beginners guitar lessons

Learning to play a new instrument is daunting as well as challenging. Playing the guitar is no exception. The beginner’s guitar lessons will entail getting the feel of the instrument, knowing its parts and learning to tune it.

The guitar is essentially divided into 3 main parts, the body, the neck and the headstock. The body in which the bridge and pick-ups are located is connected to the neck. The bridge is the portion where all the strings meet and the pickup is essentially a magnet covered with wires. When the strings are picked, the sounds produce an impulse that is amplified. Tuning pegs are located on the headstock. Vertical wires called frets sit on the neck. A tremolo bar situated on the bridge helps to change the pitch.

There are in total 6 strings on the guitar. The first and thickest string is the E string. Then A, D, G, B, and E string again. You need to memorize the order. Remember it by remembering this phrase. “Easy and difficult, Go by easy”. Whenever you want to play a note, press the finger between the frets and using a guitar pick, strike the string.  The round dots, which are present on the guitar neck, represent the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 17th frets and so on. While playing, these positions act as guides.

Before you learn to play songs, you need to be able to play notes and chords. Commencing with the 6th string, play notes upto the 4th fret. Repeat this procedure all the way upto the 1st string. Now come the chords. This involves using the guitar pick to strike more than one note (minimum of 2) at the same time. The most common and easiest of chords are the G, C, and D chord (often called major chords). Playing these chords require the use of more than one finger, so keep practicing until you can play them without looking at any diagram. You must know which finger goes where, and what strings strum and what do not. Try switching chords and practice regularly. Do not let sore fingers bother you. Once you feel free about playing these chords, play songs that contain only these chords. Then commence learning the minor chords E, A, and D minor. The major chords are used for happy notes while the minor chords are usually used for the sad notes. Now you need to tune your guitar. Tune it with reference to either a piano or a keyboard. Once you tune any one string, say the top string tuned to an E, tuning the rest is easy.

You are more or less set to start playing some nice easy songs. Remember practice makes perfect. Regular practice with a never say die attitude will make you a pretty good guitarist. ~ copyright data 2004 Indianchild.com. Editor Mini Swami.