What's up future rock stars!!!
Ever wanted to learn the guitar? Well just keep reading.
In this article we are going to learn the first basic skill any guitar-player needs... how to get a sound out of your guitar.
First things first, lets take a look at how to hold your guitar.
Make sure you have a right-handed guitar if you are right-handed and vice versa for left-handed players. If you are right-handed, sit down, put the guitar on your right thigh with the headstock pointing left. The thickest string should be the highest of the six and the thinnest string should be the lowest of the six.
If you are playing with a pick, take the pick in your right hand, also known as the picking hand (for right-handed players, left-handed should just do the opposite), hold your pick between thumb and pointer-finger. You should never hold the pick with more than three fingers, your fingers wont have good mobility, the crucial feeling in your right hand fingers will get lost and it is just extremely awkward. So hold the pick with just your thumb and pointer-finger. Make sure you have a tight grip and make sure that the pointy edge is sticking out enough. While you're playing the pick will probably move around between your fingers, don't worry about that, adjust it whenever needed. In time you will be able to fully control any movement your pick makes, this just takes patience and practice.
Alright, we got our guitar on our lap and our pick in our hand, time to get some sound out of this piece of wood. I'm sure you've already noticed that smacking the strings with your fingers or pick produces sound, probably not the prettiest sound in the world, but sound nonetheless. Now this is where your left hand, also known as fretting hand, comes in.
But before we start we are going to take a look at the guitar, notice it consists of two main parts, the body (big rounded wooden shape), and the neck (long straight wooden shape). The neck has all these little metal bars on it, those are called frets.
Now hold the neck with your left hand, hold your thumb around the top edge with your other fingers above the fretboard. Make sure that your hand feels relaxed and comfortable. Next place your index finger on the thickest string, just left of the 3rd fret (third metal bar), press down, not to hard but hard enough for the string to connect with the fret, hold this down and with your right hand pick the thickest string....congratulations, you just played a G-note.
Time for your first tune! We are going to start it off easy with the main riff of The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army. If you don't know the song, look it up, it's a really easy tune.
We are going to be playing this tune on the A-string, which is the 2nd thickest string (string order in normal tuning from thickest to thinnest: E-A-D-G-B-E, it's really useful to remember this), and we are going to start on the 7th fret, so place your index finger left of the 7th metal bar on the A-string. Play that note (an E-note) once, let it ring out a bit and play it again. Next put your ring finger on the 10th fret and play that G-note once, after that play the E on the 7th fret again with your index finger, slide up to the 5th fret and play the D-note, slide up to the 3rd fret and play the C-note and slide up one more fret to the 2nd fret and play the B-note...there you have it, the main riff to The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army. If you don't get it completely from the article, there is a video at the bottom showing you how to play it and what it sounds like. Don't expect to be able to play it perfectly from your first try, but keep practicing until you can play it at the same speed and rhythm of the original song. Again don't expect to play it perfectly from the first start, the first riff I ever learned was Nirvana – Come as you are and it took me long hours and lots of finger-pain to play it decently.
The biggest tip I can give you is have fun! In the beginning your fingers are going to hurt, and it might not go very smoothly, but just have fun with it and stick to your practice. Playing the guitar is AWESOME!
The second biggest tip I can give you is...listen! When you are trying to learn a song, listen to it over and over, then try to find the notes on the guitar and listen if what you are playing corresponds to what the artist is playing. On the internet you can find a lot of tablatures, these are really easy to read transcriptions for the guitar, kind of cheat-sheets. They are really tempting to use them and I admit I've used a lot of them. But trust me when I tell you it is was more beneficent to your playing to just listen and look for the notes yourself. It is way harder at first, but it is also way more rewarding and it greatly trains your ears.
This was my very first article, I hope you liked it and I hope it helped you out.
Keep a look out for a lot more stuff coming.
Don't forget to listen and have fun!!!
Ever wanted to learn the guitar? Well just keep reading.
In this article we are going to learn the first basic skill any guitar-player needs... how to get a sound out of your guitar.
First things first, lets take a look at how to hold your guitar.
Make sure you have a right-handed guitar if you are right-handed and vice versa for left-handed players. If you are right-handed, sit down, put the guitar on your right thigh with the headstock pointing left. The thickest string should be the highest of the six and the thinnest string should be the lowest of the six.
If you are playing with a pick, take the pick in your right hand, also known as the picking hand (for right-handed players, left-handed should just do the opposite), hold your pick between thumb and pointer-finger. You should never hold the pick with more than three fingers, your fingers wont have good mobility, the crucial feeling in your right hand fingers will get lost and it is just extremely awkward. So hold the pick with just your thumb and pointer-finger. Make sure you have a tight grip and make sure that the pointy edge is sticking out enough. While you're playing the pick will probably move around between your fingers, don't worry about that, adjust it whenever needed. In time you will be able to fully control any movement your pick makes, this just takes patience and practice.
Alright, we got our guitar on our lap and our pick in our hand, time to get some sound out of this piece of wood. I'm sure you've already noticed that smacking the strings with your fingers or pick produces sound, probably not the prettiest sound in the world, but sound nonetheless. Now this is where your left hand, also known as fretting hand, comes in.
But before we start we are going to take a look at the guitar, notice it consists of two main parts, the body (big rounded wooden shape), and the neck (long straight wooden shape). The neck has all these little metal bars on it, those are called frets.
Now hold the neck with your left hand, hold your thumb around the top edge with your other fingers above the fretboard. Make sure that your hand feels relaxed and comfortable. Next place your index finger on the thickest string, just left of the 3rd fret (third metal bar), press down, not to hard but hard enough for the string to connect with the fret, hold this down and with your right hand pick the thickest string....congratulations, you just played a G-note.
Time for your first tune! We are going to start it off easy with the main riff of The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army. If you don't know the song, look it up, it's a really easy tune.
We are going to be playing this tune on the A-string, which is the 2nd thickest string (string order in normal tuning from thickest to thinnest: E-A-D-G-B-E, it's really useful to remember this), and we are going to start on the 7th fret, so place your index finger left of the 7th metal bar on the A-string. Play that note (an E-note) once, let it ring out a bit and play it again. Next put your ring finger on the 10th fret and play that G-note once, after that play the E on the 7th fret again with your index finger, slide up to the 5th fret and play the D-note, slide up to the 3rd fret and play the C-note and slide up one more fret to the 2nd fret and play the B-note...there you have it, the main riff to The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army. If you don't get it completely from the article, there is a video at the bottom showing you how to play it and what it sounds like. Don't expect to be able to play it perfectly from your first try, but keep practicing until you can play it at the same speed and rhythm of the original song. Again don't expect to play it perfectly from the first start, the first riff I ever learned was Nirvana – Come as you are and it took me long hours and lots of finger-pain to play it decently.
The biggest tip I can give you is have fun! In the beginning your fingers are going to hurt, and it might not go very smoothly, but just have fun with it and stick to your practice. Playing the guitar is AWESOME!
The second biggest tip I can give you is...listen! When you are trying to learn a song, listen to it over and over, then try to find the notes on the guitar and listen if what you are playing corresponds to what the artist is playing. On the internet you can find a lot of tablatures, these are really easy to read transcriptions for the guitar, kind of cheat-sheets. They are really tempting to use them and I admit I've used a lot of them. But trust me when I tell you it is was more beneficent to your playing to just listen and look for the notes yourself. It is way harder at first, but it is also way more rewarding and it greatly trains your ears.
This was my very first article, I hope you liked it and I hope it helped you out.
Keep a look out for a lot more stuff coming.
Don't forget to listen and have fun!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment