Playing A Melody

Questions & Answers

3 months ago

I’m kinda confused do I have to hold it left handed

Mike Olekshy 3 months ago

Hey there - thanks for your question. In a sitting position, rest the body of the guitar on your right leg. You'll be using your left hand to fret the notes on the neck. You'll use your right hand to pick and strum. Please review this lesson on how to hold the guitar: https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson/31240 Hope this helps!

1 year ago

I have a new guitar that I have tuned. When I press on the low e string and strum from the third fret and the sound is dead. How hard to I press on the string?

Mike Olekshy 1 year ago

Hello - thanks so much for your question! Try pressing your index finger on the third fret of the low string, then picking the low E string to make the sound of the G note. You'll need to press down enough that a note is clearly heard. But do not press with excessive force, as that can lead to injury. You only need enough pressure to make a fretted note sound clear and without a buzzing noise. If there is no sound at all (dead), you are not using enough pressure. Hope this helps!

2 years ago

everytime i lift my finger up from the guitar to switch frets it makes sort of a buzzing sound, how do i prevent that sound during the transitions

Josh Workman 2 years ago

Hi, this will become less noticeable as you become proficient on the guitar. That said, there is a certain amount of squeakiness about the guitar that is normal and expected.

2 years ago

In this video, you played a melody. What is a melody? And I don't know how to read chart music. Would that affect my guitar learning?

Josh Workman 2 years ago

That is a very good question! Here is one definition: "The two basic elements of music that define melody are pitch and rhythm. Melody is a succession of pitches in rhythm. The melody is usually the most memorable aspect of a song, the one the listener remembers and is able to perform." If you sing "Mary Had a Little Lamb," the words are the lyrics and the pitches and rhythms comprise the melody. Learning to read actual musical notation can help you better understand what is happening in any given song much more than TAB alone. I can't say for sure how it will affect your learning. That depends on your own innate sense of pitch, rhythm, form, etc... Written notation makes all that very obvious.

3 years ago

So I'm left handed would that affect the way I hold the guitar.

Josh Workman 3 years ago

Hi, the two most common choices would be to 1. simply learn the guitar right-handed or 2. buy a left-handed guitar/modify a right-handed guitar and play it upside down (what Jimi Hendrix did). Either way it's literally a mirror image of what you see in the Guitar Tricks videos. A third, less popular option would be to take a right-handed guitar and just flip it upside down (as-is), so that the treble strings are pointing up to the ceiling, instead of the bass strings.