -----------------------------|
3rd ------------------------------|
4th ------------------------------|
5th ------------------------------|
6th ------------------------------|
THE NOTES
These 6 lines look very much like the 6 strings that are on a guitar. There is a reason for this. Now we need to know the names of the strings. That is to say, we need to know the notes that each string is tuned to. The standard tuning on the guitar is Standard E tuning. We can now represent this in this manner:
1st E ---------------------------| (thinnest string)
2nd B ---------------------------|
3rd G ---------------------------|
4th D ---------------------------|
5th A ---------------------------|
6th E ---------------------------| (thickest string)
So the standard tuning on the guitar is E,A,D,G,B,E.
HOW DO WE TUNE A GUITAR?
Tuning a guitar is very simple as well. If you follow your strings up the course of your guitar neck you will notice 6 pegs, each consisting of about an inch in length. There should be three on each side of your Headstock. These are called Tuning Keys. I can't guarantee that all guitarists string their guitars the same way, but generally if you turn a tuning key away from you, it will tighten the string and raise the pitch of that string. This is how you tune up. If you turn the key towards you then it will loosen the string, lowering the pitch of that string. This is how you tune down.
To keep things simple, I have located a wonderful online guitar tuner that is very accurate to the standard E,A,D,G,B,E tuning. You can use it to tune your guitar to, and after a while your ears will adjust to the point where you will be able to do this completely on your own. You can find that tuner here.
YOU'RE READY TO START PLAYING SOME SONGS!!
Believe it or not, but now that you know this tiny bit of information, you can actually start learning some songs. You don't need to be able to read standard notation like you would to play piano. You can use what is known as guitar tablature. Tablature is very easy to read and understand, and if you look at our lines above, we have already gotten a head start on how to write and read guitar tablature.
Just like our six lines above that represent the six strings on the guitar, tablature or tab as it is sometimes called, also starts with this same diagram. You will see it labeled like this:
E |---------------------------------|
B |---------------------------------|
G |---------------------------------|
D |---------------------------------|
A |---------------------------------|
E |---------------------------------|
Now we add notes. Notes are represented by numbers. The numbers represent what Fret to play. A fret is the space on the guitar fretboard (what the strings lay across), that resides on the neck. A fret is designated as the space in between the Fret Wire. Check out the image below for more clarification.
Now look at this..
E |----------------------------------------|
B |----------------------------------------|
G |----------------------------------------|
D |----------------------------------------|
A |------------4--------------------------|
E |----2----------------------------------|
This portion of guitar tab explains to us that we must first play the 2nd fret on the Low E string (6th string), followed by the 4th fret on the A string. Go ahead, try it!
Wait a minute - what about chords? Chords are just as simple, and learning chords by way of tablature is a great way to get started, that is to say - if the name of the chord is listed with the tab. The way that the we indicate a chord to be played in guitar tablature is to take the notes and stack them on top of each other, like this..
E |------------------------|
B |----------2------------|
G |----------2------------|
D |----------2------------|
A |------------------------|
E |------------------------|
You finger each one of those frets at the same time, hold them down and then play those 3 strings together. This will produce your run-of-the-mill A major chord. Again, try it out.
Additional Notes
If you ever encounter a fret that is written as a zero, this indicates that you should play that string/strings open. To play a string open simply means that you don't fret it at all. So, if you encounter a 0 on the A string, it just means that you play the string as is, which produces an A note.
Also, timing and rhythm in tablature is sometimes ambiguous. As you have already seen, the lines in tablature are made up of the dash symbol. The more dashes in between a note or chord, the longer the beat, however it is hard to determine the exact rhythm and structure of a song, no matter how detailed a tabbed transcription can be.
Chances are, that you already have a song in mind, and there's an even greater chance that you have the accompanying CD. Your best bet is to check out the tab for the song, learn and memorize the chords and/or notes, and then apply it to the CD. You can generally match it up with what you hear, and this is excellent for ear training. Not to sound like a purist, but if you are thoroughly enjoying your studies on the guitar, then you will eventually want to try and learn some songs straight from the album, as opposed to hopping on the net and grabbing the tab. One reason for this is because it is essential to develop your mind and challenge the senses, but also it is important to understand that not everyone is great at figuring out a track from a body of music. This means that not all tablature is going to be accurate, and could steer you wrong. A lot of the people out their who create tab for their favorite songs, aren't always the most disciplined musicians. The other alternative is to purchase an actual tab/notation book from any book store or instrument shop. You'll have a better chance of receiving the music, as it was intended to be played.
Chord Charts
Reading a chord chart is just as simple as everything else that I have explained, and once I explain this to you, I highly encourage you to do a search for chord charts or chord diagrams. If you choose to do this, pick 3 chords at a time, play them over and over again, and start building your mental inventory of chord structures. Keep repeating this process until you can play the 28 most basic chords. After that you may certainly want to add another 28 chords of not so common make. Now let's take a look at what a blank, basic chord diagram might look like.
The red dots indicate where to place the fingers. This is a simple G Major Barre chord that you can start playing right now. A Barre chord is as simple as this: There are 6 notes that you must somehow fret with the use of only 4 fingers. You will notice that the frets are marked out. We have 1, 2, 3, 4, and then the 5th fret. You can clearly see that you somehow have to place a finger on the 3rd fret of the Low E string, followed by the 3rd fret of the B string, and then finally a 3rd fret on the High E string. This isn't a big deal, except for the fact that we have 3 other notes that we have to catch. Piece of cake! we simply take our Index finger and start by laying it across all of the 3rd frets. This is called a barre. Take the length of your index finger and press down firmly on all the 3rd frets on all 6 strings. Now that this is taken care of, you can simply add your Ring finger to the 5th fret on the A string, your Pinkie on the 5th fret of the D string, and your Middle Finger on the 4th fret of the G string.
Work on this fingering, because you will encounter it quite often. The pattern for this particular chord structure never changes, and you can slide this fingering around to create other major barre chords.
HINT: Remove your Middle finger to create a G Minor Barre chord structure. Just like the major barre chord structure, you can also slide this one around to create other Minor Barre Chord structures.
CONCLUSION
Now, I could talk about guitar education endlessly. I recently gave a friend a guitar lesson that was only supposed to last for a half hour and it went on for four hours. It is fair to say that I wore him out, so I won't do that to you. If you are just starting out on the guitar then you have every thing that you need right here in this little article to get started. If you want to broaden your horizons a bit, you can check out my guitar instructional blog at GuitArticles. Here you will find a very large amount of basic, moderately advanced and advanced guitar related information.
FINAL WORDS OF WISDOM
Stay true to yourself and be patient. Learning to play guitar does take a little bit of time, but it takes you far longer to develop if you are in a hurry and not enjoying yourself. Soak every day in. Peace!
That's almost the problem though. Sure, you can find everything that you need to learn to play guitar right here on the internet, but sometimes it takes a simple article to get the most basic information down. This is where I come in, and as a self-taught, long time guitarist who has studied just about every musical genre known to man - I will show you how to unleash the amazing bliss of self created music. Let's get started!
THE STRINGS
The first thing that you need to understand to learn and master the guitar is how the strings run and their names. This is very simple. You have 6 strings. The thinnest string is referred to as the 1st string. Sometimes people reverse the order and say that its the 6th string, but you will see it labeled as the 1st string just about anywhere that you read about guitar. Every string up from the thinnest string is labeled 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. The thickest string is your 6th string.
We can represent each string with 6 lines, stacked on top of one another like this.
1st -----------------------------|
2nd -----------------------------|
3rd ------------------------------|
4th ------------------------------|
5th ------------------------------|
6th ------------------------------|
THE NOTES
These 6 lines look very much like the 6 strings that are on a guitar. There is a reason for this. Now we need to know the names of the strings. That is to say, we need to know the notes that each string is tuned to. The standard tuning on the guitar is Standard E tuning. We can now represent this in this manner:
1st E ---------------------------| (thinnest string)
2nd B ---------------------------|
3rd G ---------------------------|
4th D ---------------------------|
5th A ---------------------------|
6th E ---------------------------| (thickest string)
So the standard tuning on the guitar is E,A,D,G,B,E.
HOW DO WE TUNE A GUITAR?
Tuning a guitar is very simple as well. If you follow your strings up the course of your guitar neck you will notice 6 pegs, each consisting of about an inch in length. There should be three on each side of your Headstock. These are called Tuning Keys. I can't guarantee that all guitarists string their guitars the same way, but generally if you turn a tuning key away from you, it will tighten the string and raise the pitch of that string. This is how you tune up. If you turn the key towards you then it will loosen the string, lowering the pitch of that string. This is how you tune down.
To keep things simple, I have located a wonderful online guitar tuner that is very accurate to the standard E,A,D,G,B,E tuning. You can use it to tune your guitar to, and after a while your ears will adjust to the point where you will be able to do this completely on your own. You can find that tuner here.
YOU'RE READY TO START PLAYING SOME SONGS!!
Believe it or not, but now that you know this tiny bit of information, you can actually start learning some songs. You don't need to be able to read standard notation like you would to play piano. You can use what is known as guitar tablature. Tablature is very easy to read and understand, and if you look at our lines above, we have already gotten a head start on how to write and read guitar tablature.
Just like our six lines above that represent the six strings on the guitar, tablature or tab as it is sometimes called, also starts with this same diagram. You will see it labeled like this:
E |---------------------------------|
B |---------------------------------|
G |---------------------------------|
D |---------------------------------|
A |---------------------------------|
E |---------------------------------|
Now we add notes. Notes are represented by numbers. The numbers represent what Fret to play. A fret is the space on the guitar fretboard (what the strings lay across), that resides on the neck. A fret is designated as the space in between the Fret Wire. Check out the image below for more clarification.
Now look at this..
E |----------------------------------------|
B |----------------------------------------|
G |----------------------------------------|
D |----------------------------------------|
A |------------4--------------------------|
E |----2----------------------------------|
This portion of guitar tab explains to us that we must first play the 2nd fret on the Low E string (6th string), followed by the 4th fret on the A string. Go ahead, try it!
Wait a minute - what about chords? Chords are just as simple, and learning chords by way of tablature is a great way to get started, that is to say - if the name of the chord is listed with the tab. The way that the we indicate a chord to be played in guitar tablature is to take the notes and stack them on top of each other, like this..
E |------------------------|
B |----------2------------|
G |----------2------------|
D |----------2------------|
A |------------------------|
E |------------------------|
You finger each one of those frets at the same time, hold them down and then play those 3 strings together. This will produce your run-of-the-mill A major chord. Again, try it out.
Additional Notes
If you ever encounter a fret that is written as a zero, this indicates that you should play that string/strings open. To play a string open simply means that you don't fret it at all. So, if you encounter a 0 on the A string, it just means that you play the string as is, which produces an A note.
Also, timing and rhythm in tablature is sometimes ambiguous. As you have already seen, the lines in tablature are made up of the dash symbol. The more dashes in between a note or chord, the longer the beat, however it is hard to determine the exact rhythm and structure of a song, no matter how detailed a tabbed transcription can be.
Chances are, that you already have a song in mind, and there's an even greater chance that you have the accompanying CD. Your best bet is to check out the tab for the song, learn and memorize the chords and/or notes, and then apply it to the CD. You can generally match it up with what you hear, and this is excellent for ear training. Not to sound like a purist, but if you are thoroughly enjoying your studies on the guitar, then you will eventually want to try and learn some songs straight from the album, as opposed to hopping on the net and grabbing the tab. One reason for this is because it is essential to develop your mind and challenge the senses, but also it is important to understand that not everyone is great at figuring out a track from a body of music. This means that not all tablature is going to be accurate, and could steer you wrong. A lot of the people out their who create tab for their favorite songs, aren't always the most disciplined musicians. The other alternative is to purchase an actual tab/notation book from any book store or instrument shop. You'll have a better chance of receiving the music, as it was intended to be played.
Chord Charts
Reading a chord chart is just as simple as everything else that I have explained, and once I explain this to you, I highly encourage you to do a search for chord charts or chord diagrams. If you choose to do this, pick 3 chords at a time, play them over and over again, and start building your mental inventory of chord structures. Keep repeating this process until you can play the 28 most basic chords. After that you may certainly want to add another 28 chords of not so common make. Now let's take a look at what a blank, basic chord diagram might look like.
The lines that run horizontally represent your fret wire. The space in between two, fret wire lines is an actual fret. The lines that run from top to bottom represent your actual strings. The line on your furthest left is a Low E string. The line on your furthest right is a High E string. Now lets finish this chord diagram, shall we?
The red dots indicate where to place the fingers. This is a simple G Major Barre chord that you can start playing right now. A Barre chord is as simple as this: There are 6 notes that you must somehow fret with the use of only 4 fingers. You will notice that the frets are marked out. We have 1, 2, 3, 4, and then the 5th fret. You can clearly see that you somehow have to place a finger on the 3rd fret of the Low E string, followed by the 3rd fret of the B string, and then finally a 3rd fret on the High E string. This isn't a big deal, except for the fact that we have 3 other notes that we have to catch. Piece of cake! we simply take our Index finger and start by laying it across all of the 3rd frets. This is called a barre. Take the length of your index finger and press down firmly on all the 3rd frets on all 6 strings. Now that this is taken care of, you can simply add your Ring finger to the 5th fret on the A string, your Pinkie on the 5th fret of the D string, and your Middle Finger on the 4th fret of the G string.
Work on this fingering, because you will encounter it quite often. The pattern for this particular chord structure never changes, and you can slide this fingering around to create other major barre chords.
HINT: Remove your Middle finger to create a G Minor Barre chord structure. Just like the major barre chord structure, you can also slide this one around to create other Minor Barre Chord structures.
CONCLUSION
Now, I could talk about guitar education endlessly. I recently gave a friend a guitar lesson that was only supposed to last for a half hour and it went on for four hours. It is fair to say that I wore him out, so I won't do that to you. If you are just starting out on the guitar then you have every thing that you need right here in this little article to get started. If you want to broaden your horizons a bit, you can check out my guitar instructional blog at GuitArticles. Here you will find a very large amount of basic, moderately advanced and advanced guitar related information.
FINAL WORDS OF WISDOM
Stay true to yourself and be patient. Learning to play guitar does take a little bit of time, but it takes you far longer to develop if you are in a hurry and not enjoying yourself. Soak every day in. Peace!
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