3:4 Our First Song, Complete

For "Holy Is The Lord", play through the chorus, then repeat. After the second chorus, we have a bridge section. Now you know all the parts to the song.

(click the music to enlarge)

3:1 Final Three Chords F-Am-Bm

With these three chords added to the six you have already learned, you will be able to play thousands of songs. The A Minor is no more difficult than the others we've learned. You may need to practice the F and B Minor a bit, but don't let that stop you. Knowing them will open up a great deal more songs for you.

2:7 Our First Song, pt 2

Let's continue learning our first song, "Holy Is The Lord" by Chris Tomlin. This time we'll add two more chords and play all the way through the chorus.

2:5 Three More Chords E-A-Em

Three more essential chords:



Add these to your arsenal. Finger them as you did with the first three: 1 for index finger, 2 for middle finger and 3 for ring finger. A "0" means play the string open, an "X" means don't play that string. You'll need two of these for the next part of our song.

2:2 Notes on the E String

Okay, knowing the notes of the musical alphabet, and that every fret on the guitar is a half step, look how easy it is to apply this amazing knowledge to the guitar.



Since our 6th string is tuned to an E, we can count up the string using the alphabet and determine the notes along the way. You can see from Fig. 6 that we're playing an F on the first fret, and a G on the third fret. So what's the note on the 2nd fret? That's right... an F#.

Now try it on the 5th string, which starts with A. What are the notes as you move up the neck?
You should have said A-Bb-B-C-C#-D...

Now here's a guitar player's tip:
Start thinking of the frets according to the letters you see in Fig. 6. Think of the 3rd fret as the "G" fret. Think of the 5th fret as the "A" fret. Notice that your guitar may have fret markers at key frets on the neck. Once you start playing moveable chords and scales, these markers will be your friends.

Also, remember when I said that the 12th fret is a magical fret? Since there are 12 notes in the musical alphabet, the notes start over every 12 frets, so many of the same things that apply on a given fret also apply 12 frets above. If that is confusing to you, don't worry about it. As you understand more and more about the guitar, it will become clearer.

2:1 The Musical Alphabet

If you're familiar with music or piano, you probably know the names of the white keys on the piano, letters A through G. In addition, there are black keys which fall between some of the letters. Each step up or down, using all the keys, is called a half step. Go ahead and start thinking of the notes in half steps, since that's how we'll apply the musical alphabet to the guitar.

Learn the pattern of notes at the top of Fig. 5. Whether you start the pattern with an A or any other note, it makes no difference. The pattern is always the same. Guitar players tend to start with an E, since that's the lowest note on your guitar, and the open note on the top string.

This pattern of notes is what you are playing when you play the chromatic scale. It just starts with E: E-F-F#-G-G#-A-Bb-B... and so on.

Got it? Great. Now let's see how to apply the alphabet to the fretboard...

1:6 Our First Song, pt 1

Time to learn a song, or the first part of our first song, "Holy Is The Lord" by Chris Tomlin. We'll learn to play the verse using our G-C-D (I-IV-V) chord progression in the Key of G

Here is the song: Holy Is The Lord

Don't try to play along with the recording, but listen to it for the strumming rhythm and where the chord changes come.

1:4 Three Essential Chords, G-C-D

Let's start playing guitar. Here are the first of the guitar chords you must learn in order to play the guitar. I repeat... you cannot be a guitar player without knowing how to play a G major, C major, and D major.

Look at the chord diagrams above.

The heavy horizontal line at the top represents the nut, so it's as if we're looking at an upright guitar neck. Above that line, you see that some strings are marked with a "0". This shows that the particular string is played open, with no fingers of the left hand touching it. A string marked with an "X" is not played at all, since those notes aren't part of the chord.

The other horizontal lines are the frets. The vertical lines are, of course, the strings, with the 6th (low E) string on the left.

The dots with numbers in them show (1) which string to fret, (2) which fret to play, and (3) which finger to use. We'll use this as a key: Thumb = T, Index Finger = 1, Middle Finger = 2, Ring Finger = 4, and Pinky = 5.

So, for example, in the case of a C Major chord, we use the index finger on string 2, first fret, the middle finger on string 4, 2nd fret, and the ring finger on string 5, third fret. The 6th string is not played. Easy, huh?

Practice these chords until they are second nature to you. You'll need them from now on.

1:3d ElectronicTuners

Here, let me save you some trouble. Buy an electronic tuner. Even a cheap one will make your guitar playable A good one will run you $40 or more.



Some have lights, some have needles. But these little items will make your life easier. The downside? You might have to change the battery after several months. So you'll learn to keep one with your gear.

1:3c 5th Fret Tuning

For this method, you'll still need to get your 6th string tuned to an E before starting. If your guitar is a little out of tune, but close, you can bring it in tune with itself at least. At any rate, you should learn to use the 5th Fret method. It will be useful at some point.

Here's how it works (assuming the 6th string is in tune, or close):
1) Fret the low E (6th) string at the 5th fret. The note you get is an A. Match the open 5th string to that pitch.
2) Fret the 5th string at the 5th fret. This gives you a D. Use it to get the 4th (D) string in tune.
3) Do the same thing on the 4th string to get a G and tune the 3rd string to match.
4) Fret the 3rd string at the 4th fret to get the B for the 2nd string.
5) Fret the 2nd string at the 5th fret to get the high E and tune the 1st string.

Once you have done this (and know a chord or two) play a chord to check intonation. An E chord works well for this. If it's not right, keep trying.

So, what are the problems with the 5th Fret method? Your low E string first has to be in tune, and you again need to rely on your ears. And lets face it, some ears are better than others.

1:3 Getting In Tune

This is the first of the posts that I have labeled as essential. In order to be a guitar player, you must be able to get your guitar in tune. I know it sounds crazy that I would even have to say that, but with the first class I taught, a month later kids were bringing in guitars with no way of tuning them, not having practiced tuning them, strung in such a way that they could not be tuned...

I decided that the next time I taught, I would take as much time as necessary to help students get their guitars in tune. Nobody is going to want to keep playing a guitar that sounds bad. So treat this as your first essential guitar skill - tuning your guitar. I'll try to give you enough options so that you can find what works for you.

First, let's learn the notes on the open strings.



Notice that under the note letter names E-A-D-G-B-E I've added the numbers of the strings themselves. Even though you might think the heaviest string would be string number one, we count the strings 1-6 from the bottom up. Go ahead and get that in mind as we'll probably use the numbers some in the future.

See the letters with lines next to them? The idea there is that you come up with a cute saying to help you remember the notes. I use "Eat A Dang Good Breakfast Everyday". I know "everyday" should be two words, but it works. I've also heard "Elephants And Dogs Grow Big Ears", and one that a student, Jared, came up with - "Every Animal Does Good By Eating". Come up with your own and have fun with it.

Now that we know the notes, how do we get the guitar tuned? We'll look at four ways to do it, and the advantages and disadvantages of each. But if you don't want to read, let me skip to the bottom line. Buy an electronic tuner. You'll thank me.