Beginning guitar lessons
Have you always wanted to play guitar, but never got
around to actually getting started? The following
information covers beginning guitar lessons, the
basics in regard to guitar scales and a guitar chord
chart to give you the visual effect. Let’s begin
with a free online guitar lesson. We suggest
spending at least one week learning these exercises
before moving on. Learn to relax while playing
guitar and it will help you progress immeasurably,
so have fun.
Playing guitar scales
In order to become skilful on the guitar, we'll need
to build the muscles in our hands, and learn to
stretch our fingers. Scales are a good way, albeit
not a very exciting way, to do this. Before we
start, look at the diagram below to understand how
fingers on the "fretting hand" (the hand that plays
notes on the neck) are commonly identified. The
thumb is labelled as "T", the index finger is the
"first finger", the middle finger is the "second
finger", and so on.
The Guitar Chromatic scale
The above diagram may look confusing... fear not,
it's one of the most common methods of explaining
notes on the guitar, and is actually quite easy to
read. The above represents the neck of the guitar,
when looked at head on. The first vertical line on
the left of the diagram is the sixth string. The
line to the right of that is the fifth string. And
so on. The horizontal lines in the diagram represent
the frets on the guitar... the space between the top
horizontal line, and the one below it is the first
fret. The space between that second horizontal line
from the top and the one below it is the second
fret. And so on. The "0" above the diagram
represents the open string for the string it is
positioned above. Finally, the black dots are
indicators that these notes should be played.
Start by using your pick to play the open sixth
string. Next, take the first finger on your fretting
hand (remembering to curl it), and place it on the
first fret of the sixth string. Apply a significant
amount of downward pressure to the string, and
strike the string with your pick. Now, take your
second finger, place it on the second fret of the
guitar (you can take your first finger off), and
again strike the sixth string with the pick. Now,
repeat the same process on the third fret, using
your third finger. And lastly, on the fourth fret,
using your fourth finger. There! You've played all
the notes on the sixth string. Now, move to the
fifth string... start by playing the open string,
then play frets one, two, three and four. Repeat
this process for each string, altering it only on
the third string. On this third string, play only up
to the third fret. When you've played all the way up
to the first string, fourth fret, you've completed
the exercise. |
