EPTMy 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.
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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.
![[image loading]](http://www.guitarz-for-ever.com/images/Guitar_Anatomy%202.jpg)
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.
![[image loading]](http://musicked.com/musicked/pages/instruments/_images/fretted-strings/Electric-Guitar.jpg)
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)
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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)
![[image loading]](http://www.myhollywoodstar.com/keybrd.jpg)
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)
![[image loading]](http://www.mts.net/~jstorie/Guitar/images/GuitarNeckNotes.jpg)
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)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2C3%2C2%2C0%2C1%2C0&root=C&chord=Major)
G Major Chord
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=3%2C2%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C3&root=G&chord=Major)
D Major Chord
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2Cx%2C0%2C2%2C3%2C2&root=D&chord=Major)
D Minor Chord
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2Cx%2C0%2C2%2C3%2C1&root=D&chord=Minor)
E Major Chord
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=0%2C2%2C2%2C1%2C0%2C0&root=E&chord=Major)
E minor Chord
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=0%2C2%2C2%2C0%2C0%2C0&root=E&chord=Minor)
A Major Chord
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2C0%2C2%2C2%2C2%2C0&root=A&chord=Major)
A minor Chord
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2C0%2C2%2C2%2C1%2C0&root=A&chord=Minor)
F Major Chord
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2Cx%2C3%2C2%2C1%2C1&thumbnail=true&root=F&chord=Major)
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)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=3%2C5%2C5%2Cx%2Cx%2Cx&root=G&chord=5th)
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
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=1%2C3%2C3%2C2%2C1%2C1&root=F&chord=Major)
For Comparison, Heres an G Major Barre Chord
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=3%2C5%2C5%2C4%2C3%2C3&root=G&chord=Major)
See how it is just moved up two frets, same shape but now its a G Major chord.
G minor Barre Chord
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=3%2C5%2C5%2C3%2C3%2C3&root=G&chord=Minor)
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)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2C3%2C5%2C5%2C5%2C3&root=C&chord=Major)
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)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2C5%2C7%2C7%2C7%2C5&root=D&chord=Major)
See? Moved up a whole step to D, but same shape/fingering.
D Minor Barre Chord (starting on the A string)
![[image loading]](http://jguitar.com/chord.gif?define=x%2C5%2C7%2C7%2C6%2C5&root=D&chord=Minor)
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.
For all you Japanese/Korean music fans;
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