Lesson 1 ELEPHANTS Here is a really easy way to remember the six strings of the guitar. Starting with the thickest string and moving to the thinnest string it goes E A D B e. Remember this little phrase and you ve got it: Elephants And Donkeys row Big Ears. Now practice it at least five times in the space below: 01234321 Exercise Warm up your left hand on the high e string. Put four fingers over the fret board above the first four frets. Play the first note open. Next apply pressure with your index finger and play the note. Repeat on the second, third and fourth frets. 0 1 2 3 4 Now it is time to play the notes down. 4 3 2 1 0 T12321 Exercise On the four middle strings, place the tips of your thumb, index finger, middle finger, and ring finger. Lightly pluck the strings in order. (T stands for thumb ) T 1 2 3 T 1 2 3 T 1 2 3 Play this scale fragment at least 20 times before the next lesson. Use this chart to keep track. C D Chords These are the first three chords you need to learn in order to play the guitar. C D Now it is time to play the other way. 3 2 1 T 3 2 1 T 3 2 1 T Put it all together T 1 2 3 2 1 T 1 2 3 2 1 T 1 2 3 2 1 Play this at least 20 times before the next lesson. Use this chart to keep track. 3 2 4 3 2 1 2 3 1 Play the C D C progression over and over again at least 20 times before the next lesson. Use this chart to keep track.
Lesson 2 DDUUD Rhythm C D C Progression Now it is time to learn a rhythm to play with your chords. While playing the chord with your left hand, strum through the chord with four down strokes. Down Down Down Down Now play two down and one up. Down Down Up Practice that one a bit and then add another up stroke. Down Down Up Up OK, put it all together now. Down Down Up Up Down The trick is to be able to play this rhythm many times in a row without a hiccup. A E Chords Here are the last two major chords in the open position. A E This one might be a little slow at first but stay with it and you will have the basics of playing guitar in what is known as standard or 4/4 time. Play the chord with a DDUUD rhythm. Play the C chord with a DDUUD rhythm. Play the D chord with a DDUUD rhythm. Play the C chord with a DDUUD rhythm. Repeat. Musically, we ll write it like this: C D C : This symbol : means repeat. Practice this progression at least 20 times with the DDUUD rhythm. 1. Elephants And Donkeys row Big Ears 2. 01234321 Exercise on e string 3. T 1 2 3 2 1 on middle four strings 4. Play these chords: C A E D 5. DDUUD on chord Practice this progression A E : one strum each at least 20 times.
Lesson 3 1. Elephants And Donkeys row Big Ears 2. 01234321 Exercise on e string 3. T 1 2 3 2 1 on middle four strings 4. Play these chords: C A E D 5. DDUUD on chord Happy Birthday Now you are ready for your first song, Happy Birthday. Two things to note. First, play the DDUUD rhythm for each chord named. Second, H.F.B.T.W..I.A.A. Or in other words: Have FUN Because That Is What uitar Is All About. 6. Play this progression one strum each: C D C : 7. Play this progression one DDUUD each: C D C : 8: Play this progression: A E : Your First Song You made it! Home (work) Play 1 Happy Birthday to You (Since this song is still under copyright, please write in the lyrics to this simple song in.) Happy D D C D From now on what is traditionally called homework will be called Home Play. In other words, take this lesson home and play it on your guitar. Don t work it on your guitar. Have you ever heard of someone working the guitar? No. But you have heard of them playing the guitar. This week play this routine every day: O1234321 on e, five times T1234321 on middle strings, five times CDC one strum each, five times CDC one DDUUD each, five times CAED one strum each, five times Happy Birthday, five times
Lesson 4 1. Play these chords: C A E D 2. Happy Birthday is roovy All of the strings on the guitar follow a basic order that is pretty much orderly and easy to understand. All the strings that is, except. is special. is roovy. is what makes the guitar s unique tuning so special. Just remember the rule that is groovy and all will be well in your world of guitar. Chromatic Scale The chromatic scale is every note on the guitar in the open position. Remember the 01234321 exercise? That was just a fragment of a larger scale- the chromatic scale. Take the first part of that exercise 01234 and apply it to all of the strings except because is groovy (only do 0123 on ) and you have the chromatic scale. Home (work) Play 1. Chromatic Scale 20 times this week 2. Happy Birthday, at least two times a day 3. 1 2 3 2 1 on middle four strings, two times a day Up the scale E A D B e 01234 01234 01234 0123 01234 01234 Down the scale (strings in a different order) e B D A E 43210 43210 3210 43210 43210 43210 4. Play this progression one strum each: C D C :, two times a day 5. Play this progression one DDUUD each: C D C :, two times a day 6. Play this progression: A E :, two times a day
Lesson 5 Form Pentatonic The Pentatonic scales are five tone scales that are the backbone to all soloing and improvisation on the guitar. The first scale you will learn is built upon the major chord and it is called Form Pentatonic. et ready for some fun. You are really playing guitar now! Am Em Dm So far you ve learned the five major chords that make up the music of the guitar: C A E D. This lesson will teach you how to make subtle changes to the turn the happy yippy skippy sound of the major chords into the depressing and sad sound of the minor chord. Form e -----------------------------------------------------------------5-----8--- B ------------------------------------------------------5-----8-------------- ------------------------------------------5-----7-------------------------- D -----------------------------5-----7--------------------------------------- A ------------------5-----7-------------------------------------------------- E -----5-----8--------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Popular Song #2 e------------------------------------------ B------------------------------------------ --0---3---5----0---3---6-5--0--3--5--3--00 D--0---3---5----0---3---6-5--0--3--5--3--00 A------------------------------------------ E------------------------------------------ I really don t have a clue what this song is about, but it s fun to play. Enjoy! The rule is: take the top string that your fingers are on and move them down one fret. Am Em Dm Home (work) Play 1. Form Pentatonic going up the scale only 20 times this week. 2. Popular Song 2 as much as you like. 3. Am Em Dm : 20 times this week. 4. Happy Birthday, as much as you like.
Lesson 6 1. Play these chords: C A E D 2. Happy Birthday 3. Smoke on the Water 4. Am Em Dm 5. Form Pentatonic T21T3212 Remember T12321? Well, this is very similar but in a different order. Try forming a C chord and play T21T3212. Pretty, isn t it? Now play it on a D chord. This time move your four fingers over the top four strings of the guitar. That is over the D B E strings. Amazing race 3 Amazing race Take this pattern and work it with all of the chords you know how to play. Home (work) Play 1. Amazing race, five times a day C Amazing grace how sweet the sound D D7 that saved a wretch like me. C I once was lost but now I m found D was blind but now I see. 2. Form Pentatonic Up AND Down 20 times this week 3. T21T3212 with C A E D twice each, every day 4. Em C D: progression, twice a day 5. D C : progression, twice a day
Lesson 7 1. Play these chords: C A E D 2. Happy Birthday 3. Smoke on the Water 4. Am Em Dm 5. Form Pentatonic Up and Down 6. Amazing race 7. T21T3212 on chord then D chord Popular Song #3 Here s a silly little song that s a blast to play. Popular Song #3 E--------------------------------------------------------- B--------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------- D--------2----------2------------2---------2---------2---- A--0-1-2------0-1-2--------0-1-2-----0-1-2---------------- E---------------------0-X---------------------3po-0------- The Musical Alphabet Part One The Musical Alphabet Part Two The notes in music follow a seven letter alphabet: A B C D E F. That s it. No more. Forget H through Z. Just cut out the rest of the letters in our English alphabet and throw them away. This means that when you reach the end of the musical alphabet at, just start over with A and go through the same thing over and over again. The musical alphabet has a couple of things called sharps and flats that are not in our normal alphabet. Forget about the flats for now so we can work on one thing at a time. Everything we ve learned about the musical alphabet applies to all Western instruments: the piano, trombone, harpsichord, and even the bagpipe. But how do we play the musical alphabet on the guitar? Well, thanks for asking. Let me show you. Each fret on the guitar raises the pitch one note (technically, one half step or semitone ) on the musical alphabet. The most effortless way to prove this concept is on the A string. Sharps take this symbol # and occur between all of the letters except between B and C and between E and F. So here is another rule for guitar: there are no sharps or flats between B and C and between E and F. Here s the musical alphabet: A A# B C C# D D# E F F# # Fingering on A String Note Open A First fret A # Second fret B Third fret C Fourth fret C# Fifth fret D Sixth fret D# Seventh fret E Eighth fret F Ninth fret F# Tenth fret Eleventh fret #
Lesson 8 Sevenths Part One 1. Form Pentatonic Up and Down 2. Amazing race 3. T21T3212 on chord then D chord 4. There are no sharps or flats between and and between and? 5. Write the complete musical alphabet. 6. Play every note of the musical alphabet on the A string. Now is time to learn another important set of chords: the Sevenths. If Major Chords are yippy skippy happy and Minor Chords are sad and depressing we can say that Seventh Chords are questionable sounding. A Seventh Chord, when it is played well, should make you feel just a little confused. Maybe you will even scratch your head a bit. Sevenths Part Two Do you remember that little rule is roovy? That helps explain what happens to the C7 and 7 chords. The modifies our rule about sevenths a bit. On C7 the unusual tuning of the string will force you to put your pinky finger on the third fret of the. 7 is made by dropping your pinky off of the high e string and placing your pointer finger on the first fret of the e string. The rule for seventh chords is to drop the middle string your fingers are on two frets (or one whole step). Let s demonstrate this with three chords. Riffs 1,2,3 A riff is a set of notes in a scale that sounds cool. These are based off the form scale. e ------8-----5----------------------------------------------------------- Riff 1 B -------------------8-----5---------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------7--^---5------------------------------- D ------------------------------------------------------------------------- A ------------------------------------------------------------------------- E ------------------------------------------------------------------------- e ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riff 2 B ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- D -----------------------------5-----7------------------------------------ A ------------------5-----7----------------------------------------------- E -----5-----8------------------------------------------------------------ P.M.. e ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riff 3 B ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------5----------------------------- D -----------------------------5--h--7------------------------------------ A ------------------5--h--7---------------------------------------------- E ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Practice the progression C7 A7 7 E7 D7 until your fingers fall off this week. Just kidding. But practice them a lot.