In this beginner guitar lesson we learn power chords. Power chords are the most common chord your will find in most punk rock and rock music.
Power chords are a finger shape you can move around the guitar neck, so you learn one pattern, and you can play a power chord for any note on the guitar neck. To learn all the power chords you really only have to learn one power chord shape.
The most basic power chords on guitar use 2 notes, but the more common 3 note version is just as easy to play.
You can play the three note power chord with three fingers
This lesson is the first guitar lesson you should watch. You will learn to play some basic chords and notes, and how to pick or strum.
We will learn some basic guitar strumming patterns, talk about switching guitar chords, play some single notes, and just go over the absolute basics of playing guitar.
Here are the chord charts for the basic chords from the video:
When you practice switching chords on guitar, just take your time. It will get easy over time, and you will get faster at guitar by practicing slow.
Here are the alternate A major chords I discuss in this guitar lesson:
Mel Bay A chord
Bar A chord
Cheater A chord
Birdsnake A chord
I suggest learning the first shape, which I call the Mel Bay A chord because it was in the standard Mel Bay guitar books (https://amzn.to/2W8bCoz). This way your hands and brain can get used to your fingers fitting into the space of the guitar. Over time you should transition to the bar version or the 234 version which I labeled “Birdsnake A chord” above.
The cheater version of the A chord is just that, a cheat. As you develop as a guitar player there is not time or place where your fingers will be in that order across one fret, so it’s a bad habit to start.
Guitar chord charts, or chord diagrams are simple visual representations of how to play a chord on the guitar neck. Chord diagrams can show finger placement on the guitar neck, musical intervals, music notes, or even fingers and notes.
The most basic type of guitar chord charts will show where to put your fingers on the guitar, which strings to play open, and which guitar strings to skip.
Some chord charts will show an X at the top of the chart for strings that you are supposed to skip, while other charts will just have a blank spot which also means to skip that string.
The O above a string means to play it open, and the dots with numbers represent which finger to use, and where to place it. 1 is pointer, 2 is middle, 3 is ring, 4 is little finger, and if you see a T then you wrap your thumb around the top of the neck.
If there is no X you still skip
O means play the string open
X means skip those strings
If a chart doesn’t start with the open strings there will always be a number next to it so that you can tell which fret the chord starts at. Here is a C major bar chord where your index finger bars across the 8th fret. Notice the number 8 next to the chart
Guitar Chord Charts Showing Intervals or Notes
Other guitar chord diagrams will show you the musical intervals of a chord. Sometimes the intervals will be on the dots and other times they will be below the diagram. Another common type of guitar chord chart will show the notes within a chord.
Interval names on the dots. Root, seventh, third, and fifth intervals are shown
Finger positions on the chart with interval names below the chart
A guitar chart showing note names
The Occasional Random X in Guitar Charts
Every once in a while you will come across a guitar diagram that has an X on the neck. This simply means to block that string with one of your fingers. This type of chord chart isn’t typical but you will see one occasionally.
Understanding Ted Greene Chord Charts
Ted Greene was a guitar genius and he came up with his own way to show melodies within a chord diagram. The dots are where your fingers start, and the the X, square, and triangle represent what notes you play next. If you ever see an O it is an optional note, and it’s also important to keep holding as much of the chord as you can.
In this beginner guitar lesson, you will learn how to read guitar tab. Guitar tab, or tablature, or as some people say, guitar tabs, are a simple system for writing music for guitar.
Guitar tab is a series of lines that represent the guitar strings, and the there are numbers that represent which fret to press. The bottom line on tab represents the big E string on your guitar.
There are a collection of symbols in tab that represent different guitar techniques such as muting, bending, sliding, hammer ons, pull offs, tapping, and harmonics.
When the numbers are in a series you play the notes one at a time, and when the numbers are stacked you play them all togther:
Guitar Tab Symbols for Bending Strings
Bends in guitar tab are represented by arrows. They will sometimes have a note at the top to show how much you are supposed to bend a string. 1/2 means to bend the note up one tone, and 1 1/2 means to bend the note up 3 tones. If there is nothing at the top then it is a whole step bend which is 2 tones. Some bends require you to pre-bend a note before you pick. Pre bends in guitar tab have an arrow going straight up before another arrow coming back down.
Wholes step bend1/2 step bend 1 1/2 step bendpre bend in guitar tab
Guitar Tab Symbols for Muting Strings
If you see XXXX in your guitar tab it means to mute the strings with your fretting hand, and if you see PM or Palm Mute at the top then it means to palm mute the strings with the palm of your picking hand.
mute with your picking handpalm mute
Guitar Tab Symbols for Slide, Hammer On and Pull Off
The hammer on and pull off symbol in guitar tab looks like a note tie from sheet music, and the slide symbol is an angled line. Hammering on is where you fret a note with one finger and the “hammer on” another finger. Pulling off in guitar is when you fret a note, pick it, and then pull off to sound another note with a different finger.
Tab symbols for hammer on, pull off, slide up, and slide down
The Tapping Symbol in Guitar Tab
In guitar tabs the symbol for tapping is normally a “T” above the note, and in oldschool text tab it was like “——-T5——” to tap on the 5th fret. Tapping in guitar is when you use a finger from the picking hand to tap a note.
tapping in guitar tab
Harmonics in guitar tab will normally say “harmonic”, ‘NH” for natural harmonic, or “PH” for pinch harmonics.
harmonics in guitar tab
The vibrato symbol in guitar tab is a squiggly line next to a note or above the lines
Vibrato in guitar tab
Here are the example blues licks and open chords from the video
blues lick example guitar tabE minor to C major example guitar tab
In this lesson you will learn to tune your guitar with a tuner and I will also give you some methods to tune a guitar without a tuner. Tuning your guitar is one of the most important guitar lessons you will ever have. Your guitar has to be in tune for anything to sound right, so while you are learning to play guitar you need to be in tune.
When you are tuning your guitar with a tuner, basically you just have to align the “needle” line with the center of the tuner for each string.
One important thing to know is that if your guitar string is sharp you need to loosen it until it is flat, and then tune back up to pitch.
If you don’t have a tuner you can use tune with the 5th fret. The 5th fret of the E string will be the same note as the open A string, so you can tune the A string to the 5th fret of the E string on your guitar. The same thing works for the A and D string, as well as the D and G string. When you get to the G and B strings, you have to use the 4th fret on the G string to tune the B string. When you are at the B and little E string you use the 5th fret again.
Tuning your guitar with the 5th Fret:
You can also use octaves to check that the notes sound in tune:
Another way I tune my guitar without a tuner is to tune to an open chord. A regular E major chord is a good reference for hearing whether or not your guitar is in tune.
