Playing Guitar - How

Lesson 1 - Getting Started

2008-02-28T14:38:00.000-08:00

Sitting Positions

There are two sitting positions for holding the guitar; classical and casual.

1. Pick up the guitar and make sure that the guitar body is supported by your leg.
2. Position yourself at the edge of your chair.
3. Ensure that your back is relaxed but straight.
4. Lean the guitar back towards you slightly.

Standing Position

1. Pick up the guitar and place the strap over your shoulder. Adjust the strap so that the guitar is positioned mid-body.
2. Use your left hand to support the neck of the guitar.
3. Rest your right hand over the bridge of the guitar.

Hand Positions

It is important that you relax your wrists and hands. Straining them can cause injury.

Front View

Rear View

Warning! Make sure that you never position your hand like this:

Your thumb should never be placed this low on the neck of the guitar as it puts
unneccessary strain on your wrist and thumb.

Fretting

When you play the guitar, you use your left hand fingers to press down the strings on the fret board of the guitar and use your right hand to pluck or strum the stings at the bridge end of the guitar. Using your left hand to press the strings on the fret board is called fretting. Here are some tips you will need to know:

1. Short fingernails are essential.
2. Use only the tips of your fingers to press the strings.
3. When making a chord, be sure that each fingertip is placed directly behind the fret.
We will cover chords in lesson one.
4. Check each string that it rings clearly and is not muted or buzzing.

As a beginner guitarist, it may hurt your fingers to play. This is normal. Every guitarist starts this way for the first couple of weeks. With practice, you will develop guitar fingers (hard skin on your fingertips).

Holding the Pick

Position the pick between thumb and index fingers like in the diagram below:

Time to take a break. Well done, you've just completed the first part of this newsletter. Next you are about to learn about chords and by the end of this lesson you'll have learnt the A Major chord.

Don't forget, for the ultimate guitar learning kit which includes step-by-step written lessons, video lessons, audio lessons and sophisticated software games, visit www.team-method-guitar.com

Now you are ready to start your first lesson. Your aim in this lesson is to learn the A and D major chords and to introduce yourself to reading guitar tablature. This lesson is very important, so I want you to really focus.

Remember! It is more beneficial for you to practice multiple times during a week than to practice for one long session. This is because your brain processes information in chunks at a time and it can only hold a certain amount in short term storage.

For example, with phone numbers, it is very difficult to remember any more than 7 digits at a time. Yet if you give yourself time between practicing, even if it is just 10 minutes, you’ll find that your brain is much more efficient at turning your short term practice into long term knowledge. More information on effective learning is contained in our Team Method Guitar course.

Ok. That aside, let’s get started on the lesson. To start with, I want you to have a look at the guitar neck diagram below and make note of all the relevant pieces of information.

Frets
The guitar neck is divided into what we call frets, making a fret board. Most guitars have around 20 frets. In this first book, we will focus on the first four, also known as the first position. In book 2, we will move beyond that. Notice that we number each fret starting at 1 at the head of the guitar.

Note: Each string on the guitar is numbered. When you hold your guitar as you would when using the casual playing position, the 1st string is at the bottom and the 6th string is at the top.

Notice also the term, ‘Tuning’ at the bottom of the above diagram. Tuning refers to the notes that the guitar strings are tuned to. In the above diagram, I have given a very common tuning called standard E tuning that consists of the notes E, A, D, G and B. Strings 1 and 6 are both tuned to the note E. The open 6th string is called low E. The open 1st string is called high E as it is two octaves higher than the 6th string open E. I will explain notes and octaves to you in a later newsletter, but for now, you only need to know the names of the notes in standard open E tuning.

Now make sure that your guitar is tuned to open E tuning (the most common tuning). If you don't know how to tune your guitar, then download my free guide to tuning your guitar from HERE. Or if you are already a member of Team-Method-Guitar.com, you can use our guitar tuning software to help you tune your guitar.

**Note: To open the above tuning.pdf file you'll need a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can download a free copy of this from: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

We will stick to standard E tuning throughout this newsletter, but you can find other tunings to play with in our member’s area at www.team-method-guitar.com.

Introduction to Chords

Now we are going to look at guitar chords. Guitarists use many different chords to make progressions or riffs that can then be used to create songs. If you are not familiar with some of these terms, it’s ok. We will cover everything that I am talking about in good time.

A chord is defined as a combination of 3 or more notes played together. To examine this, I want to take a look at chord diagrams. Chord diagrams are used to illustrate how a chord is played. They are very easy to use because they look very much like the neck of the guitar, in fact, the Jamorama chord diagram is a guitar neck.

As stated above the chord diagrams are going to be pictures of an ‘actual’ guitar neck so it’s easy to make the connection between strings and fingering. There is also a picture of the type of chord diagram that appears in most other Guitar learning guides. I want you to be aware of that form of ‘standard’ chord diagram because you may want to use it when writing up chords on paper at home.

So, now that you know what a chord diagram looks like and how it matches the neck of your guitar, it’s time to come back to what I said earlier about a chord being a combination of 3 or more notes played together. Finger placing symbols are added to the chord diagram so we know which notes to play. To start with, let’s look at your fingers.

We give each playing finger a number that we can then match up on the chord diagram (see below).

And now, let’s look at a full chord diagram. We will use the example of the A major chord:

Chord Diagram - A Major Chord
In the chord diagram below you can see that the A major chord uses fingers 1, 2, and 3. Take note of how this chord diagram looks - we will use this style from now on.

The A major chord is constructed of the notes A, C# and E. We will cover notes a little later. For now, we will make chords without knowledge of individual notes.

Note that there is a red dot marking the 6th string on the above chord diagram. The red dot tells you that you are not to play that string. The sixth string of the A major chord is not played, but you play the rest.

Throughout this newsletter series, every chord diagram will be accompanied by a picture of the chord being held on the fret board and video and audio of the chord being played for you to check with. Pictured below is the A major chord being played.

Exercise: Playing the A Major Chord
Position each finger with care, according to the above diagram. Make sure that each fingertip is placed directly behind the fret. Firstly, pluck across the strings one by one with your right hand, checking that each string rings clearly and is not muted or buzzing. Play the first Audio or video example to hear how the chord should sound.

Now that we’ve looked at chord diagrams, I want to move on to strumming.

Introduction to Strumming
In a strum there are two types of guitar stroke. They are up stroke and down stroke. Throughout this book these strokes will be notated as follows:

When you play a stroke, you strum across the strings just in front of the bridge of the guitar with the pick in your right hand. When strumming a chord, make sure that you play all of the necessary strings in the chord. The stroke direction will depend on which stroke is indicated; up or down as shown above.

Exercise: Strumming the A Major Chord
Position each finger with care, according to the A Major chord diagram (above). Make sure that each fingertip is placed directly behind the fret. Firstly, pluck across the strings one by one with your right hand, checking that each string rings clearly and is not muted or buzzing. Once you are sure that you are holding the A major chord correctly, practice strumming the chord in single downward strokes as indicated below:

While you play this, see if you can say out loud an even 4 count. Another option if you are a Jamorama.com member is to use the jamorama metronome - it will help you to stay in time.

Tip: You can download a video or audio example of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

Dial Up	Broadband
QuickTime - A Major (1.56MB) WindowsMediaPlayer - A Major (1.76MB)	QuickTime - A Major (4.00MB) WindowsMediaPlayer - A Major (5.87MB)
Audio
A Major Mp3 (0.75MB)

Try your best to start your strum from the fifth string each time you strum. A major, doesn’t sound bad if you accidentally hit the top string, although if you want your music to sound professional, you’ll want to play this chord properly. Remember to stay relaxed. Your fingers may hurt a little but they will get stronger.

Now that you are playing the A major chord properly, let’s take a look at strumming another chord...

The D Major Chord
The D Major Chord is constructed of the notes D, F# (F sharp) and A and is played using fingers 1, 2 and 3:

As with the A major chord: try strumming the D major chord in downward strokes with your right hand.

Tip: You can download a video or audio example of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

Dial Up	Broadband
QuickTime - D Major (1.51MB) WindowsMediaPlayer - D Major (1.97MB)	QuickTime - D Major (3.91MB) WindowsMediaPlayer - D Major (4.05MB)
Audio
D Major Mp3 (0.73MB)

Note: The top two, or fifth and sixth, strings are not played in the D major chord. Make sure that you start your stroke from the fourth string each time you strum D major, it doesn’t sound bad if you accidentally hit the fifth string, although as with A major above, if you want your music to sound professional, you need to play this chord properly.

Hints for Buying a New Guitar
Whether you’re buying your first guitar, upgrading or simply adding to your collection, your first priority is to do your homework. There are many different resources available and you should endeavor to use them all. Guitar magazines are a good place to find out prices and specifications on different models of guitar. You can get similar knowledge from browsing at your local instrument shop. Another great tool is the internet – you can check for the most competitive prices, get some information on the manufacturers and search for other guitarist’s reviews and opinions.

You really need to arm yourself well before you try haggling with your local guitar salesman.

Often you can find online auctions where guitars sell for incredibly low prices; however, I wouldn’t advise you to take this option. As a rule you should always play before you buy so that you get a chance to gauge performance.

Once you’ve got the background knowledge that you need on the guitar of your choice the next task is to set yourself a budget and stick to it. Don’t let salespeople talk you into spending more money than you anticipated.

Testing out new guitars in the shop can be an intimidating task for beginners. It is important to remember that you are not there to showcase your playing ability – you are there to discern whether your proposed buy is a good deal or not. Check the frets for buzzing by playing each one. Make sure that the neck is not warped by looking down it as if you were sighting a gun. Check that all of the volume and tone switches etc. are in good working condition.

It is a great idea to take an experienced guitarist along with you when you are looking at a possible purchase, so see if you can persuade a teacher of friend. Not only will they be able to offer helpful advice – they will be good moral support when it’s time to pick up the guitar and test it out in public.

This FREE course in brought to you by Team Method Guitar

Lesson 2– Tuning Your Guitar to Itself

2008-02-28T14:33:00.000-08:00

This is probably the most important piece of knowledge that you can learn when it comes to tuning your guitar. The process of tuning your guitar to itself is one by which you tune each string to another string on the guitar. Basically, it means that you can tune the guitar without having to use a tuner or pitch tool. The only set back about using this method is that your guitar may not end up in exact concert pitch. What I mean by that is that the strings may not run E, A, D, G, B, E as they would if they were in correct concert pitch (you would need a tuner or pitch tool to do that), rather they will all be tuned to whatever note the top string happens to be at the time of tuning.

The first step is to get your fifth string in tune with your sixth string. Place a finger on your left hand on the fifth fret of the sixth string. The note that you are holding down is the pitch that string five should be tuned to. Keep your finger in position and pluck the sixth string and let that note ring. As you let the sixth string ring, pluck the fifth string. If the fifth string sounds exactly like the note you are holding on the sixth string, it is in tune. If it is higher, you need to tune down below the note on the sixth string and then bring it back up to match with the fifth fret note on the sixth string. If the fifth string note is lower, you need to tighten the string and bring its pitch up to the fifth fret note on the sixth string. It may take you a while to match pitches exactly but the more practice you get at this, the faster you will be able to do it.

The second step is to get your fourth string in tune with your fifth string. Place a finger on your left hand on the fifth fret of the fifth string. The note that you are holding down is the pitch that string four should be tuned to. Keep your finger in position and pluck the fifth string and let that note ring. As you let the fifth string ring, pluck the fourth string. If the fourth string sounds exactly like the note you are holding on the fifth string, it is in tune. If it is higher, you need to tune down below the note on the fifth string and then bring it back up to match with the fifth fret note on the fifth string. If the fourth string note is lower, you need to tighten the string and bring its pitch up to the fifth fret note on the fifth string. Keep tuning the string until you get an exact match for pitch.

The third step is to get your third string in tune with your fourth string. Place a finger on your left hand on the fifth fret of the fourth string. The note that you are holding down is the pitch that string three should be tuned to. Keep your finger in position and pluck the fourth string and let that note ring. As you let the fourth string ring, pluck the third string. If the third string sounds exactly like the note you are holding on the fourth string, it is in tune. If it is higher, you need to tune down below the note on the fourth string and then bring it back up to match with the fifth fret note on the fourth string. If the third string note is lower, you need to tighten the string and bring its pitch up to the fifth fret note on the fourth string. Keep tuning the string until you get an exact match for pitch.

The fourth step is to get your second string in tune with your third string. Place a finger on your left hand on the fourth fret of the third string. The note that you are holding down is the pitch that string two should be tuned to. Keep your finger in position and pluck the third string and let that note ring. As you let the third string ring, pluck the second string. If the second string sounds exactly like the note you are holding on the third string, it is in tune. If it is higher, you need to tune down below the note on the third string and then bring it back up to match with the fourth fret note on the third string. If the second string note is lower, you need to tighten the string and bring its pitch up to the fourth fret note on the third string. Keep tuning the string until you get an exact match for pitch.

The last step is to get your first string in tune with your second string. Place a finger on your left hand on the fifth fret of the second string. The note that you are holding down is the pitch that string one should be tuned to. Keep your finger in position and pluck the second string and let that note ring. As you let the second string ring, pluck the first string. If the first string sounds exactly like the note you are holding on the second string, it is in tune. If it is higher, you need to tune down below the note on the second string and then bring it back up to match with the fifth fret note on the second string. If the first string note is lower, you need to tighten the string and bring its pitch up to the fifth fret note on the second string. Keep tuning the string until you get an exact match for pitch and you will have tuned the guitar to its own strings.

You have just tuned your guitar to itself. If the guitar sounds a little out, you should go back and repeat the process – it is a little hard to master for a start but you should stick to it as it is a very useful skill to have.

Progress and Motivation
An old piano teacher of mine used to record my playing at different times throughout my terms work. At the end of the term she would give me a tape that contained a selection of pieces that I had played running from work that I had completed early in the term to the things that I was working on at the end of the term. I would take this tape home and I would play it to my friends and family. People listening to the tape would say, “Man, you’re getting good”.

This did two things for me. First of all, it made me go back to my teacher for more lessons. Secondly, it made me practice more because I could see the benefits of working on something over time. Basically, the progress that I could hear on the tape motivated me to progress further.

I strongly recommend that you begin to record your practice sessions for future reference.

This FREE course in brought to you by Team Method Guitar

Lesson 3 - How to Read Guitar Tablature

2008-02-28T14:26:00.000-08:00

Tablature or TAB is the most common method of writing out music for the guitar. It is different from classical music notation in that; TAB uses ordinary numbers and keyboard characters as opposed to standard musical notation which uses symbols. Because of this format, anyone with a computer can write or read TAB making it the most user friendly way to read and communicate guitar music. Also TAB relates directly to the fret board of your guitar meaning that you may easily see where you put your fingers.

In the full Team Method Guitar course, both standard musical notation and TAB are used. But for this six day course we will only use TAB. The reason for this is that TAB is very easy to read and you should have no problems learning TAB in a few short minutes of reading.

TAB has some weak points, the worst of which is that rhythm can't be easily indicated. This shouldn't pose a problem though, as I will indicate the rhythm for each exercise using the strum indicators that were introduced in lesson one.

OK. To start I want you to look at your guitar and you will clearly see that it has six strings going from thickest to thinniest. On a TAB diagram, the thickest (or 6th string) is at the bottom, and the thinnest string, (or 1st string as its most commonly called) is at the top. This is clearly demonstrated in the 1st example below.

The following diagram shows you how tablature relates to the guitar fret board:

Some of you may notice that this guitar seems upside down in relation to how you play. This is simply the way that guitar music is generally written. Now if you transfer this same model to a written format you will get TAB, which can be seen below.

So the lines above indicate the strings on a guitar. The top line of the TAB being the thinnest string of the guitar, and the bottom line on the TAB chart indicating the thickest string of the guitar. Now if you look at your guitar you will see metal bars that raise up from the neck of the guitar. These are called frets. TAB uses numbers to show you which one of these frets to press down and play.

For example, look at the tab diagram to the right and you can see that the 1st string (thinnest string) is being played. The number refers to the fret that you should press down. In this case the number zero is displayed. This means that you shouldn’t press down anything.

So if you were to play the above piece of TAB on your guitar, you would pick the thinnest string once with your plucking hand and do nothing with your fret hand.

Tip: If you are having trouble with this concept, you can download a video or audio example of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

Dial Up	Broadband
QuickTime WindowsMediaPlayer	QuickTime WindowsMediaPlayer

Now let's see if we can start pushing down some strings. Look at the next example below and try and play the note that the TAB chart displays.

If you pressed down the thickest string at the 3rd fret then you played the exercise correctly. If you are still unsure whether you are doing the right thing or not, refer to the video below.

Tip: The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

Dial Up	Broadband
QuickTime WindowsMediaPlayer	QuickTime WindowsMediaPlayer

Let's try another one. Play the following piece of TAB:

This TAB diagram above indicates the 2nd string (second thinnest) and you should be pressing down on the first fret.

Tip: Once again, there is video available for this example. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

Dial Up	Broadband
QuickTime WindowsMediaPlayer	QuickTime WindowsMediaPlayer

Things become a little more complicated when you are required to play chords, however the basic principals I have already outlined still apply. The only difference is that you will be required to play more strings and hold down more strings with your fingers. In this next example I will show you how to play the chord ‘A’.

A Major Chord

The first and fifth strings are played open while the second, third and forth strings are played at the second fret. The sixth string is not played in the A Major Chord and this is indicated by an X.

If you have read the TAB correctly your fingers should look like this:

Tip: You can download a video or audio example of the above exercise to see and hear it for yourself. The download links are below (right click on the link and select "save as"):

Dial Up	Broadband
QuickTime WindowsMediaPlayer	QuickTime WindowsMediaPlayer

So now you know how to use basic tablature as it applies to notes and full chords. In this introductory set of lessons you will use TAB to learn different chords and by lesson six you will be able to play the full song, 'Rivers of Babylon'.

Time to take a break. Well done, you've just completed the first part of this newsletter. Next you are about to learn about notes on the first string.

Notes on the First String

Knowledge of the notes that are on each string is necessary for understanding guitar theory. The first string is also known as the high E string. The main notes in the first position on the first string are E (open), F (1st fret) and G (3rd fret). The first position refers to the first 4 frets of the guitar.

We will use these notes in the following exercise to introduce to you the concept of note picking.

Exercise:
Note picking is a skill that is used in all types of music. For now, we will use it to familiarize ourselves with the note names on each string in the first position. Pluck these first string notes with a downward picking motion. Notice that your fingers should match the fret number when playing in the first position:

Try listening to audio for this example.

Audio

Picking the notes on the first string mp3. (456KB)

We will leave it there today in terms of guitar theory. Next time I want to get you strumming a whole lot more, but right now I want to look at something else and that is how to get a 'that' sound.

Getting ‘That’ sound – blues/rock guitar solo aka Jimi Hendrix

Many people around the world love blues, and many people love Jimi Hendrix, infact some would argue that he is the most influential guitarist to ever grace the planet. Blues/rock guitar tends to have a characteristic sound to it. Sure there is a style of playing that characterizes blues guitar, infact we cover this style in the Team Method Guitar ourse thoroughly. There are blues Jam tracks and blues songs, the course will teach you HOW to play the blues guitar, but a question that often pops up is ‘Once I know how to play the STYLE, how do I get that ‘sound’ out of my amp?’.

Ok, firstly let’s look at the aspects of a guitarist’s set up that have an effect on the final sound.
- Ability of player to play that style.
- Choice of guitar (i.e. Electric or acoustic?? Solid body or semi-acoustic, single coil pickups or humbucking pickups??)
- Choice of amplifier
- Settings on the guitar
- Settings on the amplifier
- Other miscellaneous items (e.g. strings, effects pedals e.t.c)

So, from this list we can see that there is simply no ONE aspect that will directly change the sound, it’s the use of all of these things that point to the final outcome. A nice way of looking at it is to treat all of these aspects as ingredients to the sound recipe. By changing the ingredients or amount of, or order in which they are used you end up changing the final product. Obviously one of the most important ingredients is the ability of the player themselves. There is no point in having all of the ingredients to play blues guitar if the player can’t actually play blues style guitar… make sense?

Let’s start with the guitar itself, the best choice of guitar would be a solid body electric guitar such as a Fender Stratocaster, or a Gibson Les Paul, pretty much any solid body electric guitar will do. Once you have selected the guitar let’s look at the settings that are to be used on the guitar itself. You will want to select the neck pick up (the pickup that is closest to the neck of the guitar). This pickup gives a more rounded natural sound, often called the rhythm pickup. The on board controls of the guitar (the volume and tone knobs) are also very useful. To achieve a bluesy sound you should slightly roll off some of the tone knob, roll it back to about 7 or 8.

Ok once you have this set up, look at the amplifier. Blues guitarists have a slightly overdriven or distorted sound. To achieve this I want you to make sure that you are plugging the guitar into the ‘Hi-gain’ input of your amplifier (if you only have one input then use that one. You need to turn up your amp gain to a point where the sound coming out is slightly distorted (on most amps this would be just after halfway). If your guitar amp doesn’t distort or overdrive then there are other alternatives, you could purchase and use a distortion effect pedal.

Ok, the amplifier’s EQ settings??? What do I do with those? Basically I want you to leave all the ‘EQ’ knobs in the middle (i.e. don’t boost or drop any of them). The bluesy sound really comes from having selected the neck pick up and by having the amp slightly distorting. Follow these tips, and I guarantee you that your next blues solo will now actually SOUND like a blues solo. Get into it! See you in the next newsletter.

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Lesson 4 - How to Read Guitar Tablature

2008-02-28T14:21:00.000-08:00

Guitar tablature is probably the easiest and most used method for guitar notation. On the internet, you can find guitar notation for almost any song that you want to learn. Tablature is easier to learn than traditional music notation because it relates directly to the fret board of the guitar, indicating where your fingers should be placed. Although it is an easier method to learn it still has its weak points, the main one being that you can’t easily indicate rhythm on tablature. This means that when you learn a song you have to learn the strum from the song itself.

The following diagram shows you how tablature relates to the guitar fret board:

We use numbers to indicate the string and the fret position that you are supposed to play. Each fret is numbered, starting at the nut of the guitar at 0 and moving up toward the bridge of the guitar. The following diagrams demonstrate this principle.

The 3 on the above tablature score (Tab. diagram 1) indicates to you that you place a finger on the third fret of the sixth string. It is the note G.

The 1 on the tablature score (Tab. diagram 2) on the last page indicates to you that you place a finger on the first fret of the second string. It is the note C.

The 0 on the above tablature score (Tab. diagram 3) indicates to you that the third string is to be played open. This means that you don’t need to place a finger on it. It is the note G.

Chords and Tablature
Chords are indicated by a set of numbers that tell you which frets need to be played and which don’t. The following diagram demonstrates how an open A major chord is constructed with tablature.

The first and fifth strings are played open whilst the second, third and forth strings are played at the second fret. The sixth string is not played in the A Major Chord and this is indicated by an X.

Often tablature is written beneath traditional music score or stave. The two together looks like this:

This FREE course in brought to you by Team Method Guitar

Lesson 5 - Introduction to Chord Progressions

2008-02-28T13:58:00.000-08:00

When you listen to one of your favorite songs you become aware of the fact that it is built up of notes and chords that are changing and causing the song to evolve in a way that is pleasing to the ear. The question that I want to look at today is why do some chords sound good together and others sound absolutely terrible?

To answer this, we need to look at root notes as they are the base that chords are built upon. If we take the notes of a scale and number them from 1 to 8, you will find movements between notes 1, 4 and 5 consistently sound better and stronger than between any other number. Let's take a look at a scale (for learning purposes we will use the C Major Scale):

It might be a good idea to get your guitar out at this point and just have a play around with the notes in the above scale so you can hear what I mean about strong movement between numbers 1, 4 and 5. Also, play around with some of the other numbers to see what some weaker movements sound like.

So, now that we have established the above fact, let's use it in some chord progressions.

A turnaround progression is a sequence of chords that can be continually repeated due to strong sounding chord movement between the ending and starting chords. In the following turnaround progression we use the F chord (F being 4 in the C major scale) to get back to the starting chord C (C being 1 in the C major scale):

Try playing the above chord progression using a strum of your own. If you don't know the chords, they are shown at the bottom of this page - you will hear that the progression sounds good and repeats itself through a strong chord movement.

Here are some more turnaround progressions for you to practice:

1)

Chords

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