Lesson 7 - Your First Songs

Ok, the moment of truth.  It’s been a really short time since you started (providing you practiced every day).  So here we go. 

Depending on your age, you might know “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” from Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, Eric Clapton, Guns ‘N Roses, or Wyclef Jean.  The song is easy… if you count 1, 2, 3, 4 slightly faster than one number per second then you have about the right speed.  Counting “1, 2, 3, 4” puts you in 4/4 time.  That means a quarter note gets a beat and there are four beats per measure. 

What we are going to do is strum G Major when you say “1, 2,” then switch and strum D Major when you say “3, 4,” and then finally C Major when you count the next “1, 2, 3, 4”.  You repeat that over and over and there you go!  Bob Dylan’s version changes the C major to A minor every other cycle, but you can rock out to G’n’R’s version by sticking to the three chords.

Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” is 4 strums of each chord for C Major, G Major, D Major, G Major over and over.

There are hundreds if not thousands of songs that use a combination of these chords.  Some, like “What I Got” by Sublime only uses two! (G Major and D Major)

Here’s a small list to get you started, besides those listed above try these out:

Undone (the Sweater Song) – Weezer

Ring of Fire – Johnny Cash/Social Distortion

You Shook Me All Night Long – AC/DC

Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd

Leaving on a Jet Plane – John Denver

All Apologies – Nirvana

Can’t You See – Marshall Tucker Band

All Together Now – The Beatles

Bye Bye Love – The Everly Brothers

Great Balls of Fire – Jerry Lee Lewis

La Bamba – Richie Valens/Los Lobos

I Fought the Law – Bobby Fuller Band

Lay Down Sally – Eric Clapton

Lively Up Yourself – Bob Marley

Mellow Yellow – Donovan

Werewolves of London – Warren Zevon

Rock This Town – Stray Cats

Stir It Up – Bob Marley

Surfin’ USA – The Beach Boys

That should get you started.  If you want, continue on.  We will have a members section up here shortly to continue on with your lessons.  We will get into more chords, more chord theory, beginning out with some scales and learning how to solo and improvise.  We will also go through different types of music.  Even if there are some categories of music you aren’t particularly fond of, you will find that some of their techniques are really cool to use in different genres.  Listen, learn and experiment!

Lesson 6 - Forming Chords in a Major Key

When the difference between two notes of a chord are built with Whole Step + Whole Step we say the difference is Major.  When the distance is Whole Step + Half Step (or vice versa), we say the difference is Minor.  So more math, a major chord is built with Major 3^rd + Minor 3^rd.

If the chord is built on Minor 3^rd + Major 3^rd, it is a minor chord.  It is the 3^rd note of a scale that gives the note a major or minor quality. 

As a side zen note, major chords sound happier and minors sound sadder.

If you stack up three chord notes throughout the scale, you end up with something that looks like this:

You can run all the math if you like, but I’ll make this easy.  When we talk about the positions of the scale, we use roman numerals.  Capital letters are Major chords, lower case are minor chords, and chords with lower case and with a small “o” are diminished.  The chords built on a scale are said to be in that scale’s “KEY”.  So, here we are dealing with the Key of C.  The first chord is Major (I), the second is minor (ii), the third is minor (iii), the fourth is Major (IV), the fifth is Major (V), the sixth is minor (vi) and the seventh is minor diminished (vii o).  Diminished chords we will visit later.  They are far less common.

So in the key of C, the C, F and G chords are Major.  If we look at the key of G… G, C and D are major.  Remember those chords?  Those are the ones you have been learning!  So if we play those three chords in any combination, we will be playing in the key of G.

Lesson 5 - Making a Scale and Basic Chords

Ok, while you are practicing your chord changes, I want to fill your head with a little knowledge to help you so you can eventually start building your own chord progressions and making your own songs.

In your note practice, you see that you keep cycling from A to G#, then starting the alphabet over again.  Every A you play is the same note, some sound higher, some lower.  The distance from one letter to another is called an OCTAVE.  There are 12 different tones (A, A#, B, C, C#... etc.) in an octave.

Below are (in tablature and standard notation) examples for this lesson.

Ex. A is an octave from middle C to the C above middle C.  It includes the 12 tones and the C octave (for a total of 13 tones).  Each tone is a half step.  C to C# is a half step, C# to D is a half step, E to F is a half step also.  Remember there are no sharps between B and C, and E and F.

If you skip a half step (follow me with the pre-Algebra here) you get a whole step.  So C to D is a whole step, D to E is a whole step, E to F# is a whole step.

So here is where the magic begins.

To make a major scale (also called Ionian Mode), you have to use the following math:

Whole Step + Whole Step + Half Step + Whole Step + Whole Step + Whole Step + Half Step = major scale

In Ex A and B, each note is a half step, Each note and rest is a whole step.  So, the notes of the C major scale above are  C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and back to C.

Scales we will learn to play soon enough.  For now it is just important how the scales are created.  Because from these, we make chords.  The basic chord, and the ones we have been learning so far, are called “triads.”  They are based on three notes taken in “thirds”.  The first chord of a major scale is the first note, third note, and fifth note of the C Major scale (as seen in Ex C).

Lesson 4 - Changing Chords

Ok great!!! We now know three chords.  If you have been working hard, you can, with some effort, maybe be able to get your fingers on the fretboard and make the chords without hitting any dead notes, letting the notes sing out.  The more you practice these, the easier they will become to make without thinking.

Today we are going to start putting them together.  We are going to start by strumming the C Major chord four times, then quickly moving our fingers to form the G Major chord and strumming four times.  Going back and forth.  Then we are going to try doing the same thing from C Major to D Major and then finally from G Major to D Major.  It will look a little like this:

The key is to try to make the changes as quickly as possible.  Start slow and build faster and faster.  Right now, don’t worry about getting in time, worry about getting your fingers used to moving from one chord shape to the next. 

The only thing harder than first learning chords is learning how to shift from one to the other.  Watch the video lesson to see how I learned to do this.  But basically I hold one chord and visualize what the next chord looks like and see how I can move one finger at a time from the first to the second chord.  I promise, after a little time, you will not be thinking about this again.  It will just be something your fingers do instinctively.

This is more than enough to practice for now.  If and when you start to become frustrated, switch to the string by string note practice of the last lesson.  The next two lessons will be about theory of notes and chords and scales.  While you are learning about how we create chords and scales, keep practicing these chord changes.  As you get better, start working with the metronome.  Start with 4/4 at 60 bpm (beats per measure) and speed up as you can make the changes without missing a beat.

Lesson 3 - D Major and More Fretboard Work

Look how far you have come!  Today we are going to learn the third chord, and the last chord you need before you can start playing songs.  D Major….

If you have been following the instructions.  If you have been aiming for learning to play the chords and notes without buzzing before you move on to the next lesson, you should be finding that each chord gets easier and easier to produce.  If you can play the C Major chord and the G Major chord, then this D Major chord should come with quite a bit more ease than the C Major and a bit more than the G Major.  It is still important we aim for clarity in the notes when playing the D Major chord also.

Added to the D Major chord I want you to add to the note practice we started last lesson.  This time you will go from low to high like last time, but then this time I want you to come back, releasing one finger at a time while still holding the fingers behind the note being played.  Still singing/saying the note you are playing.  In note and tablature, your exercise will look like this:

Keep working on the chords and these notes, aiming for perfection.  Right now rhythm doesn’t matter.  Just get the fretting hand used to making the chords and walking up and down the fretboard and getting used to hearing the notes and knowing their names.

Next lesson we are going to start putting these chords together and making some real music!

Zen and the Art of Music Appreciation

There is a LOT more to being a musician than just knowing chords and notes.  Music is even more about listening than doing.  It is key to accompany your music lessons with music appreciation.  

When I was a kid I started out listening to Metallica, the Sex Pistols, the Ramones and the Dead Kennedys.  As I started to learn guitar I got more into the Who, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks and Led Zeppelin.  It made sense.  That for me was beginning rock guitar.

I started to listen to everything I could get my hands on.  But not only listening to the music, but I read every interview and news article I could find on the musicians themselves.  That led me to start listening to folk and blues, even some country.  I was discovering what had influenced those early rock musicians.  Then I was led back and back.  Soon I was listening to every form of music I could.  World music, jazz, blues, reggae, rock, pop and then I found classical.

The more I listened, the more I wanted to learn how to do different things I heard.  And what is really fun is when you can take something you heard and apply it in a different music style.

Obviously if you decided to start learning the guitar, you like music.  Keep listening!  But read too.  It’s an interesting journey.  Like Black Sabbath?  It’s amazing when you find out that Ozzy wanted to be in the Beatles.  So go listen to the Beatles, read about their influences.  Soon you will be listening to Phil Spector pop and R&B from the early 60’s, or read that they met Bob Dylan who got them to leave lovey dovey pop and go in a more socially conscious direction.  Follow the influences and you will find yourself listening to Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie.  It’s a journey that will open your mind.  If you can leave your preconceived notions of music behind you, you will find a world of amazing possibilities which will allow you to become a real musician rather than just a guitar picker!

Lesson 2 - G Major chord and Fretboard Notes

Today we are going to move on to the next chord, the G Major chord.  We are also going to start with an exercise to work out the fingers and learn the notes at the head end of the neck.

Here’s the chord of this lesson.  Put your middle finger behind the third fret on the low E string, your index finger behind the second fret on the A string, next three strings are open, and then your ring finger behind the third fret on the high e string.  Then strum all six strings.  Just like last lesson work through it until you can make every note sound without buzzing.

The second part of this lesson deals with learning a little of the fretboard.

I’m going to try not to overload you with music theory through this course, but a little basic theory is necessary. So let’s start with the alphabet.  The notes in order from A to A are as follows:

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

The “#” in music means sharp.  So we have “A, A sharp, B, C, C sharp, D…. etc”.  Note that there is no sharp between B and C, and between E and F.  Just cuz.

So, now you are going to play all the notes in “open position” (the first four frets and open strings).  Music is made up of ‘half steps’. Each letter above is a half step apart.  A# is a half step above A. C is a half step above B.  And so forth.  Each fret on a guitar is a half step.  If we look at the low E string, if it is plucked without being fretted, we hear an E note.  Put your first finger behind the 1^st fret and pluck – we hear an F.  Put your second finger behind the 2^nd fret and pluck – an F# is produced.

So the exercise for this lesson is below:

Here is how this lesson will work:

Pluck the open Low E string, and out loud say “E”.  If you can sing the “E” note in unison with plucking it, even better.  Then put your 1^st finger down behind the first fret on the low E string and say or sing “F”.  Next, while leaving your first finger behind the first fret, put your second finger down on the low E string behind the second fret and say/sing “F sharp”.   Leave the first two fingers where they are and add your ring finger on the low E string behind the third fret saying and/or singing “G”, then, again leaving all previous fingers holding down the low E string, add the pinky finger down behind the 4^th fret and say/sing “G sharp”.

After G#, you will lift all your fingers and repeat with the open A string, saying/singing the musical alphabet.  All string will be done the same with the exception of the g string, on which you will only use three fingers before going to the b string.  And remember… there are no sharps between B and C, and between E and F.

This exercise does a few things.  First, it ingrains the musical alphabet names in your head, second, if you sing the notes it helps to instill the sound of the notes in your head and helps you to recognize half steps.  Thirdly by leaving your fingers down on the fretboard as you continue, you stretch out your hand.  Only, make sure that each note rings without buzzing before going to the next note.  Finally, this exercise will help build calluses on all your fingers which will help you to quickly stop crying like a little girl every time you go to practice.

The focus now is to aim for perfection.  You need to make sure you can press down and form these chords and do these exercises clearly, without buzzing notes.  Take the time now to learn to do this so that later you can concentrate on having real fun with this.  The good news is we are two lessons from actually playing about a million songs.  Don’t believe me??  Think it’s too soon?? NEVER!!!  Keep working hard and within another two weeks I’ll have you playing songs, not just building calluses and singing weird alphabets!

Lesson 1 - C Major Chord

Ok. Let’s get ready.  The best position for learning is to sit on a chair without arms.  Sit with your back straight, put your left foot on a couple of books or small footstool so that your left knee is slightly higher.  Rest the body of the guitar on the left thigh.  This places your body right between the neck and the sound hole or pick-ups.  And raises the neck so that the head of the guitar is about shoulder high.

Now let’s revisit that C-major chord.  As a chord diagram, we see it like this:

And the tablature for this lesson is this:

The key to learning to play chords is using the tips of your fingers, not the fat part.  This isn’t a smartphone!

Here you can see the lines the strings have made on my fingers making a C major chord.  If you use the fat, fleshy part of the fingers, you will inadvertently mute (deaden) strings you want to hear.  So it is best to keep your thumb in the middle of the back of the neck so your fingers curve around and come into the string at a 90 degree angle to the fingerboard.  THIS WILL HURT.  You may want to cry.  Go ahead. No one can see you.  After a few days/weeks of playing you will build up calluses to protect your fingers from the pain, but for now this will be painful.  Like my middle school gym teacher wisely told me… “walk it off.”

Another little tidbit… There is a lot in life I wish I could go back and do again, but learning to play chords is NOT one of those things.  It will be frustrating.  First you will not be able to play the fretted notes (fretted notes are played by pressing down behind the fret) without getting some buzzing.  Second, you will start to get the buzzing under control but the open strings will be dead (muted).  It will take some time and patience to get this right.  Thirdly your fingers will just feel plain uncomfortable between stretching them in new weird ways, over the fingerboard while maintaining correct posture to make all the notes heard, and not wanting to cry while the wires dig into your fingers.  If you find it too much, don’t hesitate to take a break. 

For this lesson all we want to do is to make a C major chord and make each note ring clearly. 

In the tablature above you will see a strum of the chord, feel free to strum all you like, the key is to hear every string with the exception of the low E string.  Strum up, strum down.. just get used to moving your pick hand up and down the strings and wiggle your fretting hand slightly to play all the strings clearly. 

The second part of the tablature is picking each note from low to high and making sure that you can hear each and every individual string.  This will take time and practice.  The key for this first lesson might very well be mostly of patience and not breaking the guitar out of frustration.  Stick with it.  I promise you will get it.

When you are satisfied that you can hold a C major chord without moving your fretting hand and can hear every string clearly, we can move on to lesson 2.

Intro to Notation

First let us get a frame of reference which we will be using throughout this course.  First let’s name the strings.  As you hold the guitar you will notice that the thickest (and lowest sounding string) is closest to your head.  As you strum down, the strings get thinner and higher sounding.  The names of the strings are as follows:

High E----------------------------------------------------------------

b----------------------------------------------------------------------

g----------------------------------------------------------------------

D---------------------------------------------------------------------

A---------------------------------------------------------------------

Low E----------------------------------------------------------------

Next let’s name the fingers we are going to use:

 

Fretting Hand            

Picking Hand

There will be two major notation forms I will be using.  Tablature and Chord diagrams.

Chord diagrams look like this:

On chord diagrams, the thick line at the top is the Nut, the horizontal lines are frets, and each of the 6 vertical lines are guitar strings.  The ‘x’ on the low E string means that you do not play that string, or you lightly touch the string so that it does not make a sound other than a dull thud.  The ‘o’ above the nut means that string is played open.  The numbers correlate to the fingers on the fretting hand.

So in the  “C major” chord shown above, the low E string is not played, on the A string, you place your 3^rd finger (ring finger) just behind the 3^rd fret.  On the D string you place your 2^nd finger (middle finger) behind the second fret.  The g string is played open.  On the b string you place your 1^st finger (index finger) behind the first fret, and then play the high e string open.

Tablature is a slightly different beast.  Here the strings are horizontal rather than vertical like in the chord diagram.  This allows the musician to read the music across the page as you might read a book or standard sheet music. 

Tablature looks like this:

There is a lot of information on this.  First, we can see at the top, that there are 120 beats per minute.  I will try to always include standard notation along with the tablature.  It is good to get used to trying to read the standard notation, although at this time this is not something I’m going to cover in these lessons.  But it is important to see the two 4’s. 

This piece of music is in 4/4 time.  This is the most common.  The top number tells us how many beats there are per measure.  The bottom number tells us which note gets the beat.  In this case there are 4 - ¼ notes per measure.

In tablature, the strong on the bottom is the low E and the top line is the high e string.  The numbers on the lines correspond to which fret is played on that particular string.

So, the first bar is four strums of all open “0” strings.  The second measure and first half of the third involves quarter notes being plucked in order from lowest string to highest, then the final measure and a half are plucked in reverse back to the low E.

Now that we have that out of the way, we are ready.  The next post will be lesson 1.  Let’s get our hands a bit dirty!

Parts of the Guitar

Now that we are just about ready, we need a little frame of reference.  Below is a photo of my guitar labeled with the major parts of the guitar.

The Head is at the end of the neck.  It holds the tuners which are used to keep the guitar in tune.  You may notice I have a tuner clipped to the end of the head of my guitar.  It’s always there so I can always stay in tune. 

Between the head and neck is the nut.  This is where the string stops vibrating when you pluck an open string.

The neck is the long, thin piece of wood between the body and the head of the guitar.  On the neck are a series of metal strips called ‘frets’.  While most people, when giving directions tell you to put your finger “ON the third fret” (for example), you actually press your finger down on the string BEHIND the third fret.  When a sting is pressed down behind a fret, what you are actually doing is shortening the length of string to a distance that is from the bridge to the fret just ahead of your finger.

The body of the guitar can be hollow (as an acoustic), solid (as on an electric) or partially solid with empty cavities, called semi-hollow (as on the guitar in the picture above).  On an electric, the body houses the pickups which transmit the sound to the amplifier.  On an acoustic, it has a sound hole which amplifies the sound of the strings.

Behind the pickups or sound hole is the bridge.  When a string is “open” or plucked without a finger on the fretboard, the string vibrates from the bridge to the nut.

Here’s a little bit o’ physics.  The thicker the string, and the longer the length that vibrates, the lower the pitch, or sound, is.  Conversely, the thinner the string and shorter, the higher the pitch.  Putting your finger on the fretboard and pressing down on a string shortens that string to the distance of the bridge to the fret in front of (closer to the body) the finger.  The closer your finger goes to the body, the higher then note will sound.

Next, we will look at some notation that will help you learn how to play.  Our first lesson is just around the corner!!!

Equipment Needed to Start Learning Guitar

YouTube video of this lesson

Ok, so you decided on a guitar or you have one and you are almost ready.  But not yet.  If you are serious about learning you need a few more pieces of equipment.

First, a guitar tuner.  If you get no other piece of equipment, a tuner is a must.  Before you ever pluck a note, you need to make sure your guitar is perfectly in tune.  The more you practice, the more you need to tune.  It is important that you always hear your instrument in tune.  This is not only to assure that you don’t drive others nuts, but so that your ear gets trained along with your fingers.

Next, I would recommend a pick.  There are different sizes and it’s best to get a few different thicknesses and play around with them and see what feels and sounds good to you.  But they are cheap, which is great because you will lose most of them and five years later they will start to reappear in strange places, like between sofa cushions and in the backseat of your car, or at friend’s houses.  No one knows why they go wandering, but soon they will be littered around your house like cat hairs.

Finally, I highly recommend a metronome.  Now you can download metronomes on iPhone, Android or Windows Phone for free.  A decent metronome can also be found online at http://www.webmetronome.com/.  Really, the only thing that is important is that the metronome can keep a steady beat, and you can change how frequently (how many beats per minute, or BPM) it beeps.  A good metronome can also sound for eight or sixteenth notes or triplets.  But if it can click it will do.

Now that we have our equipment, we are almost ready.  Next lesson we will discuss the parts of the guitar and music notation that will be used on this site.

How to Pick a Guitar

YouTube video of this lesson

After deciding to start playing guitar many people ask what they should choose.  After all, the choices can be daunting.. steel string acoustics, nylon string classical guitars, electric guitars, semi-hollow body electrics, dobros, etc.

First, any guitar you have is better than one you don’t.  If there is one lying around, pick it up, start playing! The more you play and the more you listen, you might find that the type of guitar you ultimately want changes.  And you can learn on any guitar.

But if you are going to buy your first guitar, there are two questions you have to answer… what do you want in your hands and what type of music do you want to play.

Electrics are easier to play, especially when we get to barre chords.  It takes less strength to hold down the strings and electrics tend to hurt newbies’ fingers less.  However electrics, to be fully appreciated, need to be plugged in, and therefore will be louder.  Nylon string classicals are quietest, and easiest to finger pick, but the fingerboard is a little wide so your hand has to stretch more.  But acoustic guitars are quieter which the family or neighbors might appreciate more.  The steel strings are quite stiffer and take more effort to make ring clearly.  And while it may be more difficult to start, once you can manage yourself on an acoustic, moving to an electric is quite easy.

I started myself with electrics, then moved to classicals before I ever owned an acoustic, but must say that due to the volume and portability, my acoustic gets the most play these days.

If your goal is to play metal or punk, you might want to hit the electric.  If you are more into folk or indie rock, grab the acoustic.  If your heroes are Lindsay Buckingham or Paganini, then start with a classical.  

The lessons here are workable on any type of guitar you can get your hands on.  As the level progresses, we will get into more instrument specific techniques.