Guitar Lesson Week 6

Guitar Lesson- Music


Music
This section of each lesson is entirely devoted to playing. Very little will be provided as to the "why's and wherefore's" of what you will be doing. This will be covered in future theory lessons.

At this point, I just want you to learn the material and try to sound "musical" when playing it.



Anatomy of a chord diagram: (CLICK)




Below are 8 chords for you to learn. These 8 chords are often referred to as "the cowboy chords". This is because they are easy to play while riding a horse (hey...just foolin'). These chords are called "cowboy" chords because a billion songs have been written using these few simple chords. Many of these tunes are they type of song that you see somebody strumming while sitting around a camp fire in those old "cowboy" movies. But don't let that fool you. These are the "bread and butter chords" that EVERYBODY uses. If you don't know these chords, you can't call yourself a guitar player.

The chords:
(CLICK)






(CLICK)








(CLICK)










(CLICK)










(CLICK)








(CLICK)







(CLICK)








(CLICK)








Here are MIDI examples of what each chord sounds like:



1.EMAJ-http://www.zentao.com/guitar/lesson1/emaj.mid
2.DMAJ-http://www.zentao.com/guitar/lesson1/dmaj.mid
3.AMAJ-http://www.zentao.com/guitar/lesson1/amaj.mid
4.GMAJ-http://www.zentao.com/guitar/lesson1/gmaj.mid
5.CMAJ-http://www.zentao.com/guitar/lesson1/cmaj.mid
6.Emin-http://www.zentao.com/guitar/lesson1/emin.mid
7.Amin-http://www.zentao.com/guitar/lesson1/amin.mid
8.Dmin-http://www.zentao.com/guitar/lesson1/dmin.mid


The hardest part of playing chords is getting all of the notes in the chord to ring. The culprit is most often the finger that is trying to play a note on an adjacent string. That other finger will sometimes touch the string that won't ring and be the cause of your problem. The trick is to use the tips of the fingers and to make sure that each finger is touching only the string that it is holding a note on.

Also, check to see that you are not playing any of the strings that do not have a circle.

Practice each chord in the same manner as demonstrated in the MIDI files. Pick each string individually and then, strum the entire chord.

Once you can play each chord correctly, then it's time to practice changing from one chord to another. The idea here is to change to another chord without stopping. Pick any two of the chords and practice changing from one to the other and then, back to the first. Try to play the chords in time with the metronome MIDI. Strum once per click, four strums per chord. For now, just use down strums and concentrate on switching to the next chord and staying in time with the metronome.

Once you can go from any chord to any other chord and stay in time, try stringing three or more chords together into CHORD PROGRESSIONS.

Here are just a few possibilities:





DMaj - CMaj - GMaj - DMaj

GMaj - CMaj - DMaj - GMaj

EMaj - DMaj - AMaj - CMaj

AMaj - EMaj - GMaj - DMaj

Amin - Dmin - Emin - Amin

Amin - Dmin - GMaj - CMaj

Emin - Amin - DMaj - Emin





I'm sure you have noticed the Maj and min attached to each of the chord names. We will learn what this means in a later lesson. For now, all you need to keep in mind is that Maj chords sound bright and cheerful, while min chords sound dark and moody.



These chord progressions may not sound like your rockin' out, but there's a lot you can do with a few basic chords. If you add some rhythmic variation and a lead lick or two, you'el be amazed.

You'el probably have the best luck if you practice these chords with a clean sound on your amp with a bit of reverb. Once you get the chords down you can experiment with some distortion, but these chords don't always sound so good with a lot of distortion until you learn a few right and left hand techniques.

When it comes to playing OPEN POSITION chords, I will usually use the baseball bat hand position. This is so I can use my thumb over the top of the neck to keep the E and A-strings from ringing on the chords that don't require those strings.

Best of luck!


*http://www.zentao.com/guitar/guitar-lessons.html* This lesson was done by zentao

Guitar Lesson Week 5

Guitar Lesson - Right Hand Technique For now, we will work each hand separately. When you're working on one hand, don't worry about how the other is doing it's job. Just concentrate on getting the hand you are working to do what it is supposed to. If you start right at the beginning and make yourself practice correct technique, you will NOT run into any of the road blocks that a lot of guitarists encounter after they have played for a few years. Most tend to learn the hard way. They opt for sloppy technique instead of spending the time and effort to get it right from start. I've seen this time and time again. A player reaches a certain level only to have to start back at the beginning and re-learn such things as hand position or picking. This is because improper technique will limit your ability to play like a "mother". In the beginning a player is usually more interested in learning to whip out a few cool songs, but when they try to step beyond that and really play, they find that they can't get the "high performance" that they need out of their hands. Technique is based on efficiency and economy. Correct positioning and use of the hands is essential in order to maximize your ability to get at the notes that you need to play. I can't stress this enough. Take the time to get it right. In the long run you'el save yourself a lot of back-tracking. Right Hand: As far as how to hold the pick is concerned, There's really no "one way" to do it. Unlike the left hand, most people just do what comes natural. I hold my pick like this I pick from the wrist with my palm lightly resting on the strings. The angle of my arm insures that I'm not resting my palm on the string that I'm playing. The most important thing about the picking hand is that it is as relaxed as possible without fear of dropping the pick ( I still drop mine once in a while). There are a lot of subtleties to the techniques that the right hand is required to perform. We will address these as they become important. For now, just hold the pick in whatever way feels comfortable, relax and concentrate on hitting the right string at the right time. Here's an exercise for your picking hand. It's good to practice this after your left hand gets worn out from doing the other exercises. You're not going to use your left hand at all, just the right hand picking the open strings. Below you will find a MIDI file that is just a steady click. What you are going to practice is note groupings in time with the click. This is the foundation of RHYTHM and TIMING. The exercise goes like this: Pick an open string (perhaps the B-string, but any string will do). Play the MIDI file. Using only down strokes of the pick try to hit the string at the exact same time as the click. Try this with only up strokes, as well. Practice this until you can stay in near perfect sync with the click. Once you get that down, then you're going to play two notes for every click (think 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & etc...). These two notes must be evenly spaced. Later on, we'el work on uneven spacing of notes. Play these notes using ALTERNATE PICKING. That means that if you start with a down stroke on the first note, the second gets an up stroke then, down, up, down, up etc... Most people find starting with a down stroke to be most natural, but you need to be able to start with an up stroke as well. Practice both. When you get two notes per click down, then try four (think 1 e & a 2 e & a etc...). Again, you want to practice this starting with a down stroke AND starting with an up stroke. When you get to the point where you can easily play one, two or four notes per click, then practice going from one group to another without stopping:

EXAMPLE
(http://www.zentao.com/guitar/lesson1/notegroups1.mid)

Here's the practice file
(http://www.zentao.com/guitar/lesson1/metronome.mid)



*http://www.zentao.com/guitar/guitar-lessons.html* This lesson was done by zentao

Guitar Lesson Week 4

Guitar Lesson- Left Hand Technique


For now, we will work each hand separately. When you're working on one hand, don't worry about how the other is doing it's job. Just concentrate on getting the hand you are working to do what it is supposed to.

If you start right at the beginning and make yourself practice correct technique, you will NOT run into any of the road blocks that a lot of guitarists encounter after they have played for a few years. Most tend to learn the hard way. They opt for sloppy technique instead of spending the time and effort to get it right from start. I've seen this time and time again. A player reaches a certain level only to have to start back at the beginning and re-learn such things as hand position or picking. This is because improper technique will limit your ability to play like a "mother". In the beginning a player is usually more interested in learning to whip out a few cool songs, but when they try to step beyond that and really play, they find that they can't get the "high performance" that they need out of their hands.

Technique is based on efficiency and economy. Correct positioning and use of the hands is essential in order to maximize your ability to get at the notes that you need to play.

I can't stress this enough. Take the time to get it right. In the long run you'el save yourself a lot of back-tracking.



Left Hand:
There are two basic left hand positions:




Classical


Baseball Bat



The most versatile left-hand position is the classical position. This is the position we will concentrate on. The baseball bat position is very useful but also very limiting. It will come into play later when we deal directly with string bending, vibrato and certain chords. But, for now, the classical position will allow you to develop the ability to use all of your fingers with equal control and agility.

Try this test:

Place your thumb in the center of the back of the neck, as per the illustration for classical position. Now, spread your remaining fingers out as wide as you can (With a little practice and relaxation, you will eventually be able to cover 6 frets easily, without moving your hand!). While keeping your fingers spread, slowly move your thumb up and over the top of the neck until you have it hanging over the fingerboard, as in the baseball bat position. Notice what happens to the rest of your fingers. There's just no way to keep them spread out with the thumb hanging over the fingerboard. This fact limits your access to three or four frets at a time with little or no mobility if you flop your thumb over the top of the neck.

Another way of thinking about position draws from driving a car. If you've ever taken a driver training course, the first thing they make you do is to put your hands on the wheel at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock (10-2 position). This is the best hand position for being able to control the vehicle.

Now, nobody in their right mind would go cruising for chicks using that hand position. You'd look like a dork. Instead, you slump down in the seat, crank the stereo and hang your elbow out the open window. Now, you look cool and the babes just can't resist. Right? (My apologies if you take me too seriously here) But, what happens if you're so busy watching for chicks that you find yourself about to get in a wreck? As a reaction, your hands will automatically go to 10-2.

Or, have you ever seen a stock car racer whipping around the track at full speed without having both hands on the wheel?

When it comes to playing guitar, especially the rock star variety, nobody wants to look like a dork. So, a lot of players have the guitar hanging down at their knees and grab the neck in the manly, baseball bat fashion. But, with the possible exception of Steve Vai, most of the newer "high performance" players (as opposed to the older "cruisin' for chicks" variety) tend to wear their guitars no lower than waist level, and when they want to tear up the fretboard, sure enough, they pull their thumb back to the center of the neck and stretch their fingers out.


Example




In order to make full use of the classical position, a few points must be observed.

Notice in the illustration (refer to "classical" picture above) that the knuckle where the index finger joins the hand is NOT touching the bottom of the neck. Many people, when first trying this hand position, WILL anchor this knuckle. Until you develop the musculature of the wrist and hand, it will feel as though you lack any strength in the classical position. Realize that it takes very little actual finger pressure to push the strings to the fret. Most of the tension that a beginner applies with the left hand is directed onto the fingerboard itself and has very little to do with actually fretting the note. To this end, bracing the hand against the neck at the first knuckle of the index finger gives one a feeling of having better leverage with which to "strangle" the guitar. This is unnecessary as, the muscles of the hand will develop in a very short amount of time (usually within the first two weeks).

The thumb should be just a little higher than dead center on the back of the neck and directly in line with the middle finger. (If you take your left hand and touch the tip of your middle finger to the tip of your thumb like those Indian Yoga people do when they meditate, you'el get the idea. Only, don't bend the knuckle of the thumb. Keep it hyperextended like when you push in a tack with your thumb.) Don't allow your thumb to point off to the side like you're hitchhiking as this will destroy the hands natural ability to apply pressure to the strings.

Sitting or standing can make a difference in your ability to assume this hand position as well. When standing, you may need to adjust the length of your strap. If your guitar is too low, it forces you to have to bend your wrist way too much. I tend to wear mine at stomach level, but then, nobody ever tells me how cool I look. I do receive regular compliments on my playing, however.

If you are sitting down, the most common thing to do is to rest your guitar on your right leg. When I first started playing, I found that, if I practiced this way, when I got together with my band, the guitar would be in a different position (I was now standing) and that I couldn't play all those things I was practicing. I started practicing with my guitar sitting on my left leg and propped my left foot up on a book like those classical guitar players do. It made a dramatic difference. Not only was my guitar in the same relative position as when I played standing up, I found that I was able to play things that seemed impossible before.

Whew! There's a lot to consider, but details make a difference.

What follows is an exercise for developing correct hand position and learning to use of all four fingers.

Recall the exercise that I had you do in the section on theory. I had you play all the notes, in order, up and down a single string. We're going to do the same thing again only this time, we're going to go across the strings instead of up and down one string:

(CLICK ON PICRURE TO VIEW)






(CLICK ON PICTURE TO VIEW)




For the purposes of this exercise, the index finger will play any note on the 1st fret, the middle finger will play any note on the 2nd fret, the ring finger will play any note on the 3rd fret and the pinkie will handle notes on the 4th fret.

When playing ascending notes on a string, It's very important to keep any previous fingers that have played on that string holding their notes down.

For example:

If I play the F note at the 1st fret on the E-string with my index finger, I don't lift that finger off the string to play the F# with my middle finger. My index finger is still holding down the F note at the 1st fret. If I then play the G note at the 3rd fret with my ring finger, the index AND the ring will still be holding their notes down. The same goes if I then play the next note with the pinky. Now, all four fingers are holding down notes on the same string. This will most likely seem awkward until you gain sufficient coordination of the fingers. Keep practicing. It will come.

Once you have completed all the fingers that are going to play on a given string, then and only then, do you RELEASE the fingers to play on another string. Notice the word RELEASE instead of lift. To RELEASE the fingers is to simply relax the muscles that are being used to hold the notes. If instead, you lift the fingers, you are applying an opposite set of muscles to do a separate and distinct action. This may sound like "nit-picking" but it is very important. Lifting the fingers instead of RELEASING the fingers is one of the greatest causes of undue tension in the left hand. What happens is that the lifting muscles kick in at the same time that the pressing muscles are trying to do their job. This causes isometric tension in the hand that will slow you down, tire the hand, lead to sore knuckles (personal experience) and generally inhibit you from whizzing around on the fingerboard.

A tell-tale sign of this isometric tension is if you find your pinkie sticking way out there like those people who drink their tea in those tiny little cups, or if you use your pinkie to fret a note and your index finger goes sticking out.

Relax, relax, relax! That's the key.

If, on the other hand, you are descending on a given string, you don't have to worry about keeping your fingers down (that would be pretty hard to do any way), but you still must endeavor to keep the hand relaxed. Use only the amount of tension you need to play the notes cleanly (no buzzing or notes that won't stay ringing as long as you desire).


*http://www.zentao.com/guitar/guitar-lessons.html* This lesson was done by zentao

Guitar Lesson Week 3

Tuning up


The most difficult task that a beginning guitarist faces is tuning the instrument. As it takes time to develop a sense of pitch, I recommend that you use an electronic tuner at first. If you don't have one, go get one. It is impossible to learn to play on an out of tune guitar. You can pick up an electronic tuner for as little as $19.95, and it will pay for itself before the end of this first lesson. Make sure that the sales person shows you how to use it, and pay attention to what they tell you. If the instructions don't make sense to you, DO NOT leave the store until you understand EXACTLY how to use the tuner. If the sales person acts like they have something better to do than educate you on how to tune the guitar, leave a complaint with the management and go buy a tuner somewhere else. Playing in tune is THAT important!



You should start tuning your guitar with an electric tuner,but you should gradually loose it. The ears are the best tuners you get get, and they are FREE! So heres what you do Go here http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/onlinetuner.html and tune your guitar by listening. Then tune your guitar with your tuner to check for preciseness.


Theory



Notes are named after the first seven letters in the alphabet. In order, they are:



A - B - C - D - E - F - G





Between any two notes, except B - C and E - F, we also have a sharp and/or flat note.

These are the symbols that are used to denote sharp and flat: This first symbol is a Flat the second a sharp.






flat







If we list the notes, again, and include the sharps and flats, we get:



A - A#/Bb - B - C - C#/Db - D - D#/Eb - E - F - F#/Gb - G - G#/Ab - A



One important thing to notice is that X#/Xb is one note that has two names (The term used to describe this is ENHARMONIC). For example, A# is the exact same note as Bb. Sometimes, one name will be used, and sometimes the other name will be used. We will cover this in much greater detail in a later lesson. For now, it's only important that you know the names of the notes.

Another thing to notice is that after G#/Ab We arrive at A again. This second A vibrates exactly twice as fast as the first A, and therefore, the ear tends to hear it as another version of the same note. The second A is called the OCTAVE of the first A. If we continue after the second A, we get A#/Bb an OCTAVE higher than the first, B an OCTAVE higher, C an OCTAVE higher etc., etc., until we get to A again. This A is two OCTAVES higher than the first A. If we keep going, the whole pattern just repeats over and over until we can't get any higher on the instrument. (If you didn't run out of notes, you could keep right on going until the notes were so high that only a dog could hear them!) The same is true if you travel in the opposite direction. The pattern repeats until you run out of notes, or the neighbors call the cops (whichever comes first).

Here's something to help you remember the sharps and flats. If you sharpen a pencil, you raise a point on it. Therefore, if you play A and then play the next higher note, you would call the second note A#. If you flatten a pop can, you mash it down. Likewise, if you play B and then play the next lower note, you would call the second note Bb. Remember that A# and Bb are the exact same note or ENHARMONIC.

This may be a bit confusing but, you'el get used to it.

All you have to remember is A through G of the alphabet and a #/b note in between every two notes except B - C and E - F (there's no such note as B# or Cb, likewise, E# or Fb. There is an exception to this but, that's way down the road!).

Now, the strings of the guitar are tuned E A D G B E from the lowest sounding to the highest sounding.

What I have for you, is an exercise that uses the A-string to practice playing and naming the notes. Don't worry about the standard music notation right now. Just follow the TAB until you get the idea. Once you get the idea of the exercise, don't use the TAB either. You have to know this stuff by heart.

The idea of this exercise is to start on the OPEN (if you just play the string without putting any finger down on it, its called OPEN) A-string and play each note, in order, up and down the string, while naming the note out loud to yourself. Don't worry about which left-hand fingers to use. Just use whatever seems comfortable. We'el start worrying about which fingers to use later.

(CLICK ON THIS PICTURE TO SEE IT BETTER)



I only took the exercise up to the 12th fret but, you could keep going as high up the neck as possible before heading back down to the OPEN string. (Up and down directions on guitar ALWAYS refer to the pitch of the notes. If you go up the neck, you go from playing lower sounding notes to higher sounding notes. If you go down the neck, you go from playing higher sounding notes to lower sounding notes.)

Once you can go up and down the A-string and name the notes (Don't worry about trying to remember exactly where each note is. That will come later. Just get the pattern of how the notes are named so that you know it by heart.), do the same thing on the other strings.

If you start on the D-string (or any other string), the pattern is still the same. You're just starting in a different spot:




D - D# - E - F - F# - G - G# - A - A# - B - C - C# - D





I left out the flats because I'm tired of typing them, but they're still there, just like before.

Guitar Lesson Week 2

TABS


NOTE:DON'T WORRY ABOUT NOT KNOWING WHAT A HAMMER IS AND BENDS AND STUFF LIKE THAT FOR RIGHT NOW THIS IS JUST TO GET YOU STARTED ON READING TABS. IN THE FUTURE I WILL EXPLAIN IN MORE DETAIL HOW TO DO EACH OF THESE PRECISELY.

TAB is simple to read, and should be simple to write if you want to submit
a song you have worked out yourself. The idea is this :

You start out with 6 lines (or four for bass). These correspond to the strings
of the instrument. The top line is the highest pitch string, and the bottom
line is the lowest pitch string. Below is a blank bit of TAB with the string
names at the left.


E----------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------


Numbers are written on the lines to show you where to fret the string
with the left hand. If a zero appears , this means play the open string.
Like standard musical notation, you read from left to right to find
out what order to play the notes. The following piece of TAB would mean
play the sequence of notes (E F F# G G# A) on the bottom E string by
moving up a fret at a time, starting with the open string.


E----------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E---0--1--2--3--4--5---------------------------------------------


OK so far ?

Here we have notes being played one at a time. If two or more notes
are to be played together, they are written on top of one another,
again just like standard notation.

In the next example we have a G bar chord.

E----3------------------------------------------------------------
B----3------------------------------------------------------------
G----4------------------------------------------------------------
D----5------------------------------------------------------------
A----5------------------------------------------------------------
E----3------------------------------------------------------------


So this means play all these notes together as a chord.

You might see the same chord written like this :

E--------3--------------------------------------------------------
B-------3---------------------------------------------------------
G------4----------------------------------------------------------
D-----5-----------------------------------------------------------
A----5------------------------------------------------------------
E---3-------------------------------------------------------------


Which would mean strum the same shape starting at the bottom string, so
that each string is hit slightly later than the last string, but all notes
will ring together. Below is am example of the same shape again, but now
the gaps between the notes are bigger - so you would probably pick the
strings separately instead of slowly strumming the shape.


E------------------3----------------------------------------------
B---------------3-----3--------------------------------------------
G------------4-----------4-----------------------------------------
D---------5-----------------5--------------------------------------
A------5-----------------------5----------------------------------
E---3-----------------------------3--------------------------------


You might ask - How do I know how fast or slow to play this ?
Are all the notes supposed to be the same length ?


This is where TAB differs from standard notation. Most often TAB
will *not* give you any information on the note lengths. It is usually
left up to you to listen to the song to pick up the rhythm.

However - don't despair. TAB should give you some indications of
timing. In the example above all the notes are evenly spaced so you
can reasonably assume that the notes are the same length (maybe all
eighth notes or quavers) but this may not always be true - it depends on
who wrote the TAB.

As a general rule, the spacing of the notes on the TAB should tell you
which notes are the long ones, and which are the short and fast ones, but
obviously it won't tell you if a note is a triplet or anything like
that. Again, this will depend strongly on the person who wrote the
TAB.

As an example, here are the first few notes of the American National
Anthem in TAB. You should see fairly clearly that the different spacing
corresponds to the different note lengths.

E-----------------------0--------4--2-0--------------------------
B---0--------------0---------------------------------0-----------
G------1------1----------------------------1----3----------------
D--------2-------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------


Obviously it will be a lot easier to play the TAB for a song you
know well than for a song you've never heard of because you will
already be familiar with the rhythms of the familiar song.



*****************************************
*** 2.1 OTHER SYMBOLS USED IN TAB ***
*****************************************


So far I've looked at what notes to play : which string to hit, and
where to fret it. I've mentioned how to get an idea of note lengths
by looking at the spaces between notes on the TAB, but this can only
be a rough guide. You will always have to check with the original track
to work out details of the rhythm.

A lot of other important information can be included in a piece of TAB.
This includes hammer-ons, pull offs, slides, bends, vibrato and so on.

The standard practice is to write extra letters or symbols between notes
to indicate how to play them. Here are the letters/symbols most
often used :

h - hammer on
p - pull off
b - bend string up
r - release bend
/ - slide up
\ - slide down
v - vibrato (sometimes written as ~)
t - right hand tap
x - play 'note' with heavy damping


That last one, the x, is used to get a choppy, percussive sound.
You usually use your fretting hand to lightly damp the strings so
that when you pick the note it sounds dead.

Note that the use of 'x' is *totally* different from the use of
an 'x' when giving chord shapes.

For example if you wrote the chord of D, you would see :

EADGBE
xx0232


where the 'x's mean do not play this string.

In tab it is implicitly assumed that a string is not played if it is not
marked. So the same chord in TAB would be :



E-----2-----------------------------------------------------------
B-----3-----------------------------------------------------------
G-----2-----------------------------------------------------------
D-----0-----------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------

with no 'x'. The x is is only used in TAB to represent a heavily
muted string which is picked/strummed to give a percussive sound.

There are a number of other symbols for things like whammy bar bends,
pick scrapes and so on. There seems to be no particular standard
way of writing these - details should be given in the TAB to explain
what the symbols mean.

Bass TAB will probably need a few extra symbols to cope with the
different techniques used in bass playing - for example slapping
and 'popping' the string with thumb or middle finger.
You could use 's' for slap and 'p' for pop as long as you wrote
them *underneath* the lines of tab to distinguish them from slide
and pull off which would be written *on* the lines of tab.


****************************************
*** 2.2 HAMMER ONS AND PULL OFFS ***
****************************************


With hammer-ons and pull-offs you might find things like these :


E----------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A---------5h7-----------5h7--------------------------------------
E---0--0----------0--0-------------------------------------------


which would mean play the open E twice, then hit the A string at the
5th fret and hammer on to the 7th fret.


Pull offs look very similar :

E----3p0------------------------------------------------------------
B---------3p0-------------------------------------------------------
G--------------2p0--------------------------------------------------
D-------------------2---------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------


Here we have a descending blues scale using pull-offs to the open
strings. For each pull off you only pick the first note of the pair
with the right hand - so in this example you would pick all the
notes on the 3rd and 2nd frets, and the open strings would be
sounded by pulling off.


Because you give the string an extra bit of energy when you hammer on
and pull off, you only need to hit the first note with the picking hand.
You could even have a long string of hammer-ons and pull-offs like
this :


E----------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------
G---2h4p2h4p2h4p2h4p2h4p2----------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------

In this case you only pick the first note.



**********************
*** 2.3 BENDS ***
**********************


When bends are involved you need to know how much to bend the note
up. This is indicated by writing a number after the 'b'.
For example, if you see this :

E----------------------------------------------------------------
B------7b9-------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------


it means strike the B string at the 7th fret, then bend the note up
two semitones (one whole step) so that it sounds the same pitch as
a note fretted at the 9th fret would do. (Sometimes the bend is
written with the second part in brackets, like this ---7b(9)--- )

Something like this :

E----------------------------------------------------------------
B------7b9--9r7--------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------


means play the note at the 7th fret, bend up two semitones, strike the
note again whilst it is still bent, then release the bend so that the
note has it's normal pitch.

You sometimes get a note which is bent up only a quarter of a tone or so.
In this case it would look a bit strange to write :

B--------7b7.5--------

if you have to bend it up half a fret's worth.
Instead it's written as :


bend up 1/4 tone
E----------------------------------------------------------------
B------7b--------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------

with instructions on how much to bend written above the note.



**********************
*** 2.4 SLIDES ***
**********************


The most common symbols used for slides are / for a slide
up and \ for a slide down.

You might also see 's' used to mean slide.

You don't always need separate symbols for 'up' and 'down' slides
since a line of TAB reading :

E----------------------------------------------------------------
B------7/9-------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------

is clearly a slide *up* from 7th to 9th fret. However you might
also see things like these :

E----------------------------------------------------------------
B------/7-9-7\---------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------

where the exact start or finish of a slide is not given. Here you
have to know whether you're sliding up or down. In these cases use
your judgement to choose the starting or finishing fret. The effect
usually desired is to have a note 'swooping in' from a lower pitch
or dropping suddenly in pitch as the note fades.


You could have a whole series of slides running together, like this

E----------------------------------------------------------------
B------7/9/11\9\7\6\7--------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------

which would mean you only strike the first note with the pick using
the sustain to produce the other notes.




***************************************
*** 2.5 NOTE LENGTH INFORMATION ***
***************************************


Occasionally you will find TAB which includes information on all
of the note lengths. There seems to be no particular 'standard'
way of doing this, but it usually involves a line of letters or
symbols above the TAB.

See below (Section 3.2 part 6) for more details.

If the explanation of the timing symbols is not given in the TAB
then you've got a problem !
In this case a quick email to the author to ask for enlightenment
is the only way forward.





*********************************************
*** 3.0 WRITING TAB - GETTING STARTED ***
*********************************************


Perhaps one of the most important things to do before you start
typing up a piece of TAB is to decide exactly how much information
to include in it. The trick is to convey the right amount of
information in a clear, easily readable form.

Questions you can ask yourself are :

- Is the song played using mostly chords ?

- Are there a number of riffs which appear throughout the song ?

- Is there a clear verse/chorus/middle bit structure ?


By planning ahead a little you should be able to produce a clearly
structured TAB which will not only be easier for others to read, but
also easier for you to type in.

There are also choices to be made when deciding what package to use
when typing the TAB in. All you really need is a simple text editor,
however a mouse-driven editor will probably make things easier.

When you start typing in it saves time if you draw out one blank stave
and then make 8 or 10 copies of these before you start typing in
the fret numbers etc.

If you use a more complicated package like Microsoft Word then
make sure that the characters you use are all the same length.
If an 'm' character is wider than an 'i' character then your TAB
is going to look very strange on another text editor. Choose a font
where all charcters get the same width - Courier usually does the
job.




(This lesson was brought to you buy Written by Howard Wright)
H.Wright@astro.cf.ac.uk

Guitar Lesson Week 1

!!!!!!!BEFORE WE BEGIN HERE IS MY TWITTER SO I CAN KEEP YOU UPDATED!!!!!!!!!!!

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Lets Begin week 1 with the basic parts of the guitar.
There are two types of guitar, the first one is acoustic. We will start with it first.


Now as you see in the picture the acoustic guitar has many parts, but don't worry if you don't remember them in 10 minutes, its easier if you learn them over time because you'll find you can recall them easier.

OK, lets start at the top. First we have the head of the guitar, then we move down a little and you see the tuning keys. The tuning keys are pretty self-explanatory, they tune the strings on your guitar. If we move down we come to the nut. Now if you look at the nut you will see it has six grooves in it; those grooves hold the six strings in place on your acoustic guitar. Lets keep moving downward. We now come to the frets. These will come in handy when I teach you how to read tabs. Basically what the frets are for is to keep your barrings when your playing. Next is the finger board, the part that you play on. And then the neck is where the fingerboard, frets, and nut are all located. Now we come to the body, it's the part where most of the sound is generated from. As we move down we come to the sound hole. This is where the sound resonates when you play the strings. Move a little further down and we are at the strings, The things you pluck to make sound loll. Continue to move down and we see the bridge, now the bridge is what holds the strings on. And finally we see the pin, This is to hold your strap on.



OK now that we have talked about the Acoustic guitar lets move to the Electric!
Now as you see below the electric and acoustic guitar are very similar in parts but they both have a different sounds and they have a few different parts, lets check it out!
OK, Now you see the head, tuning pegs, nut, fret, fretboard, and neck are the same as the acoustic, they do the same thing. Now if we move down a little we come to the neck pickup, middle pick up, and the bridge pickup. Now these are different on different guitars it just depends what kind you have. The general purpose for these is to pick up the sound from the strings and the bridge. If you continue to move down we see the bridge, the body, and the pin, all of these do the same thing they do on the acoustic. Now as we come around we see the output jack, this is where you hook your electric guitar up to an amp; now some acoustic guitars come with these too. Keep coming around and we get to the volume and tone knobs, these control the volume in you guitar and the the tone quality. As we move on we see the selector switch, what this does is let you switch between about 4-5 different kinds of guitars. (depending on what guitar you have) Finally we come to the whammy bar, the purpose for this is for the effect similar to vibrato. When you hook your guitar up to an amp and play something you wiggle it back and forth (different speeds sounds different) you get a vibrato sound. When attaching this in to a new guitar it should be really loose you don't want it to be tight or else it will break (I learned from experience)

And there you have it! All the parts to the Acoustic and Electric guitar! Please feel free to donate and thank you for reading!



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Introduction

!!!!!!!BEFORE WE BEGIN HERE IS MY TWITTER SO I CAN KEEP YOU UPDATED!!!!!!!!!!!

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Hello fellow guitarist! Welcome to my Blog On how to master the Basics of the Guitar. Like all guitarist we have to start somewhere. When I began the guitar I looked all over for free lessons online. So many of them said free, but had hidden charges. I am here to teach you the beginning chords, a lot of beginners songs, how to read tabs, and much much more! The best part of it is its all for FREE!!! I will be accepting donations though because it does take time to make these lessons, but its not required. Follow me on twitter to get the latest Guitar lessons

Thank you !