My name is Nick, I have been playing Guitar for 6 years, and just finished a two-year College program in Music Arts, majoring with Guitar. I figured that everyone would love to start playing guitar, but have no idea where to start, so this guide can hopefully help them.
Hopefully this guide will help anyone out with the pure basics of guitar, give them an idea of where to get started and get me a Beta Key!
LEARNING GUITAR IS FUN!
SECTION 1: PURCHASING A GUITAR
To start off, I will give a quick overview of the basic types of Guitars, Anyone who already has a guitar and all that stuff can move on to Section 2.
There are basically three types of guitars. Acoustic, Classical and Electric.
Acoustic guitar is the most common, they do not need an amp, and is perfect for the casual player who wants to impress his friends/family/girls. Most people start off on acoustic, as they are often found for very cheap at places like yardsales and such.
Electric guitars are the smaller, solid body guitars that need an amp to be heard. They are what you see at most live performances. They can come in ALL SHAPES AND SIZES. I will not go into too much depth for this guide, but obviously know that Acoustics are, acoustic.. and Electrics are.. Electric.
Classical guitars are unique, as they are Acoustic guitars, but they have special strings on them, Nylon strings. This gives the guitar a more warm sound. Along with other specifications such as a wider and flatter fretboard, it is used for mostly classical playing. Because of the flatness of the fretboard, you would want an Acoustic over a Classical if you planned on playing American Pie or other chord-based guitar songs..
SECTION 2: WHERE TO START?
So, Whether you have an Acoustic or an Electric guitar, Know that Guitar is pretty much just Harmony and Melody. All music, in its basic form, is Harmony and Melody.
HARMONY = The simultaneous sounding of two or more tones, esp. when satisfying to the ear. You may of heard of Chords before, They are just when you play more than one note at the same time.
MELODY = a sequence of single tones, usually in the same key or mode, to produce a rhythmic whole; often, a tune, air, or song. Melody obviously refers to a sequence of notes, to often form a sing-able little phrase of notes, sometimes it can involve Two or more notes, but for the sake of Keeping it simple, we will refer to it as Single notes.
As a basis, know that THE GUITAR IS A CHORDAL INSTRUMENT; Meaning that almost everything played on the guitar, Most often are chords, as the instrument was designed to voice chords better than most other instruments. It also has a frequency range that is favorable for chords, as it can sound quite low, or quite high, all at the same time.
To understand how Chords and the Guitar works, You will unfortunately need to understand a very tiny bit of MUSIC THEORY. It sounds scary, but Don't worry, It is quite simple (Esp for all you Starcraft Gosus who can memorize crazy build orders like nothing.)
SECTION 3: THE MAJOR SCALE
Western Music Theory is based around one thing. THE MAJOR SCALE! Everything in Music, Revolves around the Major Scale. You may of heard the Sound of Music's Classic song; DO RE MI
What she is singing, the "DO RE MI FA SO LA TI DO" is a Major Scale. To break it down, anyone totally unfamiliar with music, know that the "Musical Alphabet" consists of SEVEN Letters; A B C D E F G. The reason? To write music out easier. Without getting too technical, Just understand that to make Music Theory relative to whatever song we are playing, We assign Numbers to Letters instead to form the Major Scale.
The Major Scale is always the Foundation, so it is always 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Remember that in the DO RE MI song, The last syllable is always the same as the very first.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 DO RE MI FA SO LA TI DO
The most basic scale, is C Major. When you play a Piano, Playing all the white keys in a row is a C Major Scale. Why? Because it has no sharps or flats. (see Spoiler)
In Addition to the letters being A B C D E F G, There is also notes that is half the distance between these letters, EXCEPT between B and C, and E and F. (Again, See the Piano. That is where Two white keys line up with no Black key in the middle)
We call these middle notes, Sharps or Flats. When you are going down from an A, You call that A Flat, or Ab. When you are going up from A, You call that an A Sharp, or A#. This gets more complicated but basically to make a proper "Major Scale", You need a special "sequence" of notes, or DISTANCE between each note, and when you start on a C Note, it works out to be perfect normal letters (C D E F G A B C)
The Proper Distancing to make a Major Scale, is W W H W W W H (W being Whole step, H being Half step) .. A whole step means you jump a note, while a Half step is the next note
A full "chromatic" scale (every note possible) Would be A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A taking the W-W-H-W-W-W-H approach starting with A, would make that A B C# D E F# G# A
So C Major works out perfectly to make it C D E F G A B C, and why its the most common.
So if we take our C Major Scale and lay it out ontop of the Numbers/Do Re Mi, it is;
C D E F G A B C 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 DO RE MI FA SO LA TI DO
Why is this important? Because the Major scale shows how Chords are formed. Remember how I said a Chord is more than one note? The place you get these notes, is from this Major scale, or Numbers.
SECTION 4: CHORDS
So, Regardless if you have an Acoustic or Electric, The best place to start and develop a fundamental basis for playing guitar, is starting with CHORDS. You could start with playing single notes, and lots of beginners do, but sooner or later, whether you are planning on just playing alone at a campfire, or playing with other people, They will want you to cover the Chords.
Chords can be made up of any combination, but most chords are made up of THREE notes. There IS a Pattern to Chords, and why they work. Any Normal basic chord is always made up of the 1, 3 and 5.
So, a C Major Chord, being made up from 1 3 and 5, are the notes C E and G!
C D E F G A B C 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 DO RE MI FA SO LA TI DO
This works for Every chord in Every Major scale. If you know what the 1, 3 and 5 are, Then you can play those three notes and will have a Major Chord!
If you have a Piano, It makes Chords really simple, as the keys lie out in a perfect pattern of the notes, and you can form chords easier than Guitar.
Keep in mind, there are also MINOR chords, which is based off the MINOR scale, but don't worry, that is simple. For Chords, All you have to know to make a Minor Chord, is taking your Major Chord ( 1, 3 and 5) and FLAT your 3. So that would make it 1, b3, 5
in C, since our Major chord was C, E and G.. You have to put a Flat infront of E (your 3rd)
So back to Guitar. We will be working in STANDARD TUNING (low to high: E A D G B E) I am going to show you how the Musical notes lay out on the Guitar, But DONT WORRY; You do not have to memorize all these, It just helps if you want to make your own chords and further your music knowledge. (the 6th string is your lowest/thickest)
Man, it's more difficult than I thought trying to explain Music Theory basics, But hopefully I haven't lost you guys completely. Now I will move on to the good stuff!
SECTION 5: PLAYING CHORDS ON GUITAR!
Ok, Now what you all want to know. How to play Chords on Guitar.
So, Make sure your guitar is in tune and lets play some chords!
We will start with OPEN position voicings. This is where you use some of the open strings to help make the chord for you, Which puts less strain on your fingers and is a great way for beginners to start playing guitars while getting your fingers comfortable to all these stretchs.
Remember that the LOWEST Note of your chord, is often the "ROOT" note, Or the note of the Chord you are playing. Try to play with your the bone in your finger pressing down, rather than the "flat" part. That might help out some with getting the notes to ring out clear.
These are your most common Chords that every singer/songwriter uses to death. Note that the white circles at the very top mean OPEN strings, your fingers dont have to fret those.
C Major Chord (C is the basis of music/scales, remember?) The LEFT string is your LOWEST E string (thickest string)
G Major Chord
D Major Chord
D Minor Chord
E Major Chord
E minor Chord
A Major Chord
A minor Chord
F Major Chord
POWER CHORDS
One thing I thought I should touch on briefly, for all you rockers out there. Power chords! I'd say like 70% of all Hard rock songs are made of these, Especially AC/DC, Kiss, etc.
A Power chord, like all chords, still follows the Major Scale formula. The only difference between a Power Chord and a Normal chord, is that the Power chord omits the 3rd, making it a very open chord, which is perfect for ROCKING OUT! It doesnt invoke the feeling of Happy or Sad, that the 3rd note adds.
A Power Chord = 1 and 5.
Here is a G Power chord (Also known as G5)
Notice that there is three notes there, the top note is just a repeating G, which you can leave out if you want, and just play the two bottom note, as that is how most Rock players play it. The extra top note just gives it more "fullness"
BARRE CHORDS
Barre Chords are Chords that can be moved ANYWHERE on the neck, and as long as your fingers stay in this position, It will form a chord! It is really helpful for exploring many chords, although the stretch is kinda painful at first. Keep in mind, the reason its called a "Barre" chord is that you "Barre" your first (index) finger across the whole fret, So that one finger covers every string, and then you place the other fingers on the other notes. This makes the moving of the chord easier, although puts more stress on the hand.
If there are more than two notes that are on adjacent strings, you can try playing them both with ONE finger, it may take some time to sound good, but this is how the pros do it.
Here is an F Major Barre Chord
For Comparison, Heres an G Major Barre Chord
See how it is just moved up two frets, same shape but now its a G Major chord.
G minor Barre Chord
So this is similar to the G Major Barre chord, but we flat our 3rd.
Barre Chords on the 5th string (A String)
C Major Barre Chord (starting on the A String)
So this shape is also movable to any fret, if you keep your fingers in the same position.
D Major Barre Chord (starting on the A String)
See? Moved up a whole step to D, but same shape/fingering.
D Minor Barre Chord (starting on the A string)
Again, to make a Minor chord, we flat our 3rd. This is a Barre chord, so it can be moved to any fret.
I hope that gives you a basic understanding of chords. Yes, Your fingers will hurt at first, But keep at it everyday and eventually it will feel natural.
Try to Keep your thumb on the MIDDLE of the back of the neck, this will help your hand reach the frets better for chords.
SECTION 5: HOW CHORDS WORK TOGETHER
Now that we know all the shapes of Chords, Now I will explain how and why they sound good together!
Remember the Major Scale I was talking about? That is the key to how chords fit together. There are 7 notes in each Major Scale, and each of these notes can form a chord of its own, using the notes in the Major Scale. We do this by "jumping" each note, and using the 1 3 5 method. This can get complex but I will try to keep it simple.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 C D E F G A B C C Major is made of C E G (1 3 5)
Starting on D, lets build a chord. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 C D E F G A B C This makes a D minor chord
Starting on G, lets build another chord 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 C D E F G A B C D So, This G chord will have G, B and D, which is another Major Chord
If you see what I am doing, that is how you find out all the chords. To make it simple though, I will show you the trick to memorizing them.
Make sure you know the NUMBERS (degrees) of the scale, and build your chords off the numbers.
1 = C = ALWAYS a Major chord 2 = D = ALWAYS a minor chord 3 = E = ALWAYS a minor chord 4 = F = ALWAYS a Major chord 5 = G = ALWAYS a Major chord 6 = A = ALWAYS a minor chord 7 = B = ALWAYS a minor chord (diminished chord)
So with that being said, We have 7 chords that will sound good together!
Try it out yourself! Play these chords in a sequence.
C Major - F Major - G Major - C Major
C Major - D minor - G Major - C Major
C Major - A minor - D minor - G Major
Of course, some combination work better than others, but either way they all "fit" with eachother.
Knowing this, You can take any other Major scale (For example, G) and know that the 4th chord in a G Major scale, is a C Major, and the 5th chord is a D Major.. So you can play G Major - C Major - D Major - G Major, and it will sound good together!
SECTION 6: STRUM PATTERNS
So now you know the chord shapes, You know why and how to use them in sequences, But how do you strum them? There are so many ways to strum chords, and often you should just try it out until you get something that you like, but here is afew ideas.
Strumming with your pick / thumb, you basically have two motions. UP and DOWN. It may not be obvious, But there IS a difference in sound between your up and down strum, if not only because of the notes being played in reverse. This is the typical way that you create strum patterns.
(Down will be going from your low/thick string down to the ground, while Up is from your high string up to your face)
To get some rhythm going, We are going to count while we strum. The standard way for counting in music is using numbers, with a "AND" between.. (AND will be +) To keep it simple, This is what we will be counting.
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
Try these strum patterns out:
D D D U D 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
D D D D U 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
D D D U D 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
D D U D D U 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
D D U U D U 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
You can find millions of strum patterns, or even best, make your own!
SECTION 7: FINDING SONGS TO LEARN
There are TONS of websites that have Chord charts ready for you to learn of your favorite songs, Google is probably your best bet to find what you are looking for. There is also a form of music notation called "Tab" which shows you how the song is played based on Fret numbers on your guitar, which makes it REALLY easy to learn songs, and theres millions of those around the internet.
I would really suggest the program "Guitar Pro", which plays MIDI files of your favorite songs, but displays the Tab as it plays the song, so you can keep time and see how it is played at the same time! It is truely a great program.
SECTION 8: THE END
So I hope this is at least some decent info to get started, Its quite hard to explain everything you need to know over text, and I don't have a video recording program to make a youtube video unfortunately at the moment, but I hope you enjoy it.
REMEMBER: TAKE IT SLOW, Much like Starcraft, it takes time to learn how to play guitar, but the more you practice, the better you will get.
I will try to make another guide or two within the next day that will be an addition to this information, if I have time.
Music is made to be enjoyed, and I hope you learn to enjoy it as much as I do. It is the greatest thing in my life (After Starcraft, of course!)
Here are some Videos to inspire and reinforce some of the things I mentioned here: NOTE: These are NOT me. I dont have a webcam unfortunately =[
(theres more of Marty Friedman videos on youtube, He can get quite advanced very fast, but he is my IDOL, and this "Beginner" video really helped me awhile back)
Here are some of my favorite songs, based on just Chords; Hopefully it will inspire you as much as it does me.
Just kidding, good guide. You might want to include something about how this has a 95% chance of getting you laid, especially if you take your guitar with you everywhere you go.
Ahh.. My formatting is all messed up on the Number/scale degrees. but I'll fix it probably tomorrow morning haha..
I hope you guys like it, and if you get laid from it like Ellis says, Its a big plus =]
Girls LOVE that singer/songwriter stuff, Esp if you can play like Dashboard Confessional songs, they go crazy haha (I will admit to learning that GooGooDolls song "Iris" to impress a girl once haha)
in the first video in the bottom i've never seen someone play an E like that... wtf you should definitely switch your middle finger and ring finger so that they're closer to the fret
Pretty cool guide - great for beginners, especially those that have put off understand why a chord is the way it is...if you start getting into Csus4 G7b5 chords, then I shall read more closely :D :D. Fixxed.
Well. The "scale numbers" was kinda the intro to that.. Because you use that method to take it to the next step..
If a C Major chord is made up of 1 3 5 (C E G) a Csus4 is 1 4 5 (C F G) as the sus4 means you substitute the 3 for a 4
G7m5 I assume you mean G7 b5, because you call it a flat 5th, not a minor 5th.. Seven chords get a bit more tricky because there are now four notes instead of three..
G7b5 = G7th chord (1 3 5 b7) with a flat 5, so it would be 1 3 b5 b7.. in G it is; G B Db F
Awesome guide, it's great to see a concise explanation of basics all on one page.
Do you have any tips for improvisation? I've been messing around with modes for a while, but the whole idea of parallel keys and scale substitution has been kind of confusing to me
G7m5 I assume you mean G7 b5, because you call it a flat 5th, not a minor 5th.. Seven chords get a bit more tricky because there are now four notes instead of three..
errr, right, sorry, i'm trying to do some really boring accounting homework whilst typing that, so my brain is a little frozen. Thanks though, the more music I can jam in my head (and the less numbers), the better .
Improvising, is sooo hard. I often just go with my ear and hope for the best (altho I have an advanced jazz audition this sunday, gonna have to work my butt off the next 3 days lol)
Well, I wouldn't think of it so much as keys, think of it more as following the chord changes. Of course, that can be overwhelming when starting out, knowing that you have to follow the chords as they fly by (esp with faster songs) but there is some tricks you can use, such as over a ii-V-i, using the Dorian mode can cover all three chords, that buys you a bit of time to regroup..
Make sure you know your arpeggios, as that is the best way to improvise over changes (altho sometimes not that interesting) and most importantly, Know when to breathe. You don't have to play the whole time in a solo, make it feel like talking, you can take pauses to skip afew beats and regroup if you get lost, or add tension with pauses.
Always try to land your chord tones on the 1 and 3 (well obviously that can change within the genres) but the trick is basically you can play ANYTHING at all, as long as you end it convincingly, meaning just landing your notes with the chords that go by. Thats the trick that takes years to master.
Overall though, start simple, like maybe playing a very simple blues song and solo with some basic scales, trying to change your modes when going to the 4 or 5 (mixolydian on 5 obviously owns) and feel free to use Altered/bebop scales, as sometimes they harmonically fit over lots of chord changes due to having an extra note.
Just keep improvising and try to consciously think of what you are doing, and the more you do it and think about what you are playing, not just letting your fingers go in auto-pilot, you will eventually start feeling the "control"
to be more specific though, is there actually theory involved when people tell me stuff like "you can always substitude the flat 5th chord" or stuff like "hey, in the key of Am, you can also play in the key of Em and you'll sound great
I've been teaching myself purely from websites and advice from friends, so I haven't found a good explanation yet. People just say "it sounds good" which doesn't really satisfy me :/
this guide makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside
it helps to have a little bit of ear training too (this applies to all forms of music), but ear training isn't as easy as the written part of music theory. ear training is especially useful if you want to sing... knowing what the interval between a 1 and 4 sounds like, being able to pick out the V or the leading tone in a chord/melody, etc. will help you a lot. for example, if your bass is a I but the sung melody starts on the 6, it helps to know what the interval sounds like. ear training takes a bit of practice though, just sitting down at a piano and playing intervals haha.
also knowing what the different chords sound like (major, minor, diminished, half-diminished, sevenths, six chords, etc). but that's all fairly advanced stuff.
improv is a lot harder than the professionals make it look... you really have to know your theory well in order to improv well.
the most absolute important part of learning to play any instrument or any kind of music is to practice. you can read up all you want, you can go in and take lessons, but without practice you won't get anywhere. people like john mayer and justin timberlake make doing what they do look easy, but that's the result of incredible dedication and discipline.
Theres often an explanation deep inside the theory side of it, although not always (depending on who says it obviously)
Like the Am and Em thing.. Lets break that down.
Am consists of A B C D E F G A Em consists of E F# G A B C D E
One note difference, so either way It will sound pretty similar and probably work if you still land on the chord tones (the G is the 7th of Am)
So as we know, E is the 5th of Am, although since the relative major key of Am is C Major (C D E F G A B C) and the 3rd of C Major is E minor, that is probably where the relation is.. It will definately work, but it all depends on the chord progression.. Remember, key is nothing without the chord progressions to outline it.
And to everyone else, I kinda would like to add more advanced chords/theory, but It is suppose to be a Guitar playing guide, rather than a Music theory guide.. Haha I'll see if I can expand abit on it tomorrow, but I have a really great idea for a kinda-joke guide that I wanna do tomorrow first that isnt relating to music. It should be good though!
i've played for 10 years now and i've never been so much into theory but i passed the 1/3 theory part which is a sertificate for junior teaching ;D Guitar is such a great instrument really.
On June 11 2009 14:31 cUrsOr wrote: doesnt everyone play guitar? and not guitar hero... thats much harder than guitar....
I dunno man.. i'm still not perfect guitar player after 10 years. But you can be pretty much perfect guitar hero player after 1 year of intense playing.
On June 11 2009 12:23 Ellis wrote: Is it bad if I skipped to the videos at the end?
Just kidding, good guide. You might want to include something about how this has a 95% chance of getting you laid, especially if you take your guitar with you everywhere you go.
hah Yehh. I wrote it kinda fast, expecting someone else to do it soon lol. I have a better guide to write tonight, that I dont think anyone will think of + be more humorous hopefully lol
On June 11 2009 12:23 Ellis wrote: Is it bad if I skipped to the videos at the end?
Just kidding, good guide. You might want to include something about how this has a 95% chance of getting you laid, especially if you take your guitar with you everywhere you go.
Sadly, no =\. Guitar is so common these days that everyone can play.
Jake is great, and his chord shapes in that song are quite simple (mostly just triads) but the difficult part of Ukelale is the struming and picking patterns; they use so many crazy patterns that takes a lot of practice.
That said, guitar and Uke are quite similar, if you learn to play guitar, you can learn that song probably within 6 months.
Keep in mind, Jake is by far the best Uke player in the world, the unique things he puts into that song is not easy even for professionals. I love him, esp his appearance on Rock Fujiyama (Marty Friedman is my IDOL, as I said many times in this thread.. so of course I love this video haha)
One thing that is helpful to learn is pedalling notes and somewhat riffing the chords. Like Deep Purple or Jimi Hendrix. You can hit part of the chord instead of all 6 strings. To voice certain sounds, can really make the difference in your playing if you focus on that sort of stuff. Very important in Jazz too.
Jet to Jet is a prime example.
demon driver
Semi complicated stuff. But the chords really outline the melody. yeah, good stuff.
Yes, good point. I tried including power chords but I figured to gear my guide more towards the acoustic singer/songwriter stuff, which is what most people want to play when they first start guitar.
On June 12 2009 02:55 Skyze wrote: Jake is great, and his chord shapes in that song are quite simple (mostly just triads) but the difficult part of Ukelale is the struming and picking patterns; they use so many crazy patterns that takes a lot of practice.
That said, guitar and Uke are quite similar, if you learn to play guitar, you can learn that song probably within 6 months.
Keep in mind, Jake is by far the best Uke player in the world, the unique things he puts into that song is not easy even for professionals. I love him, esp his appearance on Rock Fujiyama (Marty Friedman is my IDOL, as I said many times in this thread.. so of course I love this video haha)
Well, there's many things you can do on an acoustic. Even chord wise.
Finger picking. p a m i or however it was written. P being the thumb I think and then A is the pointer middle and so forth. correct me if I got it wrong. please.
Like a D chord Thumb on the D string and you pluck according to how it is written. like i m a p is descending. A common pluck pattern is p m a i thumb, middle, pointer, index.
I am not all that great at finger plucking, I generally use a pick like so. If I pluck two notes at the same time. I just use my thumb and middle usually. and do a little sleight of hand with the pick and stick it in between my fingers like a cigarette I guess, or a pen.
The biggest thing I think is when doing complicated picking such as sweeps, I never think about it when I actually play, but I notice is economy in the picking. You should use the least amount of movement to maximize the speed. Also Control. because when you can change the picking hand in the slightest way, and keep that rhythm going still, thats cool. Thats balls.
Yah theres so much to learn on guitar, You could write like 300 pages of guides.. I just tried to help out some people who haven't picked up one before.
Maybe someday, I'd do one for more advanced stuff, such as sweep picking, fingerpicking, etc. I actually wouldn't mind making a lesson website, to organize my thoughts better, along with streaming videos to show how things are done. The only issue (other than time) is that is quite tempting to try and charge people a subscription fee, since Teaching/Music is my actual Career in real life, yet I don't have enough HTML knowledge to really properly bank on a subscription based site.. Plus theres millions out there already, i'd have to find a way to get people interested in mine over theirs, which may be difficult.
For your guide you might want to mention that with barre chords you are not pushing all the strings down with the flat part of your finger but that you slightly tilt the finger so that the bone pushs down on the strings. I was trying to teach myself how to do barre chords and that saved me alot of trouble once I learned that.
On June 12 2009 07:39 Flow.of.soul wrote: For your guide you might want to mention that with barre chords you are not pushing all the strings down with the flat part of your finger but that you slightly tilt the finger so that the bone pushs down on the strings. I was trying to teach myself how to do barre chords and that saved me alot of trouble once I learned that.
On electric and nylon stringed guitars this doesn't really matter but i'd imagine it makes it easier for beginners to do barre "using bone" while playing a steel stringed acoustic since it requires surprising amount of strength if you haven't played barre before.
On June 12 2009 07:39 Flow.of.soul wrote: For your guide you might want to mention that with barre chords you are not pushing all the strings down with the flat part of your finger but that you slightly tilt the finger so that the bone pushs down on the strings. I was trying to teach myself how to do barre chords and that saved me alot of trouble once I learned that.
On electric and nylon stringed guitars this doesn't really matter but i'd imagine it makes it easier for beginners to do barre "using bone" while playing a steel stringed acoustic since it requires surprising amount of strength if you haven't played barre before.
IMO, it's not so much about strength as it is technique. When you first try barre chords, what happens for most people is that you push very hard on a couple of strings but too lightly on rest.
If you push evenly and with proper technique (takes practice), you don't have to press much harder than you would for any other chord
Yah I updated it a bit to say try and press on the bone of your finger. Even though ideally you want to barely be pressing on the string at all, as soft as possible, obviously when you are first starting out you have to push quite hard to get the string to make a clear noise.
I'm a little bit confused with the C Major Chord Diagram.
First, what does the x mean? Second,if it's C,E, and G, then why is the third note not on the first string of the third fret which is G but on the second string of the third fret? Please halp.
the third note on the first string is G also, and you could play that one, but generally putting a 5th in the highest register makes the chord so hollow sounding and bell-like, while having the 3rd at the very top usually emphasis's its chord quality (in this case, E on the very top makes it apparent its a Major chord)
If you mean, the low G on the thickest string (shoulda mentioned, the low/thick string is the sixth string, the thinnest string is the first string) then you can do that, but generally you want your root note on the bottom. In this case, C is your root, so you want that as your lowest note. it just makes it easier to find (when you think of a C chord, you dont want to have to find a G first then work your way up, you want to start with C) but you can voice them however you want if you are writing your own song obviously. Playing with a bass player tho, he might not dig the fact that you're playing a low G note while hes playing a C though.
On June 14 2009 05:43 Skyze wrote: the X means that you do not play that string.
the third note on the first string is G also, and you could play that one, but generally putting a 5th in the highest register makes the chord so hollow sounding and bell-like, while having the 3rd at the very top usually emphasis's its chord quality (in this case, E on the very top makes it apparent its a Major chord)
If you mean, the low G on the thickest string (shoulda mentioned, the low/thick string is the sixth string, the thinnest string is the first string) then you can do that, but generally you want your root note on the bottom. In this case, C is your root, so you want that as your lowest note. it just makes it easier to find (when you think of a C chord, you dont want to have to find a G first then work your way up, you want to start with C) but you can voice them however you want if you are writing your own song obviously. Playing with a bass player tho, he might not dig the fact that you're playing a low G note while hes playing a C though.
Hope that helps.
It helped a little. Now I know that it starts from bottom to top. But I'm still a little confused. Maye this pic will help.
Those are real cool. 1st inversions are 351 right? then 2nd is 513. I think but basically its the same chord just well...inverted.
Like ceg is the major triad, then its inversion is egc then the second inversion is gce
Some cool facts. Diminished triads are their own inversions, the patterns anyways. same with augmented. That's why those 3 string arpeggios are commonly used, because its easy to do and they sound cool.
It may not sound like much but inverted chords are very important in making you THAT much better. Just start with C and learn everything from their and you will figure out the patterns transpose perfectly to other root notes.
Oh actually that C on the B string is just the octave. Since B and C are a semi tone apart,(one fret.)
The triad which is the Major tone is C (a string) E(d string) and a open G. So thats the MAJOR sound. That c is just cool.
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.guitarz-for-ever.com/images/Guitar_Anatomy%202.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://musicked.com/musicked/pages/instruments/_images/fretted-strings/Electric-Guitar.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.myhollywoodstar.com/keybrd.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.mts.net/~jstorie/Guitar/images/GuitarNeckNotes.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2C3%2C2%2C0%2C1%2C0&root=C&chord=Major)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=3%2C2%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C3&root=G&chord=Major)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2Cx%2C0%2C2%2C3%2C2&root=D&chord=Major)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2Cx%2C0%2C2%2C3%2C1&root=D&chord=Minor)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=0%2C2%2C2%2C1%2C0%2C0&root=E&chord=Major)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=0%2C2%2C2%2C0%2C0%2C0&root=E&chord=Minor)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2C0%2C2%2C2%2C2%2C0&root=A&chord=Major)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2C0%2C2%2C2%2C1%2C0&root=A&chord=Minor)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2Cx%2C3%2C2%2C1%2C1&thumbnail=true&root=F&chord=Major)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=3%2C5%2C5%2Cx%2Cx%2Cx&root=G&chord=5th)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=1%2C3%2C3%2C2%2C1%2C1&root=F&chord=Major)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=3%2C5%2C5%2C4%2C3%2C3&root=G&chord=Major)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=3%2C5%2C5%2C3%2C3%2C3&root=G&chord=Minor)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2C3%2C5%2C5%2C5%2C3&root=C&chord=Major)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2C5%2C7%2C7%2C7%2C5&root=D&chord=Major)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2C5%2C7%2C7%2C6%2C5&root=D&chord=Minor)
.
But I'm still a little confused. Maye this pic will help.
