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(Zylom)
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Hello!
Here`s an article I wrote (a long time ago, while extremely sleep deprived) that may answer some of your questions:
The guitar is a lot of fun; it has six strings and in their standard form the
highest up one is the thickest, deepest note, E, and then they work down in
altitude and up in pitch as follows: A, D, G, B, and then E 2 octaves above the other E.
The finger board is usually decorated with fret markers so you can instantly see which
fret you`re on; eg, on the 12th fret the strings will be an octave higher then when open,
the double dots usualy mark this fret. Each fret means one half tone, ie. the "distance"
between a white and black key on a piano.
The left hand goes on the finger board and the right strums or picks the strings.
Guitars come in three basic flavors, with many variations in between;
Acoustic: they have a hollow body to amplify the sound of plucking or struming the strings,
but for high volume they need their own microphone- just like a vocalist does.
Electric: they don`t have a hollow body, but they have a pickup that when combined with
the metal guitar strings form a microphone that can send a signal to an amplifier ("amp"),
which can be very versatile in its ability to make a number of sound styles; and you can
run the signal through an effect pedal to make almost any sound; including imitating the sound
of an acoustic guitar.
Electric Acoustic: they have a hollow body like an acoustic, and pickups like an electric;
but the ratio of acoustic to electric varies widely; ie. some are mostly acoustic with a touch
of electric, and some are mostly electric with a touch of acoustic.
(In the following instructions, remember that you`ll probably need to pick the strings after
you put the finger indicated on the string, then switch to the next finger and pick again,
the exception is when you have the gain so high that you can just press the string to the
finger board and the "hammer on" sound is so loud it`s a full strength sound, for this it`s better to
turn the guitar mounted volume all the way up and then adjust the amp volume as needed.)
You can play a 2 octave scale by deciding which key you want to be in,
and then find that on the 1st E string, put your middle finger on that fret,
next pinky, then switch to the A string with your index finger, middle finger,
pinky finger, D string with index finger, ring finger, pinky finger. This brings
you through one octave; you might want to practice that for a while, and then
move on to the 2nd octave. Pinky finger on the D string is the middle note,
so after that; index on G, ring, pinky, middle on B, pinky, index on E, and
the final note is middle finger. You may have noticed you have another note on either side
of the scale without moveing your hand back and forth. There`s more in this technique;
like playing in keys within keys, eg. "F as written in D", which us useful to know, I`ll write
about that some time. If this seems confusing, then don`t worry; it`s not your fault, you just
need to keep thinking about it and trying to figure it out.
PRACTICE! In the words of one of my guitar (and video game) buddies:
"Yes, much sucking is averted by practicing", so if you want to be really good, then practice
an hour or 2 every day. Find someone who knows more than you; learn from them.
Even if at first you can hardly stretch your fingers far enough to form chords that seem elemental,
don`t feel like you`re "physiologicaly unsuited" to play guitar; practice will let you do much better
than you think is even posible; IF you keep it up.
Guitar technique is divided into 2 basic catagories, and there`s alot of crossover between them,
but I think that their purest forms can be isolated: Rhythm and Lead.
Rhythm> This is the style that is considered more important for *most*
styles of music, fortunatly it`s also alot easier in it`s basic form- though
at its hardest level it is just as difficult as lead. It consists of forming chords with
your left hand on the finger board, usualy rather close to the far end, and then
struming them with right hand over the sound hole or pickups. When playing broken
chords, (which have nothing to do with broken strings), it can ofter border on lead
technique when done intricatly enough. E, A, and D are some of the easiest chords
to form, G and C are also pretty easy. Rhythm players should get a chord chart
for quick reference; if you`re familiar with music theory then you can figure out all
the chords for your self, but if your not, or if you want a quick reference for the more
complex chords, then a chart is nice to have.
Lead> Remember that 2 octave scale I told you about? Well, Lead is that sort
of stuff, only more advanced; once you master that and can play it without thinking
or hesitating between any notes then you ought to be able to play from sheet music;
this can be a useful skill and is handy. You`ll probably need to practice it a bit though.
You know how you started your middle finger on the key you were in? Well, let`s
call that the absolute key, so if your in G, then it`s like "As written in G", and then think
of the note under the middle finger on the E string as C, and then the other notes in
the scale as D E F G A B C, etc, so if you sharp or flat these as you normaly would
to form a key then you can get keys inside of keys (Ie. "relative keys"), this is useful
because it gives you a different amount of space around your central octave; a useful
instance is that relative G will give you a half octave on either side of your central octave.
<N.B. The following was written quite early in the morning;
I`ll need to check it for accuracy when my brain is all the way awake>
Since Guitar is the instrument that spends the most time dealing with chords in it`s repretorie,
(the only thing even close is Piano, which of course is also excelent for chords),
I will talk about some basic chord theory here. I start with triads, but keep in mind
that there are other more complex chords; but triads are a good place to start.
The first 2 things in defining a chord are:
"How many notes does it have?" & "How far apart are they?"
A simple triad has 3 notes (Ie. 3 note letter names, they might be
repeated, "doubled", in another octave), the most common forms
of which are the Major and minor chord.
Both types have a root note which the chord is named after, eg. C is
the root note of the various types of C chords. And both types also have
a 5th, (ie. a note that`s 7 "frets worth" above the root.)
Both types have a 3rd, but 2 different types of 3rd:
A Major 3rd is 4 "frets worth" above the root,
A minor 3rd is 3 "frets worth" above the root.
Now, this formula is used to find what letter names are in a chord,
but the actual order they come in when you play them together could be
anything; ie. G, C, E is still a C chord, but the G is just an octave below
its normal position. This sort of thing is called chord inversion,
I`ll write more about that later.
If you move the 3rd up by 1 note it becomes a suspended chord;
this can be used to create a feeling of tension that is usually resolved
by switching the chord back to its unsuspended version.
In a Major chord, 1 note is 1 fret above the 3rd, in a minor chord it`s 2 above;
this is so you stay in the same key- though in your writing don`t hesitate
to experiment with "accidentals", id est notes that arn`t the key, only practice
can tell you when you`re adding too many or when you`ve got it just right,
and even then it`s still a largely mater of personal taste.
(I`m gonna talk more about accidentals and keys in the Piano section.)
Intervals work like this, the root note is the 1st, and then one note above
that is the 2nd, etc. Now, the key of C Major is formed on a Piano by
just using the white keys. I need to go back to sleep, I`ll finish this some other time.
More later.
Wow... high school was interesting, };->
+Jonny
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