Getting Good at Guitar

Transcription

1 Getting Good at Guitar a guitarguy.com guide by James Kibler 2014 by guitarguy.com, llc. All rights reserved.

2 The guitarguy.com philosophy of learning guitar I am not the world s greatest guitar player. I am not even the best guitarist that I play with regularly. That said, I play every day and enjoy every minute of it. I have played in bands and performed solo in front of crowds. Playing guitar has gotten me through some tough times, and I ve accomplished basically every goal I ve had playing (I mean except for rocking an arena, but realistically sometimes your goals at 13 aren t the same as your goals later on in life ) You don t need to be a great guitarist to play in a band, to jam with friends or strangers, to enjoy a lifelong hobby that can verge on a way of life for some people. No website or book can make you a great guitarist, I don t care how many thousands of videos they post. This book and the lessons on guitarguy.com are here to give you the skills you need to get playing and sounding good as quickly as possible. Where you take it from there is up to you. I will teach you a basic set of things you need to know to continue to grow and learn as a guitarist throughout your life. Instead of just teaching songs, I will teach how to learn songs. Learning songs is a skill, and knowing that skill makes playing guitar much more fun. The more fun you have playing, the more you ll do it and the better you ll get. Expression, not perfection Perfectionism can be fatal to your guitar career. If your idea of enjoying playing guitar requires you to perfectly reproduce a studio version of a song, you should put down this book and go become a classical musician immediately. No modern form of music performed live today requires or expects perfect reproductions of songs. Listen to any solo played live in any genre rock, blues, country, metal, really anything with a guitar the live solos almost never sound like the studio solos. Even the riffs are often different and imperfect in live performances. That s because modern guitar is mostly about expression, not perfection. Don t get me wrong. You need to have certain skills down. Poor rhythm, sloppy picking or too many missed notes can ruin a performance. Nailing a solo perfectly is a great feeling. But at the same time, no one notices a single missed note, and they happen to everyone. So don t get discouraged if you don t pick something up perfectly right away. And please don t waste hours, particularly as you are starting out, trying to perfect a studio version of Stairway to Heaven or Sweet Child o Mine. Learn to make a song sound good, to make it yours, to make it something that your audience (whoever that is) will enjoy hearing, and move on. How much theory is enough? When I first picked up a guitar with the idea of learning to play I was 13 years old. I idolized Slash of Guns n Roses. I wanted to learn to play like he played. I read an article in Circus magazine, where my hero said something along the lines of I only took a couple of lessons we were working on stuff like Green River, and I got bored and I quit. I read that to mean that I didn t need to take any lessons. If Slash didn t need lessons and sounded this good, why should I take them? What I failed to realize is that there is a HUGE difference between taking a few lessons and not taking any lessons at all. I went on to waste years, literally years, because I didn t have the background I could 1

3 have gained in the content of about 6 or 8 lessons. It took me a decade to get as good as I would have in a year or two if I had focused on the right things. This book is about giving you the good habits and understanding of what you are doing so that you don t waste your time practicing or learning the wrong things. Most people start by learning little riffs here and parts of solos there, agonizing for hours over Youtube videos and semi legitimate online tabs, when they could master a few fundamentals and learn to pick up songs quickly and with much less effort. Don t waste your time. Learn to learn efficiently and the guitar becomes much more fun much faster. This book focuses on fundamentals. No tricks, but just enough music theory that you know what you are doing. It is about the same in terms of content as 8 12 guitar lessons. Format The lessons in this book are come in two sections. The first, Getting Started is for the very beginner. You just said to yourself that you are going to learn guitar, and you mean it. You have the guitar now what? If you ve been playing for a while, you can skip this section or maybe skim it to see if you need a refresher in anything. The second section is called Getting Good. This is where the magic happens. If you have been playing for a couple years but feel like you are stuck in a rut, this might be what unsticks you. This material is what will take you out of the realms of beginning guitar player and into being a real guitar player. Have fun! 2

4 Part I: Getting Started Essential You have a guitar you might think that is enough. That s where you d be wrong Depending on whether you are starting out on an electric or an acoustic guitar, the additional equipment that you will need to play guitar and enjoy it varies a bit. Sidebar: What kind of guitar should I play? When you are getting started, is there a particular kind of guitar you should play? Electric or acoustic? Steel strings or nylon? Gibson or Fender? The short answer is One you like playing. Here are some of the things you should be thinking about when choosing your first guitar. The first big choice you have is electric versus acoustic. There are a couple of things that should influence this choice. The first, in my opinion, is inspiration. What kind of music was it that inspired you to pick up the guitar? If it was folk, bluegrass, or classical, you should start on an acoustic guitar. If it was metal, pick up an electric. Rock or country could go either way. Think about specific artists that inspire you. Look at what they play, and let that guide you. Another consideration is building finger strength. I ve heard this both ways. Some say it is best to start with an electric, because the strings on acoustic guitars often have more tension, making them somewhat more difficult to play. While it is true that acoustics require more finger strength, building that strength is part of learning to play guitar. You can t get good without it. I have found that practicing on an acoustic makes you better, faster. And the better you play, the more fun the guitar is. Still, it is unlikely that you have the luxury at this point to go out and buy both an electric and an acoustic to start off. Go with what inspires you. Things you absolutely need to play acoustic guitar: 1) A tuning device 2) Something to clean the strings Things that are really good to have: 1) A case 2) A strap 3) A string winder 4) Picks 5) A Capo 6) Something to record yourself with 7) A stand 3

5 Tuning device It is possible to tune by ear. If you are good at it, a piano might be your tuning device, or you can tune to your friends instrument. For most people, though, including professionals, a tuner is a very handy thing to have. I recommend one of two things (given the existing technology in 2013). Either buy a Snark clip on tuner or get a free app on your smart phone. The Snark tuner is becoming standard for acoustic guitarists. The major advantage of the Snark is that it clips on to your headstock, picking up vibrations through the wood. This means that it ONLY picks up your guitar s sound, so you can use it in crowded, noisy environments like open mic nights and jams with other musicians. You may find other clip on tuners Snark is the only one I have used. If you already have a smartphone, get a free tuning app. These pick up your guitar s sound through the air, making them susceptible to interference from outside sounds. They will work fine if you are practicing in a relatively quiet place, but are not good for playing out. There are tons of these on the market pick one. String cleaner When I first started playing, nobody told me that I should clean my strings after each time I played the guitar. Being a 13 year old kid, I probably wouldn t have listened anyway. My strings would get this black, grimy patina after only a couple of weeks. If you need me to give you reasons why this isn t good, here are a couple: dirty strings sound dull, and you have to change your dirty strings much more often. Changing strings is a pain and gets expensive after a while. Clean strings can last months and still sound OK. Dirty strings start getting dull in only a week or two. Case If you are going to take your guitar anywhere, you will need either a case or a gig bag. Cases are generally hard sided and offer more protection. Gig bags are those things you might have seen cool looking guitar guy types carrying on the subway if you have been to a place with a subway. They are soft sided cases that are much easier to carry than hard cases, but don t give you as much protection from drops, spills, etc. You ll need one of the two if you plan to transport your guitar pretty much ever. Strap These are good if you want to play standing up. Like in a band. Or performing solo. Or picturing yourself doing one of those things. String Winder This is a device to help you change your strings more quickly. Usually they have a thing attached that will help you remove the pegs, if your guitar has pegs holding the strings in as many acoustics do. I butchered the pegs on my first guitar using pliers to pull out the pegs. A string winder tool is much better, and they usually run about $3. 4

6 Picks Different styles use different things to pluck the strings usually either a pick or your fingers. I suggest learning both. Picks also vary by style. They are cheap, so get some heavier, thicker picks and some thinner picks and some medium picks. Find what you like, and what fits your style. Capo I rarely use a capo. I probably should more often, but I don t. Capo s are really cool they let you change the key you are playing in. Have you ever heard a song, loved it, but sounded awful when you tried to sing it? There s a good chance that it is in the wrong key for you. With a capo you can move the song into a different key, meaning you can sing almost any song. Assuming you can sing. Recording equipment No need to get anything fancy at this point, but it is fun to be able to listen to what you sound like. It also helps you evaluate what you are doing well, and what you are doing poorly. This will help you learn faster. I use my smartphone all the time to record a song I just wrote or learned, or a riff that might turn into a song. Your laptop can also serve as a recording device, sometimes requiring an external mic. If you have neither, a cheap digital recorder will work. Like I said, recording can be fun, but expensive equipment is not critical when you are just starting out. Stand A stand is just nice to have. It is safer and looks better most of the time than leaning the guitar against the wall. It s more convenient than putting it back in its case every time. 5

7 Things you absolutely need to play electric guitar: 1) A tuning device 2) Something to clean the strings 3) An amp 4) A cord 5) A strap 6) Picks Things that are really good to have: 1) A case 2) A string winder 3) Something to record yourself with 4) Pedals 5) A stand Tuner A smartphone tuner does not work as well with an electric guitar that is not plugged in to an amp. The Snark still works. Alternatively, there are tuners that you plug your guitar into, using the same cord (see below) as you use to plug in to your amp. String Cleaner See the Acoustic section above. Amp You need one of these to really hear your electric guitar. You don t need to go all out in the beginning, but a 15Watt practice amp will really make your playing much more interesting for you (and much more annoying for anyone who lives with you). With an electric, it is OK to practice unplugged, but you have to plug in on a regular basis to see how you sound. Usually, it s not as good as you think based on what you sound like unplugged. That s because an amplifier amplifies your mistakes as well as your intended notes, as it will when you are playing in a band. You need to hear what you sound like. Cord This is what connects the guitar to the amp. Don t go too cheap because a poor quality cord can impact sound quality, but there is also no need to go top of the line at this point. When you book a paying gig you can get top of the line cabling. Strap More important than with an acoustic, because if you are playing out you will almost always be standing up. Playing standing up is different from playing sitting down, and you need to train your fingers how to find the right positions both sitting and standing. 6

8 Picks Again, arguably more important for an electric. Very few people play fingerstyle electric, although Derek Trucks does it beautifully. He also plays slide guitar often, which generally is played finger style. Still, most people playing electric use a pick. Case, String winder, Recording equipment and Stand See the acoustic section above. Pedals Now here is something completely different from what you see in the acoustic world. Pedals are electronic effects that you engage with your foot (like a pedal in a car) to turn on or adjust the effect. There are thousands of effects. Some people never use any effects, other guitar players seem to focus more on the effect pedals than the guitar itself. It s all about your personal style. If you are going to be playing rock or metal, you should definitely get a drive or distortion pedal. Although many amps come with built in distortion/overdrive effects, it is very helpful to be able to turn the effect on and off in the middle of a song without using your hands. You can research and see what types of pedals fit the type of music you play. For the lefties Like many things in life, most guitars are designed with right handers in mind. The general idea is that you will be picking or strumming with your dominant hand and fretting with your off hand. If you are left handed, most guitars will have you doing the opposite strumming with your off (right) hand and working the fretboard with your dominant (left) hand. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. It is mostly just tradition that puts the pick in the right hand. Try it, and try guitars that are set up for lefties, and see which one feels more natural for you. Jimi Hendrix famously played left handed and altered his right handed Strats to be picked with his dominant left hand. 7

9 Tuning the guitar, or I ve got the guitar, now what? You ve got your guitar, and all the accessories that go with it, and you are wondering what to do now. The first thing you will want to do, now and every single time you pick up a guitar, is make sure it is in tune. The easiest way to do that is with a tuner. In order to tune your guitar, you need to know the names of the strings (see the next section). Most tuners work this way: 1) You hit a string and the tuner displays a letter and something to indicate whether you are flat (below in pitch, often indicated with a ) or sharp (above in pitch, often indicated with a + ). The Snark shown at left is displaying an E that is in tune. 2) Notice the string that you played. Is the right letter displayed? If not, is the tone higher or lower than the string is supposed to be? 3) Use the tuning keys (those things at the end of the neck of your guitar that change the pitch when you turn them) to adjust the pitch, then hit the string again. It should be closer to the correct pitch at this point. 4) Repeat step 3 until the tuner shows that your string is making the right pitch. Soooo how do you know whether the on letter on the tuner is the right one for the string you have played? You need to know the names of the strings. 8

10 Standard Tuning and the Names of the Strings In just about all cases, your guitar should be in standard tuning at this point. (If you are learning slide guitar that is not necessarily the case, but if you are learning slide guitar you should know that by now.) Standard tuning just means the traditional way to tune a guitar. It goes like this: These letters represent the notes your strings should make if you play them without holding down any frets (see below). The top E is the top string and is the lowest tone, while the small e is the highest tone. So when you tune your lowest tone (the top string) you should see an E on your tuner. When you tune the second lowest tone, the second string from the top, you should see an A. And so on. You need to memorize these string names. An easy way to memorize them is through this popular mnemonic device: Ed Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Ed. The first letters of those words spell out E A D G B E. But what if you play the 4 th string from the top, and your tuner says F#? Then what? There are only 6 strings on the guitar, but there are 12 tones in the musical alphabet (what s that? don t worry about it, I ll tell you later). They are arranged in alphabetical order from A to G#. Within a scale, a B sounds higher than an A, a C sounds higher than a B, and so on. If you are tuning the 4 th string from the top (E A D G), and your tuner says F#, F is lower than G, so you need to make the pitch higher. Adjust the tuning key until the pitch is high enough that the tuner shows you a G. You will probably still be flat, and your tuner will continue to tell you so until you make the necessary adjustments. If you go too far, it will eventually tell you G# or A. If that happens, adjust the tuning peg to make the pitch lower. 9

11 Reading Tabs and Chord Diagrams Reading sheet music is NOT a necessity for learning how to play guitar. It is actually very rare that reading music will help you when playing guitar 1. Why? Because the vast majority of music you might want to play is available in tablature ( tab ) format. With that said, some of the tabs in this book will have traditional musical notation above them, because it can t hurt to see it. What are tabs? Tabs are a way of writing out music specifically for guitar. The logic is very straightforward the tab is basically a drawing of the guitar telling you what fret to play on what string. Here s how it works: e B G D A E The lines represent the strings of the guitar, with the highest pitch being the highest line on the tab. The tab above is pretty boring, as there is nothing on it. Here s one with some notes on it: e B G D A E 3 5 The lines still represent strings. The numbers on the lines tell you which fret to play. To play a particular fret, press down gently right behind the raised metal bar (fret) on the wooden fretboard, then use your finger or a pick (in your other hand, obviously) to pluck that string. The first fret is the fret farthest away from the body of the guitar. This tab is telling you to play the 3 rd fret on the low E string, then the 5 th fret on the low E string, then the 2 nd fret on the A string, and so on. Try it the series of notes should sound familiar. 1 It might help if you are transposing a song written for another instrument into guitar, but how often does that happen? In my experience, not often, but then that s me. 10

12 Fingers, frets, numbers, and names So that we all know what I am talking about when I say third finger or 8 th fret, here are some pictures: Notation for chords Chords are special combinations of notes played together because they sound good together. Most music written for guitar is based on chords. They are so important they have their own unique representation. It looks like this: This is the notation for a C chord. The lines still represent strings, but the angle is different. The strings run vertically, or up and down, rather than across. They are arranged in the order you see them on the guitar the farthest left vertical line is the low E, then A, D, G, B, and e. The lines running across represent the frets. The black dots represent your fingers. Sometimes you will see the dots replaced with numbers these numbers tell you which finger to use to play that fret. It is important to note that the top horizontal line is not the first fret it is the nut, or the piece of grooved material (usually plastic, graphite or bone) that routes your strings from the fretboard to the tuning keys. The second horizontal line is the first fret. The open circles are strings that you play in the chord without placing your finger on any fret on that string. This is called the open position. 11

13 If there is no dot or circle, you do not play that string. Since there is no dot or circle on the low E string, you can tell that in the C chord, you do not play the low E. Sometimes you will see a little x above a string that is not played in a chord. Not all strings are played in all chords. Learning Some Chords: G, C, and D Rock and country music are full of songs with only three chords. 12 bar blues is based on a three chord pattern. Three chords and the truth is all you need, some would say. One of the most common three chord patterns is G C D. The G Major Chord The G chord (its full name is G Major) is not the easiest chord to learn, but it is one of the most commonly used chords in guitar, and you need to learn it. There are several different ways to make this chord. I am going to show you the most basic first, then we ll look at alternatives later. Take your second finger and place only your fingertip on the second fret of the A string. Put it right above (farther from the body than) the fret. Now pluck the A string with your right hand. Press just hard enough so that you are getting a nice clean sound with no buzzing. Don t press harder than you have to, but make sure you press hard enough to get a clean sound. Keep plucking the string until you get it right. Now take your third finger and place it just above the third fret of the low E string. Press with just the fingertip. Now try the same exercise as you did with the A string. Pluck the E string until you are getting a nice clean sound. Once you have a good sound with the E string, try the A string again. Is your sound still clean? Are you damping the note with your third finger? Keep hitting the E and A strings until both sound clean at the same time. 12

14 Now comes the hard part: place your fourth finger (your pinky) on the third fret of the high e string. Play it repeatedly, applying only just enough pressure to get a clean sound. Finally, try each string, starting at the low E and ending at the high e. Since all 6 strings are played in a G, all 6 need to sound clean, unmuted, with no buzzing. When you have all 6 strings sounding pretty good, try strumming all six strings. It should sound good. It s not easy making chords. Everybody struggles with it to some extent. The key is learning good positioning early on, then practicing to develop muscle memory. The C Chord Most songs with a G chord also have a C chord in them. We re going to do the same drill with the C that we did with the G, placing 1 finger at a time and making sure that each note sounds out clearly. This is a good way to learn the hand position for a chord, and to check yourself in the future as you learn new chords. After you learn the chord you will be strumming or picking, not playing each note repeatedly. Place your first finger above the first fret of the B string. Test it out like before, applying only enough pressure to get a clean note. Pluck the strings next to the B string (the G string and the e string) and see if they are damped or buzzing (you don t want that). Place your second finger above the second fret of the D string. Test it like before. Place your third finger on the third fret of the A string. Test it. Now test all the strings don t play the E string, since there is no dot on the chord diagram. Strum the remaining five strings do you get a nice clean sound? Keep working at it until you do. 13

15 The D Chord We are going to learn a song in a minute that uses G, C, and D, so you need to know the D chord. Place your first finger (fingertip only) slightly above the second fret of the G string. Test it. Place your second finger slightly above the second fret of the e string. Test it. Place your third finger on the third fret of the B string. Test it. Now strum ONLY the D, G, B, and e strings. Try it until you get a good clean sound. If you watch me play a D chord, you might notice that I often do so by barring the G, B, and e strings on the second fret. This is a habit I got into early on, and it comes so naturally now that I have a hard time remembering to play it the right way I just described. This brings up two points. First, it s important to get into good habits and learn things the right way from the start. However, guitar is about expression. If you are more comfortable doing something your own way and it doesn t hurt your playing in some other way, then go right ahead. My D sounds just like every other D, it just looks a little funny. Chords in Tab Notation Putting it together, here s what G, C, and D look like in tab notation: e B G D A 2 3 E 3 14

16 Exercises for G, C, and D Exercise 1 Not only do you need to be able to make chords, but you need to be able change between chords quickly. This exercise is very simple, and is meant to give you practice doing just that. As you play, try to make each note of each chord sound as clean as you can before switching to the next chord. It is hard, and you will probably feel like you are going very slowly at first, but you will learn. Strum each chord once, hold for 4 beats (count to 4), then move to the next chord. Notice that if you play the chords smoothly they sound kind of like a song. Exercise 1a Exercise 1b Exercise 1c 15

17 Exercise 1d If you learn to play this smoothly, it sounds a lot like Knockin on Heaven s Door by Bob Dylan. The Rest of the Major Chords As I mentioned before, the musical alphabet is made up of the letters A through G, and starts again at A instead of going to H (there is no H in musical notation). So far, we have talked about G, C, and D. What about the rest of the letters? Do they have chords too? Why yes, they do. Here is how to make the rest of the open major chords. As you are learning these chords, use the same method as we talked about for G, C, and D, making sure that each string sounds out clearly. A Major You have several options as to how to play the A chord. I tend to use my first finger on the D string as in Figure 1, or bar the D, G, and B strings with my first finger (as in Figure 2) if I m playing rock. Classical musicians often play A Major using the first finger on the G string, as in Figure 3. If you are barring, simply place your 1 st finger across all three strings. It is difficult to get a clean sound out of the high e string using this fingering, so I often will mute it (rest my 1 st finger lightly across it so that it doesn t make a sound when you strum the chord). B Major This is the toughest of the open position major chords, and it isn t really technically open. This is because none of the strings are played open. 16

18 To play this chord, you need to use your 3 rd finger to bar across D, G, and B strings while playing the 2 nd fret of the A string with your 1 st finger. It s tough to do. C and D Major We know these already. E Major F Major This is another difficult one. The easiest way to play this is to bar the B and e strings with your first finger. The other way to play an F Major on the first fret (F Major is also technically not open) involves barring the entire 1 st fret with your 1 st finger. G Major That brings us back to G, which we know very well by now. 17

19 Exercises You should practice making each of these chords, and changing back and forth between different chords. I give you some exercises below, but don t limit yourself to just these. This is a great way to build strength and coordination in your fingers it is just about the only way. Practice and time will make you smoother. Exercise 2a Exercise 2b Exercise 2c The Key of G As you practiced moving between different chords, did you notice that some sounded better together than others? You may have noticed that some chord combinations sounded almost like songs, while others sounded like random noise. There s a reason for this, and it has to do with the musical concept of a key. The theory behind the concept of a key is beyond me. Why is it that chords within a key sound good together? I have no idea. But they do, and that is the general idea behind a key: notes within a key have a special relationship that makes them sound good together. If you want to see what I mean, try this: play G C D, then play G C B. Did you notice a difference? G, C, and D seem to be meant to go together. B, not so much. That is because G, C, and D are the Major chords in the Key of G, while B is not in the Key of G. Because of this special relationship (which I m going talk about in more detail later), nearly every song you will ever encounter is in some key. Many songs you will run into in guitar will be in the key of G. In addition to the Major chords, every key has minor chords as well. In G, the major chords are G, C, and D. The main minor chords are Am (the little m stands for minor ), Bm and Em. 18

20 In addition to minor chords, you will occasionally see variations of the Major or minor chords. For example you might see seventh chords, sus chords, dim chords For now, if you focus on getting good at playing all the main chords in the key of G Major, you will find that you have the tools to play quite a few songs. Exercises Exercise 3a Exercise 3b At this point, I would recommend going online and finding a song that you like. Look up the chords for it (try googling the name of the song, followed by chords ), and practice moving as smoothly and as quickly as you can between them. You should be able to, with some practice, play a song that you can recognize. 19

21 Timing You don t need to know a lot of theory to get good at guitar, but understanding timing notation helps. Here are the basics The most common timing you will see is called 4/4 (pronounced four four ). You may have noticed a pair of 4 s stacked on top of each other in some of the tabs in this book. The first 4 indicates that there are 4 beats in a measure. That is not really that important, except that it effects the number you count up to when you are keeping time. In 4/4 time you count up to 4 2. In counting time, each beat is divided into two. If you were counting out two measures of four beats, it would go like this: one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and In tab notation it looks like this: The notes you play or chords you strum all have a certain length of time they should be played. If you play one note or chord for the whole 4 beats in 4/4 time, it is called a whole note, and looks like this: The top notation means to strum. The open circle on the bottom is the actual note. Both mean that you would play the note or chord for as long as it takes to count: one and two and three and four and or before moving on to the next note. You only need 1 whole note to fill up a 4 beat measure. You will also see half notes, which go for half of a 4 beat measure. You would play/strum this for the count of: one and two and or The half note looks like a whole note with an added stick. You need two half notes to fill a 4 beat measure. 2 The other timing you often see is 3/4. There, you count to 3. 20

22 Quarter notes go for a quarter of a 4 beat measure before moving on to the next note: one and or 1 +. Notice that the quarter note looks like a filled in half note. You need 4 quarter notes to fill a 4 beat measure. Not surprisingly, eighth note goes for 1/8 of a 4 beat measure 3 : Play this one only for half of the one and for the one or the and, then move on to the next note. The eighth note looks like a quarter note with a flag. You need 8 eighth notes to fill a 4 beat measure. There are smaller notes than the eighth. The more flags the note has, the shorter you play it. You also aren t constantly making noise with your guitar. Sometimes you are silent. These times, the musical notation calls for a rest, and there are whole rests, half rests, quarter rests and so on, just like you have with notes. Right Hand Technique and Strumming patterns So far, I haven t said much about what to do with your right (or left, if you are a lefty) hand. I want to bring up a couple points, then we will talk about strumming patterns. There are 2 rules when it comes to using your right hand. First, in order to sound good strumming, your hand should always be moving in time with the music. Second, always try to pick in an alternating down/up/down/up pattern. I did neither of these things when I first started playing, and I believe it took me much longer to become a decent guitar player because I didn t know about these rules. Strumming is all about keeping time. If your hand is constantly moving in time with the music, even if you are the only one playing, you are much more likely to stay in time. Play in front of audiences a couple times and you will learn: most people are much quicker to notice mistakes in timing than wrong notes. As we said in the timing section, a 4 beat measure is counted like this: one and two and three and four and 3 Or half a beat. 21

23 ***When you are strumming, your hand should always be moving down on the beat, then moving up on the and. Always 4. Keeping your hand constantly moving is not easy when you are thinking about how to make chords, but you need to learn how to do it. If you play a note or strum a chord, do it in the natural motion of the beat you are counting. If there is no note to play, still keep moving your hand up and down to the beat, just don t hit the strings. It sounds funny, but it is very important in the long run to help you play in time. If you don t believe me that you should be moving your hand constantly, sometime when you get a chance go online and stream a video of Neil Young playing. Any video. You ll see what I am talking about. Below I have laid out some standard strumming patterns. The ᴨ symbol indicates a normal downward strum. Typically, the first strum in a measure will be down. The v symbol indicates an upward strum. You don t necessarily want to hit all of the strings in the chord on the way back up. Pattern 1 (Measures 1 2) is a very simple pattern. Strum down on each beat and up on each and. It s just 8 eighth notes. Pattern 2 (Measures 3 4) Pattern 2 is just like Pattern 1, except you don t up strum after the first beat. Pattern 3 (Measures 5 6) is really a repeated 2 beat pattern. Pattern 4 (Measures 7 8) is the most complex of these patterns, and the most common one you will run into in songs. Pay attention to the notes after two and that are bound together. Any time two notes are bound together, the notes are meant to run together. Two eighth notes put together in this way act just like a quarter note (meaning you don t strum the second eighth note, you just let the first one ring for and three then strum again at the and. 4 There are exceptions to every rule. There are very few exceptions to this one. 22

24 Once you have a good handle on most of the chords presented earlier in this book, you should practice switching between them while using the various strumming patterns above. The below exercises are just examples. You can use any set of chords to practice, and the more different combinations you use, the faster your fingers will get up to speed. Exercises Play these with each strumming pattern above, using 1 chord for each measure. 1) G C D C 2) A D E D 3) Am F G Am Metronomes I very rarely play with metronomes, but I think I would be a better guitar player if I did. There are a variety of free online metronomes take advantage of one of them and practice your timing. It will probably pay off in the long run. 23

25 House of the Rising Sun This song makes use of chords that you know, and is a good chance to practice switching between chords using some of the strumming patterns we just learned. Play it with the simplest patterns first, then try some others to see how they sound. To start out, you might just want to play the whole notes as written, counting one and two and three and four and before switching to the next chord. 24

26 This is the end of part 1 of this book. Congrats! If you have picked up all the chords and strumming patterns we talked about, and you can apply them to songs you are learning, you are now a full fledged beginner guitarist. Keep practicing, every day. You should continue to practice the lessons above, and songs (learn whole songs rather than just parts if you can), until you become really smooth and polished at switching between all the different chords. Once you feel confident with all the chords we have looked at, and any you ran into in songs you are learning on your own, it will be time to take the next step. Many people never get beyond this beginning stage you are in right now. Some take months to progress. Some take years. And some just never do. And that s a shame, because guitar doesn t get really fun until you get to the next stage. Don t rush it, but whenever you are comfortable, move on to part 2 of this book. That s where things will start coming together. 25

27 Part 2: Getting Good Part 1 of this book mentions almost no musical theory. I think talking about musical theory is extremely boring, and I think you don t need to know much theory to become a really good guitarist. But you need to know some In the 27 years I ve been playing guitar, I ve learned that a little musical theory goes a long way towards making you a better player. In this next section I am going to give you just enough musical theory to help you accomplish the goals of this section of the book. Once you master the content of Part 2, you will be able: 1) To move up the neck 2) To quickly pick up new songs 3) To know what lead parts (solos, etc.) will sound good with any song 4) To feel confident playing along with songs, even if you ve never heard them before If you are ready to get good, let s get started! 26

28 Notes on the Fretboard In order to make any sense of the idea of keys, you have to know where notes are on the guitar s fretboard. It would be good as you progress to learn all the notes on the fretboard, but by far the most important notes to learn first are the notes on the E and A strings. The first note on the low E string is an E. Each fret above that is a half step. The same is true on each of the other strings. Here is the A string: All of the strings work that way. You should memorize at least the E and A strings, because they are very useful to know. Here are all of the notes on the first 12 frets: 27

29 What is a Key? Did you ever look at a guitarist playing a solo, sounding great, and wonder how the heck does he know what notes to play? Playing above the first couple frets, or getting up the neck, of your guitar is one of the most intimidating things for beginning guitarists. Good guitarists make it look easy, but it is tough to know where to even start. Playing the frets high up the fretboard isn t physically any harder than playing a C chord in the open position. The hard part is knowing which notes are going to sound good with the other notes and chords that are being played by the bassist, rhythm guitarist, keyboardist, or whatever. Knowing what notes will sound good with other notes comes back to the concept of the key. Understanding how keys work will help make you a better guitarist, fast. We already know that the key of G has certain chords 5 in it: G, Am, Bm, C, D, and Em. How is it that these chords are in the key of G, but F is not? For major keys, it all comes down to the major scale. The major scale is a pattern of notes that sound a specific way. The musical alphabet is 12 repeating tones: A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# This pattern starts again with A, one octave higher. Don t ask me why there is no B#. I have no idea, there just isn t. Although there are 12 tones, a scale only has 8 tones in it. Which tones are in a key is determined by intervals, which are based on which notes sound good together. 6 In guitar, intervals are measured in steps. 1 fret = a half step 2 frets = a whole step For the major scale, the pattern goes like this: 1 st interval (Root note) G, for example Whole step 2 nd interval A Whole step 3 rd interval B Half step 4 th interval C Whole step 5 th interval D Whole step 6 th interval E Whole step 7 th interval F# Half step 8 th or 1 st interval (one octave higher) G This can also be written: W W H W W W H 5 There are other chords as well in G Major. These are the principle ones, and the others are mainly variations of these principle chords. 6 All of this is based on the frequency of the string s vibration. For example, the frequency of a note exactly one octave higher is exactly twice the frequency of the lower note. 28

30 Saying it another way, moving from A to B is a Whole Step. Moving from B to C is a Half Step. From the root of G, it is 1 whole step to the 2 nd interval (A) and 2 whole steps to the 3 rd interval (B). Whole Whole Half Whole Whole Whole Half G G# A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G There you go The notes in the G major scale are: G A B C D E F# Notice that G#, A#, C#, D# and F are not in the G major scale. There are 2 big takeaways here: **While the notes in each key are different, the intervals in a major scale (and a key) are always the same: WWHWWWH **The chords in a key are determined by the notes in that key. The main chords 7 in G Major are: G Am Bm C D Em and the notes in the scale are: G A B C D E F# The chords that are in a key are the same as the notes that are in that scale. The notes in the A Major scale tell us which chords are the key of A. The notes of the G Major scale determine which chords are in the key of G. And so on, for every key 8. We know a key is made up of chords that sound good together. We just learned that scales and keys are related in fact, the notes in a scale tell us what chords will be in a key. Here is the main point: since chords in a key sound good together, and chords are made up of notes in a particular scale, notes in that scale will sound good with chords in that key, or the key tells you what chords and what scales to play. 7 Technically, F#m is in the key of G, but you so rarely see it that I am not counting it as one of the main chords in G. 8 The same is true for minor keys as well. The chords in a minor key depend on the notes in a minor scale. 29

31 I know that s a lot of theory, but that s pretty much it. That s the basic concept of a key it tells you what chords sound good together, and what notes (or sets of notes called scales) will sound good with those chords. The good news is, because the intervals stay the same in every key, if you learn 1 major scale pattern you can play the major scale in every key. That s how guitarists know what notes will sound good in solos because they are in the scale that goes with the song s key. And that is how you are going to move up the neck. But we need to know a few more things before we can do that. Sharps and flats You may be scratching your head at this point, wondering what the sharp (#) symbol is about, and why it s there. The # symbol literally means move 1 half step above the note given. In the same way, the flat symbol (b) means move 1 half step below the note given. G# is a half step above G, and Gb is a half step below. But why bother with this? Since there are 12 tones, why not use 12 letters, or maybe just 12 numbers, rather than 7 letters and # and b? It turns out that in the early days of Western music, hundreds of years ago, they only used the 7 natural notes in writing and playing music. The other notes were added later. Since music was already being written using the first 7 letters, and the new notes were between the existing notes, it didn t make sense to add additional letters on the end. So they came up with symbols for inserting notes between the natural notes. Hence # and b. At least that s what Wikipedia says 30

32 Scales on the fretboard One of the coolest things about guitar is that there are multiple ways to do just about anything. This is very different from piano, for example, where there is really only one way to play each tone. This makes guitar very versatile, but it can also make things complicated. Here are 2 ways to play the G Major scale. The first way uses only the E string. It is very easy to see the W W H W W W H pattern: for each W you move up 2 frets, for each H you move up 1. As you can see, the scale takes you all the way up to the 15 th fret, which is difficult on some acoustic guitars. Here is another way to make the exact same scale: Play each of these now they should sound more or less identical. Once you learn the pattern, the second way of playing the scale has several advantages. Among other things, it is faster and it allows you to add another octave without moving your hand all over the fretboard. Two octaves of the G Major Scale: 31

33 Remember, scales are based on intervals. While the notes will be different for each key, the intervals (and therefore the scale pattern) is the same for every key. Here is the same pattern, in the key of A (because it starts on the root note of A, the 5 th fret of the E string). The intervals are marked on the notes. If you know the names of the notes on the 6 th string (aka the E string), you can play any major scale based on this pattern. Learn both the pattern and the names of the notes, and it will help you become a much better guitar player. This is only one of several important scale patterns. See Appendix 2 for the rest of the main scale patterns, and a little bit on where they come from. 32

34 1,4,5 The 1 st, 4 th, and 5 th intervals are particularly important. They tell you which major chords are in a key. Example of Scale Positions: Key of G Interval Note G A B C D E F# Chords G Am Bm C D Em (F#m) Notice how in G Major, the 1 st, 4 th, and 5 th notes in the G Major scale (G,C, and D) are Major chords in the key of G. Also see that the 2 nd, 3 rd, and 6 th notes in the G Major scale (A, B, and E) are minor chords in the key of G. That is true in every Major key the 1, 4, and 5 notes in the scale will tell you which Major chords are in that key, while 2, 3,and 6 will be minors. Check out the table below. W W H W W W H Interval (8) Maj/min Maj min min Maj Maj min min Key G A B C D E F# G A B C# D E F# G# A B C# D# E F# G# A# B C D E F G A B C D E F# G A B C# D E F# G# A B C# D# E F G A Bb C D E F I showed only the natural keys. There are other keys like Gb/F#, which you don t really see that often in music written for guitar. Also, if you have seen this before, you likely saw the keys presented in a different order based on the circle of fifths. I have put the whole table in an Appendix 1, displaying that order. 33

35 The Root Note The G Major scale always starts with G. The same is true with all other scales. Turns out, it is true with nearly all chords as well: the note that identifies the key in a scale or chord is called the root note. This is important. If you know what the root note is, you can figure out what the chord is, and this will help you figure out how to play the song and what scale you should use for a solo. Let s look at an example: Notice how both the scale and the chord start with the root note: G. The first note of the vast majority of chords will be a root note. C Major and minor chords start with C, D Major and minor chords start with D, etc. The only notes you play in the G Major chord are ones in the G Major scale. In fact, you only play G, B, and D. G is the root, or 1 note, B is the 3 note, and D is the 5 note. As we mentioned before, you can play a Major scale with any root note, following the pattern we see above. If you start on the 7 th fret, the root note is a B, and you are playing a B Major Scale. 34

36 ***If you know a scale pattern you can play any scale by starting the pattern on any root note on the E string. ***Also note: all major chords start with the root note ( 1 ) and are made up of only the 1, 3, and 5 intervals of the scale. Exercise: Try it. Use the pattern to play a B Major scale. Then try a D Major scale. You need to find the root note on the E string, then use the pattern above to play the scale. Use these scales to develop good picking habits meaning alternating up and down picking strokes for each note, if you are using a pick. 35

37 Moving Up the Neck: 6 th String Barre Chords In the last lesson, we noted that all scales and nearly all chords 9 start with the root note. We played the A Major scale starting at the root note (A) on the E string. We also saw that all major chords had only the 1, 3, and 5 notes in them. That means that the A Major chord only has A, C#, and E. What if we could make a chord with only A, C#, and E starting the same place the A Major scale starts? Turns out we can. Using root notes on the E string (also known as the 6 th string), we can make 6 th string barre chords. Note that the numbers indicate the position of the note, not fingering. You make this chord by laying your first finger across ( barring ) the fret where you find the root note. This chord diagram shows the fingerings of an A Major 6 th string Barre chord: 9 Chords that don t start with the root note are called inversions. We don t need to worry about them right now. 36

38 In order to make a minor chord, all you do is flat the 3 note, or move it down 1 half step. Here s how it looks with open chords: For an Am, the C# becomes a C. That works with Barre chords as well: To go from a Major Barre chord to a minor Barre chord, simply lift your second finger: 37

39 Play the Am barre chord, then the Am open chord. They should sound almost exactly the same. Open chords ring out a little better than barre chords, even for experienced players. Work on making all 6 strings sound clear and bright with no buzzing. You can use any root note on the E string to make one of these chords. Exercises Exercise 1 Exercise 2 Repeat Exercise 1 with other open chords (A, B, etc.) and then make the 6 th string barre version of that chord. 38

40 5 th String Barre Chords Since all Major chords have only 1, 3, and 5 notes and minor chords have only 1, 3b and 5 notes, anywhere you find a root note you could theoretically make a Major or minor chord. Another popular place to form chords is using 5 th (or A) string roots. If you check, you will see that the D Major chord above has only 1, 3, and 5 tones. Minor chords work the same way. The 5 th string minor and the 6 th string Major barre chords have the same fingering pattern (just like the open chords of Am and E have the same fingering pattern), just moved over one string. These chords can be somewhat difficult to play. I generally do not get a good tone from the e string on the 5 th string Major Barres, so I will often mute it. I have given D and Dm as examples, but you can use these patterns on any root note on the 5 th string. 39

41 Exercises: Play a variety of Major and minor 5 th string barre chords until you feel comfortable moving around the fretboard with those fingerings. Below are some examples of what you can play. Make up your own as well. Exercise 1 40

42 Keys and Barre Chords Barre chords are very useful in helping to remember what chords are in a key, if you have memorized the notes on the E and A strings. Think about the key of G. The root or 1 note is G, the 4 is C, and the 5 is D remember, G, C, and D are the major chords in G. Find the G root note on the 6 th string. It s on the 3 rd fret. Find the C root on the 5 th string. It s also on the 3 rd fret. Move 1 whole step (2 frets) up from the 4 note to the 5 note to find the D. It s on the 5 th fret. Try this: Play G C D open, then play G C D Barre chords. It works for any key. Here s the key of A (1 = A, 4 = D, 5 = E): A D E Barre, A D E Open What s more, this works for the minor chords in a key, too. Remember, the 2, 3, and 6 tones in a key are the minor chords in that key. 41

43 G Am Bm C D Em B C#m D#m E F# G#m Don t know how to make a C#m in the open position? Me neither. But you probably won t ever have to make a C#m in the open position you can just use the barre chord. Exercises: Exercise 1 Use barre chords to find the 5 th of the keys of F#, E, and D. Exercise 2 Play all the main Major/minor chords in the keys of F, G, A, B, and C and name the chords while you play them. Exercise 3 Take a song you know how to play in open position, and play it only with Barre chords. 42

44 Moving up the Neck: Pentatonics Now we are going to start talking about solos. We now know the names of all the notes on the 5 th and 6 th strings (if you don t, keep working on it until you do), and we have seen how to make chords with any of the root notes on those strings. We have also seen that you can start the Major scale with any of the 6 th string root notes. The Major scale is kind of complicated, though, and to really use it to solo you need to know at least some of the 5 other Major and Minor modes 10. Many guitarists like to keep things a little simpler for themselves by using what are called pentatonics. The term might sound a little scary, but a pentatonic is just a scale with some of the notes stripped out. Instead of 7 tones it has 5 hence the penta in pentatonic. These scales just have to be memorized. Fortunately, it is easier than it sounds at first. 2 nd Form Pentatonic Scale It might sound strange to start with the 2 nd form, but if you are in a Major key, your starting point should be the 2 nd form. This is because the root note of the Barre chord and the root note of the 2 nd form pentatonic major scale are the same note. I m really not sure why they didn t call this the 1 st form, for that reason. In any case, the important thing is the location of the root note. Notice how the pentatonic scale is just the major scale minus the 4 and 7 tones. All of the pentatonic forms are created from full scales with 2 notes removed. The M s mark the root notes for a Major key. 10 See Appendix 1 43

45 If you are playing in a minor key, the first form is your starting point. The minor root is the first note in this form 11. (Major pentatonic scales and minor pentatonic scales follow exactly the same patterns, they just start at a different point. Majors start at the Major root the first note of the 2 nd form while minors start at the first note of the 1 st form, or the minor root.) How do I memorize all those dots? Now, here s the thing to notice: the top part of the 1 st form is exactly the same as the bottom part of the 2 nd form. So if you learn the 2 nd form, you already know half of the 1 st form. All of the pentatonic work this way. 11 See Appendix 3 for all the pentatonic forms with minor roots highlighted. You use these frequently for blues and rock songs. 44

46 Exercises: Exercise 1 Exercise 2 Exercise 3 Exercise 4 Do these exercises starting with various root notes up and down the 6 th string. 45

47 3 rd, 4 th, and 5 th Form Pentatonic Scales Notice again, the top of the 3 rd form is identical to the bottom of the 4 th form. They fit together like puzzle pieces. Once you know one form, you know half of the forms above it and below it. Exercises: Take the exercises from the previous section on pentatonics 1 and 2 and apply them to these forms. Run through each with each form. Especially think about Exercise 3 how would you connect each form to the form above/below it? Memorize the patterns, and try playing up the scale using more than 1 pattern at a time. 46

48 Putting it all together Ok, so that might have been more theory than you were hoping for still, you need that to get to the fun part. Learning songs quickly Used to be, when I wanted to learn a song I would go straight to the Interwebs 12 and try to find a tab for it. I would learn bits and pieces, try to remember the progression of the chords, and generally take a good long time before I got the song down. Not anymore. The first thing I do now is listen to the song to try and determine what key it is in. If I am able to do this, I will know what chords are likely to be in the song, and what scales are probably used to form the riffs, licks, and solos. I know, I could go to the Internet to find this, too, but sometimes it is more fun to do it on my own. How do I do this? Step 1) Listen to the first note of the song, or the first note of the intro, if there is one. The first note of the song in many cases (particularly in traditional songwriting styles that you find in bluegrass and country, but also in rock) tells you the key. If the first note is an A, there is a good chance that the song is in A. Take out your guitar, and try to match the first note of an intro, if there is one. If there is an intro, try and match the last note, too. It is almost certain that one of those notes will be the key. The first and last notes of the intro will very often be either the 1 st (root) interval or the 5 th interval. If the first thing you hear is a chord and not a note, that s OK. Chords are harder to match (for me at least) than notes, but not impossible. If you can, try and match the chord. Were you able to match the first note or chord? If so, go to Step 2. Otherwise, go to Step 1b. Step 1b) Listen to the solo, if there is one. Try and match the first note of the solo. You could also try the last note of the solo. The same goes here as for the intro: it is often the case that the first and last notes of the solo are either the root or the 5 th. Step 2) Play the chord associated with the note you matched So far, hopefully you have matched the first note/chord of the song, the first note of the solo, or the last note of the intro. Now, use that note to inform your first guess as to the key. 12 This is a joke. I know it is not called the interwebs. People my age find this kind of thing funny. 47

49 The note you have matched is most likely the 1, 4, or 5 tone of the key the song is in. It is not always, though. There are very few hard and fast rules in music, so sometimes this method just doesn t work. If the note is an A, the only Major keys the song could be in are A, D, and E. Try playing along with the song using the chords in A first. If it doesn t sound right at all, it might be that the song is in Am, in which case the chords will be different. If the song is in a Major key, though, you should be close. If the song has an A, a D, and an E Major chord, it is in A. If the song has a B Major chord in it, it is almost certainly in E. If the song has a G Major chord in it, it is most likely in D. One of those combos is likely to work. However, this is not foolproof. If you nail the song this way, good for you, you have found the key and know what chords to expect. This will make the song much easier to learn (and to remember). You will also have a head start on learning the solo and any riffs, since you will know what scales to look for. If you can t figure out the key using chords, go to Step 3. Step 3) Try to sound out the whole intro or solo This is kind of the opposite of the first approach. You are trying to sound out the solo, match it to a scale, and let the scale tell you what the root note is. The root note will tell you the key. Step 4) If all else fails, just go online. Somebody will have figured it out before you. Still, knowing what key the song is in will make remembering it much easier. 48

50 Putting it all together Simple Soloing One of the most fun things you can do with a guitar is jam. You can start jamming at just about any skill level. If you know the key, you know the chords, and you can play along. It really starts to take off, though, when you know the basics of putting together a solo. The easiest way to start soloing is to figure out what key you are in, then play the appropriate pentatonic over the rhythm part. You will need to decide whether you want to play in Major or minor pentatonics. There is no hard and fast rule. Rock songs sometimes use minor pentatonic over major chords. Go with what your ear tells you. If you are playing minor pentatonics, your root note should be the first note of the 1 st form. If you want a brighter, Major sound your root note should be the first note of the 2 nd form. 1, 4, 5 and timing your solos Soloing can be very complex and heavy on musical theory. It can also be very flowing and intuitive, led by your ear. Either way, you will end up at a basic truth: some notes just don t sound right in a solo. The simplest rule of soloing 13 is that whenever the accompanying music changes chords, your solo should play the 1 st, 4 th, or 5 th interval of that chord. If you are playing in the key of G, and the backing shifts from a G chord shift to a C, you should try arriving at a C, F or G at the same time in your solo. With pentatonic scales, you may not have the 4 th as an option, but you can play it anyway even if it s not in the scale you are in. The best way to practice this is to record a simple chord progression that repeats for a minute or two, then play over the recording. Pay attention to the chords, and pay attention to the notes you are playing. Try to arrive at the 1 st, 4 th, or 5 th interval of the new chord as soon as it is played. Do this in different keys, and practice with both Major and minor pentatonic patterns. Playing over a 12 bar blues pattern is also great practice. When you get the hang of it, try using the full scale (see Appendix 2). Different modes will give you different feels to your sound. Listen to songs that you like, and try to imitate things the artists are doing, but make it your own. If you love a Hendrix lick, see if you can make it make sense over your background recording. If it doesn t sound right, make sure it is the right key. The basic takeaway, though is that you have to know the key. 13 There are many different, more complex and advanced rules for soloing. I am giving you just the basics to get started. Not all solos follow this rule. 49

51 Appendix 1 This is a standard order for presenting the notes/chords in a key. Interval Maj/min Major(Root) minor minor Major Major minor (minor) Mode Ionian Dorian Phrygian Lydian Mixolydian Aeolian Locrian Key C D E F G A B # G A B C D E F# ## D E F# G A B C# ### A B C# D E F# G# #### E F# G# A B C# D# ##### B C# D# E F# G# A# bbbbbb Gb Ab Bb Cb Db Eb F bbbbb Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C bbbb Ab Bb C Db Eb F G bbb Eb F G Ab Bb C D bb Bb C D Eb F G A b F G A Bb C D E Keys are identified by their key signatures in musical notation, which tell how many sharps or flats are in that particular key. This is of very little use for most guitarists. The mode is a musical theory term, and relates to the notes in the scale from that position (see Appendix 2). **One important concept is the relative minor. The 6 th position (in the case of G that would be E) is called the relative minor. In very general terms, the relative minor key has exactly the same chords as the major. For example, the key of G Major has exactly the same chords in it as E minor. 50

52 Appendix 2: Major and Minor Scales On the following page you will find 6 of the 7 modes the main modes that you will use. There are a few things to note. 1) This is in F# Major, so I could show the connections between the scale positions or forms. Like the pentatonics, the top of one mode fits onto the bottom of the next mode, like a puzzle piece. If you know the 2 nd mode, you know half of the 3 rd. 2) I have highlighted the Major Root in each form. There are a variety of ways to use these scales. If you were in F# Major, you could move all the way up the neck using these modes for a solo. 3) Another way to use the modes is to use the numbered notes as roots, which will give you a slightly different sound for each mode. 4) Note that the 3 rd and 4 th modes are exactly the same. They just have a different root. Playing with the 3 rd as a root produces a darker, minor sound. Using the 4 th as a root creates a brighter, Major sound. 5) The 7 th mode is exactly like the 1 st, but with the root a half step lower at the seventh position. 6) You should know by now that you can move this pattern to any point on the fretboard, and the first note of the 1 st Position will be your Major Root. Starting at any Major Root will lead you to the WWHWWWH pattern. Starting at the other positions will alter that pattern a little bit, and that is what this whole thing is about: 1 st W W H W W W H 2 nd W H W W W H W 3 rd H W W W H W W 4 th W W W H W W H 5 th W W H W W H W 6 th W H W W H W W 51

53 52

54 Appendix 3 53