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Beginner Guitar
Identification of the strings
Knowing
the names of the strings is a crucial first step in understanding
the basic principles of the guitar. From the highest in pitch to the
lowest, the order is: E, B, G, D, A, E
Tuning the guitar So that the chords and melodies we will learn
to play sound right, the guitar has to be in tune! An electronic
tuner is a useful acquisition, although even with a tuner it's not
that easy to tune a guitar, without some initial guidance!
Basic counting of beats Keeping time is the most important
thing in the performance of music, especially when playing with
others. We will learn how to count the beats when we play. The most
common way of counting a normal pop song is in groups of 4 beats...
"1, 2, 3, 4..."
As we learn to play chords in rhythm, we will "strum". Strumming
is the technique of moving our right hand up and down across the
strings, to keep rhythm.
The basic open chords The student will be shown how to form some
basic chords with the left hand (on the first three frets, at the
far end of the neck). With basic knowledge of these open chords and
strumming, we can start to play songs!
Arpeggio To create a different atmosphere from strumming the
guitar, we can pluck the strings of a chord individually with our
right hand fingers. As normal, we hold the chord with our left hand.
Listen here to a typical 6 beat arpeggio:
68arpeggio.mid and read an explanation:
68arpeggio.doc
Basic blues progression Most of the pop/rock music developed in
the past fifty years has a direct link to the American blues. We
will learn its most common structure, the 12 bar blues.
Reading notation A valuable skill in the musicianīs armoury is to
be able to read and play a melody that someone has written on paper.
We start by learning to read the C major scale, i.e. C D E F G A B
C. We will then read some simple melodies using the notes from this
scale.
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