Peter Edvinsson asked:




In this guitar lesson you will see that you can easily learn to play melodies on your guitar with tab notation! I will show you how to read tablature and also how to play the Christmas song Silent Night.

First we will take a look at a guitar tablature staff:

1. —————-

2. —————-

3. —————-

4. —————-

5. —————-

6. —————-

In this tab staff we have six lines that represent the six strings on your guitar. The top line represents the first string. That is the thinnest string or the string with the highest pitch. It is called E.

When you look at a guitar tablature staff you will find numbers on it. These numbers tell you which frets to press down. Let’s look at an example:

1. ———–

2. —1—0—

3. ———–

4. ———–

5. ———–

6. ———–

The number one on the second line tells you to press down a finger on the first fret on the second string and play the note. This note is a C. The number O represents an open string. This means that you should play the second string without pressing down a finger. The note is called B.

Now it’s time to play the first part of the melody with lyrics and corresponding guitar tab notation. We will play the song in the key of C-major:

Silent Night, silent night

1. ————————————–

2. ————————————–

3. —0—2—0———-0—2—0——-

4. —————2——————2—

5. ————————————–

6. ————————————–

If you want to use a professional approach for your left hand fingerings you can use your index finger to press down the first fret, the middle finger for the second fret and your ring finger for the third fret.

Time for the next guitar tabs:

All is calm, all is bright

1. —————————

2. —3—3—0—1—1——-

3. ———————–0—

4. —————————

5. —————————

6. —————————

The left hand fingerings I mentioned might be a little bit tricky when you first try it but if you are patient you will soon reap the benefits from this way of playing.

It will be easier to keep your left hand from moving too much which will make it much easier to play advanced melodies on your guitar and you will not have to look at the fretboard all the time to find your way around as your left hand fingers will take care of the assigned frets.

Here are the next part:

Round yon virgin Mother and Child

1. —————————————

2. ———–1—0———————–

3. —2—2———–2—0—2—0——-

4. ———————————–2—

5. —————————————

6. —————————————

The melody is repeated with the next lyrics:

Holy infant so tender and mild

1. —————————————

2. ———–1—0———————–

3. —2—2———–2—0—2—0——-

4. ———————————–2—

5. —————————————

6. —————————————

We have not taken the length of the notes into account in this guitar tablature notation. If you sing or hum the melody you will probably find out how to play the notes.

Here are the next line:

Sleep in heavenly peace

1. ———–1—————0—

2. —3—3——-3—0—1——-

3. ——————————-

4. ——————————-

5. ——————————-

6. ——————————-

…and the last tab:

Sleep in heavenly peace

1. ——————————-

2. —1—————————

3. ——-0——-0—————

4. ———–2——-3—0——-

5. —————————3—

6. ——————————-

Now you have learned to play guitar tablature and also one of the most popular Christmas songs! I would suggest that you practice one line at a time learning it by heart until you master the whole song.

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Peter Edvinsson asked:




Today you will learn to play the popular song Happy Birthday To You on your guitar. You do not need to know sheet music as you will use guitar tablature that is very easy to learn!

As I mentioned you will not need to read sheet music notation but we will use another common way to notate music on the guitar.

Here you have an example of a guitar tablature staff:

1. —————-

2. —————-

3. —————-

The numbered lines represent the first three strings on your guitar. The first string is the string with the highest pitch and it is named E.

Actually a guitar tab staff normally has six lines for the six strings on the guitar but we will only use the three first strings to play this melody.

When you use a guitar tablature staff you will find numbers that tell you which frets to press down with your left hand in order to play a melody. Take a look at the following guitar tab staff:

1. ——-0—

2. —1——-

3. ———–

The number one on the second line means, press down the first fret on the second string and play the note with your right hand.

The next note on the first line represented with a zero means, play the first string with you right hand without pressing down a fret. This is called to play the open first string.

Time for Happy Birthday!

Here is the first line of lyrics and the melody written with guitar tab notation:

Happy birthday to you

1. —————————

2. ——————-1—0—

3. —0—0—2—0———–

What about your left hand fingers?

Some guitar beginners play melodies with only the left hand index but I suggest the following:

Assign your index finger to play the notes on the first fret, your middle finger the second fret and your third finger the notes on the third fret.

Place your left hand thumb on the back of the guitar neck for support.

Time to continue with the melody:

Happy birthday to you

1. —————————

2. ——————-1—0—

3. —0—0—2—0———–

It might be a little tricky to use the before mentioned fingerings for your left hand but be patient! You will reap the benefits from playing this way soon. When you keep your left hand in the same position and instead use your fingers to do the work it will be much easier to find your way around.

You will not have to look at the guitar fretboard all the time in order to find the notes to play as your fingers with their assigned frets to play will help you find your way around.

Here is the next guitar tab:

Happy birthday dear Liza (or somebody else of course, maybe you..)

1. ———–3—0—————

2. ——————-1—0——-

3. —0—0——————-2—

What about your right hand. How to play?

There are many ways to play the strings but the easiest way might be to just use your thumb!

Here is the final guitar tabs:

1. —1—1—0—————

2. —————1—3—1—

3. —————————

Now you have completed the song. Time for celebration:

Congratulations!

I suggest that you learn the song by heart, one line at a time. It is a nice feeling to be able to pick up a guitar laying around and be able to play a very, very popular song!

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Wayne Hairston asked:




In order for you to learn how to play the acoustic guitar cords you must learn the cords and notes to be played. Even though there are a lot of cords and notes if you learn the basic then you will be able to pick up on many different songs and different types of music that is being played today.

A diagram is something in which the cords are noted. The guitar tabs and the acoustic guitar chords are very much a like except for the lines showing on each string runs up and down. Grids are located on the chord diagram. The strings are represented by the vertical lines and the frets are represented by the horizontal lines. There are dots on the guitar which tells you where to hold the guitar strings. Also there are numbers that tells you which finger to use.

The G-major chord is the first chord we will talk about. This is the way you play this chord, put your middle finger on the sixth string on the third fret, place your index finger on the fifth string on the second fret, now place your ring finger on the first string on the third fret. You want to be sure that the note sounds clear. If for some reason it does not sound clear try holding the string a little harder and move your finger closer to the fret. Try not to let your fingers touch each other or any other strings. When you strum the strings you will have a G-major chord.

Now try the E-minor. It is much easier on your fingers than the G-major. Place your index finger on the fifth string and on the second fret,put your middle finger on the forth string and on the second fret. Remember do not let your fingers touch each other. Once you strum the E-minor chord you will notice a darker sound than the G-major chord.

There are some other acoustic guitar chords for you to learn as well. They are A-major, A-minor, C-major, and D-major.

In order for you to learn how to play back and forth you must practice on your acoustic guitar chords daily. So make sure you set a side some time for practicing. It will take you some time to learn this, but you must learn to move your fingers quickly. As you practice more and more you will notice that you are building up your finger muscles and without thinking your fingers will move into place on their own.

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Ricky Sharples asked:




In the beginning the electric guitar was just an instrument used to give the guitar player in a band the chance to be heard. Then along came fifties guitar player, Link Wray who pioneered the use of overdriven sound and distortion. He also introduced rock and roll guitar players to the power chord. Thanks to Link Wray guitar players are now enabled to kick ****.

Power chords make your guitar playing interesting. And the really great thing about power chords for beginner guitar players is that they only use two or three strings. You can move them around the fretboard at high speed and you can make use of them to back major or minor keys.

A power chord is a chord containing your root note and the fifth above it. To demonstrate the basic structure of power chords put your first finger on the third fret of the sixth string and your middle finger on the fifth string at the fifth fret. So with this example your root note is G and the fifth is, of course, D.

If you want to add more texture you can add the third to the chord plus, or instead of, the octave above your root note. Once you get the hang of power chords you can add and take away the fifths, thirds and octaves according to your whim.

Practicing power chords can give you some less tiring practice on bar chords but don’t decide to go ahead and play ONLY power chords. That would be silly. You need to be constantly on the lookout for ways to vary your playing to make your audience sit up and take notice. Playing nothing but power chords would get boring after a while – for you and your audience.

If you want to get the feel of power chords, get hold of a copy of “You Really Got Me” by The Kinks. This was the very first song that was actually composed around power chords and if it wasn’t for this song there might not have been heavy metal guitar playing.

There are charts showing power chords that you can download for free on the net but it is best to just keep in mind “root, fifth, octave” and do your own discovery of how to play power chords.

An interesting variation on playing power chords is the use of chords that consist of two strings played at the same fret. You can try this by barring the first two strings and sliding it up and down the fretboard or making your bar and using the third finger of your left hand to play a tune while the second string provides the harmony or discord, depending on your point of view.



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Rajinderpal Singh asked:




Have you ever wondered if there’s some ‘secret underground trick’ to learning how to play guitar? Well, there IS a secret — but it’s one that ‘hides in plain sight.’

If you want to move beyond the basics and truly master your guitar, there are two things you absolutely must do:

1. Memorize the fretboard.

2. Develop a solid understanding of the relationship between scales, modes and chords.

The reason for memorizing the fretboard should be obvious. Knowing where all the notes are will make you a faster, more intuitive player. The reasons (there are many) behind learning the relationship between scales, modes and chords require a little more explanation.

The first thing to understand is that chords are constructed from scales.

Let’s say you want to know which notes make up the G-major chord You’d first need to know is that Major chords are built from the root, third and fifth tones of their corresponding Major scale. Then, you’d need to know the G Major scale, which is: G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G.

If you count up from G to the 3rd note you arrive at B. If you count up from G to the 5th note you have D. Play these notes together as G B D, and you have a G Major chord!

The second to understand is that scales (and,therefore, chords) can begin on any note within the key

Here’s where modes and chord inversions (‘voicings’) come in. Let’s say that you decide to play that G Major chord at the 7th fret on the first three strings of the guitar. If you strum the chord from the inside out, you will play DGB. In other words, your ‘root’ is no longer the bottom/first note of the chord. This is what’s known as an inversion.

Now, let’s say you are playing a song in G Major, and you decide to play the scale starting from a root other than G. For instance, you might begin playing the scale at D. Is this a ‘new’ scale or just the same scale from a different position? It’s actually both!

A G Major scale played from any point while in the key of G is considered “Ionian Mode”. It will always sound ‘Major’.

However, if you play the G Major scale pattern from D while you’re in a different key, you’ll be in one of the following, alternative modes: Aeolian, Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolydian, or Locrian.

These modes will sound something other than ‘Major’. The Aeolian mode, for example, is actually considered the Minor scale (Ionian = Major scale for all keys, and Aeolian = Minor scale for all keys).

The other modes fall in between, creating interesting harmonizations and are often used in Jazz music for soloing over the more complex, dissonant-feeling chords such as the Major and Minor 7ths and 9ths.

When you learn these relationships, you’ll start to notice something akin to an ‘interlocking’ pattern on your fretboard. For example, when you know all of the inversions for a given chord, then you’ll also know that beginning a scale on the root of that inversion can lead you into whichever modal scale you want to play over the current key.

The more relationships you see and understand, the more your fretboard reveals it’s self to you for creative soloing and songwriting. The end result is learning and mastering your guitar faster than you ever imagined!



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John Cvetkovic asked:




A guitar tab is a system which uses different symbols and alphabets that show how you can play a series of notes. There are online guitar chords lessons with videos as well. Here, there are six horizontal lines that denote the strings of the guitar starting from top to the bottom whereas the number denotes the fret that is the vertical division of the neck of the guitar. This number tells you whom fret you should press the string. You read these guitar tabs from the left to the right. To learn the beginner guitar chords and tabs you must first learn a few symbols to start with. H means hammer on, pull of is denoted by p, b represents the bending and the r indicated the release bending. Tap is indicated by t and the v represents the vibrato. See the following examples to learn the beginner guitar chords and tabs.

First let us start with the basics of guitar learning. See the following example:

E —————-

B —————-

G —————-

D —————-

A ——–0—2–

E 0—3———-

This tab is showing the first 4 notes that belong to the pentatonic E scale. To play this beginner guitar tab you will have to pick the open low E string, and then pick again after you have fret the 3rd fret. Then you must move to the string A and again pick the open string, and then again pick after you fret at the second fret. But in the online guitar chords lessons you can not exactly find out how long you should play each of the note and therefore the printed tabs even for the beginner guitar chords and tabs are easier and more exact than the online guitar chords.

All this will confuse you in the starting but if you do not give up and continue to practice then you will be a champ soon.

E—5————1st string

E———7——6th string

D————7—5th string

The above example tells you that you have to press 5th string on the 7th fret and the 6th string on the 7th fret and the 1st string on the 5th fret. These should be pressed as in the order of succession. If the numbers are placed one above the other then you have to play the notes simultaneously.

Now to understand the basics of the beginner guitar chords and tabs you must understand how the alphabets are used to denote different techniques of playing. Even the online guitar chords lessons use the same denotations.

E —————————————- (1st String)

B —————————————- (2nd String)

G —–5h7p5————5—-7/97——- (3rd String)

D —————7———————— (4th String)

A —————————————- (5th String)

E —————————————- (6th String)

To play this the first thing that you should notice is that there is an h beside 5, a p beside 7. Then you should recollect what these alphabets mean. As you will realize that h means to hammer and p means to pull off. So what you will have to do here is to first hit the 3rd string on the 5th fret and then hammer the 7th fret and then again reach back for the 5th fret but with a pull action and this time it should be without hitting the string this time. Now you must 4th string on the fret 7. All the above details can be had from the online guitar chords site as well. After that you must hit the 3rd string on the fret 5. All this sounds confusing but with practice you will soon learn to master it and you will be able to play all the guitar chords.



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Peter Edvinsson asked:




Guitar tablature is a great help for beginners to learn melodies. In this guitar lesson you will learn to read tab staff notation. We will use the popular song Yesterday as an example.

First, let us take a look at a guitar tablature staff:

——————————–

——————————–

——————————–

——————————–

——————————–

——————————–

These six lines is a visualization of the six strings on your guitar. The top line represents the first string on your guitar. It is the string with the highest pitch. On these lines you will find numbers telling you which frets to press down to play a melody, chord or something else.

Here is an example:

——-0————————-

—1—————————–

——————————–

——————————–

——————————–

——————————–

The number 1 on the second line tells you to press down the first fret on the second string. The number 0 on the first line means that you play the first string without pressing down a fret. This is also called to play an open string.

Now it is time to try to play the first notes of Yesterday by Beatles with the help of guitar tabs. I will show you the first line of lyrics and below the corresponding melody written with guitar tab notation.

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away

—————————————————

——————————-0—1—0———–

———————–1—2—————2—2—

—0———–2—4——————————-

——-3—3—————————————

—————————————————-

A great way to play this melody is to assign your left hand fingers to play the specific frets in this manner:

First fret: index

Second fret: middle finger

Third fret: ring finger

Fourth fret: pinkie

This will make it easier to minimize your left hand movements and also help you find your way around easier on the guitar fretboard. Yes, I know it is a bit tricky at first but have patience!

Now it looks as though they’re here to stay

—————————————-

—————————————-

—2—2—0—————————-

—————3—2—0—3—2—2—

—————————————-

—————————————-

Oh, I believe in yesterday

————————————

————————————

————————————

—0——-2—0———–2—2—

——-3———–0—3———–

———————————–

Now we have tried the first verse. The second verse have the same melody so we will jump right into the bridge:

Why she had to go I don’t know, she wouldn’t say

—————————————————-

—————0—1—0——-0——————-

———–2—————2——-2—0—2——-

—2—2—————————————3—

—————————————————

—————————————————

I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday

—————————————————————-

—————0—1—0——-0———–0—1—————

———–2—————2——-2—0———–0———–

—2—2———————————————–3—2—

—————————————————————-

—————————————————————-

After this you can complete the melody by playing the verse again. If you want to play more melodies by Beatles you can buy books on the net with sheet music notation and guitar tablature.

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