Guitar 101: How to play the guitar (Easy)

Guitar is easy and fun. Check out the many videos on youtube for the many how to play guitar. In addition, there are apps for your phone, and many good books covering the subject, or consider taking lessons from a professional!

 

The Guitar Basics

The left hand usually does the fretting of chords and notes, (the frets are the vertical metal rails along the neck of the guitar).

 

The right hand picks or strums the chords at the other end.

 

You can start playing guitar easily by learning a few basic chords, many of which can be modified, or used for melodies later.

 

Keep the guitar parallel with your body and don’t wrap your thumb around the neck like a troll.

 

The most basic Guitar chord possible.

E minor

I would learn e minor and e major to start, and practice strumming and playing the notes one by one cleanly. and placing your fingers properly on the strings. Think its the guitar’s fault? Try again with better technique. While some guitars may be easier to play than others, most of the beginning is building up hand strength and learning and memorizing where the fingers go on the frets for various notes and chords.

The strings

The Standard Guitar tuning is (lowest) E A D G B E (Highest)

So E minor open chord uses:

First String E: the lowest string (Open or not fretted. Do nothing!)

Second string B :(The A String 2 half steps up) (With the First finger)

Third String: E (the D String is fretted up two frets (2 half steps up) to E (With the second finger)

Forth String (Open) G (Do Nothing!)

Fifth String: B (Open) Sixth String: E (Open) (YES!)

Practice making the E minor shape. It is used a lot. Growth hack would be to immediately begin practicing E minor barre chords and moving it around the fretboard using your first finger to extend across all the strings, and using the second and third finger to make the regular E minor shape.

More Chord Shapes

After mastering the E minor, try adding a few other chords to the mix and switching between the different hand shapes. Many of the shapes are similar, or can be used in different positions on the neck. If you use your first finger like a bar across all the strings, you can move the basic shapes around the fretboard.

• A Minor
• A major
• G major
• C Major
• D major
• D Minor

Barre Chords

It’s easy to have fun with barre chords when you get the hang of it.

Throw a barre across any chord and move it up 5 whole steps, or 7 frets up)

Throw a barre chord at the first dot for a 3rd up, at the second dot for a 4th or the 3rd dot for a 5th.

Check out this handy dandy chart

 

Possible Future Sections to Come Entitled

Chords Tabs and Music…

Hammer on Hammer Off…

Sliding around and Gettin’ Fancy…

Becoming a Guitar Legend…