written by Scott Fritzinger, scottf@scs.unr.edu... All rights reserved ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, here it is... your first "lesson"... hehe... please let me explain that these are not formal lessons... they will help you understand that wonderful instrument that you are holding in your lap right now... your guitar! (ok guys... stop the laughing!) anyways... this will help you get a general understanding of your instrument and how to make those funny noises with it... hehe... well... here it is: (didn't i say that before?) Lesson #1- Music has developed over the years from the Baroque Period up to today and has ... just kidding... i wouldn't do that to you.. hehe... ok... your guitar has 6 strings on it and they corrospond to notes in the musical scale... these notes are arranged from A to G... in between each whole note (with 2 exceptions), there is a half step referred to as a sharp which is a half step up from the lower note (symbolized by a #)... or if your pessimistic, a flat which is a half step down from the higher note (symbolized by a b)... these are all the notes (12 of them) from A to G: with sharps: A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#... or with flats: A, Bb, B, C, Db, D, Eb, E, F, Gb, G, Ab... please note that A# is the same note as Bb... C#=Db, D#=Eb... and so on... the notes in the 1st listing correspond with the same note in the 2nd listing (vertically)... someone just decided to have fun and let 2 different symbols be the same note... hehe.. not funny! the guitar is tuned in such a way that it is easier and generally more basic to understand... your low string is an E... this is referred to as the 6th string because whoever invented this tuning had a cruel sense of humor... don't we usually count from low to high? anyways... the 5th string is an A... 4th is D... 3rd is G... 2nd is B... and the high string is another E, the 1st string... here it is simplified... e 1st B 2nd G 3rd D 4th A 5th E 6th <---- this is the string closest to your head when you play... now you ask... what are those funny metal things on the long part of the guitar? i'm glad you asked... the long part of the guitar is referred to as the "neck"... on top of the neck is a flat area that contains pieces of metal that are spaced out... these are called "frets"; thus the entire area where the frets are is called the "fret-board"... the guy who thought up this method of numbering strings did it this way to ease in tabbing guitar music... what i mean by that is that when someone writes down a guitar part to a song, that is called a tablature... it contains 6 lines and a number or blank on each line representing the fret # or, if no number, then don't pick that string... here is an example: this is what is called a "G" chord and is what i will be working with the most throughout these lessons... ____ these are the string names from high to low.. like above | | the fret numbers... push down the strings at this fret | | e -3------ <--- push down the 1st string with your pinky B -0------ <--- don't put any fingers on this string G -0------ <--- don't put any fingers on this string D -0------ <--- don't put any fingers on this string A -2------ <--- push down the 5th string with your index finger E -3------ <--- push down the 6th string with your middle finger ok... it'll be a *little* stretch at first, but with practice, it'll come naturally (hopefully)... now take your pick or thumb and strum all 6 strings... that's a G! NOW... this is a section that i will throw in now and then for "net guitarists handbook" type-thing... when you get a tab or see one online, the people who transcibe (tab) them will probably just abbreviate what i did above with the g chord... like this: G <---- THE NAME OF THE CHORD 3 0 0 0 2 3 this is pretty common... but now you know how to read this... remember, if a tablature is done correctly, the HIGH-E (1st) string will be on top then it will work down from there... there is lesson number one... this basically covered reading tab, but next time i will go over with you a little bit more about the chords... a little theory next time! BTW- here are a couple more chords for you to fool around with! remember: the top line is the high E (1st) string... C D A E -----0--------2--------0--------0--------------- -----1--------3--------2--------0--------------- -----0--------2--------2--------1--------------- -----2--------0--------2--------2--------------- -----3--------0--------0--------2--------------- -----0--------x--------0--------0--------------- ^ |____ x = don't strum the 6th string in the D chord (or any string in any chord with an X on it... that is tablature notation for "don't hit string!"... or you can mute it by barely touching it with your thumb or any other finger without it down... this is "muting"... when it makes a dull sound)