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Six stings, six notes, but only 5 fingers, well, 4 and one thumb…

You don’t always play all of the strings to play a chord.

A finger or finger tip can hold down more than one string.

There are 3 basic guitar chord shapes, that go up and down the fret board, so they don’t actually have an individual name, cause depending on where on the fret board, they have a different name.

C Major or just C

F

A

This is just my way of teaching them.

Nut – a new part of the guitar anatomy is the part right at the top where the strings touch the body, and go to the tuning knobs.

Count your frets from there, 1 to possibly 24 (if you’ve got a 24 fret electric guitar, highly unlikely) but most likely to only about 12…

The nut is actually helping by playing some notes when you play certain guitar chords down there.

The E Chord – Graphics to come…

The A Chord –

The C Chord –

Technically, a chord is when 3 or more strings are played at the same time, as in a strum. So 3, 4, 5 or 6 strings are played. Most of the time you are playing and holding down all 6 strings.

If your normal – right handed, the right hand plays does the strumming, the left hand is on the finger board, or fret board as its more commonly called.

Doing these chords at the start will be challenging. Take the challenge by the horns, and totally grasp it!!! Whats your goal sound, or artist or song you want to play, keep these in mind always!!!

You’ll probably get hand cramp at the start, it is only minor, and I think most get it at the start of learning. Just shake it out and keep practicing.

The very basics you need to know is…

The music notes are the letters A through to G, and then the letter A again.

An Octave is a single group of these letters, and then when you start again at the letter A, you’re in the next Octave up, and likewise if your going down in the notes, an Octave lower.

Sharps – #

flats – b

These are on some notes

There are actually 12 “Steps” you could call them, in the Musical Alphabet or Notation, and it is a little bit of a mathematical calculation to remember and work out, but thats for another lesson much later on, we’ll just get you going first!

A B C D E F G A

or

C D E F G A B

Tuning you might notice 3 X E’s – the note E, because of a number of Octaves for the string set up.

I can’t answer the question about why its setup the way how it is, or why the music notation is the way it is either, just accept it and move on, to the music – the next section is Guitar Chords.

Quite simple now a days, due to the modern smart phone that everyone has.

Just find a guitar tuning app and install it, there are probably thousands, and I’d say that most if not all of them work.

It used to be a highly developed skill to tune a guitar, and it still is a valuable skill to learn, but to get you going, I’m just going to state the obvious.

Six stings, six notes, starting at the top of the guitar, the thickest string, working your way down to the thinnest string.

E

A

D

G

B

E

The phone apps are quite sophisticated in determining the correct string and the correct note you need to adjust it too, but mistakes can still happen, and strings can snap on you while you’re tuning them, trust me, I know!

Maybe tune to another youtube tuning tutorial, until I get my one (link) up here.

Brand new strings are going to stretch from the start and go out of tune often, for the first few weeks or so until they have found there natural balance.

Next lesson is the dreaded “Essential Theory” lesson.

I promise you, its not very hard or long, but it is essential.

Rock on to the Dreaded Theory Section…

Selecting your first guitar is very important, get the wrong type and it could easily put you off learning the guitar.

My recommendation is a Classical Guitar, and there are many cheap ones one the market for between $100 and $200.

They have nylon strings, which are soft on the finger tips.

My first guitar was a steel strung Acoustic guitar, and those steel strings were very sore on my finger tips, but back then, I didn’t know any better, and I just pushed through the pain a little, taking breaks of a week or two between practice sessions at times, for my fingers to heal, and build up extra thick skin, which will happen.

I was determined, and it paid off. It was my mums guitar, so it was already there, it was just a matter of asking mum to get me going, which she did.

Dire Straits was my motivation at the time, and that’s important to have a motivation of some type, to look forward to being about to play.

No a days, with the internet and youtube hosting millions of guitar tutorials, there’s no shortage of guitar players to learn from, each having there own unique twist on how to learn, whats there methods etc, and as for songs to learn, just as many.

Back to the classical guitar, the strings are a lot softer allowing to practice for hours at a time right from the start. With my tips and tutorials, they will be hours well spent.

If you get a new one from a shop, then chances are its going to be in new condition, and well set up with strings and action ready to go.

Action, what is that your wondering? Its the distance between the strings and the neck or fret board of the guitar.

The lower or closer they are, the easier it is to play. However, if they are to close, then you can have fret buzzing and specific notes not working, so they can be too close also.

The distance is about 4 or 5 millimeters. The neck also has a slight bend or bow in it. That’s necessary and normal. You’re best to check before you purchase by testing each note (fret) on the neck on each of the six strings. In most cases the sales person will demonstrate the play-ability of the guitar prior to buying it. Just remember to ask about the action.

If you score a guitar from a friend or family member, then it could be a good score, provided it ain’t broken.

Common areas to break are where the neck joins the body, or strings missing or broken, or the mechanical winders for tuning are missing or damaged.

These may still be quite reasonable to repair with simple tools, but if the neck has been broken and taped back up, it might not be worth it if its not repaired good enough.

So you’ve now got a guitar, the next step is tuning it, next post.

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