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#Post#: 497--------------------------------------------------
How to: Play Guitar - Beginners Guide
DIR By: Red
Date: May 20, 2013, 3:38 pm
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Guitar is an instrument that's been around in years and can be
used in almost every music genre in some way, shape, or form.
This adaptable instrument has grown massively in popularity over
the last century, with the advent of new forms of record-able
media and content sharing. Nowadays, the guitar is a staple of
several genres where it wouldn't be found without. No matter if
you prefer the classics, contemporary fingerstyle, classical,
speed metal, or anything else you can think of, you can make the
guitar work for you! woo!
NOTE: This tutorial is geared towards right handers. If you're a
left handed genius, good for you, but make sure you are playing
on a LEFT HANDED GUITAR. There IS a difference.
Alright, enough of sounding like a salesperson, I'm terrible at
it. The truth is, if you're looking to pick up the guitar, now's
a better time than ever. When is the best time to plant an oak
tree? One hundred years ago. When's the next best time? Right
now. This guide should help you if you just want to start out
and have an old instrument lying around, or it can help you get
acquainted with something new. If you've been considering
picking up the/an instrument for a while now, maybe this can
make it or break it for you, shed a little light on the
logistics of playing.
I'll never tell anyone that they can't play the guitar, even if
you're lacking arms. If you're telling yourself that you can't
play guitar, stop, because you're lying - especially if you've
only tried to play for 5 minutes. It's a discipline, truly, as
is learning anything, but it's supposed to be fun! If at any
time you're playing and you decide you're not having fun, stop
playing until you find a reason to play again.
First things first, I need you, the reader, to forget everything
you've ever known about playing guitar. If you think you know
something about it (unless you're pretty damn sure you're better
than me, and in that case, stop reading, you're embarrassing
me), forget it. Stop indexing the information in your brain.
Done?
Okay.
Now we start from square one. This guide, as mentioned in the
title, is geared towards the beginnner or newbie, or more
specifically, someone who doesn't have too much experience with
playing OR may be unsatisfied with their performance/progress. A
lot of what I'm about to tell you, you'll probably already know
from other experiences in your life, but I just want to let you
know that they still apply, and probably never will not apply.
What the **** is a Guitar?
The guitar is a musical instrument that makes noise. It's really
old and was devised from a family of instruments that were
typically made out of wood and had strings. It is classified as
a chordophone, and primarily generates tonal patters of sound by
utilizing string vibration.
Still with me?
When a player plucks the string, the string vibrates. The pitch,
or note, that the string resonates at is based on the tension of
the string. To change this pitch, a player holds down the string
at a certain location - the fretboard or fingerboard - where the
string comes in contact with a fret bar, that shortens the
length of the string and allows it to vibrate at a higher
frequency, which effects the pitch produced.
HTML http://artists.ultimate-guitar.com/profile_mojo_data/1/0/1/7/1017952/pics/_c815776_image_0.gif
Most common guitars have six strings that can be tuned using the
tuning keys/machine heads/tuners on the head of the guitar. The
head extends out at the end of the neck of the guitar, which
extends out from the body. Strings can vary in material, length,
and width (called gauge), depending on what type guitar they're
suited for and what music is being played. They're normally made
out of nylon for some acoustics, and steel/nickel for electrics
and other acoustics, more commonly. Most all guitars have what's
called a nut and a bridge. The nut is located between the head
and neck of the guitar, and is normally a thin block of plastic
or bone with small slits in it for the strings to rest in. This
aligns the strings across the fingerboard for easy playing. The
bridge sits on the body of the guitar near the bottom of it.
This is where the strings are anchored at the base of the
guitar, and some bridge designs allow of an intonation
adjustment, or allow for the adjustment of fine pitches for
fretted notes (more on this later). The guitar's body is
normally made out of what's called a tonewood, or a special
hardwood that's been found to resonate nicely with musical
vibrations. The list of these is long, and I won't get into
them, but they've fairly commonly made out of spruce or maple.
Electric guitars commonly have solid bodies, which are not
hollowed out, like an acoustic guitar which needs to naturally
project its sound so it can be heard. Electric guitars rely on
pickups and amps to be heard effectively, while acoustics don't
necessarily need so much hardware.
Most acoustic guitars can be used for percussive effects as
well. Having a hollow body, much like a drum, it can amplify
light knocks and bumps with the hand to be used for a variety of
reasons.
Electric guitars have an amp, which is basically a speaker with
some electronics attached to it which plugs into a wall usually.
A 1/4 in. cable attaches the guitar to the amp, and different
elements of volume and tone can be adjusted.
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How the Hell do I Play This Thing?!
The guitar would be hard to learn without anything to play, but
for now, we're going to keep it simple and get down to the
basics of technique. With every stringed instrument, technique
is vital, and makes 95% of the difference in tone and how well
someone plays. Are you having trouble with fingering a chord?
Your technique's probably off. Can't hit clean notes at all?
Same issue.
HTML http://www.musickorner.com/assets/images/fingerbehindboard.jpg
The left hand "frets" the notes, or holds them down on the
fingerboard while the right hand strums or picks the strings
over the body of the guitar. When holding a guitar, you have the
option of playing with it resting over your right or left thigh,
or standing with a strap. However you play, the fingerboard
should ALWAYS BE FACING AWAY FROM YOU and your WRIST SHOULD BE
KEPT STRAIGHT OR LOOSELY CURVED. If at any time your wrist feels
like it's straining or stinging, take a break or loosen up your
grip. Your fingers, consequently, should be able to press down
on the strings with their tips. Your nails should be clipped to
be just passed the edge of the fleshy part of your fingertip, so
you hit the string with the finger and not the fingerboard with
your nail. Your fingers should stay curved at all times when
playing, and there's very few situations where they can become
uncurled to play, but those are mostly advanced techniques. The
string should be fretted (held down) in the middle of the fret
bar or close to the lowest one of the fret you're playing. Frets
are normally numbered in a type of notation (way of writing down
music) called Tablature. Zero (0) fret is an open string, while
one (1) is the first possible fret, closest to the nut. The
second (2) fret leaves one fret in between itself and the nut,
and so on until you run out of frets. The twelfth (12) fret is
an octave (meaning the same note, just higher) as the open
string. You don't need to press down too hard when fretting a
note, as this will put unneeded added stress onto your fingers
and tire you out faster and hinder your playing. Just press down
the minimum amount needed to make a note clear when picked or
strummed.
Picking and strumming is the most active action of playing
guitar with the right hand. Guitars can be played without a
pick, but they're highly recommended to prevent you from ripping
up your cuticles and fingernails.
HTML http://images.guitarcenter.com/products/full/Dunlop/632866097067083178.jpg
TIP: In a bind and need a pick, stat? Find an old useless credit
card and use some scissors to cut it into a teardrop shape. BOOM
- insta-pick.
Many beginners get this wrong, but there is a correct way to
hold a pick, and it is vital that it is done correctly.
HTML http://guitar.kirkray.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Left-Hand-Pick.jpg
The way you hold it can effect your speed and accuracy of
playing later on. Make sure to grip it tight enough so it
doesn't fall out, but also make sure to keep your hand and wrist
relaxed enough so they don't cramp up.
When strumming, take your pick in your hand, rest your elbow on
the edge of the guitar, and slowly swing your forearm up and
down in a calm waving motion in front of the pickups/soundhole.
You should try to strum the strings in the middle of the body
and not to close to the bridge or fingerboard, or else it can
produce bad "tone". To execute a strum, drag the pick's tip
across the strings one by one, in a fluid motion. This should
set all the strings ringing, and they shouldn't sound great, but
the shouldn't sound terrible either. Your wrist should remain
steady.
To pick, you rest the lower (closer to the elbow) part of your
forearm on the face of the guitar and use a combination of your
wrist and arm to pluck individual strings. Your goal should be
to not accidentally hit any other strings with your pick,
although you may let the pick come to rest on the next higher
string if you do pick a note, as long as you don't accidentally
pluck it. Sometimes you may want to hit more than one string,
but not all, with your pick. This is most common with two,
three, or four strings right next to each other, but if they are
separated, it's unlikely to hit them with a pick fluidly.
#Post#: 498--------------------------------------------------
Re: How to: Play Guitar - Beginners Guide
DIR By: Red
Date: May 20, 2013, 4:16 pm
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Got Picking Down, Now What?
Fret a note, and try to play it with the pick! It doesn't matter
what, just pick a string, hold down a fret correctly, and play.
Try your best to not look at the fingerboard when you play and
face the guitar away from you. Also keep in mind the tension on
both of your wrists, and that you're strumming with your arm and
not your wrist. Try to pick and strum on an upstroke (when your
hand is going up across the strings) and a down stroke. When
picking, hit the string alternatively from the top and bottom.
This will allow you to play faster and more controlled instead
of only hitting the string from one direction.
Now's probably a good time to bring up tuning!
Tuning can be difficult depending on your guitar. The standard
tuning (from low to high) is EADGBE. That means the lowest
string is tuned to the note "E", then the next to "A", and so on
until all strings are as close to exactly their note. It's
highly advised that you use a tuner to play (preferable what's
known as a "chromatic" tuner), as this will get your strings in
as best a tune as possible. If you're pretty sure your guitar is
COMPLETELY out of tune, or you're missing strings, or you have
no idea at all, take it into a music shop and they can
restring/tune it usually for a small fee. If they notice that
you're new, sometimes they'll be happy to show you some new
tuning techniques.
There's a free online tuner you can use here:
HTML http://www.gieson.com/Library/projects/utilities/tuner/
Be extremely careful with the higher strings, as tuning them can
break them if they've been out of tune for a long time or if
they're brand new. New strings need time to stretch out before
they'll reliably hold a tune, and tuning the guitar will get
easier the more you play. Be sure to try and tune as much as
possible or at least before practicing.
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Tuning's Stupid, I Wanna Play, Dammit!
Alright, alright, we'll play something. In music, most songs are
based around what're called chord progressions. Chords are
several notes played together to form one big sound. Chords are
comprised of three basic notes that make it up, and they're
different depending on what type of chord you're playing. To
play a chord on guitar, you finger multiple notes on the
fingerboard and strum them all at once. We'll start with an easy
one.
HTML http://www.guitar-skill-builder.com/images/simple-chord-chart-opt.jpg
Are the charts straightforward enough to read? The little dots
are separated by bars, telling you how many frets they span. The
guide on the bottom should tell you what fingers to play them
with, and a "0" is an open string. An "X" on the guide, means
that that string is muted or simply not played, but for now you
can ignore that. We're going to start with E Minor, also written
as "Em". It's on the bottom right of our chord chart. It's
played with fingers 2 and 3 on the second fret. If you hold your
left hand with your palm facing towards you, your index finger
is finger number one, and then goes to your pinky, which is 4.
Your thumb doesn't exist (unless you're Hendrix or a bassist) on
your left hand, so it should be hanging out under the
fingerboard in such a way that your left hand's palm does not
tough the back of the fingerboard. The position of your thumb is
important so look up "guitar left hand thumb" on Google if
you're lost.
Once you have the Em chord correctly fingered, give it a strum,
making sure to keep good posture and all. It should sound
slightly evil or ominous, since it's a minor chord. Minor chords
sound ominous while major chords sound happy.
The next chord you should learn is the A Major chord, or just
knows as the "A" chord. Using your 1, 2, and 3rd fingers on your
left hand, place them on the second fret on the D, G, and B
strings, respectively. This should be the A chord when strummed.
You may notice that the chord chart left out the lower E string
in the fingering chart. It can be played if you want to, but
since the A string is left open when we finger this chord, it
acts as our "root" or the first, defining note in our chord. It
let's us know that we are, in fact, playing an A chord.
Arrrighty, next chord will be D. YOU WANT THE D. Just kidding,
see if you can figure out this one by yourself. Be sure to pay
extra attention to the fingering on this one. Keep working on
all these chords, including the C and G major chords. We'll be
using these in a song.
#Post#: 499--------------------------------------------------
Re: How to: Play Guitar - Beginners Guide
DIR By: Red
Date: May 20, 2013, 4:27 pm
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What are we Playing?
Yellow Submarine by The Beatles!
*the crowd goes silent as various fruit begins to be thrown*
Please settle down, I assure you- oh god- Ahh- sto- oh my go-
ALRIGHT!!
Just
Give it a chance, alright?!
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Here's the chords and lyrics:
HTML http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/b/beatles/yellow_submarine_ver4_crd.htm
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I picked this song because you probably already know it, and if
you don't you can look it up on YouTube and get it stuck ion
your head forever. This may be one of the most mindnumbingly
catchy songs of modern music.
When you begin to play this song, try to play with a beat in
your head, or with a metronome ticking VERY SLOWLY and try to
transition from chord to chord as quickly and accurately as
possible. THIS CAN BE EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. Make sure you get the
exact fingering every time, and it's vital that you do.
Eventually, you should be able to play along with the song
itself. Also try to recognize if you even need to lift a certain
finger when changing between certain chords. I actually picked a
fairly difficult song to start out on, so if it's too hard, LET
ME KNOW.
Here's an online metronome!
HTML http://www.metronomeonline.com/
Try to count: one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four -
over and over as you play the song. That's the timing of the
song. All chord changes are on the "downbeat" or on "one". Set
the tempo of the metronome to about 45-60, 90, or 120. Strum to
the beat, and try to alternate strumming. If you want, you ca
try to strum all down, every time, on the beat. This might sound
better for the song.
This is enough material to keep you busy for several days. Keep
trying your best and searching online tutorials and videos to
teach you how to play! If you have any questions, I'm always
available and more than happy to help.
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