It seems different people are asking the same questions over and over again, so I decided to throw a few things together that might help the beginner.
Why do you really want to play the guitar?
To gain fame and fortune?
To gain respect of family & friends?
For the challenge?
To feel good about yourself?
To accomplish something?
To express your emotions?
To unwind at the end of the day?
To release your emotions?
What is your goal?
Set a long term goal and a short term goal and as you accomplish them, set new more challenging goals. A long term goal may be to perform in front of an audience or join a band and short term goal may be to play a particular song or learn a particular solo.
Set your goal and work toward it. It’s not easy. Hoping and wishing is not going to do it! You need a system of attack. Step-by-step instruction + discipline to practice will lead to proficiency in playing the guitar and accomplishing your goals. The more you learn the more you will enjoy playing.
1. Develop strong practice habits with sound techniques. Practice at least 30 minutes a day. Set up a practice schedule and stick to it as much as possible. Plan what you are going to accomplish in your practice session and do it. Work on your techniques and play correctly before moving on.
2. Practice the mechanics of chords and moving from one chord to another. Do not move on until you can play them correctly. Don’t worry about speed. Speed will come as you become more proficient with the mechanics.
3. Learn to count & playing rhythm correctly. Playing in time is extremely important. Practice counting your strums. Get a metronome and practice counting and playing along with the metronome. To play with others, you must play in time.
4. Learn different strumming patterns. There are hundreds of strum patterns. Some are used more often than others. Learn as many as possible. If you write your own music, you may develop some of your own strum patterns.
5. Learn theory. Understand chords: barre, dom, major, minor, augments, 7ths, etc. Find an instructor that teaches theory along with the mechanics of playing. Work on scales, modes, and playing in different keys, etc.
6. Study song structure. Notice the relations ship of verses, chorus, bridges, riffs, refrains, etc. and why they exist.
7. Learn cord progression, fills, and embellishments. Understand why these exist.
8. Learn different techniques: picking, finger style, arpeggios, cross picking, alternating bass, etc.
9. Learn different styles: country, blues, bluegrass, rock, pop, jazz, Latin, etc. All of these have something to offer the serious guitarist.
10. Don’t forget to have fun! Play something you enjoy playing and just goof-off now and then, but stay focused. Don’t get sloppy!
Chord Theory
Terms & Abbreviations Used
biad - 2 note chord
triad - 3 note chord
b or (-) - means "flat" note.
# or (+) - means "sharp" note.
?b or ?# - where "b" or "#" is suffixed, it identifies a note (eg. Bb = B
flat,.C# = C sharp).
b? or #? - where "b" or "#" is prefixed, it is a relative note position (eg. b7
= flattened 7th, #5 = sharpened 5th).
Maj - or "M" means "Major"
min - or "m" means "minor"
R - means "root" note. The reference root-note or key.
dim - means "diminished" chord.
aug - means "augmented" chord.
sus - means "suspended" chord.
add - means "added" note.
[????] - words enclosed by square parentheses means they are
sometimes omitted.
aka - abbreviation for "also known as".
What is a Chord?
A Chord is a "set of notes" usually played simultaneously. A Chord describes a whole "set of notes" and not any individual notes. Every Chord has a distinct sound and mood. Chords are the harmony of a song. While we identify "melody" by the sequence of notes played, we identify "harmony" by the interaction of the Chords. Chords are the foundations of a song. We use the word "Chord" to distinguish it from a "Scale". A "C Major" chord is completely different from the "C Major" scale. Whereas a song may be played in a specific Scale, the Chords to a song will change as the song progresses. This is called a chord progression.
Chord Root:
Every Chord has a Root by which we name the chord. The Root is the base of the Chord or you may think of it as the "bass" of the chord (The way in which you hear the basis of a chord and the "bass" is very similar).
For example, for a song in the scale of C Major, the chord progression could be C Major, A minor, F Major and G Major. In this case, the Roots of the chords are "C", "A", "F" and "G" (a likely progression for the bass-line too).
Intervals:
An interval is the "distance" between notes (in a chord). Let's start off with diads (ie two notes played simultaneously -or- 2 note chord). You can describe the "distance" in terms of semitones or by its name.
Let's start off by looking at how the intervals are named (Bear in mind that we are talking about two notes played together). The classical music academics named the intervals by the quality of sound produced. If the sound was smooth and pleasant, it was called consonence: If it was strained and unpleasant, it was called dissonance. From this subjective "quality assessment", the names were derived.
You will notice that each interval is numbered (ie 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th). The numbering comes about by "counting" the "letters" (eg. C to D is 2, C to E is 3, C to F is 4, C to G is 5, C to A is 6, and, C to B is 7). The numbering disregards whether the note is sharp or flat.
Semi- Key C MAIN MAJOR MINOR EXTRA Note
Tones notes intervals intervals intervals intervals Name
0 C Unison R
1 Db/C# minor 2nd b2
2 D [Maj] 2nd 2
3 Eb/D# minor 3rd b3
4 E [Maj] 3rd 3
5 F [Perfect] 4th 4
6 Gb/F# dim5/aug4 #4/b5
7 G [Perfect] 5th 5
8 Ab/G# minor 6th b6
9 A [Maj] 6th 6
10 Bb/A# [Dominant] 7th b7
11 B Major 7th 7
12 C Octave / 8th 8
The intervals with the most consonance are Unison (playing the same note twice) and Octave. They only involve the root. Let's look at more!
The main intervals are the Perfect 4th (5 semitones apart), Perfect 5th (7 semitones) and the Dominant 7th (10 semitones). They have special names because they have much consonance.
What's the big deal? Why do they sound pleasant? It's actually because of the relative pitches (frequencies) of the notes. Let's say the Root is "C", and let's play a diad using "C" and "G". The pitch of "G" = "C" x 3 / 2 (ie for every 2 oscillations of "C", there are 3 oscillations of "G"). When played together, there is a smooth "ringing" caused by this mathematical relationship which is pleasant. Hence the name "Perfect" 5th.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the note "F" = "C" x 4 / 3 (appx), hence, called the Perfect 4th. Again, the note "Bb" is approximately "C" x 7 / 4, and called the Dominant 7th.
Having set the 4th, 5th and 7th, the next best consonence happen to coincide with the Major Scale and hence were named Maj 2nd (C to D), Maj 3rd (C to E), and, Maj 6th (C to A). Note that "C" to "B" is actually dissonant but, for completeness, the interval is called the Maj 7th.
Having set the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and Maj 7th, the leftover intervals (which happen to be flat notes) were conveniently named min 2nd (C to Db), min 3rd (C to Eb), and, min 6th (C to Ab). It doesn't help that this has little to do with the minor scale.
The only remaining interval is C to Gb/F# and this is named as the diminished 5th (for C to Gb) or augmented 4th (C to F#). When referring to a Note, the word "diminished" means "flattened" and the word "augmented" means "sharpened".
It is important to note that it the words "Perfect", "Dominant" and "Major" are usually dropped. If you were to only use the Major scale to name the intervals, you would be mostly correct BUT except for the Major 7th. Hence, you never drop the word "Major" for the Major 7th.
The last column introduces another method of "declaring" chords. Here the notes are numbered using the Major scale and all other notes are considered either "flat" or "sharp". This system declares the notes involved separated by commas. So a 5th interval would be "R, 5" and the Dominant 7th interval would be "R, b7". This system is never ambiguous and extremely accurate because every note is declared (and the rules are fixed). However, these are not really chord "names" per se.
SideNote - Guitarists like to play a 5th interval plus an octave root (ie root, 5th, octave) and refer to this as the "power chord". It's actually a 5th chord.
Basic Chords:
Having looked at the diad (2 note chord) intervals, let us now look at the triads (3 note chords).
The triad is based on the Root, 3rd and 5th of a scale.
a From the Major Scale, we get the Major triad ( R, 3, 5 ):
therefore C Major is made of "C", "E", "G".
b From the Minor Scale, we get the minor triad ( R, b3, 5 ):
therefore C minor is made of "C", "Eb", "G".
c From the Augmented Scale, we get the augmented [5th] triad ( R, 3, #5):
therefore C augmented is made of "C", "E", "G#".
d From the Diminished Scale, we get the diminished 5th triad ( R, b3, b5):
therefore C diminished 5th is made of "C", "Eb", "Gb".
