Music Theory For Guitar Fretboard Mastery
Music Theory For Guitar Fretboard Mastery
Music Theory For Guitar Fretboard Mastery
Music Theory For Guitar (Fretboard Mastery) is Copyright 2012 by Brandon C. Farris. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
Introduction
Hey everyone! My name is Brandon Farris. I am the creator of Full Score Guitar Lessons.com. This ebook was made just for you! Ill tell you a little about me and how I came to writing this book. I started playing guitar when I was 12 and ever since then I have wanted to learn everything there is to learn about guitar. This may seem like an impossible task and it just may be, but the journey and the information Ive gathered is an irreplaceable experience. Those moments when things just CLICK! This ebook was made to help you in Guitar Theory. When you buy a typical music theory book you get ALL music theory. This can be a lot to handle at first. Especially if you are only interested in guitar theory. That is where this book comes in handy. This takes the guess work out of what to learn. With the lessons in this book you will have a great foundation in guitar theory and be ready to expand your knowledge further. My advice to you is never stop learning. Make your goal be to learn everything there is to learn and you will always be learning. I hope this helps! This is for you!
Each line represents a specic note and each space also represents a specic note.
Here are all the notes and their names on the staff. Now here are the same notes on the staff but also in Tablature.
The top is the musical staff and the bottom half is guitar tablature. What is tablature? Tablature or Tabs as they are normally called is an easy way for us guitar players to read sheet music. Most guitar players dont learn how to read sheet music like the above example. So, we learn tabs to learn all our music. I think it is extremely helpful to learn both. How do you read tabs? There are 6 lines in tablature. The spaces arent used in tabs. The 6 lines represent the 6 strings on your guitar. The bottom line represents your low E string on your guitar which is the top string.
The next line above that represents your A string which is right below your low E string. The next line is your D string then the G, B, and high e string. The numbers on the lines show you what fret you play on that string. So, in the example above the tablature is showing us that we will play the 2nd fret of the D string then the 3rd fret of the D string. Next, play the open G string then the 2nd fret of the G string. Get the point? Now, back to the musical staff. Notice how the notes go in alphabetical order then start repeating. Notes dont stop at the top of the staff or below. This is what I mean. The staff continues above and below the staff to accommodate the lower and higher notes. Here is a picture of the notes above and below the staff. Notes Above The Staff.
Intervals
Before we learned that there are 7 main notes to music and 12 notes all together. What are the other 5 notes? In between the main notes there are whats called sharps and ats. If you play any open string on your guitar then move up 12 frets (12 notes) then you will be at the 12th fret where the 12 notes start to repeat again. The 12th fret on your guitar is the same note as your open strings except they are a higher pitch. First lets learn what Sharps and Flats are. This is the symbol for a sharp # This is the symbol for a at b To sharp a note means to raise that note up a half step or one fret on your guitar. To at a note means to lower that note a half step. So anytime you see one of these symbols in front of a note then you know to take that note and either raise it a half step or lower it.
Here are all 12 notes in order starting with A. A - A#/Bb - B - C - C#/Db - D - D#/Eb - E - F - F#/Gb - G - G#/Ab - A Notice the notes that have two different names for example. A#/Bb These notes are called enharmonic notes. An enharmonic note is the same note that has 2 different names. The note A# is the same note as a Bb. You can call this note either name. To play these notes on the guitar play your open A string then move up a half step. That is your A#/Bb note. Continue up a half step at a time and look at what note you are playing by checking the example above. Here is an example of every note note starting with A on the staff and tablature.
What is an interval? An interval is the space between two notes. I will explain this more in a minute. Another term you need to know is unison. When two of the same notes are played at the same pitch then they are played in unison. Another term you should know is octave. When you play a note then play the same note just higher or lower in pitch it is considered an octave. So, if you play your open A string then play the 12th fret of your a string then you are playing an octave up from the open A.
Lets move on to the other intervals. Using the C major scale as an example Ill show you the intervals between each note. If you play C (your root or rst note) then play the D note (the second note) then that is a second interval. If you play C and then play E which is the third note of the C major scale then you are playing a third interval. If you play C and then play F which is the fourth note of the C major scale then you are playing a fourth interval. If you play C and then play G which is the fth note of the C major scale then you are playing a fth interval. If you play C and then play A which is the sixth note of the C major scale then you are playing a sixth interval. If you play C and then play B which is the seventh note of the C major scale then you are playing a seventh interval. Pretty simple stuff!
Perfect Intervals
Notice in the examples above the 4th, and 5th intervals were left out. That brings us to our next type of interval. Some intervals cant be sharpened or attened so they are called perfect intervals. So if you play C then play F then that is a perfect fourth interval in the key of C. If you play C then G then that is a perfect fth interval.
Scales
So what is a scale? A scale is 7 notes in a row in alphabetical order. Every scale will start with a root and will end on that root an octave higher. So, actually a scale is 8 notes in a row. An example is, The C major scale starts and ends on the note C. The G major scale starts and ends on the note G and all the scales have 6 different notes in between these starting and nishing notes. Here is what the C major scale looks like on the musical staff and tablature.
The rst note of any scale is called the tonic or the rst degree. The second note of any scale is called the second degree and so on. There are certain intervals used to make up a Major scale. There are also different intervals that make up the major scales. The different intervals are what give the different scales their unique sound. The most common scale is the Major scale. This scale has a happy and uplifting sound to it. Opposite of the major scale is the minor scale. The minor scale is a sad and depressing sound. When you listen to music try to tell is it is a major or minor scale. You will be able to tell by the way the music feels. Both the major and the minor scale can start on any of the 12 available notes because each scale, no matter what note you start on, has its own combination of intervals that make up that scale.
Now, when you hear a minor scale you can tell because it has a dark depressing sound compared to the major scales you just learned. Lets start with the natural minor scale. The natural minor scale is the easiest of the three minor scales to learn because all natural minor scales have a corresponding major scale. Here is an example of what I mean. If you take the C major scale C,D,E,F,G,A,B and start playing the scale at the sixth note of the scale, which is A, and play until you reach A again then you just played the A natural minor scale. So, the notes of the A natural minor scale are in order. A,B,C,D,E,F,G The exact same notes as the C major scale just starting on the 6th note (A). If you start any of your major scales with the sixth note then you are playing that natural minor scale. Lets use A major as another example. The notes of the A major scale are... A,B,C#,D,E,F#,G# So play this same scale but start on the 6th note (F#). This is called the F# natural minor scale. F#,G#,A,B,C#,D,E Pretty easy huh? So as long as you know the notes of all your major scales then you know all the notes to all the natural minor scales. Here is a list of major scales and their related minor scale. C major (A minor)
C# major (A# minor) Db major (Bb minor) D major (B minor) Eb major (C minor) E major (Db minor) F major (D minor) F# major (D# minor) Gb major (Eb minor) G major (E minor) Ab major (F minor) A major (F# minor) Bb major (G minor) B major (G# minor) Cb major (Ab minor) Here are the intervals that make up the natural minor scales. Start on any note and... Move up 2 half steps (2 frets) Move up 1 half step (1 fret) Move up 2 half steps (2 frets) Move up 2 half steps (2 frets) Move up 1 half step (1 fret) Move up 2 half steps (2 frets) Move up 2 half steps (2 frets) If you started on the note A you would of played the notes... A,B,C,D,E,F,G And as you learned before, this is the A natural minor scale, and the C major scale if you started on the note C.
A,B,C,D,E,F,G These are the notes of the A natural minor scale. To make this a harmonic minor scale simply sharp the 7th note. (Raise the note one fret) Here are the notes of the A harmonic minor scale. A,B,C,D,E,F#,G Its that simple! Here are the interval movements to make the harmonic minor scale. Start with any note and... Move up 2 half steps (2 frets) Move up 1 half step (1 fret) Move up 2 half steps (2 frets) Move up 2 half steps (2 frets) Move up 1 half step (1 fret) Move up 3 half steps (3 frets) Move up 1 half steps (1 frets)
A,B,C,D,E,F,G To make this a melodic minor scale you will raise the 6th and 7th notes up a half step. So, the notes of the A melodic minor are... A,B,C,D,E,F#,G# Now that you are familiar with scales lets break these scales down even further into....
Modes
There are 7 different modes in each scale. Each of the 7 modes start on a different degree of the scale. An example is the Phrygian Mode starts on the 3rd degree of your scale. So, lets use C major as an example. To play the phrygian mode of C major you just start with the 3rd note of the C major scale. So, the notes for the phrygian mode of C major are... E,F,G,A,B,C,D Now that you kind of have an idea about modes lets go through all seven modes and how they are made.
Ionian Mode
This is an easy mode to remember because its just the major scale. The C Ionian mode is... C,D,E,F,G,A,B The Ionian mode starts with the rst note of the scale.
Dorian Mode
The dorian mode starts with the second note of the scale. In the key of C the Dorian mode is... D,E,F,G,A,B,C This is called the D dorian mode.
Phrygian Mode
We previously learned the phrygian mode. This mode starts with the 3rd note of the scale. So, here are the notes of the E phrygian mode. E,F,G,A,B,C,D
Lydian Mode
The lydian mode starts with the 4th note of the scale. Here are the notes of the F lydian mode. F,G,A,B,C,D,E
Mixolydian Mode
The mixolydian mode starts with the 5th note of the scale. Here are the notes of the G mixolydian mode. G,A,B,C,D,E,F
Aeolian Mode
The aeolian mode starts with the 6th note of the scale. We learned this before. This is also called the minor scale.
Remember back to the natural minor section. Remember that the natural minor scale starts with the 6th note of the scale. Here are the notes of the A aeolian mode. A,B,C,D,E,F,G
Locrian Mode
The locrian mode starts with the 7th note of the scale. Here are the notes of the B locrian mode. B,C,D,E,F,G,A Practice these modes in all of your major keys. All you really need to know is all your major scales and you can gure out all of your modes and your corresponding minor scale. Here is a free eBook with 25 plus scales that you can learn. They are all in the Key of C so keep that in mind when you want to transpose these. These scales range from the basic Major Scales to bebop minor and 8 tone scales.
Instrument Prociency
This basically means you have to know how to play guitar. You don't have to be at the level of Eddie Van Halen or Paul Gilbert to make great sounding solos. Your solos will be as good as you are on your guitar. You need to be able to play what you hear in your head. Don't let your ngers get in the way of your creativity. One of the most important things you should practice and know by heart is Scales. Learn all of them inside and out all over the guitar.
Good Ears
You need to be able to hear what the melody of a song is and what the rhythm sounds like. What is the bass playing? What is the other guitar players playing? These are things you need to hear in songs.
Try to hear the chords and the chord changes in the song. You should know what notes and scales go over those chords. You may already know what notes sound good over certain chords, but you need to let your ears be the deciding factor. Your ears may surprise you and make you hear and play notes that you normally would never play. You have to hear the music to easily and creatively improvise. A good soloist builds his solo on the foundation on the other musicians. Hear the music to know when to climax your solo or to bring it back down. You may even get creative ideas listening to the drummer or hear a creative live from the piano player. Basically... listen, listen, listen.
Learn to read standard notation (music) How to nd the notes of chords Know the keys and scales (If someone tells you to play in the key of C you'll need to know how many sharps and ats are in that key. Chords (What notes make up what chords, which scales go with what chords, and extended chords). Try writing a novel without rst learning the alphabet. It can be done but it's going to be difcult and not ow.
Lots Of Practice
This can only come with time. Playing along with other musicians and with CD's. The best way to learn is to actually improvise on the spot. Once you start doing this enough you won't even think about chords and scales it will become second nature. Experience will help you gain condence and skill, but this won't come on its own; you have to put in the practice time.
Hearing Pitches
When listening you need to hear the notes. When I say hear the notes I mean listen to every note that comes up hear it and register it. You must be able you hear a pitch and nd it and play or sing it back. So if you have an instrument try this exercise. Let's use piano as an example. Say you close your eyes and play a note on the piano. Could you eventually nd that note or sing that exact note? This is easier than it sounds believe me. To be able to do this you need what is called tonal memory, or pitch memory. Put simply, be able to recall any given pitch when played. Here is an exercise to help you develop your pitch memory.
Listen to a solo or any part of a song and pick any note in that song, pause the song up to that point and x that note in your head. Think about that note for a few seconds and then play it back on your instrument or sing it back. When you have selected a note go back to the song and see if you were correct. Compare the notes if you played the wrong note then try again until you can do this every time. When starting out hold the note in your head for only a few seconds, 4 or 5 will do. When you get good enough to do this almost every time then hold that note in your head longer before you play it back. Once you have that note down move on to the next note. This is a great way to learn a solo...one note at a time.
Hearing Rhythms
Start this by playing the solo that you want to hear and get the rhythm down. Tap the rhythm of the notes on the table with your hand. Get the rst measure down then the next until you can do the whole solo. Remember to hold the rhythm in your head before you try to tap it out. Build your rhythmic memory. Once you have the rhythm down break it up into measures. This may sound difcult but with a basic understanding of theory you will get this in no time. If the song is in 4/4 then make sure the notes add up to 4 beats when you break it up into measures.
Write It Down
After all these steps you should now have a transcribed solo. This may seem like a lot of work but very few acquire this skill. Transcribing solos is a tool you will use every day of your musical journey.
Stay a step ahead of the game with this new found skill!
Melody Solo
This is the most common and the easiest. A melody solo is nothing more than you playing the melody of the song. Yep that's it. If it's time for you to get in front of the crowd and play and you play the melody of the song then your soloing. There is absolutely no improvisation in this type of solo. Try this with a couple of your favorite songs. Listen to the song and play the melody as it's played.
Trading Fours
This is a very common jazz solo. When you hear two different players going back and forth soloing for a short time they are most likely trading fours. This can happen with a drummer and a guitar player or a keyboardist and guitar player or even two different guitar players. The point of this unique solo is to build off of the previous players solo and together build a great sounding solo. It might be fairly easy since you're not composing long solos on the spot you're just soloing in bursts.
Solo A Verse
Most rock and jazz songs contain this next solo type. This may sound familiar to you. This solo is when you solo over a chord progression, typically the verse chords or even the chorus.
Soloing over a verse allows you to make up whatever you want or stick to the main melody it's all up to you. Listen to your favorite music and see if you can gure out which one they play.
Cadenzas
The last type of solo is a real solo. A cadenza solo is when the music stops and it's all you. The lights are on you and you are the focal point of the moment. You step out and play whatever comes to mind building a solo for however long you want. This idea lets limitless ideas ow.
Rifng
This approach is all about wowing the crowd. All you do is play licks you know as fast as you can and show off your guitar techniques. A good approach if you're Van Halen, Paul Gilbert, or John Petrucci. If you can do that then maybe you will like this solo. You probably won't hear this often because most guitar players are focusing on making the song sound good and not showing off. Then again we like to show off quite a bit.
Horizontal improvisation is the most common solo you will hear. The key to playing this is just to know what scale and key the song is in.
Find a simple melody and simplify it but nding all the important notes. Another way for more complex solos would be to look at the chord structure. By this I mean you can eliminate all the notes that aren't in the chord. You can also take out any syncopation or notes on the up beat. Syncopation is when a note is played in a part of the beat that's not expected. Once you have simplied the syncopation notes then make the existing notes either half or quarter notes. Make it simple.
Back Phrasing
This method applies to the whole melody. When you back phrase a melody you're starting the melody on a beat after the beginning beat. So if the melody starts on the 1 beat you could start it on the 3rd beat or even 2 beat of the second measure. Although, when you back phrase you have to end the melody in the same place as it normally ends. So if you started the melody on the 2nd beat instead of the 1st then you would just have to play some notes shorter to make the melody end on the right beat. So the more you wait to play the melody the faster your going to have to play to catch up and end the song on the right beat. Don't worry if this is confusing, it will hit you one day believe me.
Front Phrasing
This one is pretty easy. When you want to front phrase all you're doing is starting one beat early. If you want it to have a syncopated feel then start it on the up beat before the melody starts. Give it a try.
Adding Notes
This is when you have some long notes like half or whole notes and you play more shorter notes to replace the long ones. If the melody starts out with a whole note try taking out the whole note and replacing it with 4 quarter notes. You can use this for any note not only half or whole notes
Playing Harmony
To play a harmony you can play a certain interval above the original melody note. The most commonly used harmony is the 3rd. To play a 3rd harmony, all you do, is know what key you're in and whatever the note is, just go up 2 notes in the key. In the key of C if the note C was played then the 3rd harmony note would be E. You are not limited to just the 3rd harmony. You can play different harmonies for every note if you wanted to. Experiment with different harmonies and see what you like. This will spice up a melody.
Solos on Chords
To solo over chords you rst need to know basic chord theory. The rst thing you can do to solo over chords is to simply arpeggiate the chord. To do this, you hold the chord being played but instead of strumming it you would play each note separate. Also you can invert the chords. This means you can arpeggiate the chord but start on a different note other than the root note. Soloing over Scales and Modes First, you have to understand scales and modes. Now, to solo with scales all you have to know is what key the song is in. If you know you're in the key of C then you know you can play any note of the C major scale and it would sound good. When you're building a melody or song you want to have tension and release. To do this you build up the music to a climax point where it's at its highest point then bring the tension down and release it to the end. There are so many way to build a song whether it's with dissonant sounding notes to more impact on the music to whatever. Be creative but always build tension then release it. Be creative when writing melodies and building a climax in your song.
A - (3 sharps) F#,C#,G# E - (4 sharps) F#,C#,G#,D# B - (5 sharps) F#,C#,G#,D#,A# F# - (6 sharps) F#,C#,G#,D#,A#,E# C# - (7 sharps) F#,C#,G#,D#,A#,E#,B#
Keys with Flats: F - (1 at) Bb Bb - (2 ats) Bb,Eb Eb - (3 ats) Bb,Eb,Ab Ab - (4 ats) Bb,Eb,Ab,Db Db - (5 ats) Bb,Eb,Ab,Db,Gb Gb - (6 ats) Bb,Eb,Ab,Db,Gb,Cb Cb - (7 ats) Bb,Eb,Ab,Db,Gb,Cb,Fb C has no sharps or ats. So there it is! Now you know what keys have what sharps and what ats. Lets move on.
Major - Minor - Minor - Major - Major - Minor - Diminished Now let me explain what this formula means and how it will help you transpose guitar chords better. Lets use the key of F again as an example. Remember, the notes in the key of F are. F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E Notice there are 7 notes and notice how there are 7 chords above in the previous example. All you have to do is memorize the notes in each key and the formula above once and you will know all the chords in all the keys. Taking you one step closer to knowing how to transpose guitar chords. The formula above means that the rst note of the scale is going to be a major chord. So the rst note in the key of F is F. So, from the formula we now know that in the key of F major you can play a F major chord. Now continue this process with the rest of the notes in the scale. The formula shows us that the second note of the scale will be a minor chord. So, in the key of F major you can play a G minor because G is the second note of the scale. Next, in the key of F major you can play A minor and so on. So in the key of F the chords you can play are, in order,.... F Major - G Minor - A Minor - Bb Major - C Major - D Minor - E Diminished. You are only one step away from learning how to completely transpose guitar chord! Here is a list of all the keys you learned before with the basic chords you can play in each key. Key of C: C Maj - D Min - E Min - F Maj - G Maj - A Min - B Dim Key of C#: C# Maj - D# Min - E# Min - F# Maj - G# Maj - A# Min - B# Dim Key of Db: Db Maj - Eb Min - F Min - Gb Maj - Ab Maj - Bb Min - C Dim Key of D: D Maj - E Min - F# Min - G Maj - A Maj - B Min - C# Dim Key of Eb: Eb Maj - F Min - G Min - Ab Maj - Bb Maj - C Min - D Dim Key of E: E Maj - F# Min - G# Min - A Maj - B Maj - C# Min - D# Dim Key of F: F Maj - G Min - A Min - Bb Maj - C Maj - D Min - E Dim Key of F#: F# Maj - G# Min - A# Min - B Maj - C# Maj - D# Min - E# Dim
Key of Gb: Gb Maj - Ab Min - Bb Min - Cb Maj - Db Maj - Eb Min - F Dim Key of G: G Maj - A Min - B Min - C Maj - D Maj - E Min - F# Dim Key of Ab: Ab Maj - Bb Min - C Min - Db Maj - Eb Maj - F Min - G Dim Key of A: A Maj - B Min - C# Min - D Maj - E Maj - F# Min - G# Dim Key of Bb: Bb Maj - C Min - D Min - Eb Maj - F Maj - G Min - A Dim Key of B: B Maj - C# Min - D# Min - E Maj - F# Maj - G# Min - A# Dim Key of Cb: Cb Maj - Db Min - Eb Min - Fb Maj - Gb Maj - Ab Min - Bb Dim Now you know what chords can be played in what key. The best part about this is all you have to memorize is the single notes in each key and the Major Minor Diminished formula. Thats a lot better than trying to memorize everything. Now you know the chords and notes you can play in each key. Here is the easy part. To transpose guitar chords just nd what key the song is in. Lets use the key of C as an example. If the song you want to learn has a chord progression of C Major, G Major, A Minor and you want to transpose the same progression to the key of G what do you do? Simple! All you have to do is nd out what number that chord is in relation to that scale. What I mean by this is in the key of C, C is your rst note D is your second note E is your third note and so on. So to transpose these guitar chords nd out what number these chords are. So the chord progression above is the rst note, the fth note, and the sixth note of the key of C. Now nd the 1st, 5th, and 6th note of the key of G. Those notes are G, D, and E. So the same chord progression above in the key of G is G Major, D Major, and E Minor. Try this out with other chord progressions and other keys. This becomes second nature after some practice. If you still don't quite understand how to transpose guitar chords then leave me a comment and I will be glad to answer any questions you have.
Guitar Arpeggios
What is an arpeggio? This is very simple. An arpeggio is simply when you play the notes of a chord separately rather than all together. Its really that simple. Lets use the C major chord as an example. The notes of the C major chord are C,E,G. So instead of strumming all of these notes together to make a chord you simply play each note separately. So you could play C then G then E or any other pattern. Thats all it is. This may sound simple and boring but once you play some interesting arpeggios you will be hooked. Arpeggios can take your music a long way. Here I will show you the basic forms of 4 different arpeggios. I suggest buying a Guitar Arpeggio Book. Or check out my website Full Score Guitar Lessons.com for more guitar arpeggios and tons of other lessons. Here are the 4 basic guitar arpeggios.
The next 6 pictures are the notes of the C major arpeggio on all the 6 strings. The next 10 examples are the C major arpeggio in one octave.
The next three examples are the C major arpeggio in three octaves.
beginner guitar scales free beginner guitar tabs beginner guitar theory beginner guitar chords and beginner guitar tips Lets start off with...
Your ngers on your left hand should be in an ark. When you play you dont want any of your other ngers to mute strings. Also, watch your palm of your left hand, it will naturally want to creep down into a lazy position and rest on the fretboard. Keep your ngers in an ark. Here is a visual for you. Reach out and pretend to grab a ball the size of your hand. Your hand shouldnt close but your hand should look like its holding a ball. Now, turn your hand towards you. Make sure that your thumb is on the bottom of the ball and the ngers are on top. This is the form you should have. Also, when you play with your left hand you will play with your nger tips not the pad of your nger. This is why the ark in the hand comes in handy. You are going to want to move your hand and thumb around to nd a position that isnt stressful on your wrist and ngers. Ok, so the left hand has been covered. Lets move on to the...
Guitar Strings
Before moving on you should know what each string is. So, if you are holding your guitar in the playing position then the string closest to you, which is the biggest, is the low E string this is how I will address it from now on. The strings in order from largest to smallest after the low E string are the A, D, G, B, and high E string. What are these random letters here for? Great question! Lets explain that now with learning the guitar...
Fundamentals
So, what about those notes we learned about before? Those were 5 of the 12 different notes that make up the guitar and its sound. Yes, there are only 12 different notes on the guitar. Just like there are only 12 notes on the piano and most other instruments.We will cover this later on though. Music is written on a musical staff. The picture below is of a blank musical staff.
As you can see there are 5 lines and 4 spaces on this staff. Each line and space represent a specic note that you will play when a note is placed on it. Dont freak out this will all come together I promise you. First go over to the How To Read Guitar Tabs page and rst learn what guitar tabs are. Tabs are another way to read music. If you have been around this site you will notice that most of my examples are in sheet music (the staff you just learned) and tabs (the way you will learn once you go to the guitar tabs page). After you go to the tabs page and get a good understanding of how to read tabs then go to the Learning Guitar Strings page. This page will show you every singe note on the fretboard of the guitar on every string. You have to know what youre looking at though so thats why I recommended those pages. Do you remember the notes of the 6 strings? E, A, D, G, B, and e? Well, now we will put those notes on our staff that we learned about earlier. When you play any string without pressing any note on the fretboard then that is called an open note. So, if you were to play all the strings of the guitar from low E to high E then you are playing all open notes. Now that we covered what open notes are here are your 6 open notes on the musical staff.
Im sure you noticed that there are some notes below the staff. You will have notes above and below the staff depending on how high the note your playing is or how low it is.
The lines below or above the staff like in the above example are called ledger lines. If you havent noticed this already, the higher the sound of the note youre playing the higher it will be on the staff. The lower the sound of the note you are playing the lower it will be on the staff. Right now dont worry about the weird oval things on the staff. So, anytime you see any oval thing (note) on the very top space of the staff then you can play the high E string. Go to the Guitar Theory page for more on the staff and its notes. Now, lets talk about all those notes we can play. I mentioned before that there are 12 different notes you can play on the guitar. Well, there are actually 7 natural notes. Natural notes are notes that arent sharped or at. Ill show you. The 7 notes are just the rst 7 letters of the Alphabet. A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. So, where are the other notes? They are in between each of these notes. Each note has a sharp and at note. To sharp a note simply means to raise it one half step which is one fret on the guitar. A fret is the space between each of those metal bars. To at a note means you will lower it a fret or move that note one space back on the neck. This might confuse you, but remember you will understand it soon. Between the notes B, and C and E, and F there are no sharps. So the notes in order will look like this Try this. Find your A string on your guitar. It is your second string the one right below the low E string. Play it open, this is the note A. If you play the rst space at the very top of the A string this is the rst fret and also the note A# or Bb. The symbol # means sharp and the symbol b means to at. If you continue up another space or fret on the A string that note will be B. Look back at the example before about all the notes in order and try to go all the way up to A again on your A string. Name the notes when you do it too. So, the open string is A, the next note is A# or Bb the next note is B, the next note is C, because there is no sharp or at between B, C and E, F. Moving on. So we covered that the frets are the spaces right? Now, when you hear the term move up a half step this means to move the note you are playing up a fret. Or, you can move in down a half step by moving it back towards your open note. If you hear the term move up a whole note this means move that note up 2 frets. The last one is move up (or down) an octave. An octave is from one note to either the same note higher or lower. So, from A to A is an octave. If you play your open A note and move up 12 frets you will reach the note A again. It will sound higher but it is the same note. An octave has the same sound just a different pitch. It will sound higher or lower but it will be the same sounding note. This part of the beginner guitar lesson online can get a little overwhelming. Id suggest you go watch some tv and give your mind a break. Im probably the only guitar teacher that suggests you watch tv. Yeah, Im pretty cool. Ok, here is something all guitar players should know...
play the 5th fret note and tune your open A string until it matches the pitch of the note you are playing on the low E string. Once your A string is tuned do the same thing as before, play the 5th fret of the A string and make the D string (the next string down) sound the same. Then play the 5th fret of the D string and match the next string to that note (the G string). This next step is different so listen up. Now, on the G string play the 4th fret and match the B string to it. After that is tuned play the 5th fret of the B string and match the high E string to it. There! By now you should be in tune and ready to go. If it still sounds bad, which is normal, then go back through the process until it sounds perfect. Now you are ready to...
Start Playing
Lets start off by playing your rst notes. We will be building chords while we do this. A chord is 2 or more notes played at the same time. We will build the E minor chord rst. Remember to ark you hand and play with the tips of your ngers and put your thumb behind the neck directly behind your rst or second nger. Now, place your second nger on the second fret of the A string. Hold this note down and put your third nger down on the 2nd fret of the D string. Your ngers will be close together but you want each note to ring out. All the other notes will be open notes. So, all you have is your second and third ngers on second fret of the A and D string. Press these down as hard as needed to get them to ring out. Strum all the strings from the low E string to the high E string. If you hear any buzzing or muted notes gure out what it is and try to x it. Once you get this you have played your rst chord! Here is what the E minor chord will look like on the staff and tab.
To make the E major chord all you have to do is hold your E minor chord and place your rst nger on the rst fret of the G string. It will look like this...
The next chord we will make is the A minor chord. This is really easy, it looks exactly like your E major chord. All you have to do to make this chord is to move each of your ngers down a string. So, your rst nger will be playing the rst fret of the B string, and your third nger will play the second fret of the G string, and your second nger will play the second fret of the D string. It will look like this...
The last chord we will learn for now is the D major chord. This chord is different from the others and will take practice. Start by placing your rst nger on the second fret of the G string. Then place your second nger on the second fret of the high E string. Last, place your third nger on the 3rd fret of the B string. With the D major chord you will only strum the last 4 strings.This is your D major chord. It will look like this...
Now that you know 4 different chords, lets put them together. We are going to play a chord progression of E minor, E major, A minor, and D major. It will look like this on the staff and tab...
You will get your ngers in place and strum the chord then move to the next chord. Do this until you get comfortable with these chords and can change them with ease. Here is a list of the other chords I want you to learn with the ngerings. Practice these until you are comfortable with them. Take it slow dont expect to be perfect the rst couple times you play them.
Here is the G major chord on the musical staff and tab. This may look difcult to play but this is one of the most simple chords to start with.
Here is the A major chord. This will be a little weird because three of your ngers are grouped together real close.
Here is another really great rst chord to learn. The C chord Is another chord that is really simple after a while but kind of a stretch at rst. Keep practicing and these will become second nature to you.
This chord give some people problems. It's really easy but when you are starting out it is a strange form for your ngers. Use the ngers that feel the most comfortable. Here are some chord progressions you should practice before moving on. G maj - C maj - D maj E maj - A maj - E maj D min - E min - C maj - E min A min - C maj - G maj - D maj Practice these slow and even make your own chord progressions! You have 8 chords to work with. Most songs are written with only 3 chords. The next thing you need to know is....
Practice this until down picking is really easy for you. You are going to have a constant downward picking motion the whole time.
The upstroke will be a little more awkward than the downstroke because you normally won't constantly upstroke. For the sake of this lesson practice with just upstrokes.
This is what you are trying to master. Alternate picking is what all the shredders use. You can cover a lot of ground with the least amount of effort. Practice this until you are comfortable. Take every lick you learn where you can apply this technique and practice it. Awesome! Now keep practicing these and use them when you play and practice. Here are more easy guitar chords. The chords below are in order...D dominant 7th, E dominant 7th, F major, G dominant 7th, and A dominant 7th. Practice these like the last set of chords and make some progressions with them! Making music is the best part of playing guitar for most players.
This next chord is the E dominant 7th chord. Remember to keep your ngers in an ark so you don't touch the other strings.
Here is the F major chord. This chord will need some practice because you will have to lay your rst nger over the last two strings. This is called a barre. Barre chords will be your best friend.
Here is the G dominant 7th chord. If you got the G major chord down then this should be fairly easy as well.
This is another really easy chord to play. This is the A dominant 7th chord.
I hope this beginner lesson helps. If you are interested in even more lessons, styles and techniques you can check out my website..