CONTENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR...4

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Stewart Francis
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1 CONENS ABOU E AUOR INRODUCION CAER GEING SARED 6 Lesson : Getting to Know Your ools 6 Lesson : he Notes on the Fretboard 8 Lesson : Reading ablature (AB) Mary ad a Border Collie Lesson : Your First Chords Easy G, C, and D7 Lesson : Strumming a Song his ammer s oo eavy Lesson 6: Awesome is for Learning and Switching Chords Lesson 7: Full-Size Chords D, A, and G Canadian Camfire Song Lesson 8: Full-Size Chords E and C Rock n Roll Wonder Dog You Move My Boogie Machine CAER READING MUSIC 6 ow to Use his Chater 6 Why Read Music? 6 Lesson : he Notes and the Staff 6 Lesson : Notes on the st String 7 Lesson : Notes on the nd String 8 Lesson : ime 8 Lesson : Notes on the rd String Oh! Susanna Lesson 6: Rests When the Saints Go Marching In Lesson 7: Eighth Notes Lesson 8: Notes on the th String Old Joe Clark Lesson 9: Eighth Rests and Dotted Notes Lesson : Notes on the th and 6th Strings Lesson : Sight-Reading Songs 6 Ode to Joy 6 Cluck Old en 6 Lesson : Adding Shars and Flats 7 Lesson : Reading Key Signatures 8 Lesson : st and nd Endings 9 Line Dancing on Mars 9 CAER MORE NEW CORDS Lesson : Minor Chords eavy Fog eavy Fog, It Makes Me ay Lesson : he Bluegrass G Chord and a C Chord to Match he One-uman Garage Band Lesson : he Art of Strumming rain of Dreams Lesson : Country and Bluegrass Strumming Boil hat Cabbage Down Shady Grove Lesson : Country and Bluegrass Flaticking 6 Sail Away Ladies 7 Lesson 6: Rocking Out with Syncoation 8 Lesson 7: Cadd9 9 Strumming hrough the eartland 9 Lesson 8: Waltz ime Amazing Grace CAER BASIC FINGERICKING Lesson : he Right-and osition Lesson : First Fingericking atterns Lesson : Alternating Bass atterns California Flood Lesson : ravis icking and inch atterns 6 humbing Around 7 Lesson : Fingericking in Waltz ime 8 Beginning Acoustic Guitar

2 CAER IMROVISAION AND MUSIC EORY 9 Lesson : he Major Scale Lesson : he Circle of ths Lesson : Oen-osition Major Scales in C, G, and D Lesson : Movable Major Scale Fingerings Lesson : Intervals Are Your Building Blocks Lesson 6: Interval Fingerings 6 Lesson 7: armony and Chords 6 Lesson 8: Getting Started with Imrovisation 6 CAER 6 E BLUES 6 Lesson : he -Bar Blues 6 Lesson : Memorizing the -Bar Blues 6 Lesson : Blues Rhythm 66 Shufflin hrough the Blues in A 67 Lesson : he Minor entatonic Scale 68 Lesson : Beginning Blues Imrovisation 7 Lesson 6: Bending 7 Lesson 7: New Chords he Dominant 7th 7 7 Chord Blues 7 Lesson 8: More 7th Chords Blues in E 7 he -Bar Blues in E 7 Lesson 9: Minor Blues and Minor 7th Chords 7 A Minor Blues 7 Lesson : he Major entatonic Scale 7 CAER 7 NEW ECNIQUES 76 Lesson : Switching Chords Mid-Measure 76 Lesson : Slit Strumming 77 I Know ow It Feels 77 Lesson : he Mute Stroke 78 Lesson : A New Folk/Country Strum and I V vi IV 79 Rollin Wheels on Route 6 79 Lesson : ransosition 8 Lesson 6: ower Chords 8 Rage Against the Gumball Machine 8 Lesson 7: Barre Chords 8 Fall Along the ower Stairway 8 iki Barre ender 8 Barre Chords Got Me on My Knees 86 assing the Barre 86 Can I Barre a Dollar? 86 Lesson 8: humb Chords 87 Lesson 9: ammer-ons and ull-offs 88 Blues Noodles on an E Chord 89 Lesson : Walking the Bass 9 Free Little Bird 9 AENDIX MUSICAL EXRESSION, RASING, AND DYNAMICS 9 AENDIX ACCESSORIES 9 he Wonderful Cao, the errible Cao 9 o Fingerick or Not to Fingerick 9 Buy a Metronome! 9 el with uning 9 AENDIX OW O RACICE 96 Conclusion 96 Contents

LESSON : YOUR FIRS CORDS EASY G, C, AND D7 his lesson will get you started laying chords you will use for the rest of your guitar-ickin life A chord is three or more notes sounded simultaneously Each

3 LESSON : YOUR FIRS CORDS EASY G, C, AND D7 his lesson will get you started laying chords you will use for the rest of your guitar-ickin life A chord is three or more notes sounded simultaneously Each chord is named for the music-alhabet letter that serves as its root (the fundamental note on which a chord or scale is built) he chords in this lesson are known as oen chords because they use a mixture of oen (unfingered) strings and fretted notes hey also occur in the first three or four frets of the fretboard SECRES OF E MASERS During this hase of your learning, it is more imortant to ractice often than to ractice for long eriods (For more on racticing, see age 96) You will be building new athways from your brain to your finger muscles Like mountain trails, these aths need frequent clearing or they grow over and disaear If you ractice for minutes every day, you will see imrovement On the other hand, if you wait several days between sessions, you will be starting at ground zero every time It may take a while before these chords start to feel natural As you work on them, you may want to begin Chater to add some variety to your ractice GUIAR CORD DIAGRAMS Guitar chords are most often deicted in chord diagrams A chord diagram is like a icture of the fretboard that shows which strings, fingers, and frets you will use to make your chord Note that a circle (~) over a string means to strum that string oen as art of your chord An + over a string means to omit that string from the strum Watch carefully for these symbols and make sure to follow them Check out the following examle of a chord diagram Chord symbol Frets Nut D +O O 6th th th rd nd st Strings Left-hand fingering = lay oen string = Do not lay this string REE EASY CORDS Below are three chords to start you off Each one adds another left-hand finger All are G~ layed on strings (don t lay strings and 6) You can strum them using a raid downward motion of your + ick, finger, ~ or ~ thumb Also, ~ ractice icking each string individually to make sure your finger osition allows each note to ring out clearly C D ~ ~ ++ Chater Getting Started

4 LESSON : RAVIS ICKING AND INC AERNS One of the most well-known fingerstyle guitarists in country music was Merle ravis (97 98) ravis s guitar laying was an influence on later masters like Chet Atkins, Leo Kottke, and ommy Emmanuel e used the alternating-bass style ioneered by early blues and ragtime guitarists, creating arrangements that had bass lines, harmony, and melody layed at the same time Sometimes this style of icking is referred to by his name 6 he atterns you learned in the revious lesson have searate notes on every eighth-note beat An easy way to vary the rhythm is to inch some notes (lay the thumb and finger together on a downbeat) You do not have to actually inch your finger and thumb together to do this, just lay them simultaneously using the normal motion ry inching and m while holding a C chord Below is a warm-u attern to get you started alternating between a quarter-note inch of and m, and the eighth note -i figure Be sure to count aloud and let all the notes ring out for their roer durations! INC AERN WARM-U C & _ m i m i Count: & & & & etc he following four-beat attern alternates between the two-beat inch attern above and the -m--i attern you learned in the revious lesson G _ A NEW G CORD FINGERING Sometimes, it hels the flow of chords to use an alternate fingering his fingering of G uses just your rd and th fingers he th string is muted by leaning the rd finger over a bit so that it touches the th string and kees it from ringing his fingering is great for quick switches between G and C G 7 INC AERN C & _ i m m Count: & & & & etc G _ 6 Beginning Acoustic Guitar

5 LESSON : BEGINNING BLUES IMROVISAION EXERIMENING WI E SCALE he first ste to imrovising a blues solo is learning to get around in the minor entatonic scale ry to make u melodies that use the minor entatonic scale Go u a few notes, go down a few notes lay long and short notes Ski around Don t worry about whether it s right or wrong just try to stick to the notes in the scale Above all, have fun and aim for clean, clear tones Let your ear be your guide With atience, time, and exerimentation, you will develo many ideas that you can use in imrovising on the blues GE IN YOUR LICKS A lick is a small idea or figure that can be used as a building block for a solo A lick can be reeated, altered, or strung together with other licks his lesson will show you a few ideas for licks you can incororate into your imrovisations EMASIZING E ONAL CENER As discussed on age 6, a great way to give a sense of melody and structure to a solo is to emhasize the tonic his note is also known as the tonal center Blues layers like B B King and Eric Claton often lay long, rich notes on the tonal center ere are some licks to try hey can be used at any oint in the blues chord rogression 7 Swing 8ths & # # # n n n n ( 7) & # # # n n n n ( ) 7 Beginning Acoustic Guitar

LE he first time through, lay the music under the bracket with a (the st ending) he second time, ski the st ending and lay the music under the bracket marked (the nd ending) Blue Noodles on an E

6 LE he first time through, lay the music under the bracket with a (the st ending) he second time, ski the st ending and lay the music under the bracket marked (the nd ending) Blue Noodles on an E Chord uses hammer-ons and ull-offs surrounding the shae of an E chord Go slowly and aim for clean notes ry to make the slurred notes sound at the same volume as the icked notes Also, try to incororate slurs into your imrovisations LE EX BLUE NOODLES ON AN E CORD AM & E7 # A B etc & A B OO MOSSBURG79/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/CC BY EX S AND ND ENDINGS REVIEW Often, when we reeat a section, we lay the last art of it differently In written music, this AM is shown with st and nd endings # E7 # # b # Corey arris is a scholar, ractitioner, and evolver of the blues e has recorded albums of traditional acoustic blues, collaborations with African master Ali Farka ouré, and fronts a reggae band e weaves his own artistic voice as a songwriter with threads of tradition reaching around the world In 7, he was awarded a MacArthur Genius Fellowshi and has been featured in documentaries about blues and African music Chater 7 New echniques 89

TABLE OF CONTENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR...4 INTRODUCTION...5

TABLE OF CONTENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR...4 INTRODUCTION...5 ABLE OF CONENS ABOU HE AUHOR...4 INRODUCION... CHAPER Getting Started 6 he Fretboard...6 Reading Standard Music Notation... Reading Bass ablature...9 Chord Symbols...9 Accidentals... 0 he Chromatic Scale...