Learn To Play The Guitar Online

Many things you learn from playing country guitar licks can be used to spice up solos in other genres. You will now learn to play some useful country licks in the key of A. Some easy, some a little bit awkward but nice!
You can play these licks using a pick or with your right hand fingers. You can also combine the pick with the use of a couple of more fingers like the middle finger and ring finger. This is commonly called hybrid picking. Having a few fingers at your disposal makes it easier to play licks with a lot of jumping between strings.
You will use a form of guitar tablature I have found suitable for articles like this one. The notes you will play are notated with the fret to play before a slash and the string after the slash. An example:
2/4
This means: Play the second fret on string four!
You will start with an A-major scale with some ringing open strings.
We will use hammer-ons in this scale. I will notate them with the letter h between the notes:
0/5 7/6 4/5 0/4 7/5 4/4 h 6/4 h 7/4 0/2 6/3 3/2 0/1 7/2 4/1 h 5/1
You will now play this scale descending. This will require you to replace the hammer-ons with pull-offs notated the same way with a p between the notes. It will look like this:
5/1 p 4/1 7/2 0/1 3/2 6/3 0/2 7/4 p 6/4 p 4/4 7/5 0/4 4/5 7/6 0/5
Your first country guitar lick will take you from E7 to A. We will use hammer-ons and pull-offs even in this lick. The suggested chords to play with the lick is in parenthesis:
(E7) 0/6 3/6 h 4/6 0/4 2/4 p 0/4 4/5 0/4 2/5 p 0/5 3/6 h 4/6 (A) 0/5
It is easiest to play in the second position. This means that you play the notes on the second fret with your index, the note on the third with your middle finger and so on.
In your next lick you will also use slides. I will notate this with an – between the notes:
4/3 – 5/3 3/2 0/1 3/2 5/3 – 4/3 0/2 2/3 5/4 – 4/4 0/3 2/4 p 0/4 3/5 h 4/5 0/5
The following country guitar lick uses a bend up a half note. It is notated (1/2b) before the note:
(E7) 3/1 h 4/1 0/1 3/2 p 0/2 2/3 0/3 h 1/3 2/4 p 1/4 p 0/4 (1/2b) 3/5 (A) 0/5
My intention with these licks is that you will learn them by heart as soon as you can. Play a couple of notes or so at a time until you know them by heart and add a couple of more notes. The notation is not important. It’s just a means to convey the lick.
As soon as you know the lick by heart you can experiment with it and change it as you like.
Country guitar licks are often played in a way that creates a rapid succession of notes using a minimum of energy. This is accomplished by the following means:
1. Using a pick and two more fingers or only using the fingers with maybe a thumb pick.
2. Using as much open strings or strings ringing together as possible.
3. Using slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs and of course bends.
There is a risk with this type of licks. The ultimate goal is of course to play them fast and fluid, creating this nice cascades of notes that you can hear from a good country guitarist. To reach this goal you really have to practice these licks slowly using as little tension as possible as you play.
If you are that type of person that wants to learn things fast I guess you have to remind yourself that the fastest way to learn to play fast is to play slowly. It is as easy as that.

So perhaps you’ve learned your basic chords or scales on your respective instrument. You’ve been working on your technique, and it’s starting to come together. There are a couple of songs that you like to play and they sound OK. When you play your axe, you’re starting to get a feel for when it’s really in tune. What now?

I cannot stress enough the importance of being able to play by ear. Everything that you’ve ever heard anyone play on your instrument is at your disposal – you just have to figure it out. Learning how to play tunes or instrument parts using your ear is just like anything else you practice: the more you do it, the easier it gets. If you do it often enough, you won’t even need your instrument to figure it out. The concept of teaching your ear to decipher musical structures as they’re being played is called ear training and it’s been practiced and honed for centuries.

Whether you are interested in learning to play the guitar by ear, or virtually any other instrument for that matter, there are a number of excellent learning aids available to assist you! The current state of learning aids for ear training is quite well these days (thank you for asking). With a variety of books, CDs, DVDs, and even software, there’s plenty from which to choose when you decide to add this important skill to your arsenal: Ear Training Books –

In the musician world, there are two reknowned learning institutions, the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and Musicians Institute (MI) in LA. Both have their own take on ear training. For Berklee, it’s Essential Ear Training for the Contemporary Musician and for MI, it’s Ear Training – The Complete Guide for All Musicians. Homespun, which makes a large variety of books, CDs, and DVDs for all musicians and styles, has their take, which is Ear Training for Instrumentalists featuring a whopping 6 CDs full of exercises and drills. If you’re a guitar or bass player, you’ll definitely want to check out Ultimate Eartraining for Guitar and Bass by Tribal Tech’s Gary Willis. My friend Chris, who’s a working electric jazz bassist in NYC, absolutely loves this book. Ear Training Videos –

Playing the guitar by ear, or nearly any other instrument for that matter, is not as hard as you may think! For videos, Berklee has produced Harmonic Ear Training (DVD). This 73-minute DVD will help you recognize chord progressions quickly and listen to music more analytically. Bass players get a real treat, as jazz bass great John Patitucci has released John Patitucci – Electric Bass 2: Soloing Ear-Training And Six-String Technique Video, which teaches soloing by stressing the importance of ear training. Ear Training Software –

As you might expect, software is a natural choice for teaching ear training because it’s interactive. The cream of this crop is Ars Nova Practica Musica which is both Windows and Macintosh compatible, covers just about every aspect of ear training, and features customizable exercises. Ear Training Coach is a more affordable option and offers a 10-grade curriculum in ear training and sight-reading. However, the piece de resistance and the one tool that should be in everyone’s ear training bag is the SlowGold CD-ROM. This nifty piece of software lets you slow down any piece of music on CD or MP3s without changing the pitch. So if you’re learning to play a passage from a recording, and it’s too fast, just run it through SlowGold to hear every single note at the exact pitch it’s played. Ear Training Hardware –

Not surprisingly, music equipment makers have gotten into the ear training game, and not surprisingly, the offerings are particularly good for electric guitar and bass guitar. The Tascam CD-GT1 MKII Guitar Trainer and the Tascam CD-BT1 mkII Bass Guitar Trainer features the same slowdown technology of the SlowGold software, but have housed it in a standalone unit with a built-in CD player, effects, and a headphone jack for silent practicing. Tascam has even made one the vocalists, the Tascam CD-VT1 Portable CD Vocal & Performance Trainer, which has a Vocal Cancel feature that removes the vocal from the CD during playback. Karaoke will never be the same …

Learning aids aside, one really useful exercise is to pick out a recording of a simple tune that you like. Listen to it very carefully. See if you can determine when the band is changing chords. If you can pick out where these chord changes occur, then you’ll know the points in time when you need to determine what the next chord is.

Tune your instrument to the recording. Take the first chord in the tune. As it plays, try to pick out a low note on your instrument that best matches that chord. There should one note that resonates with the recording. Did you find it? This is the root note of that chord. If this note is a C, you know that the first chord is a C (something). It could be a major chord, a minor chord, a 7th chord, but whatever it is, it’s a C version of that chord. If you’re listening to “Hey Jude”, the root note for the first chord is an F. If you’re listening to “Wonderwall”, it’s an F#. If it’s “Layla”, it’s a D …

Now that you have your root note, the next step is determine what the quality of the chord is. Is it a major or minor chord? Is it a power chord? One surefire way to determine this is trial and error. Assume it’s a major chord. Test out this possibility by playing the major chord for your root note along with the recording. Does it sound good? Does it resonate? If so, you’ve just figured out what the first chord is. If not, try a minor chord. Play the minor chord for your root note along with the recording. Does this sound good? Does this resonate? Try a few different choices. If you get stumped, look at the sheet music or transcription of this recording. This is your answer key, so to speak. If you’re just starting out and need a lot of easy tunes for practice, there are some great 3-chord songbooks such as The Guitar 3 Chord Songbook and Favorite Songs With 3 Chords.

After you’re figured out the first chord, go to the next point in time where this changes, and figure out what the second chord is. Repeat this process until you’ve covered the entire tune. A lot of popular music is cyclical in that the same 3-4 chord pattern will often repeat throughout the tune, so you may not have to figure out more than 3-4 chords for the entire song. Yes, when bands write great songs using just “three chords and an attitude”, it makes your job a lot easier.

So why would you want to do this? Well, first of all, you’re improving your ear. Secondly, you’re improving your knowledge of chords because you’re forcing yourself to play a variety of chords. If you know your root note for a particular chord is an F#, but you don’t know what the quality is, you may have to test out an F# major chord, an F# minor chord, an F#7 chord, and so on. This solidifies your knowledge of chords throughout the parameters of your instrument. The more tunes you figure out, the easier it is to find and play these chords. The other benefit of going through this process is that you’re playing along with recordings, which is going to make you’re playing better, because you’re subconsciously absorbing all the nuances of the recording into your playing.

The main thing is to not get discouraged and to do it on a regular basis. Turn on the radio and try your hand at whatever’s playing. If you don’t like the tune, change the station. Put it on the classical station – yes, you can play along with classical ones too. Don’t be afraid. It’s all just music, and in the end, armed with just an ear and the knowledge of some basic chords for the trial-and-error process, you can figure out how to play it.

Do you really know the name of the notes on your guitar fretboard? You can learn the notes well and in a short time if you put a little energy into the project!
It will really help you as a guitarist if you know the names of the notes on your guitar. Let’s see some of the benefits you reap from learning to know your guitar:
1. It will be much easier to learn to play sheet music notation as you already know where to find the notes on your guitar. The only remaining task is to learn the names of the notes on the sheet music staff.
2. You will find it much easier to understand chords and remember chords as you easily can see where to put your fingers to play the required notes.
3. It will be easier for you to understand guitar lessons on the net or in guitar instructional books as you understand an important part of the language used in guitar instruction.
We will start with something you can learn as your first task if don’t already know this. It is to know the names of the notes on the open strings of your guitar. An open string is a string not pressed down by a left hand finger.
The first string with the highest pitch on your guitar is normally tuned to an E. If you press down the twelfth fret you will find an E one octave higher. I will now give you the names of the open strings beginning with the first string:
E B G D A E
You can practice the names of the strings by playing the strings from the sixt string down to the first and back at the same time saying the names of the strings aloud or in your mind.
An easy and effective exercise to use to learn the notes on the fretboard is to concentrate on one note at a time trying to find the note on all the strings beginning with the sixth string.
Let’s start with the note E. On the sixth string you will find it on the open string. Can you spot the E on the next string? This exercise will also help you develop your ear.
Listen to the E on the sixth string and press down a finger on the fifth string and slide it until you will find an E on this string. As this is not a test but an article I will tell you that you will find an E on fret 7.
On string four you will find an E on fret 2. On string three it’s on fret 8. On string 2 on fret 5 and on string one on the open string.
Now you can practice the E notes by playing one string at a time from the sixth string down to the first and back again until you can do it automatically.
Do the same with the note G for example trying to find the right fret by listening. On the sixth string you will fing G on fret three. Of course the notes will be found in different octaves and this will be a great exercise to hear the notes and recognize them by listening.
There are many more exercises you can use to learn the notes on the fretboard. The message is that you will learn the notes on the guitar fretboard in a short time if you make a conscious effort to learn them.

Learning to play the guitar is at the top of the ‘to do’ list for many of us. In fact many are investigating the right place to get resources to help make their dream of playing the guitar a reality. But wait. Don’t run out and buy training materials or courses just yet. Don’t start working with your beginning training materials just yet. There are some critical items to get out of the way before you are ready to move ahead. To find out more, read on. In this article I present play the guitar by starting with chords.Before you start training to play the guitar, let’s start with a quick question; the song that you are playing on your guitar consists of what? The answer is notes. Notes are the very basis. And notes combine to create chords. In fact a chord is really just a group of notes all played together. As many beginners soon discover, playing most songs requires that you know and can play chords. And when you do this correctly the sound is pleasing to the ear!Most beginner training material or classes begin with some easily created chords. As you play the guitar you’ll soon learn the simplest guitar chords. The good news is they don’t require the use of very many of your fingers. They are ‘G’, ‘C’, ‘D’ and ‘A’ and they take only three fingers. As you begin to play the guitar you will learn to press down on the proper strings on the fret, on the neck of the guitar. Be sure to push down firmly, but not too hard. Then all you need to do is strum the strings directly in front of the hole found in the body. Sure it might take a little practice to become comfortable, but soon you’ll have one chord, then two and soon you’ll have all of the simplest guitar chords at your command.It will take a little practice to find the right position for each hand and your arms. Your body will tell you when you have found the right position. You’ll know the wrong positions because of fatigue, aches and pains. Adjust your positions to help relieve the pain. Remember to expect some discomfort as your body gets adjusted to this new endeavor you are just starting.Start your practice as you play the guitar with simple songs. They should have few chord movements. Practice, practice, practice. Try closing your eyes while you play. Replay each song until it is memorized and you are comfortable playing it. Practice until your fingers and hands seem to know exactly where they belong throughout the song. That’s when you know you’ve got it and are ready to move on to the next challenge. To your success as you learn to play the guitar!

Guitar Lessons

By far, the most popular instrument to learn at my music school is the guitar. It is after all the definitive instrument of modern music for at least the last 50 years or so. But it is also by far the most poorly taught of all the instruments. The Internet is inundated with programs, cd’s, even free online lessons, all geared not to teach anything more than how to make a quick buck off of unknowing people.

I’ve never met anyone who has told me , “all I want to learn is how to play some simple cowboy chords so I can strum some simple silly sing along songs like Kum Ba Yah.” Yes, there able to play the intro to “Smoke on the water”; in the wrong key; “Back in black”, whoop dee do; and if they really practice, maybe they’ll be able to play “All along the watch tower” or the ending of “Free bird”, you know, the jamming part, chords only though. All this might make the complete novice say, “cool,” but a guitarist, this does not make. At best, there no better then the guys who can hit those big colored buttons to the right timeing in Nintendo’s “guitar hero” game.

It’s not only the fault of the fools who try to teach themselves, believing the internet hype of whatever product they found, but there are a slew of so called teachers capitalizing on this. Every week they will simply show their students how to play another song that the student thinks is cool. Awesome dude. Well, now they know that. What is that? Nothing. Just that. Nothing. They can play those songs. They don’t know how, or why. What about the notes? What are those chords? What key is it in? You know what I’m talking about. What about the music!? That’s what it’s all about, the music, and that evil word: theory. But to the parents who are paying for the lessons, they hear little Jonnie play the opening to “Sweet home Alabama” and think, wow that was great. Can’t wait for you to play it for grandma, and uncle Tony.

Private teachers that come to your home are the worst offenders in the business. Not that there aren’t any good ones, even great ones, but it has been my unfortunate realization that the vast majority aren’t qualified to teach. Even the ones that come from companies that claim to “specialize” in the “at home” service. I know good teachers who work for these companies but never even met any one from the company, no credentials were checked and no test given. They were simply asked what there schedules were and with in the week they were handed appointments, all their business done by phone, and into your house they come, to sit with your children.

Even recommendations aren’t good enough, because they may not realize it either. Just ask grandma and uncle Tony. But, it’s the best defense you have. If you know someone whose child has taken some lessons and seems to be doing well and likes the teacher, hear how he plays and ask him a few questions. Ask about the theory, ask what chords he was playing, in what key, scale, notes, any thing. It doesn’t matter that you have no idea what the answers are, so long as he has some. That will at least show that there is some sort of real lesson happening there. Teachers at local music schools and those at the back of storefront music stores are usually better then the “at home lot.” They have a boss who has a local reputation and business to maintain. Do the recommendation and question thing there as well. It doesn’t hurt.

After the lessons begin, be involved, ask the questions of your own child, encourage, and praise. You might be doing us all a favor. The world is ready for the next “Eric Clapton.” Lord knows it’s been a long time coming.

I know, it’s hard but your best effort and using your gut instinct will probably be the best lesson for all involved.

John Marchionne is a professional musician and music instructor.

He is owner and lead instructor at Ensemble School of Music at Boca Raton, FL.

Visit his Website www.bocamusiclessons.com

If you are aware what a classical musical instrument the classical guitar is, you would always love to play on it. Even if you do not know much about it, you can always learn to play classical guitar that has a glorious history. It is truly intimidating to see masters back in 16th century play the instrument with such an ease and elegance! It is really a challenge and a person like you must accept it to learn and enjoy the music on classical guitar.

You can try out numerous online sites that are available for you to learn classical guitar. Right from instruction manuals they provide everything needed to play the classic instrument. There are free classes as well. You can enroll in one of them online or if you want in-depth study of the classical guitar, you can enroll for paid versions. For beginners, the initial information is definitely available free of charge on internet. How to begin, proper posture to be maintained, and good playing positions are among some of the information available online.

Well, classical music is not like easier sheet music. No doubt, learning classical music is a great challenge. Many special notations and marks can take away your breath initially. But don’t worry. There are some free websites that offer ample information regarding these notations and marks free of charge that can be of great help to you.

In your strumming hand, you are advised to grow your fingernail little while playing classical guitar. The fingernail is very crucial for playing the instrument. Therefore, care or grooming of your fingernail becomes a part of your routine to play classical guitar. You can also seek more information online regarding the care of fingernails because you don’t want to lose your fingernail in an attempt to learn classical guitar. Have patience, you can do it!

The classical music is never-withering through generations. After the death of original composer’s death, music can seek a public domain in most cases and doesn’t abide by copyright law. It is possible for you to find much of classical guitar music for free. You may also get music online that can be available in easily downloadable format. For complex pieces of music however, the companies usually charge some fees. Many MP3 and Midi files are available that can give you correct idea of classical music played on guitar.

Well, it is obvious that patience and practice form the crux of any drive for learning music in any form. Classical guitar may fill your void and help you secure your new hobby or even a new profession if you are serious about it. Internet can be of great help for you to help your hobby bear fruits. Buy the classical guitar and you may find lot of info absolutely free on net!

Stepping forward on our way to mastering the skills for reading tabs and playing easy guitar lessons for beginners, here is the second exercise of a planned series of simple and easy, though very nice and useful, beginner guitar exercises.It aims to keep developing your fretting and plucking skills, as well as helping you grow your musical appreciation.Here is the second exercise of a series of simple and easy, though very nice and useful, reading and playing exercises I teach to my beginner guitar students. They love it. It aims to keep developing your fretting and plucking skills, as well as helping you grow your musical appreciation.As every exercise or study has, this one has also its own goals, requirements and particularities.So, what are the goals of this first exercise?Besides growing flexibility of both hands fingers and independence between left and right hands, it will help you to keep notes sounding during all their required lengths, expanding your discerning ability for quality music playing.You will need not to forget the name conventions we stated in Exercise 1.Now, here’s the exercise!

E|——-0-|———|——-0-|—0-2-3-|—2-4-5-|——-0-|———|—||

B|—2-3—|—0-2-3-|—2-3—|———|———|—2-3—|—0-3—|—||

G|———|———|———|———|———|———|——-1-|-2-||

D|———|———|———|———|-0——-|———|———|—||

A|-0——-|———|-0——-|-0——-|———|-0——-|———|-0-||

E|———|-0——-|———|———|———|———|-0——-|—||

It will be most useful to you to download a free music score and a free midi file (which you can listen to) of this exercise, from the Beginner’s Guitar Website (http://www.beginners-guitar.com.Now, what does the tab mean?Let’s go to the first bar.You will play it this way:- First pluck the open 5th string with the thumb finger of your right hand.- Then the 2nd string, fretted at the 2nd fret, plucked with the index finger of your right hand.- Then the 2nd string, fretted at the 3rd fret, plucked with the middle finger of your right hand.- And then the open 1st string, plucked with the index finger of your right hand. Now you will play the second bar, and the the rest of them, remembering that you will use fingers 1, 2 3 and 4 of your left hand to fret strings in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th frets, correspondingly, excepto for the 5th bar, where you will use fingers 1, 3 and 4 to fret the 1st string in 2nd, 4th and 5th frets.At 8th bar, you will play together (at the same time), the 5th string open and the 3rd string pressed at the 2nd fret with your finger 2.You will play all notes on the 6th, 5th and 4th strings with you right hand thumb finger, and all notes on the 3rd, 2nd and 1st strings with your right hand index and middle fingers alternately.As usual, Keep trying until you get:- A clean sound every time you pluck a string .- A not interrupted duration of each played note.- A continuous playing, not delaying from one bar to he next. OK, now! Go try it!You’ll find it very easy and nice.See you soon in the next exercise.

In the same way as you can take educational classes online, you can now learn to play the guitar online. And as with educational classes, it takes dedication and self-discipline to be successful. Lots of people have hopes and dreams to learn things outside of work, but with the modern demands from work and family, it is often very difficult to make time for extracurricular lessons. Now, thanks to the wonder of technology and the Internet, it is possible to get multimedia lessons to learn to play guitar online.
The are several companies that offer you the opportunity to learn to play guitar online, by offering the lessons through the Internet. You can download the songs you have to learn for the lessons, practice playing them, and then record yourself playing the songs and send that back to the instructor, who will review it and give you honest feedback and criticism. Anybody can learn to play the guitar, and now if you have the discipline, you can learn to play the guitar online.
Since there is no instructor to look over your shoulder and make you play the piece over and over until you get it, your success completely depends on yourself to give each lesson the attention and time it deserves and requires. It will only be your desire to learn to play guitar that can make you practice and complete the lessons.
A major difference between personal lessons and online lessons, is the amount of personal attention you will receive from the instructor. While a live instructor can challenge you to play more difficult pieces by playing for you and getting you to try it too, a virtual instructor cannot convey the same challenge and urgency. Once again, it is important to realize before you start this venture that you must have a burning desire to learn to play guitar online, and you must dedicate the time necessary to each lesson.
Online classes are usually self-paced, but there is usually also a time limit in which you have to complete the course. This means that if you fail to complete the class in the time available, you would have wasted the money you paid for tuition.
All in all, if you do not have the time to take formal lessons, want to learn at your own pace and avoid any possible embarrassment from struggling in front of other students, learning to play guitar online is a good alternative.

Fur Elise is a famous piano solo by Beethoven. In this guitar lesson you will learn to play Fur Elise on your guitar. You don’t have to read sheet music notation so let’s start!

As I told you we will not use sheet music. Instead we will use guitar tablature.

Tablature is a form of musical notation, often with numbers and letters, which tells the player where to place their fingers on the guitar fretboard rather than which pitches to play.

I will use my own type of guitar tab notation today to make sure that the guitar tab is correctly displayed on article sites. The more common guitar tab staff notation you will find on my site.

The six strings on your guitar is numbered from the one with the highest pitch. This string is called the first string.

Let’s start with the first part of the melody with guitar tab:

01 42 01 42 01 02 32 12 23

Now we will take a look at this guitar tab and how to interpret it. You have probably noticed that the numbers are organized in pairs.

The first number in the pair tells you what fret to press down and the second number what string to play.

01 tells you to play the open first string. This means that you play the string without pressing down a left hand finger.

42 indicates that you press down a left hand finger on the fourth fret of the second string. Well, now it’s time for you to play the melody. Did you recognize the melody? Good!

This type of guitar tab doesn’t indicate the length of the notes. If you sing the lyrics you will probably feel how to play the notes.

What finger should you use when you play with your right hand? In this guitar lesson we will not concentrate on your right hand. I suggest that you play the notes with your thumb or in another way you choose.

Let’s play the next guitar tab:

35 24 23 02 24 13 02 12

What about your left hand? You can play the notes with your index finger but I suggest that you assign the notes on the first fret to your index finger, the notes on the second fret to your middle finger and so on.

It means that the 42 note in the beginning of the melody will be played with your little finger. Is it difficult? Yes, it will be difficult but not for long! You will get used to these fingerings if you are persistent!

In the long run you will probably even find it easier to play melodies this way if you get used to this more sophisticated fingering!

Let’s continue! The next guitar tab is identical with the first line:

01 42 01 42 01 02 32 12 23

and the next guitar tab nearly the same as the second line:

35 24 23 02 24 12 02 23

A new melodi is introduced:

02 12 32 01 03 11 01 32

and ends this way:

34 01 32 12 24 32 12 02

By now you know how to play this guitar tab notation so let’s play on!

01 42 01 42 01 02 32 12 23

35 24 23 02 24 13 02 12

01 42 01 42 01 02 32 12 23

35 24 23 02 24 12 02 23

Now you can play Fur Elise by Beethoven with guitar tab. Congratulations!

I suggest that you memorize the melody one line at a time so that the reading of this guitar tab will not slow you down when you play the melody in public!

This is a nice melody to know by heart as part of your repertoire for example when somebody asks you to play something! Everyone knows this song, don’t they!

A guitar is a fantastic instrument. It can be extremely difficult to master but it also invites you to explore the beautiful but easy chords that are available. I will give you some easy but nice sounding progressions to explore!
In this guitar lesson I will use a special form of tablature with only numbers. I have found that the ordinary tablature staff can be displayed completely wrong on some article sites.
Therefore I invented this tablature notation instead. It works as follows:
The first number indicates the fret to press down. The number after the slash tells you what string to play. Here is an example:
3/2
This means: Press down the third fret on the second string and play the note!
Why should you learn the following guitar chords?
1. They are easy to learn.
2. They sound good.
3. They give you examples on what you can do with a guitar.
Learn a flamenco guitar sounding progression
In this guitar lesson we will begin by learning what you can do with an ordinary easy E-major chord. It is played like this:
0/6 2/5 2/4 1/3 0/2 0/1
If you slide this guitar chord up one fret the three open strings will sound the same but as the other frets change you will hear a completely different chord with a morish touch to it. We can notate it like this:
0/6 3/5 3/4 2/3 0/2 0/1
Our next guitar chord is created if you slide the chord up two frets further. This will result in the following chord:
0/6 5/6 5/5 4/3 0/2 0/1
Now it is time to use these guitar chords to create a flavour of Spain. We can call the first chord A, the second B and the third C. You can play the chords in this order:
A B C B A
or a little more sophisticated:
A [A B] A [A B] A B C B A [A B] A (The chords between brackets played faster)
Learn some pop sounding guitar progressions
We will start out this guitar chord progression with the same basic E major chord:
0/6 2/5 2/4 1/3 0/2 0/1
Now we will change the sound of the chord by sliding it up three frets to the following position:
0/6 5/5 5/4 4/3 0/2 0/1
It will now be a nice sounding E minor 7 chord.
Try to slide the chord up two more frets and you will get the following guitar chord:
0/6 7/5 7/4 6/3 0/2 0/1
This guitar chord is called A add 9.
We can use the same method we used in the previous example. We call the first chord A, the second B and the third C.
You can play these chords in the following order:
A B C B with four downstrokes on each or a little bit faster with two downstrokes on each chord:
A A B A C C B B
Finally we will add just one more position to slide to with the chord. Move it up two more frets and you will get the following guitar chord:
0/6 9/5 9/4 8/3 0/2 0/1
It’s a sort of B chord and we can call it D when we construct patterns. Let’s experiment a bit with the chords we now have at our disposal. Play four fast downstrokes on each chord:
A B C D
This was just a few examples on what you can do with common basic chords. You can try this method with the common A-major chord or other chords and listen to the results.