Beginner Guitar Lessons

Welcome again to beginner guitar lessons... OK, it's been a while but i thought i could talk about finger exercises. The idea behind these exercises is to build up stamina as well as help with dexterity and picking technique. The first one is a simple three note per string exercise. starting on the first fret of the low E string and then play the 2nd and third frets in succession. Move to the next string (A) and do the same and so on until you reach the G note on the top string and then reverse the motion and go back down. Always try to have the note ring out clearly without extraneous noise and play them in a rhythmic timing. It is good to practice with a metronome. If you concentrate on playing the note clearly and take your time then the speed will come over time and will become easier because you have trained your muscles to play properly. another exercise is a four finger thing. Start on the first fret of the low E String again and play the first fret and then the third and then the second fret and then the fourth. Then when you move up to the next string play the second fret and the fourth and then the first fret and the third. This will take a little time but it will help with the control of your fingers on your left hand.as far as picking goes there are two basic ways to practice it. One is what is called alternate picking where you stroke the pick in a downward motion on the first note and an upward motion on the next etc... The other way is called legato where you strike the first note with the pick and then you just hammer your fingers onto the subsequent notes. The key with legato is to get the notes to ring at the sane consistency as the picked note. So keep on practicing and I'll catch you next time...dune

Beginner Guitar Lessons

Beginner Guitar Lessons

Ok…now we can start talking about some basic music with this beginner guitar lesson blog. First you should know that the fingers on your left hand (provided you are a right handed guitarist) are numbered 1 through 4. 1 being your index, 2 your middle etc… We will talk about your right hand in a bit but you should use a pick or if you want to do finger style just pluck the notes with your 1st finger for now. Understanding the notation on the neck is of paramount importance. The strings in the open position from highest to lowest are as follows; E-1st, B-2nd, G-3rd, D-4th, A-5th, E-6th. There are only a total of 12 notes on the neck. Then they repeat over and over and the only difference is the pitch of the note (how high or low it is). So if we start on the first string we have the note E, then put your 1st finger on the 1st fret and you have F. Then your second finger on the 2nd fret and you have F#/Gb. Let me explain these symbols. The symbol # means sharp or 1 fret up, this symbol b means flat or I fret down. Put your third finger on the third fret and you have a G note. So the note on the second fret is both an F# and a Gb. Now we continue up the neck on the 4th fret we have G#/Ab and the 5th fret we have the A note, the 6th fret is A#/Bb, the 7th is B, the 8th is C, the 9th is C#/Db, the 10th fret is D, the 11th is D#/Eb and the 12th is E again. Those are all the notes on the guitar. Notice that there are no sharps or flats between E and F or B and C. All the other notes have #’s & b’s between them. By learning the notes in a linear fashion you get a much faster grasp of the guitar neck and it makes more musical sense to you. Like learning the piano, which has keys that are all laid out in order. Ok play the open E note and then go to the 12th fret and play that E note. Notice that the actual note is the same but the pitch on the 12th fret is obviously higher. That is called an octave. Play the second fret on the D (4th) string and that is also E which is an octave lower then the open E. Then play the open E (6th) string and you are an octave lower again. More beginner guitar lessons coming up…

Beginner Guitar Lessons

Welcome to beginner guitar lessons. Dune here and there are several questions that I would like you to consider as you start on your quest to become a guitarist. Firstly, what style of guitar music would you like to play? What are the parts to the instrument called? What techniques should you learn to enhance your development? Is it necessary to read music? How much time should you spend practicing? Should you get private lessons? There are several others that will come up but I am going to endeavor to help you answer these questions as we move along. At the outset let me say that the guitar is a wonderful and brilliantly designed instrument. The inventor had to be a genius. The basic parts of the instrument are as follows: the headstock, the neck and the body of the guitar. (Things differ a bit when you have an acoustic or an electric instrument) Some electric guitars don’t have a headstock but that is for another discussion. Forgive me if this seems very basic but I wanted to start at the beginning. The headstock will have tuners on it and the top of the neck will have a nut where the strings cross. Then there is the fret board and the frets, which are the wire pieces on the neck. Then you have the body of the guitar, which has a sound hole (acoustic) or pickups (electric) or some have a combination of both. Then you have the tailpiece or the saddle, which is where one would string the instrument. We will continue with beginner guitar lessons in the next post…