Regular Folks Playing Guitar: Build a major chord from the 5th string

It’s handy to be able to build chords from the 5th string! Let’s talk about C in the first position as an example.

When you make a C chord – usually this is the first way we learn how to play it- the notes that make up the chord, just using the 4 inside strings are C, E,G and C again. “CEG” spells C major because those are the 1st 3rd and 5th notes of the C scale. We can play those notes in combination in lots of places on the neck of the guitar and another way to do it allows the shape to be “portable” – that is, we can use the same chord shape anywhere up and down the neck.

Start with your first finger on the 3rd fret of the A string – That’s your C. now 2nd finger on the 5th fret of D gives you a G, the 5th note of the C scale. 3rd finger on the G string gives you a C again, and pinkie on the 5th fret of B gives you and […]

Regular Folks Playing Guitar: C scale in the first position

This is usually the first scale we learn because it’s easy to spell- no sharps or flats! And we can play it with open string notes. Follow the pdf carefully and remember to use the correct finger on the correct fret. First finger, first fret, second finger, second fret, third finger, third fret, fourth finger, fourth fret.

The video above shows not just one octave but all the C scale notes in the first position. You’ll notice that I name the notes in a few different ways- by their name, by their fret position and by their scale degree. You can also name the notes by their intervals! It is useful to think of scale notes in a few different ways. Believe it or not, all notes are related in some way and knowing a couple of different ways to think about them helps us understand the relationships better.

A downloadable chart of t

Regular Folks Playing Guitar: Parts of the guitar

There are a lot of variations on this!
Basically though: from the top to the bottom:

• the headstock is where one end of the strings terminate, wrapped around
• tuning pegs which are rotated by
• “tuners”. The headstock is attached to the
• neck and right where the strings pass over that spot is the
• nut– usually a white piece of material with notches that the strings fit in. The neck is attached to the
• body and that lovely curve where it flares out at the bottom is called the
• heel. On the front of the neck is a
• fingerboard and that is divided into
• frets which are separated by
• fret wires. On the face of the fingerboard and the side of the neck are
• fret markers– visual cues to orient the guitarist’s hand position. On the front of the body of the guitar is the
• soundboard (or topboard). That has a big opening called a
• sound hole that the strings pass over. Past the soundhole, the strings […]
  

Tuning Your Guitar: first things first

There are plenty of ways to tune your guitar but most guitar players start with what is called “standard” tuning. That means the strings are tuned from the 6th or fattest string to the 1st or skinniest string with the notes like this:

E (6). A(5). D(4). G(3). B(2). E(1)

One magical thing about guitar standard tuning is the way the strings relate to one another, being a 4th apart (except for the B2 string). That means once we know the string names it is super easy to know all the notes at the 5th fret on each string.

Back in the day, guitarists would use that string relationship to tune their guitar… with an actual tuning fork, if you can believe that, tuned to an A. Once that string was tuned, the other strings would be tuned from it. Happily for us, we have technology now and can use a digital tuner for that. Here’s a video on using a clip on snark tuner (my preferred tuner and method)

Sting: “If you play music with passion and love and honesty, then it will nourish your soul, heal your wounds and make your life worth living. Music is its own reward.”

Next” some common […]

What are the first 10 things I should learn on guitar?

If you’re interested in playing songs on guitar while you accompany yourself singing, here are the first things that come to mind. In this scenario your voice is singing the melody and lyrics of course and your guitar provides the rhythm.

An alternate- and somewhat more challenging- way to do this is to let the guitar “sing” for you and we’ll be looking at that downstream a little way. For now though:

1. C Major scale, first position.
   Everything you need is right there and it’s easy to spell.
2. C Major scale on the the A string,
   ditto- and you can start to see how the neck works (incidentally you’ve just played “Joy to the World” backward so that’s a bonus).
   Joy to the world tablature and notation
3. Hand-friendly C chord (the 1 chord for key of C)
   You’ve heard of 1, 4 and 5 chords; a ton of folk, rock, country and bluegrass tunes use these chords, and the C is a great place to start. Use your 3rd finger on the 3rd fret of A, 2nd finger on the 2nd fret […]

Some common Musical terms for guitar players

One of the things David Newsam at the Berklee school taught me was the advantage of having some common way to describe your musical ideas. When you’re talking to another musician, it saves a lot of time and frustration if you’re speaking the same language! Some of the ideas we’ll be starting out with and some simple definitions:

• Arpeggio: the notes of a chord played ascending or descending.
• Interval: The distance in pitch between two tones. Intervals are labeled by numerical value (degree) which indicates the number of pitches they include, their order in the octave and the name of their note. So, first degree C, a whole step from second degree D and so on.
• Muting: A common technique in guitar playing. “Muting” a guitar means stopping the strings from vibrating. We can mute with either the left or right hand. With the fretting hand, lift the fingers slightly so that the string stops contacting the fret wire. With the strumming hand. Lay the hand across the strings.
• Motifs: A motif is a short musical idea that occurs often in a piece of music. A short melodic idea may also be called a […]