Guitar Basics- Lesson 2 for those new to guitar
Posted: Friday, September 11, 2009
by Steven Rogers
In this lesson I hope to get you making pleasant sounds out of your guitar. By now I hope you have got a guitar you are happy with. If you have picked up an electric you need to find a medium to get the full sound out of your guitar. An amplifier is the best option for this. If you do not have an amp you can plug into a radio that has a microphone jack. If the cord doesn't fit you can buy adapters pretty cheap. If that doesn't work for you, you can play without plugging in. It will be difficult to hear the notes but it is a good way to practice without bothering anyone else. My wife often makes me do this.
Good! Now if you will, tune the next string down to A, the string under that to D, under that to G, under that to B, and finally the first string to E. Great! Now you're rockin!
Two more things for this lesson, ergonomics and reading guitar tablature, sounds hard but both will make your path to guitar greatness that much easier. Ergonomics is a big word and kind of fun to say. Ergonomics, ergonomics, ergonomics, ergonomics, see? Ergonomics is just a fancy way of saying the way you carry yourself. When playing the guitar, it is a good idea to always wear your strap. Wear it even when sitting down. This will help you when you transition to playing standing up or vice versa. It creates consistency, which will help you in the long run. Trust me nobody wants to watch you stare at your guitar the whole time you are playing. Okay! Adjust your strap so that the guitar hangs down to just above your belly button. You can adjust to make it more comfy, but this is a good place to start. The neck should shoot out to your left at about a 30-degree angle, with your left hand turned upward lightly holding the neck. It should not take much to support while wearing the strap. Your hand should feel free to move up and down the neck. When I speak of up and down the neck, from this point on I speak tonally. The higher the note the closer to the body of the guitar and the closer to the floor it is. It can be a little confusing at first but I have faith in you. You'll get it! Now wrap your fingers around the neck holding your thumb along the back of the neck. This will position your hand to get the most strength for bar chords. When you strike a string, push down on it with the tip of your finger, try not to touch other strings. This will cause buzzing. Push down on the string hard in between the lines on the fret board as close to the line as you can without touching it. Some "buzzing" is normal when you start but will eventually go away as you build hand strength and confidence. Hold the pick between your index finger and thumb. It should be held in a way that gives you control and an easy attack on the strings. Keep your back straight and your shoulders down. Your shoulders will have a tendency to rise as you start playing. Make sure to take time every once in a while to stretch and relax your shoulders. The last thing, and this is one that will come back to haunt you if you don't practice it now, is to keep your elbow in toward your side. It will have a mind of its own and flay out like the handle on your teapot if you don't pay attention to it. Keep it tucked in toward your ribs as much as you can. This will help your speed and maneuverability later on.
The last thing we need to do is teach you to understand how we as guitar players communicate music to each other. We do this in two ways one is written music. You don't need to know how to read music to play guitar however. I have heard of many musicians who couldn't. Jimmy Hendrix for example couldn't read or write music. Another way is tablature or tab for short. Tab is a way for guitar players to communicate musical ideas quickly and easily. It is the method I plan to use throughout my lessons. Tab consist of six lines each representing a string. On these lines will be numbers. These represent the fret number. For example;
e--------0------------------------0--
B-----------1--------------------1--
G--------------0-----------------0--
D------------------2-------------2--
A----------------------3---------3--
E---------------------------------x-
According to this section you would play the 1 st string (the one closest to the floor) without fretting it. You would play the 2 nd fretted at the fist fret (just before the first steel line. The 3 rd string is open or no fret, the 4 th is at the second fret, the 5 th is at the third fret, and the 6 th string has an x on it, which means you don't play it at all. These notes together represent a "C Maj. Chord" or an "open C chord". So this is you homework play this pattern to start to get you fingers used to the strings. This will be hard. Until you build calluses on your fingers they will feel like your hammering railroad spikes with them. Don't be discouraged though. Just remember if it were easy everyone would do it. Play with your C chord and next time we'll learn a song together. ROCK ON!!!
Steven is a self proclaimed right wing Christian extremist. He is a former Marine and currently work in the laboratory of a cancer research and treatment facility. He is the father of three and is referred to as genius by his wife (mostly as a sarcastic term of endearment!)
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