Lesson 1
You will learn...
- How to position your body while playing
- The proper positioning of your hand on the fretboard
- Suggestions for how to hold the pick
- Three chords - D, G & C
Recommended time for completion: 1-2 weeks
Hi there, fellow guitarist
Welcome to your first lesson!
You might have played a little guitar before, but never got around to learning it properly. You might also be a complete beginner. Whichever you are, I hope you will enjoy my lessons, as much as I did when I made them. You can always e-mail me if you have any comments, or simply get stuck somewhere. Your feedback is very important for the improvement of my lessons' quality.
In case you missed it, there is a section with instructions on how to read tablature, tune the guitar and some other basic stuff that you shold digest and understand before you go on with this lesson. To make sure you do not miss these pages you find the links to the pages below:
Buying a guitar | Guitar anatomy | Tuning | Tabulature & chords
It is especially essential for you to learn how to read the tabulature, since it is the notation I use in my lessons!
Tune your guitar
I do encourage you to tune your guitar before you continue - otherwise it will sound horrible, and people will not want to listen to your beautiful music...
Tune your guitar by comparing notes with your computers MIDI-bank: click here!
Positioning yourself with the guitar
When you play guitar, the position that gives you the best control is actually the classical position (picture 1). This goes both for classical guitarists and heavy metal guitarists - believe it or not=). However you should aim to sit comfortably when you play, and this might not be comfortable for you;).
The most comon position that a lot of guitarists assume when they play, is when the guitar simply rests on the thigh that is at the same side as your strumming hand (righthanded - right thigh and vice versa) (picture 2). I am right handed, for instance, therefore I let the guitar rest on my right thigh in this position.
Keep in mind that you should not lean on your guitar. It should be fixed in a neutral position, in which you can play comfortably with a straight back (getting a little ergonomical here, I know). You should keep your guitar in place with your right arm & upper body. A tip is to cross your legs as you play in the second position (picture 3) - this puts the guitar in a higher position, and makes it easier to play.
And now a little something that is an often recurring topic in guitarforums worldwide...
Proper positioning of your hand on the neck
There are plenty of discussions about this - nevertheless the absolute best position to hold your hand on the fretboard is the classical position. In other words - do not hold your guitar like a baseball bat (or a common rock star). This limits the movements of your fingers to a great degree - and it is important that you learn this from the beginning - even though it might not seem like it now (trust me on this one).
Keep your hand & fingers at a perpendicular (90 degree) angle in relation to the string
Your thumb should be situated somewhere in the middle of the fretboard, and never "hook" it. Also do not use your chord-holding hand to keep the guitar in place - this will limit your way of changing chords freely. As mentiooned earlier this fixation work should be done by your upper body and strumming arm.
I am going to demonstrate in this video why this is important and also how to hold properly (in case my description was unclear)
Pick or no pick?
If you want to play with or without a pick is a choice only YOU can make. Bear in mind that you do not need a pick in order to play "fast" (I mean look at Paco de Lucia) - anyway playing fast should never be your goal in guitar playing - then you have entirely missed the point in making music!
A good guitarplayer knows his music, and can play it well - it does not matter how fast or slow he can play it. Of course, though, some speed is required in the long run to play some really good pieces (according to me), but you don't need to think about that now.
Anyway I encourage you to try and play a little bit with a pick, and a litte bit without. I play both with and without, as you may or may not notice in my videos. It largely depends on the music that I want to play, style and so on.
Also playing without a pick, I believe, is great for getting to know your new friend. Besides it is never good for a guitarist to feel handicapped and that he/she cannot play just because there is no pick around!
Holding the pick
How do you hold the pick? Well, these are the two most common ways.
Like this...
... or like this.
I personally adapt the second pick-holding method when I play - it works for me. Anyway if you find that holding your pick with your teeth is the best way for you to play, then go for it =)! These pictures are just guidelines.
Playing with the pick
When strumming it is important that you use both up and down movements. It is very important to get used to in the beginning, simply because old habits die hard. There are several advantages to this - an obvious one is that you can strum everything twice as fast.
having that said you also need to know that some songs require you to play in only down or only up movements - this depends on that you get different sounds for each way! But as a general rule, think "down - up - down - up" - all the time
Your first chords
Allright - now you must be really sick of all my yapping - it's time to actually play the guitar, right?
Below you will find your first chords, that i have chosen to be D, C & G. YOu should already know how to the read the chord diagrams so I will not have to repeat those instructions - right? Anyway if you missed out on that part - here's the link: Tabulature & chords.
First try to fret the chord correctly on the neck, then try to play it. Do not move on to the next chord until you achieve a clean sound on all strings of the respective chord. If you do not get a clean sound, one of your fingers is probably in the way - look, correct, and play it again. You will get it right eventually, don't worry!
Note: this is very difficult in the beginning. You probably never held a guitar before, therefore your fingers are going to feel very lost on the fretboard. It may also be painful - not only on your fingertips but also in your muscles. Don't worry about it - your body adapts very quickly to new excersises & stress, and this will be over soon (approximately a week or two, with the right amount of training). The speed of changing chords also comes with time - it's just a matter of habit.
Try to always maintaing your fingers positioned in between the frets, otherwise this might contribute to a sitar-like buzzing sound.
The chords that you will learn first are called open chords - because they use unfretted strings, as you will see!
C
X32010
D
G - two possibilities
320033
or
320003
In the second way you fret the 3rd string on the high e string with your ring finger.
Both versions are correct for fretting this chord in, although the first version gives the best sound. It's also a good way to get your pinky playing as well - we don't want to start out neglecting this guy ;).
Why are there 2 different G chords? I was asked this questions several times - you will find the answer in the FAQ section.
In this video i demonstrate how to grip the chords, and some important guidelines. The goal with this lesson is for you to learn the proper way to grip the chords, and bit by bit learn how to make transitions between them.
Pep-talk
If you never played guitar before, this is going to be really difficult. I'm just going to lay out the facts for you , my friends:
1. It will feel very strange, trying to grip the chords
2. Your fingers are going to hurt
3. You might be thinking: "How am i ever going to learn this stuff!?"
Unfortunately, there is no easy way around these points, however I can assure you that they are all temporary! You will quite soon (within a week or so, depending on how much you play) get used to the fretboard, the skin on your fingers will thicken, and the nervous connections within your fingers will be tuned up! It's just how the body works - for instance it takes your body about 2 weeks to heal any type of wound that you have (given that it is not a serious infection, or that you suffer from haemophilia). Even the smallest scratch!
When you think about it like that, it might be easier to accept that it will take at least the same amount of time for your fingers (and your brain) to get used to these new and unfamiliar motions.
It's about, so to speak, getting over the "beginner's threshold". It will become more and more easier for you to learn new things as you keep learning, trust me.
I still remember the first time I tried to play a few chords - I went through the exact same problems. Pain in fingers, weird gripping feelings, doubtfulness etc. But I managed to get over it pretty quickly, and then it became much easier to learn.
So to sum it all up - if it feels weird, and if it hurts, but you still want to be able to play guitar - don't worry about it, because it will pass. I promise=)
Allright
I think that will do it for the first lesson. Before you move on I would like you to:
- Watch out for you thumb!
- make sure that you can grip every chord nice and clean
- Try piece by piece to make chord transitions - for instance try to grip a C-chord, then G, then D, then G, C, and so on and so forth!
- Try to grip the chords with your eyes closed (or in a dark room) this will help you to get the feel for the fretboard
- Keep in mind that you shouldn't stress through the learning. You have all the time in the world to learn how to play guitar. If you start skipping through important basic things now, you will waste a lot of time going back at it again. =)