In this video I discuss the very basic concepts of reading music for guitar. In my opinion everyone needs to be able to read at least enough to learn from a book but I also recognize that music notation can be a roadblock for many guitarists.
Melody and Harmony on Guitar
In this lesson on basic music theory we learn about melody and harmony. We talk about triads and arpeggios on guitar and we also learn what chords are.
The overall idea here is that melody is when notes are played in a sequence and harmony is when notes sound together.
What is Music Theory?
In this video we discuss what music theory means for guitar and get a basic overview of why it’s important. We take a basic chord progression and look at how it comes from a scale. We also discuss melody vs harmony on the guitar.
Start Learning Guitar Today – Beginners Start Here
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.
Just for fun, here’s the 0-3-5 tab
Other Beginner Guitar Lessons:
- Beginner Guitar Lesson 2 – Basic Guitar Chords D, Em, and Am – More Strumming Patterns and the C Major Scale
- Power Chords for Guitar! The Secret to Punk and Most Rock Guitar
- Start Learning Guitar Today – Beginners Start Here
- How to Read Guitar Chord Charts and Diagrams
- How to Read Guitar Tab
- How to Tune Your Guitar With a Tuner or Without a Tuner
- Learning The Notes of the Guitar Neck
- What are Notes on Guitar?
- Parts of the Electric Guitar
- The Parts of an Acoustic Guitar
The Parts of an Acoustic Guitar
In this lesson we discuss the parts of an acoustic guitar. When you are starting out it’s good to learn what everything is called so that you can talk about your guitar with other guitar players or know what to search for if you want to look something up online.
From top to bottom, we have the headstock. This is where your guitar’s logo will be, and this is where the strings connect to the tuners.
The tuners are how you add or release tension to your strings when you tune your guitar.
The guitar nut has slots to keep the strings in place, and it also determines the height of the strings at the top end of the neck.
The neck has a metal rod inside of it called a truss rod and the top part of the neck where the frets are at is called the fingerboard. The thicker part of the neck that connects to the body is called the heel.
The body has a back, sides, and a top or soundboard. The soundboard of an acoustic guitar determines the tone. The soundhole projects the sound outward, and the decorative circle around it is called the rosette.
The bridge on your acoustic guitar is where the strings connect to the body. They are held in with bridge pins and the go across the saddle, which determines string height at the body end of the guitar.
There is bracing on the inside to add stability and there is usually a strap button at the bottom end of the acoustic guitar’s body.