Subjects Covered
- Chords
- A folksy rock song
- Scales
- Pentatonic scale on 5th
- Musicality
- Keeping the beat
- Exercises
- Practicing the song and the scales
Table of Contents
The main points for the beginner guitar course:
- keep your hands relaxed
- keep your guitar in tune
- play in time, with the rhythm
- musicality always beats technicality
- practice too slow instead of too fast
- play along to records whenever you can
- play with other people whenever you can
A folksy rock song
Points to remember:
- your left hand pinky and ring finger stay anchored
- think of the bass as a descending melodic line
- play in time
- play each chord for 4 beats (four beats = a measure)
Video for Lesson, Part One
|
| ||
|
|
The pentatonic major scale on the 5th fret (a C major pentatonic scale)
Get the Song
So you can practice playing the chords and making melodies:
Creating a simple groove
groove (gruv) n. Music that has a good feel. See in the ‘In the pocket.’
For any musician and especially for a beginning guitarist here are some simple steps to ‘get into a groove’.
- Feel the beat. Try thinking of the beat as a heartbeat or the swelling of gentle waves
- Do not worry about the chords. Muffle the strings with your left hand and ‘lock intothe beat’, ‘get into the pocket’, and ‘play it tight’.
- Strum something simple and keep on doing it over and over again.
- Relax while you are playing.
- Pretend you are the backup-backup guitar player and just add depth to the music
- Now repeat with the chords
Exercises
Learning the chords
Play the chords along to the mp3. Just strum each chord on the first beat of each measure. Remember, it is the rhythm that counts, not if you get the chord to sound right! Once you have the basic feel, add a little bit more. Strum on the 1st and 3rd beats of every measure. Try the steps suggested in ‘Creating a simple groove’.
Learning the newest pentatonic scale
Set your metronome on 60 clicks per minute (or even slower).
Make up a simple solo
Pick three or four notes from the pentatonic scale. Use these notes to come up with a simple solo to play over the recorded song. These exercises are similar to the exercises in lesson 2, but you are learning a new song.
Practice Makes Progress!
Hope this helps! Have fun and enjoy the process!
I always try to play music a little bit each day!
All the best! If you have any questions, comments, ideas and/or suggestions, please let me know and/or leave a comment below!