How to Play A Guitars

Teach Yourself How to Play A Guitars Overnight!

INTRODUCTION:

First of all, we must forget everything we’ve ever thought about how complicated playing music is, or how to play a guitars. I compare it to ‘math anxiety’.

Many people fear music and think that it takes a genius to be a good musician or find out how to play a guitars. To be a master it might take a genius, but to play songs on the guitar, sound good and have a great time is only a lesson or two away! I have been playing and teaching music professionally for many years and was a child piano prodigy myself. I play and teach: piano, guitar, bass, flute and drums. I have tought many friends and family members how to get started playing songs on the guitar practically overnight. When you are dedicated enough and passionate about learning the guitar, it comes a lot easier than you may think. My fiancee is also excelling at the guitar and the bass guitar since I’ve shown her a few methods and tricks on how to play a guitars. I hope this gives you the kick start you need to get started rockin’ and rollin’! Enjoy.

LET’S LEARN!

Grab your guitar! (If you don’t have one yet Click Here to Download an eBook Teaching you How and Where to Buy a Guitar)… I am assuming that prior to reading this you have a pretty good idea of how to hold a guitar and pluck the strings either with your finger(s) or with a guitar ‘pick’.

If not here’s the rundown:

(For Lefties, Do everything opposite i.e ‘left upper thigh’ etc.)

Playing Acoustic Guitar

Learning how to play a guitars for hours can strain your back if you do not maintain an upright posture, when practicing how to play a guitars. Pick up your guitar and place the back of the guitar against your stomach. If you are right handed, the guitar neck should be pointing towards your left. Rest the guitar body on your right upper thigh.

Now place your left hand around the guitar neck and place your right arm around the body so that your hand is lying by the strings. Adjust your body positioning so that you are completely comfortable.

Hand Positioning

If you’re left handed, don’t worry. You have two options here when learning how to play a guitars. The first option is to buy a right-handed guitar and re-string it, so that the order of the strings in figure 3 is reversed. The second option you have is to buy a left-handed guitar.

If you’re right handed, you will use your left hand to construct chords.

The left hand fingers are bent and pressing down on the strings on the fret board. The back of the neck is curved, so that your hand molds into the shape of the neck. Your thumb is arching aver the top of the neck. This is a common thumb position for constructing chords.

It is also ok to press your thumb into the back of the guitar neck when constructing chords, although this is more common when playing scales. Try out both thumb positions and use the one that is most comfortable for you.

Parts of a Guitar

Parts of an Acoustic Guitar Diagram

Right Hand/Arm

This is the hand that you will use to “strum” the strings to make the different chord sounds. Rest/Lie your right arm over the guitar. Your right bicept should be resting on the top of the body of the guitar. Your hand should be positioned directly above the sound hole in the guitar. This is where the sound is produced. Having said all that, if your naturally a left handed person and your just starting out learning how to play a guitars, then definitely try everything from a left handed perspective… basically whatever feels comfortable and right for you is what is right

Using a Pick

You should grasp the pick between your thumb and forefinger of your right hand.

Here is a link to a great resource *WITH VIDEO* to show you what it looks like to strum and play and hold the guitar! However, that site also continues to teach traditionally and we are here to learn the guitar OVERNIGHT! So, let’s not spend too much time over there. What we have here that they don’t have there is……Guitar Tablature! Or ‘TAB’ for short. This system allows you to get propelled into playing songs and ‘riffs’ on the guitar almost immediately! Guitar Tab is a universal language among musicians and even professionals use it as a reference when learning how to play a guitars. After this lesson, you will be able to Google the Guitar Tab for pretty much any song that you want and be playing the melody line or main riff within minutes!

What is Guitar Tab?!?

It is an alternative way of reading music. It is an easier way to learn a song on a Guitar, and when your first starting out learning how to play a guitars, it comes in really really handy to pick up songs quickly.

Instead of reading notes on staff paper which can be quite tricky, it is made up of a number system that is so easy my grandma can play ‘smoke on the water’ with ease!! NO joke.

So read on here in the introduction of How To Play a Guitars front page, to get a good overview of Guitar TABs, but also don’t forget to see our 2 other pages on “How to Read Guitar TABs”    …here’s the links:

how to read guitar tab – part 1

how to read guitar tab – part 2

Anyway…. getting back to our Summary of Guitar TABs…

The following 6 lines do not represent your typical ‘music staff’ which actually has 5 lines. These 6 lines represent the 6 strings on your guitar.

The Top Line represents the thinnest or ‘highest pitched’ string on your guitar. The string that is closest to the floor. The bottom Line represents the LOWEST SOUNDING String on the guitar and this one is the thickest. It also is the closest to the ceiling.

**CHECK OUT THE GUITAR ANATOMY PICTURE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE REPORT!

String #

____________________________________________________ 1

____________________________________________________ 2

T___________________________________________________ 3

A___________________________________________________ 4

B___________________________________________________ 5

____________________________________________________ 6

NOW…..

This is what blank Guitar Tab looks like. Right now all you see are the 6 lines (6 Strings) I know you’re thinking “why is it upside down?” I have no idea. That’s how Tablature was invented. Just imagine the bottom line as being the top string that’s closest to you. With that out of the way we can work on our next keyword. “Frets.”

I am sure you have heard this term before ‘Guitar Frets’, as it is in many guitar learning books and resources about how to play a guitars.

If not here’s a run down: they are the metal strips that go up and down across the fingerboard of the guitar. They separate the notes (tones) on the guitar. When you place your finger (form your left hand) in between two frets and hold down the string you are then prepared to strum or pick the string with your right hand. Strings aren’t meant to only be played open. When you hold down a string at a given ‘fret’ what you are actually doing is making the string shorter, thus making the pitch ‘Higher’ and changing the note (or tone).

There are usually about 20 something frets on a standard guitar. It doesn’t make a big difference if you have 20, 22, or 24 frets on your guitar. This just means that you can play a couple notes higher on the guitar and those notes are so high pitched they are pretty annoying to listen to anyway! You will stay in the lower range of the guitar most of the time. Now let’s get this ‘Higher’ and ‘Lower’ thing straight. In music, the musical notes (tones, pitches, whatever you call them) are changed by pitch. We all know that pitch means the frequency of sound so something high pitched would be like an opera singing lady who breaks a wine glass with a super high note. A Low pitch is similar to a Bass instrument or a man with a really deep voice. ‘Deep’ is the same as ‘Low’ when talking about pitch. On a slide whistle you blow into it and move the slide up and down to change the pitch. The closer you bring the slide to you the higher the pitch gets and vise versa.

On the guitar and when learning how to play a guitars, however it is not up and down. It is left to right. When you play a string open, that is the lowest (deepest) sound you will hear produced from that string. As soon as you place your finger on the First ‘Fret’ and then strike the same string again the pitch will be slightly higher. The more you move to the right the higher the pitch will get. (Because the string is getting shorter!).

There are usually dots on the fingerboard of your guitar to act as a guide when moving around and holding down different frets. Normally they are on the 3^rd, 5^th, 7^th, 9^th and 12^th frets.

*TIP*:

You don’t want to put your finger on the metal fret itself…but just slightly to the right of it produces the best sound.

Alright Finally let’s get going on How to Play a Guitars and….  Let’s Play Already!!!

Ok, Ok. Now that we know what frets are. We know how to play a note (playing either an open string, or pressing down a fret on that string and then strumming it).

And we know what ‘Blank’ TAB music looks like. Let’s learn how to read TAB and how it will help you.

The Lines represent the strings.

The NUMBERS represent the Frets.

Here is some example TAB:

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

_0_3_5_0_3_6_5_____________________________________

Music (and TAB) is read from left to right like English.

The ‘TAB’ above tells you to play on the Low string only (the thickest string).

You know this because the numbers are only written on that string (the bottom line).

The number ‘0’ means to play the string open. Then the number ‘3’ means place your index finger of your left hand and hold down the 3^rd fret on the low string (same string you played open). and then followed by the 5^th fret and so on.

This is the main riff to the popular song ‘Smoke on the Water.’ If you are unfamiliar with this song you can see it and view at on Youtube. Type in ‘Smoke on the Water.’ this way you will know what it sounds like before you attempt to play it by reading it above. So if you play the string open (just strum the string without touching it with your left hand) and then the 3^rd fret and then the 5^th and then open again, and then the 3^rd fret 6^th fret and 5^th fret…you have you have just played smoke on the water! Try this next song…EVERYBODY Knows the tune from ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ so you shouldn’t have any trouble with it… and its a good one to start off with when learning how to play a guitars

‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’

____________________________________________________ high string

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

_____________________________2_2____________________

_4_2_0_2__4_4_4__2_2_2__4__________________________ LOW String

The first 4 notes (4,2,0,2) sound like “ma-ry had a”

and then the three 4’s (444) sounds like “lit-tle lamb”

and then again with three 2’s (222) is again “lit-tle lamb”

and then the 4 on the low string and the two 2’s on the next string sound like

the final “lit-tle lamb”

Notice how the last two notes are on the next string. This would be the second string from the closest string to you. It is also the second most thick string on the guitar. REMEMBER: With guitar TAB you must already be familiar with the melody and rhythm of the song because even though the TAB shows you which notes to play to make the song, it does not show you how ‘long’ to hold each note in order to make the song sound right. For example, reading the above song ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ by just playing all the notes in a row without giving the proper time for each note would not sound very much like that song at all! You know to put a pause in between ‘little lamb’ and the next ‘little lamb’. Also, you know that the last ‘lamb’ is held for a slightly longer amount of time than the rest.

Here is a scale study for the learning how to play a guitars. This will sound like (Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do) It is know as the ‘Major Scale’ and plays a HUGE part in music in general.

It is also a great finger strengthening exercise for the guitar player. This requires you to play on three strings. Frets # 3 and 5 on the LOW string. Followed by Frets # 2, 3 and 5 on the very next string. Lastly, frets # 2, 4, 5 on the 3^rd string. Executed correctly it should sound like Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do.

____________________________________________________ high string

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

_____________2_4_5__________________________________

______2_3_5_________________________________________

_3_5________________________________________________ LOW String

As stated in the beginning of this report, it is not intended for you to become a master overnight when first starting out to learn how to play a guitars. But, with this information and the fabulous world of the internet and countless resources available you can take this as far as you want. Many famous musicians to this day do not know how to read music and 99% of them know TAB and can learn a song or solo quickly by reading the TAB.

There are SO many FREE websites that have the TAB to almost every song!

Go to google and type in Guitar Tab for (song you want to learn) and it will surely pop right up. Remember that the bottom line is the string closest to you…DON’T let that fool you. The TOP Line is the guitar string closest to the floor. We didn’t even play on that string in this ‘how to play a guitars’ lesson.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You now know how to hold the guitar

You now know how to play the very popular riff for ‘Smoke on the Water’

You know how to play a ‘major scale’ which is the foundation for modern music.

You know how to play ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’

You know how to read Guitar TAB!!!!!!!!!

You can now go look up the TAB for any song you want to learn for FREE online!

Now that you’ve learnt how to play a guitars, check out the following link for Learn Guitar in 21 Minutes

GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY PLAYING!!!!

Understanding A Guitar Chords Chart and Using it to Learn Guitar Faster

A guitar chords chart is a piece of paper or a document that has little boxes of what looks like graphing paper. In the lined boxes are dots that represent how one positions his/her fingers to play a chord.

Many people have learned to play guitar using these charts without enrolling into more formal lessons.  If you can get hold of a chart, look closely. The boxes resemble the guitar neck, and these lined boxes are actually guitar TAB (see our How to Read Guitar TAB posts to learn more about how to read the chords on a Guitar Chords Chart).

Basically you position your fingers according to the position of the dots on the chart.

This will show you how a specific chord is played. Then you must make sure you press down hard just behind the frets shown, and strum the pattern shown. Listening to the piece of music that your trying to play, just before you play it can also help.

Eventually, as you keep practicing, you’ll no longer need the charts because you’ll have memorized them by heart.

But having a guitar chords chart stuck on your wall, in a comfortable spot, where you play guitar, can be a very important part of your beginner guitar playing and learning.

What Does a Guitar Chords Chart Look Like?

Guitar chords charts can look very different depending on where you look: guitar books have various charts, poster shops have chords charts with comprehensive list of chords, and then there are tons of resources on the web with charts all over the place. Most are not very clear though.

Here is one we recommend, and what it looks like:

Easy Guitar Chords Chart

You can Download this Guitar Chords Chart Here for Free.

One of the reasons we like this chart (aside from the fact its free ), is because you can print it out on your standard printer. It comes out to about 7 pages or so, and then you just sticky tape all the pages together and wah-la… you’ve got a guitar chords chart

Is It Really That Easy To Learn Guitar?

No, learning guitar takes time and dedication. It’s a musical instrument that needs to be treated with respect.  The guitar chords chart is your reference. Your first effort at playing chords might be awkward and may not feel like music at all.

But once you start shifting between chords, you’ll sense a little bit of music coming into play. If you feel that your movements are stilted and just abnormal, don’t worry. It is going to pass with more practice.

Dealing with Messy Chords and Using your Guitar Chords Chart

Some of the hurdles you will have to face, aside from feeling awkward, are messy chords, painful fingertips, and what to do with your other hand.

This is why a guitar chords chart is good to have close by (preferably right there on your wall), because you can practice and practice those basic chords until you get them right.

Messy chords are chords that are played with unusual buzzing sounds. If you enroll in formal lessons, this is going to be emphasized as “dirty chords” or “unclean chords.” It happens to beginners all the time because of the following errors:

• The fingers aren’t hitting the fret properly
• More than one finger is on the string
• Long fingernails
• Too little pressure

Painful fingertips are also going to be something you have to deal with as long as you are practicing on your guitar. There’s no solution yet to avoiding pain on your fingers, other than to stick with it and eventually you’ll build up enough calluses on your fingertips you won’t notice the pain   It comes with playing the guitar.

In fact the calluses that you’ll develop over time can be a proud mark of a guitarist.  Before the calluses develop, you could try practicing more, or changing your strings to lighter ones if the strings you currently have are of heavy gauge.

Finally, the issue of what to do with your other hand which is something rarely discussed.

You have two choices; you can either strum or pick on the strings which are also called plucking (or finger picking).

The finger picking or plucking is typically done on a classical acoustic, while the strumming has a more modern sound and is how you play chords.

Guitar beginners can use a guitar chords chart to learn complex guitar movements and how to position their hand and fingers to play chords properly.

Again, you can Download this Guitar Chords Chart Here for Free.  

Happy Guitar Playing folks!   

How to Tune a Guitar – Step by Step

Yes, it is frustrating in the beginning when you are first learning how to tune a guitar, or if you missed that step – how to play the guitar to get a nice sounding tune.  Just like other instruments that are new to you, it takes time and practice to play the guitar properly and learn the techniques to play a beautiful song.

Did you know that the reason for having a “bad sound” from the guitar is not because of the user?

It’s because the guitar is not tuned (…most of the time ). So it pays to learn how to tune a guitar by yourself, early on in your guitar playing adventures.

When should the Guitar be Tuned?

Every time you use the guitar, it should be tuned, especially the lower cost guitars as they can tend to go out of tune more readily.  Your guitar needs to be tuned before you pluck any strings and should be checked throughout your guitar playing sessions. Just using it can make the tune go out of sync, and this is why it is an essential skill to know how to tune a guitar. I’ve known some guitar players who have even tuned their guitar half way though playing a song; but they’re so good at it, that you wouldn’t even notice any difference in the song they’re playing… it still sounds great!

Tuning a Guitar with a Guitar Tuner - How To Tune A Guitar

Is tuning a guitar a quick or time consuming process?

When you are first learning how to tune a guitar, it will not be quick, but the more you practice and do this successfully, the faster you will be able to finish.

Learning how to tune a guitar fast or even on the fly is something you’ll definitely want to know, especially when you want to drop tune or learn how to tune a guitar for a specific song to make it sound just right.

So just like anything, the first time you learn this skill, it takes a while, but after you’ve done it a few times, it feels like you’ve always known it

What is the Easiest Way to Tune Your Guitar?

The easiest way to tune your guitar is to use an electronic guitar tuner, like the one sitting on the guy’s knee in the above picture. You set the tuner to a string note, pluck the string and the tuner show you whether the note is sharp or flat (whether you need to tighten or loosen the string). You basically just keep plucking the string and adjusting the tension of the string until the electronic tuner tells you that your spot on the note, then you simply move on to the next string and next note.

This method is easy, however not necessarily the best way because sometimes you may not have an electronic tuner with you, so learning how to tune a guitar by ear without any equipment is your ultimate goal.

Let’s now have a look at the steps required to tune a guitar the manual way…

Step 1 – First Step to Knowing How To Tune a Guitar: Tune Your Sixth String to E

The first step is to tune the sixth string, i.e.  tune the sixth string based on the pitch reference you use.

How to Tune the 6th String

To tune the guitar properly, you need another sound source to use as a reference.  You can use the same note on another instrument such as a piano or another guitar you may have. This one note (low E note on top string of guitar) will be able to help you to tune your guitar.

NOTE: Your guitar can be tuned even if you don’t have a pitch from another instrument to reference. It may sound ok by itself, but if you combine it with another instrument, it will not blend well because it will be out of tune. Though you may be able to play properly, the guitar won’t sound right. Your tune must sound just like the other players’ instruments to make good music.

Match to an MP3 Sound of E

There are several ways you can do this. One way is you can listen to an MP3 of an E string that is properly in tune, and then listen and adjust your sixth string the same way and repeat as necessary to get it tuned to the same sound.

Matching a Piano Tune

Most people don’t have one, but if you happen to have a piano (or get access to someone else’s), you can tune your guitar to match the E tone(your low E string). You’ll see that there are two black keys and an additional key that is white.  Then there are a set of three black keys and then after that there is a white key. The white key that is located immediately to the right of the two black keys represents the E note.

Play it and then tune your guitar to match it. If it sounds different, select a different E note until you find one that matches you guitar’s low E note.

Now that we’ve got the sixth string (low E) in tune, let’s move onto tuning all the rest of the strings on our guitar.

Step 2 – Tune the Fifth String based off your Sixth String’s A Note

The next step is to play the sixth string’s A note, which is on the fifth fret. We do this because once the 6^th string is in tune, the rest of the strings can be tuned based off that string.

Remember the six open strings are name E A D G B and E. The low E string’s frets can be counted until you arrive at note A with your fifth fret. If you can figure this out, it can act as a guide pitch to tune the fifth string to match the sixth string’s A note.

Now that the fifth string has been tuned, it can be taken for note A on the fifth fret and you can assume it is tuned. The fifth string is now an A and can be compared to see if it resonates the same sound as the A note played by the sixth string. Using this technique, you can continue to tune the rest of the strings.

Step 3 – Tune the Forth String based off your Fifth String’s D Note

Next strum the fifth fret of the Fifth string to compare and tune D (which is the fourth string) until they resonate the same sound.

Step 4 – Tune the Third String based off your Forth String’s G Note

Now, strum the Third string known as G and tune it to sound just like the G note of your Forth string (fifth fret).

Step 5 – Tune the Second String based off your Third String’s B Note

Now, strum the Second string known as B and tune it to sound just like the B note of your Third string (forth fret).

Step 6 – Tune the First String based off your Second String’s E Note

The final step is to tune your first string (high E) to mix in identically. String the first string known as high E and tune it to sound just like the E note of your Second string (fifth fret).

Once this is done, compare it to an MP3, or a guitar that has been fully tuned. Make adjustments as required.

Tips for Proper Tuning – How to Tune a Guitar By Ear Tips

In the beginning, many new guitar players have difficulty with guitar tuning. You must have a good ear for hearing pitches in order to master how to tune a guitar by ear properly. This will take patience as well as practice. It may not be easy to differentiate between higher and lower sounds but there is a way around this.

You can hum the note at the same time you are playing it.  Keep playing the note to the point where the note matches your voice pitch.  Move onto the next notes doing the same thing. Then go back to the first one with no break in between and play the others the same way. Notice how your voice varied and if it went down or up.  If your voice went lower, this means the note on your string should be lower. The same thing applies if your voice went higher.  Higher means you need to tune the string to a higher note. Any variations should be adjustments you can make by tuning your guitar’s string tighteners.

It may sound silly at first, but it will help you hear the difference.  But if you practice and can do this in your mind, you’ll know the difference between notes without having to hum with the note.

These tips should now help you know how to tune a guitar, we hope you enjoyed reading them.  Don’t forget to tune it before you play it so you can play music that sounds a lot better.  Like they say, practice makes perfect

Let us know if you have questions or comments in the boxes below.

Free Guitar Books For You To Download & Keep

Hey folks,

Every month, I get asked thousands of questions on how to play guitar and what tips and tricks would be useful when starting your guitar playing journey.

Well, there’s so much stuff out there it’s hard to know what’s good and what’s just going to end up in the recycle bin.

I decided to make it easier and so I’ve trawled through the net and cherry picked the finest beginners guitar tips and resources myself, so you don’t have to!

Learn Guitar with Free Guitar Books

The best thing for you is that I’ve put put all this play guitar information into free guitar books (pdfs)

Whether you’re looking for free guitar books, free guitar software, reports, pdf’s – whatever it is, I’ve found some awesome stuff out there that cuts through all the cr*p and gets directly to the meaty stuff.

In fact these books don’t just contain links to other resources or websites, the books contain play guitar learning content design to get the beginner guitar player up and playing as fast as possible.

There’s 7  free guitar books in this series and as my gift to you, i want to give them away for absolutely nothing, zilch, zip, nada, nix!

The series of eBooks is called the “Guitar Secrets Series”, and are delivered to your email over about 7 days, so that you can learn a bit each day and practice lots to make the guitar learning fully sink in.

The books are also very well illustrated, and you can use this website to supplement your guitar playing education when your ready to learn more after going through each of the seven books.

This is what you’ll be getting in our free guitar books givaway!! Books on:

Download and Read Free Guitar Books

• Unleashing The Guitar Hero In You
• Guitar Basics
• Guitar Positioning and Tuning
• Different Ways To Tune Your Guitar
• Playing Notes & Chords
• Scales & Playing Your First Song
• Practicing

The guitar eBooks are are certainly not your usual junk you find on the Internet; these are very written and pictured books to help you learn guitar the easy way.

As you already know, with the guitar you can play any kind of music that suits your interest whether it is rock, country or jazz or any other style of music. You may be interested in
playing your favorite songs or maybe you are a budding songwriter and you would like to write your own songs. In any case, these books are the perfect reading guitar tutorials and information to get you started quickly and learn at your own pace.

How to Download Free Guitar Books Right Now?

All you’ve gotta do is click the Google +1 Button below to gain instant access to these books. And Remember, they’re yours to keep free of charge. Have Fun!!

Nice one!! Simply pop your name and your email in the form below, then click "Get Instant Access!"...  and the 7 free guitar books will be delivered straight to your inbox.

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