Hi, my name is Herb Hutchinson, owner and operator of Hutchinson Sound of Music.
Welcome to this and another series of Finally Basics on guitar, learning to play the guitar
from the beginning.
I have been teaching guitar for many years and actually have taught over 3,000 people
how to play.
It is very, very important as you begin playing guitar that you understand the basics.
I have come across so many students that they don't have a good understanding of the operation
of the instrument, how to play and understand the instrument in ways that you can view it
similar to what a piano player is able to do.
There are many instruments when you look at them, they are easy to view but the guitar
is one that you really need to be shown.
So that is my intent.
Now, if you are a beginner, you have selected the right tape.
If you are an intermediate, you have also selected the right tape because it could very
well be that there are a lot of things that you have missed along the way.
So get ready, let's get started and learn about the instrument today.
The guitar is a fun instrument and over the past 40 years, guitar has really come into
its own through the course of rock and roll, country music, fusion, jazz, many, many styles,
blues and it has become a predominant instrument.
In fact, I tell all the parents when they bring their children in and even the adults
themselves and they are going to purchase a guitar, I always tell them that it is one
instrument, once you get started with it, you probably won't put it down, you will get
addicted to it.
It is fun, it is great to play the guitar whether you are going to use it as a hobby
or whether you want to go on and use it as a tool to play professionally.
To give you an idea about this tape as we begin to start, there are going to be approximately
15 lessons.
Now, if you were studying with me privately, you would find that I would teach you in a
way that 15 lessons, I would have you basically band ready, able to go out and play in a small
band and enjoy your music and have a good time with it or if you want to just play for
yourself for fun and enjoyment.
So let's get started once again and we are going to talk about this instrument, the guitar.
Now we are going to start with the front view of the guitar and also the different parts
and components that make up this instrument.
First of all, looking at the instrument we are going to start with the most important
part of the guitar and that is this part right here I am pointing to.
If you look at your guitar or look at the film here, you will see that this piece and
it is white in color and it is called the nut of the guitar.
Now the nut acts as the beginning part or the initial piece of the guitar to help view
it.
For example, the nut is placed at the beginning on the neck and as we move down, as you follow
my hand down, you are going to notice I am pointing to these objects which are frets.
Now these are also part of the guitar and I am going to explain to you in just a little
bit how they operate.
Coming further down the guitar neck, we are going to come to this part of the guitar which
is called the bridge of the guitar and the strings attach here, if you have an acoustic
guitar they attach by these little pegs.
If you have an electric guitar, there is a bridge system on the electric guitar that
acts just a little differently but the operation is the same.
Alright, so we have then the neck of the guitar, we have the frets and we have the nut.
Now on this guitar which happens to be an acoustic electric, it has a sound hole.
Now what happens with the sound is when I play the instrument, the sound vibrates on
the inside of the body, it reverberates and it comes out of the sound hole much like a
speaker on your stereo system.
So this is the function of the sound hole.
Alright, coming up to the top of the neck, these are the tuning keys and the strings
come across the nut and they attach to each one of the tuning keys and then you can tune
the guitar to its proper pitch.
Alright, that pretty much shows the front view of the instrument.
Now as we begin to move on here, I want to talk about a chart that is going to become
a very very important part of your training and what we'll do is we're going to go over
to the board now and I want to show you what this chart looks like.
Now this is the picture of the guitar neck without the tuning keys.
So I'm drawing the tuning keys on there to let you get an idea what it's going to look
like as you're facing the guitar neck.
If the guitar were standing up in front of you, you would notice that this is the nut,
here are the frets and you can see them and then we have six strings on the guitar.
Now as you're looking at the guitar, this is the sixth string, the fifth, the fourth,
the third, the second and the first.
Now the guitar neck begins with the nut and if you will the nut acts as the starting line
of a race track.
It's a strange analogy but I hope this will help you.
Think about a race track and if you had a starting line you would come and you would
stand behind that starting line and you would look in this direction and you would go up
the guitar neck.
If we're moving in this direction, we are going down the guitar neck.
So this is up and this is down.
It's very important you understand how these notes are going to move.
Now as you're looking at the guitar neck, this is the nut, the sixth string through
the first string, the very very first note that we're going to play is going to be the
sixth string open.
The sixth string open and the way the open note is designated on a chord chart is by
an O.
We're going to move over to this next chart over here and I'm going to put an O behind
the nut.
Now that's the sixth string open and that's what the O stands for.
Now the opposite of open would be if we were to play a closed note and when you see a closed
note on the guitar you're going to see a dot placed out on the string.
Now it could be here or we could place a note up here.
Anywhere along that existing string notes can be placed whether it's on the sixth or
whether we went over to the fifth string we place notes here.
Now the movement of notes on the guitar moves in what's known as whole steps or half steps.
A whole step is two frets in either direction and a half step is one fret in either direction.
For example, if we were playing the sixth string open and we wanted to move a half step
higher we would take it from there and move it out to here.
If we wanted to go a whole step higher than this note we would move it from here to here.
This is one fret and this is two frets.
Now I'm going to show you on the guitar how that works.
Now what I'm doing now is I'm playing the sixth string open on the guitar.
Now I'm picking with my right hand but the note that I'm actually playing is this note
where I'm pointing to right here behind the nut.
So when you hear this sound that is called the sixth string open.
The opposite of open would be closed.
Now the closed notes would be played out on the string.
Any one of these notes that I'm pushing down right now as I move up the guitar neck these
are closed.
Open closed.
Sixth string open.
Left hand's not needed.
I'm going to play the sixth string first fret which means I'm moving the note that's open
out to this which is closed.
If I want to go a whole step higher that's going to be two frets.
If I want to go a half step lower I'm going to go down which is moving back toward the
nut a whole step higher would be two frets and so on and so forth.
Half step lower, whole step lower and a half step lower and that's the lowest note that
I can play.
Now I can do this on all of the strings.
I can go to the fifth string open which is this note right here.
I don't need my left hand to play that note.
I just pick the fifth string.
Now if I'm going to play the fifth string closed and a half step higher I'm going to
move out one fret.
Now if I want to go for the fifth string open and move out a whole step I'm going to move
out two frets.
There's a whole step.
Half step higher, whole step lower and I can do this on any one of the six strings.
If I go to the first string, first string open, there's the first string closed that's
a half step higher.
This is a whole step higher, half step lower, whole step higher and we can move as high
as we wish on the guitar or come back to where we actually go back to then an open note.
Now I want to take this time to show you the proper way to hold the guitar and also how
to play the closed notes and also how to pick the strings correctly.
I want to explain to you now the proper way of pushing the strings down so that you get
a good clear sounding note.
So if you look here starting at the nut we're going to move out onto the fretboard to the
first fret.
To play the note closed at the first fret we can play the note in this location, we
could play it here or we could play it up by the fret.
Now if your hand goes to the point that you're on top of the fret or past the fret you are
no longer playing the note that is located between the nut and the first fret or in this
case if we were to go to the second fret the note between the first fret and the second
fret.
To play this note which is going to be closed, remember I can play in any three of these
locations.
However if I were to play the note back in this location I have a much further distance
to push the string down before it actually touches the fret.
That's what makes a clear sounding note.
Not when the string touches the fretboard but when the string touches the fret.
So it would help to press the note and stay by the fret to get a good clear sounding note
like this.
Now this is what happens if I move away from the fret and I use the same amount of pressure,
listen what happens.
You get a thud or you get a buzz because the string is bouncing off of the top of the fret.
So it's very important to play a closed note, play on the tip of your finger and right by
the fret.
Okay let's talk about the right hand and holding the pick correctly and how you should properly
pick the individual strings.
To hold the pick correctly you want to take your right hand and actually extend it as
if you're going to shake someone's hand and you keep your fingers tight together, bend
them in this direction, place the pick on the index finger and then bring the thumb
down on top of the pick making sure that you don't have that much pick out the end.
In other words you don't want to have the pick where it's going to move like this, you
want to have a good grip between the index finger and the thumb and the pick actually
becomes an extension of the index finger.
Now you take your right hand and the proper way to place your arm would be to have the
curve of your arm over the body of the guitar, let your arm come directly down to the guitar,
have the pick under your chin coming down directly over the sound hole.
You don't want to pick down in this area, you don't want to extend your arm up to here,
this is the proper place and of course depending on your size and what have you this could
make just a little difference but just as long as you're not playing up here or playing
back here, right in the center is where you want it to be.
Now to pick the strings you're going to take the pick and start with the sixth string,
placing the pick on the sixth string and driving through the string and stopping at the next
string and using the next string as your stop for your pick.
Start on the fifth string, drive through and let it stop at the next string, drive through,
drive through and finally the first string.
Sixth string open, fifth string open, fourth string, third, second and first.
To strum you would take the pick, put it on the top string and drive through all six strings.
Alright that is the strum.
Now when you pick make sure that you do not take the pick and pick out away from the guitar
but down and through the string.
Another important thing I want to mention to you is do not put your left hand, your
fingers supporting your left hand.
You want to have your hand free on the guitar to be able to play your individual notes.
If you put your fingers down you'll find that it's very awkward and later on as you get
into your intermediate and advanced stage you'll find that bad habits are hard to break.
This is a very important part of your beginning and understanding the basics of the instrument.
I have found in my teaching years that I've taught many professionals that have come for
advanced training and they do not understand about positions on the guitar neck.
So take note of this, this is very very important.
This will help you to view the instrument and be able to see how the chords formulate
and how everything moves up and down the neck of the guitar.
Your index finger on your left hand is the marker if you will or your indicator of positions.
For example if I take my first finger and I place it over the third fret, here we are
1, 2, 3, here's the third fret and I simply place my hand over the third fret, that is
going to allow my second finger to be placed over the next fret, my third finger over the
next and my fourth finger over the next so that each finger then has a specific fret
to play on.
Now my left hand is now in what is known as the third position because my first finger
is at the third fret.
If I want to play in the first position I'm going to move my left hand back to where my
first finger is over the first fret which would enable my second finger to be in the
second fret, third finger third fret, fourth finger fourth fret.
Let's select another position, the fourth position.
First finger comes up to the fourth fret which means then that my second, third and fourth
would fall in the frets right after that.
Okay so each one of these movements of my hand is giving me another position to play
in.
Let's go back, first position, second position, third, fourth, fifth and sixth and notice
that my hand is moving up the neck of the guitar, now my hand is moving down the neck
of the guitar.
So I can say that if I'm playing in the third position, if I move back to the second I'm
moving down, if I go from the third position up I'm moving to the fourth or to the fifth.
Alright now in each position I'm going to have under each finger I'm going to have a
note to play.
If I'm in the third position this would be the first note of the third position because
of my placement of my first finger on the sixth string.
The next note in this position would be with my second finger, the next would be this note
on the sixth string, my third finger and the next would be with my pinky, my fourth finger
on the sixth string.
Now to continue on in the position I'm going to go to the fifth string, first finger first
fret.
Moving through the fifth, the third position.
Now I'm going to go down to the next string, first, second, third and fourth and I'm playing
all the notes in the third position.
I want you to take notice how my fingers are playing right beside the fret.
Now listen to the difference.
If I move my hand back just a little bit in the position that's a sound we certainly do
not want.
So play up by the fret on the tip of the finger.
Very important about your left hand, you should have your thumb straight and then curl your
hand so that you can play on the tip of your finger.
Again notes in the third position.
I want to say something also at this time.
Once you begin to push each individual string down you do not have to hold them down any
longer.
You can play this note, put the next note down and you can pick this up if you wish.
If you want to leave it down that's fine because the string is now measured from this finger
from here to the bridge.
So it's fine to pick the fingers up that way moving individual fingers on each string.
That's the third position.
Let's move up to the fifth position.
Now as I'm picking with my right hand notice that I'm picking down and through the string.
Down, down, down, down.
Now there's going to be an up stroke that we'll talk about at a later time but everything
you're going to do now is a down stroke with a pick.
Driving down and through the string.
So as high as we can go on the guitar neck is the height or the position we're playing
in.
If I come up to the double dots I'm playing on the twelfth fret.
You can count them first through twelfth.
That's the twelfth position.
Let's go back to the first position and I want to bring something else out to you.
In the first position we have six more notes in this position than we have in any other.
The reason why is because we have the notes that are behind the nut.
The notes then in the first position would consist of the sixth string open which is
this note that I'm playing here.
I'm picking it with my right hand but the note that I'm actually playing is right behind
the nut.
First finger first fret, second finger second fret, third finger third fret, fourth finger
fourth fret.
Alright then in the first position I'm going to have thirty notes because I have six strings
times five.
Three is open and then the four are closed.
All the other positions will have then twenty four notes.
For example the second position, four on each string times six giving us twenty four notes.
Now this does not mean if I'm playing in a position and I want to use an open note I
certainly can do that.
We're talking about hand position only.
Alright while we're on the subject of positioning of our hands and notes and where they're placed
I want to briefly speak to you about the tuning of the guitar.
I'm not going to take a lot of time now to do that because I find with new students you
can spend the majority of time trying to tune the instrument thereby never getting the opportunity
to really play it.
My advice to you is with the equipment that is available today is to buy yourself an electronic
chromatic tuner.
It'll make life easy for you and help you not to worry about having to tune so much.
But I do want to briefly go through the function of tuning.
Here's what we do.
We take the sixth string and since it is the heaviest string we're going to assume that
this string is in tune.
Strings can get out of tune by placing a guitar in the case and inadvertently hitting the key
or bumping one of the keys against an object.
They do move very easily therefore the string can go out of tune.
Other things that cause the strings to go out of tune would be temperature change, an
abrupt temperature change because the neck will move this causing the strings to either
tighten or loosen.
Alright, since the sixth string on the guitar is the heaviest this string most of the time
will stay in tune.
If you don't have a pitch pipe or a tuning fork then you would have to assume that this
was in tune.
Here's would be the process.
You play the sixth string open which would be playing this note that I'm pointing to.
We're going to assume that that's in tune.
Now to tune the fifth string we're going to come to the fifth fret on the sixth string
and we're going to play that note.
Now this note as we'll find later is called A. This string is E and this is an A note.
The next string on the guitar is A. So that means if this is A that means that this string,
the fifth string should be the same sound.
Let's listen if it were not the same sound.
Listen to this.
You can hear how the string is not in tune.
Now I'm going to tune the string to make it the same.
Now when you're tuning if the string needs to be raised you'll take on the bottom three
tuning pegs you will tune and turn the tuning peg away from you.
That will cause the string to go higher, turn it toward you or clockwise it will go lower.
So I'm going to hit the sixth string fifth fret and then play the next string open and
you can hear that string is off so I'm going to tune the fifth string to match.
Alright we move down since we know these two are in tune move down to the next string.
Play the fifth string into fifth fret.
Make sure that the next string which is the fourth string matches.
So this note closed and this note open are now in tune.
Let's move down then to the fourth string at the fifth fret.
Play this note.
There is the third string open.
Now you can hear that that's in tune.
Now let's hear what it sounds like if it's not in tune.
I'm going to tune this string up and you'll hear obviously they're not in tune so that
means that the third string has to be brought down.
Now when you're dealing with these three tuning pegs if you want the string to go down you
turn the string away from you.
If you want it to come up you turn it toward you.
You hear the string is coming in tune.
Alright now next we're going to have to make a change.
On the third string we're going to move to the fourth fret in order to play B which happens
to be the second string open.
So if we play at the fourth fret that's B and you hear they're in tune then we move
back out to the fifth fret on the second string and we play this note.
Alright then the names of the open strings are sixth string open is E, fifth string open
is A, the fourth string open is D, third string open is G, the second string open is B and
the first string open is E. So we tune the guitar come into the sixth, fifth fret of
the sixth string.
This is A, the fifth string open is A. Come in on the fifth string and play D, fourth
string open is D.
We come in on the fourth string, fifth fret, we have G, third string open is G, they match.
We come in on the third string, fourth fret we play B, second string open is B, they match.
Come in on the second string, fifth fret and play E, first string open is E and they match.
Okay that is the proper way of tuning the guitar without using a tuner but I really
suggest that you get yourself a chromatic tuner that's chromatic.
You'll find that that will really make things a lot easier for you and you won't have to
worry about taking half of your time in tuning your instrument.
I want to talk to you about in this portion the beginning of playing your instrument and
some of the frustrations that you're going to go through in playing.
I have heard probably every comment known to man why I can't play the guitar or the
frustration people are having.
Fingers are too short, fingers too fat, not able to hit the strings, the guitar slipping
off my lap by the pick dropping out of my hand, there's buzzing and thuds and all kinds
of noises and these things true can be frustrating if someone doesn't tell you that it's all
normal this is all part of playing the guitar.
Learning how to place your hands and strum correctly and not have the guitar feel like
it's not a part of you.
It's only a matter of practice, it's only a matter of time so stick with it and I'm
telling you you'll be able to play.
I've never seen anyone who hasn't been able to learn and push through this time and get
on to really enjoying the instrument so don't be frustrated as you're playing and you're
running into some of these difficulties.
Alright I want to go to the board now and start to give you some instruction on what
you're going to be seeing when you go to music and begin to see all the lines and spaces
and wonder what you're looking at.
We want to focus in now on these five lines and four spaces called the staff.
Now these five lines and four spaces are not the same as the lines that we looked at up
here.
Remember this was a picture of the guitar as if it were facing us with the nut and the
frets.
These five lines and four spaces are where your notes are going to be placed when you
see music.
Now the staff is divided in equal parts by these lines which are called bar lines.
Once a bar line has been placed on a staff the bar line then creates what is known as
a measure.
So from this bar line to this bar line is a measure.
Now if we took this bar line away then from this bar line to this bar line would be an
entire measure.
I could put bar lines like this.
Each segment would be a measure because this measure is longer than this measure does not
make it greater in any way.
So we could have very small measures or long measure and these are equal in distance.
And also not in distance but they are not considered to be a greater because of that
distance.
All right the next thing I want to talk to you about is at the beginning of your music
you as a guitar player you are going to see a signature that looks like this.
Now this is script or scroll it is early century writing.
Now this has a name and this is called a G clef.
And you as a guitar player this is what you are going to focus on.
Now I want to tell you a little something about the G clef.
I am going to make it very slowly and stop at this portion of the clef and notice that
it resembles a G.
And as I continue on and follow through that finishes up the entire clef.
Now this is telling you something to expect about the piece of music that you are going
to be playing.
Now I am going to tell you what that is.
First of all let me tell you about the musical alphabet.
Now the musical alphabet has seven letters A B C D E F G.
These are the seven letters that we are going to use to cover four subjects.
One notes, two chords, three scales and four keys.
The musical alphabet will name the notes the A note, the B note, the C note or chords the
A chord, the B chord, scales the D scale, the F scale or keys the C key of C or the
key of E.
Now going back to the G clef the G clef is encircling this line of the staff.
The G clef is telling us that any note that gets placed on this line is going to be called
G.
If that is the case the note that is placed next which would be on a space after G in
the musical alphabet we come over and we start right here at A this would be A. After A would
be the next line which would be B, the next space would be C, next line D E F until finally
we are up on G which sits on top of that line.
Coming below G we would have F, below F we would have E, below E we would have D covering
all of the lines and spaces on the staff.
It's the G clef that tells you the names of the lines and spaces.
If the G clef were not here if we were to take this away the lines and spaces of the
staff would have no name.
It's the clef sign that tells us the names of the lines and spaces.
Alright the next thing that we are going to have to learn will be a group of numbers placed
after the G clef and you could find the numbers 4 4 you could also find the numbers 3 4 find
the numbers 2 4.
These numbers are called time signatures.
The time signatures are going to tell you how to count time throughout the measures
that you are going to be playing in your music.
Each number of a time signature is very significant.
The top number if in this case 4 4 the top number is going to tell you the number of
beats in each measure per measure.
The 3 then would stand for 3 beats per measure and the 2 would stand for 2 beats per measure.
I'm going to erase our board here and I want to just continue with our understanding of
time signatures.
Remember we had our G clef and we had our time signature 4 4.
This tells us the type of note that's going to receive one beat and I'm going to explain
that as we move on into our theory.
Now there is another sign that you will find that is placed in this area other than 4 4
and that is a letter C.
The C stands for common time.
Common time equals 4 4.
They are one and the same.
It's just the writer his choice if he is going to play in a time signature that's 4 4 then
you use C or the 4 4 means the same thing.
Now since we are talking about time and this top number that tells us that there are 4
beats in a measure we need to know what a beat is.
Now a beat equals one unit of musical time.
A beat equals one unit of musical time.
Now there is only one way that we can count time and we are going to have to count time
by the use of our foot.
To begin to count one we would have to pick our foot, rest our foot on our heel, pick
our foot up in the air and if we tap our foot down bring our foot back up and stop this
equals one beat.
Now remember our time signature says there are 4 beats in a measure so I am going to
put a measure here and we are going to count 4.
So what are we going to do?
We are going to tap our foot down, that's one, this is two, this is three and this is
four, giving us 4 beats per measure.
We move into the next measure and we are going to count 4 again, one, two, three, four.
Important, note this that tapping your foot becomes a very, very important part of counting
as you move into the more intricate rhythms and styles of music that have time signatures
and tempos that require a more intricate rhythm.
Tapping your foot right from the very beginning will be a tremendous help in getting past
the hurdle of counting and playing in good time.
Alright now we want to get on to playing this instrument and learning about the next portion
which would be playing of chords.
Now remember our musical alphabet was A, B, C, D, E, F and G.
Now remember the first thing we said that we are going to learn about notes, number
two we are going to learn about chords, number three we are going to learn about scales and
number four we are going to learn about keys.
Alright now when you were playing all the notes in position you were playing individual
notes even though you don't know what the names of those notes were that will come in
a later time.
Alright so we want to talk about chords now and this is a very important thing so let's
move up here and talk about chords.
Chords there are many, many types of chords that you are going to learn how to play.
The ones that we are going to talk about in this portion the names are first of all major,
then we are going to talk about minor, seventh and minor seventh.
Major, minor, seventh and minor seventh.
Let me explain to you what these different chords are like when I am saying major, minor,
seventh and minor seventh.
If you look at this marker obviously this is red and obviously the color of this marker
is black.
Well these colors we have grown up and you were told that this was red and so it is a
matter of association.
The one thing that you have never done musically you have never been taught the colors of music.
Major is a color the way red is a color.
Minor is a color the way black is a color.
Seventh is a color the way blue is a color.
So association then would be major, minor, seventh and minor seventh are chords that
have color so you can learn to hear them the way you see the color spectrum you are going
to be able to play these chords and there is going to be a color you are going to recognize
and you are going to name by these names called major, minor, seventh and minor seventh.
Now there are like I said there are many many more that you are going to learn but these
are the foundational these are the basic chords that are needed to be played.
Alright remember our chords are going to get their names from the musical alphabet.
If you see the letter A and A does not have any number or letter behind it the proper
way to name that as a chord would be A major.
Now if it is A with an M this is going to be A minor.
If I put A with a seven it is going to be A seventh and if I put A with an M and a seventh
that will be A minor seventh.
Alright if we went to another letter and suppose we put C that is going to be C major, C minor,
C seventh, C minor seventh and that is how you will name your chords and it is very important
that when you are naming these that you name them major and minor.
Just do not say an A chord or a C chord make sure that you call it major because that is
the association for you the way that this is read major will mean something and your
ears will learn to hear that color and be able to designate it between what is major
and what is minor.
Alright let us continue with our beginning and theory and understanding of playing chords.
We are going to go to the chart that we have here remember this is the sixth string this
is the fifth, the fourth, the third, the second and the first.
This is the nut and each one of these lines are frets.
Remember we are looking as if you were looking straight on at the guitar neck.
Now I want to explain to you about the strings and their the names of these strings other
than the fact that this is E, A, D, G, B and E.
The three lower strings on the guitar six through four are called the bottom strings
or we could say the lower strings.
The top three are the higher strings, the higher strings, bottom strings.
As we begin to learn how to play chords and approach playing a chord correctly it is important
that you can see and understand the difference between bottom strings and high strings.
Actually the guitar neck is if we in fact even look at the guitar here if we divide
the strings right down the center here are the three top strings and the three bottom
strings.
Alright so they are actually divided right down the neck of the guitar like this.
Ok the first chord we are going to learn how to play is going to be C major.
Now we know it is major because there is no letter or no number following it.
Alright a C major chord what we are going to do is we are going to put a group of notes
using open and closed.
So I am going to start I am going to go ahead and draw this chord for you.
Now as you look at the chart I want you to notice what we have.
There are five notes that are being shown.
Here is a note on the fifth string, here is a note on the fourth string, here is a note
on the third, here is a note on the second, here is a note on the first.
And notice on the sixth string there is no mark which means when you play the C major
chord that you are not going to play that string.
Alright so we have then five notes that are going to be played.
To begin to build this chord and construct this chord this is an absolute must.
Always start with the bottom strings first.
Alright in other words you are going to take and put your finger down on this note first.
Alright now watch the chart and watch my hand.
I am going to put my third finger on the fifth string third fret.
I am building from the bottom I am not going to start with the top.
If we start with the top we are building this chord in the incorrect fashion.
We want to start from the bottom.
Next we want to go to this string which is going to be with the second finger.
Next we are going to play the third string open.
We are going to put our first finger on the second string first fret.
And then we are going to take and play the first string open.
Alright now to play this chord make sure that your thumb is in back of the neck parallel
with the fret.
Come up on the tip of your finger start and place your fingers.
We are going to take our pick put it on the fifth string and drive through.
That is called C major.
Remember once again you are going to start with the bottom string, the fifth string,
the fourth string, third strings open.
Now many times in doing this chord you are liable to get a sound like this.
If that happens you just need to make an adjustment in your fingers.
Make sure you are on the tip of your finger and not allowing the skin on your finger to
touch the other string.
And you drive through.
You drive through.
Alright that is C major.
Let's move on to another chord.
Let's go over to this chart and we are going to learn A minor.
A minor we are going to start.
Alright now notice when we play A minor that there are six notes.
Three are open and three are closed.
Now to play this you are going to put your second finger on this note.
Third finger on this and your first finger here.
So A minor is going to look like this.
And here is how we do it.
And we are going to drive down and through and play all six strings.
That is A minor.
Alright let's go back and play the C major chord again.
Down and through.
Now one thing I found that is very important if you will learn how to look at the shape
that you are creating or the form.
Then look at the shape and the form of the next chord.
You will find that very very little has to be moved.
Just one finger.
And that is going to require moving this finger over in order to get this in.
Now we have A minor.
Here we have C major.
Alright we are going to talk about the D minor chord now.
So that is going to be the D with a small M after it.
And we are going to put our notes down.
We have two notes that are open.
And we are going to put our second finger on the third string second fret.
We are going to have our third finger on the second string third fret and we are going
to put our first finger here on the first string first fret.
And the D minor chord now is going to be like this.
Remember you are going to drive through the strings starting with the fifth string and
driving through.
Alright let's go back and let's just play the three chords that we have learned now.
Starting with the C major.
Okay there is the C major chord.
Next is going to be the A minor.
And next we have the D minor chord.
Alright we have one other chord to learn now.
That is going to be G seventh.
And the G seventh chord starts on the sixth string with the third finger on the fifth
string with the second finger and we have three open notes.
And then we are going to stretch our first finger down to cover the first string first
fret.
And here we go.
Remember when you are building the G seventh chord we want to start on the bottom or when
we start any of these chords we want to start on the bottom note first.
And constructing a chord from the bottom to the top.
You don't want to start from the top to the bottom your hand will be in an awkward position
that way.
So from the bottom to the top and here we have it.
G seventh chord and if you find yourself getting a note like this it simply means that your
fingers are not extended around the neck of the guitar and you are not up on the tip of
your finger.
So it is very important not to worry about these little thuds and buzzes.
As you practice you are going to find that this will take care of itself.
So good practice habits will take care of that.
Alright that is the G seventh chord.
Now what we want to do is we want to take the chords that we have learned the C major,
the A minor, the D minor and G seventh and learn how to use them.
Alright we are going to put our G clef on our board and here is our time signature telling
us that we have four beats to a measure.
We are going to add our bar lines to create a measure.
And on our staff we have one, two, three, four, five measures.
Now this is what you would normally see in a piece of music, your favorite song, song
books there are thousands of them out there.
These are the kinds of things that you are going to start to see.
You open up your song book and you will see the music and of course you are going to see
a lot of notes and for right now that is not going to mean anything to you.
However the chords over top of the measures will mean an awful lot to you.
For example if you see a letter C placed over top of the measure, this is not talking about
C common time that we just mentioned in our time signature.
This is saying that in the very first measure we want to play the C chord.
Alright we are going to go over to our second measure and we are going to place here an
A minor.
We will go over to our next measure and we will place a D minor and we will go to our
next measure and we are going to place a G seventh and finally on the end we are going
to place the C major chord.
Now here is what the music is telling you to do.
You have four beats in a measure, the time signature tells us and remember how we count
time.
You lift your foot up on the heel and every time that your foot goes down and you bring
it back up that equals one beat.
So we are going to tap our foot four times in this measure.
One two three four and while we are doing that we want to play what the measure is telling
us to play and that is C major.
So I am going to take our C major chord, construct the chord, I am going to start with the bottom
note and I am going to drive through and count four beats.
One two three four that is it.
Now we are going to go to the A minor and also count four.
Next measure is D minor and next measure is G seventh and finally the last measure is
C major.
Alright here we go from beginning to end and counting.
Here you have our exercise using C major, A minor, D minor, G seventh and C major.
Now good practice is going to help you to move from one chord to another.
One of the problems you will have is when you finish the C major and you go to A minor
you will find yourself slowly trying to get your fingers in place in order to make the
correction in order that you can move on to A minor.
Then you will probably have another pause and go to D minor.
This is normal.
What I suggest that you do is don't worry about every single note.
Try and play through each chord keeping time.
If your fingers don't move it is best to continue to practice, continue to play and you will
eventually see everything will fall into place.
Well there you have it.
This is your beginning of playing the guitar and I would like to remind you that all of
this material is coming from the book that I have written called Finally the Basics.
If you would like a copy of this book you can look at on the tape on the back and there
will be an address where you can send for this.
This is called Finally the Basics and this covers all of the material we have covered
so far today and on the preceding tapes.
It goes into all your rhythms and bar chords and just a very very important book.
I wrote this many years ago and I have found and been told that it has been one of the
best books that is on the market.
I think you will find it to be the same and be a great aid in your learning how to play
your instrument.
So this concludes this Finally the Basics for the beginner.
Hope you have enjoyed everything that you have heard and we would like to hear from
you so you can write or give us a call and we would like to be a part of your musical
training.
Thanks for being with us.
Enjoy your study!