the BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GUITAR MASTERY
THE 15 STEPS TO CREATING your own music on the guitar INDEX
Page Number Contents
1 About this book and why we made it 2 Our philosophy and community 3 Guitar Construction 4 Strings and string names 5 Open position notes 6 Open chords 7 Strumming 8 Tablature and notation 9 Riffs 10 Barre chords 11 Power chords 12 Pentatonic scales 13 Arpeggios 14 Major scale formula 15 String effects 16 Octaves 17 Alternate tuning 18 What now? 19 About us ABOUT THIS BOOK Hey there reader, and guitar player!
We have created this learning resource in an attempt to help people accelerate their journey of understanding the guitar, and inspire them to start creating their own music.
A lot of people when wanting to start playing guitar will go straight to Youtube, learn ran- dom songs here and there, but the information you are consuming is really scattered and has no building of structure.
This makes it harder for you to remember, much longer to improve, and when you don’t feel like you’re improving you’re going to lose motivation real quick.
Think of this book as a blueprint of what you need to learn, and the order you should learn it in, so you can start wailing on the guitar and creating your own music as quickly as possible.
WHY WE MADE IT
We are committed to teaching people not only the technical aspects of playing this amazing instrument, but also to helping people understand, interpret, and celebrate this phenome- non we call music.
Besides being a lot of fun, playing and practicing music can bring a lot of positive health benefits to your life too. Playing music has been proven to have many cognitive benefits like reducing cortisol levels making us less stressed, and constantly stimulating the mind making us sharper for much longer into our older years.
We believe that playing the guitar, or any instrument for that matter, is a life long learning experience which should be accessible and promoted to everyone.
We are truely appreciative of music and hope to help people all over the world find and cultivate this appreciation too.
1 OUR TEACHING PHILOSOPHY When it comes to teaching, our goal is to get you playing and creating your own music as quickly as possible. We do this by building a strong foundation of skills and knowledge using what’s called the 80/20 rule.
The 80/20 rule, or pareto’s law which it’s often called, is a rule that states that when it comes to comparing our input to output, there is always a large imbalance.
The 80/20 is a numerical representation of this imbalance - 20% of what you give will bring you 80% of you results.
We tend to believe that the return and rewards we get from something is dependent on how much we put into it. Fact is, a lot of your input will have very little significance compared to other more impactful things you could be focusing more attention on.
Some examples of the 8020 rule can be found... • Doing business, 80% of your sales are made by 20% of you sales team • In relationships we tend to spend 80% of our time with 20% of our friends • Even with how we dress, we tend to wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time
This rule is also true when it comes to learning and playing the guitar, 20% of guitar skills and knowledge are used 80%, if not more of the time!
This book is designed to highlight what we consider to be the most essential 20% of guitar skills and theory that will get you playing and creating music as quickly as possible.
JOIN OUR COMMUNITY To help connect guitar learners and players all over the world, we have created a Facebook community, inviting everyone who has downloaded this Ebook to join and contribute.
Just click on the icon below to join, and feel free to ask question, share with everyone your progress, and we would also love to get feedback and suggestions on how to improve our resources, and help the community grow.
JOIN OUR COMMUNITY
2 THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GUITAR MASTERY GUITAR CONSTRUCTION
WHAT IT IS
Guitar construction is understanding the different types of guitars, all the pieces of each guitar, and a general understanding of what each piece does. Throughout your learning your vocabulary will grow, but you will want to get the basics down from the beginning. This will help for further explanations.
Ac�u�t�c Gu�t�r THE BASICS El�c�r�c Gu�t�r Head
Tuning Keys
The 3 main types of guitars Nut
you will come across are: Neck
Frets
1. Steel string acoustic Fingerboard
2. Steel string electric Position Markers 3. Nylon string classical Body Pick Guard
Soundhole
Pickups
Pickup Selector
Saddle
Volume/Tone Controls
Vibrato Bar/Whammy Bar
Bridge
Output Jack
TIPS AND TRICKS
As you will notice, there are a lot of extra features on the electric guitar. The best way to deepen your understanding of what all of these do is through trial and error.
The most important thing for now is to understand the most essential vocabulary you need to know for tuning, changing strings, the fingerboard/fretboard and individual frets.
3 THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GUITAR MASTERY STRINGS AND STRING NAMES
WHAT IT IS
The guitar is a 6 string instrument. We can refer to these strings by using numbers (1 - 6 from bottom thinnest string up), or letters based on their tuning.
When we use letters to name the strings, we refer to the musical note which that string is tuned to. The most common way to tune a guitar is called Standard Tuning.
Standard Tuning: E - B - G - D - A - E
THE BASICS
When the guitar is sitting on your lap EADGBE in the playing position, the bottom 654321 thinnest string is string 1, and the top thickest string is string 6.
Note: For now you will only need to know about standard tuning. We will mention alternate tuning later in this S�A�D�R� T�N�N� book. String 1 - E (Thinnest) String 2 - B String 3 - G String 4 - D String 5 - A String 6 - E (Thickest) TIPS AND TRICKS
The string names and their numbers is an essential to learn and memorise. This is going to be the main way to communicate chord positions, scales, and help visualise the guitar neck.
An easy way to remember is using this 6 word sentence:
Easter Bunny Gets Drunk At Easter String 1 String 2 String 3 String 4 String 5 String 6
4 THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GUITAR MASTERY OPEN POSITION NOTES
WHAT IT IS
The open position notes are all of the natural notes (A,B,C,D,E,F,G) on the first 3 frets of the guitar neck. A whole note means that the note isn’t a sharp(#) or flat(b).
If you can memorise all of these notes, just on the first 3 frets, it will work as a really strong foundation for accelerating your understanding. By memorising these notes and positions you will quickly familiarise yourself with the musical alphabet, and it will be a huge help when it comes to memorising the rest of guitar neck.
THE BASICS
Here are all the open position notes on the first 3 frets. The first vertical line of notes (E,A,D,G,B,E) is the tuning of the guitar so we play them all just as open notes (play the string without your finger pressing down on the string).
TIPS AND TRICKS
Try playing through all these notes, but using your first finger (index finger) for fret 1, your second finger (middle finger) for fret 2, and your third finger (ring finger) for fret 3. This way you will be training your fingers to play scales, which you will learn more about later.
The best way to memorise these notes, and practice your finger movements is to play through them ascending (string 1 - 6), then descending (string 6 - 1).
5 THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GUITAR MASTERY OPEN CHORDS
WHAT IT IS
A chord is the combination of generally 3 notes played at the same time. Chord progressions (a series of chords played together) are what creates the harmonic foundation of a song, and in a band would be played by the rythym guitarist.
Open chords are the chord shapes which we can play using notes in the first 3 frets, mixed with open string notes. If you can learn a handful of open chords, you will be able to play hun- dreds of popular songs.
A lot of people who play the guitar will learn enough of these open chords and pick up a few songs, then stop learning there. It feels really great, and is a huge win when you start playing songs with open chords, but trust us, there are so many even better benefits when you keep progressing
THE BASICS
The best way to learn and memorise these chord positions is to understand how to read chord diagrams.
Here is an example of some common open chords explained with chord diagrams.
X O O X O O X X O
1 1 1
2 3 2 2
3 3 a minor c major d Minor
TIPS AND TRICKS
Hot Tip: keep fingers on their tips and try to not mute other strings with flat fingers.
Important: if your fingers haven’t started hurting yet, when learning the open chords they definitely will. Just take your time, and if they hurt too bad practice the finger positions without actually putting any pressure on the string.
Extra Tip: Practice open chord transitions. When you start to play your favourite songs you will need to go from one position the the other quite quickly,
6 THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GUITAR MASTERY STRUMMING WHAT IT IS
After you’ve got some of the open chord positions down, it’s a good time to start focusing on your strumming. Strumming comes intuitively to some, and not as easy to others. It is a rhythmic skill and can be learned easily enough.
Strumming is the movement in which we play/strum the chords, with upstrokes (from string 1 -6) and down strokes (string 6 -1). Strumming is more often done with a plectrum (aka a pick) to make the sound clearer.
When playing songs, the rhythm to each chord is created by the strumming pattern. Most lessons will explain this pattern by referencing down and up strokes (down, down, up, up) to help you get the strumming rhythm.
THE BASICS
In the image you can see to correct way to hold the pick, and the correct hand position to use when strumming.
Note: there are many musicians who don’t use a pick, but the pick has so many benefits and it’s great to learn with initially. We suggest trying out different hand strumming styles at a later stage.
TIPS AND TRICKS
Once you get comfortable with picking and different strumming patterns, there are a few other strumming effects to look into.
Palm muting: Use the edge of your strumming hand to gently touch all the strings to stop them from ringing out the chord.
Bass note emphasis: when perform down strokes, aim to put more emphasis on the bass note, the lowest sting (in pitch) of that chord shape, generally string 6 or 5.
7 THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GUITAR MASTERY TAB AND NOTATION
WHAT IT IS
Tab (tablature) and Standard Notation are the different ways we can read music, tablature being a system only for string instruments with frets.
Standard notation is your typical style of sheet music which consists of five horizontal lines (staff). Each line and spaces between lines represent a note.
Tab is a form of musical notation indicating instrument frets rather than musical pitches. This is considered a simplified version of standard notation.
THE BASICS
A lot of song books and online resources will have both standard notation, and tablature together like you can see in the example below.
TIPS AND TRICKS
Learning tab is much easier than learning how to read standard notation, although it is also limited in what it can tell you compared to notation. Here are a couple of examples.
1. Standard notation has more information about the songs. Ex, timing and rhythm, note values.
2. Standard notation is the universal musical language used for all instruments.
8 THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GUITAR MASTERY RIFFS
WHAT IT IS
A riff is a sequence of notes which make up a catchy, and often repeated, part of a song. All of your favorite rock and pop songs have them. They are usually the part of the song which gets stuck in your head.
After you have the most important open chords memorsied, start using tablature to learn some of your favorite riffs. This is going to get your fingers used to quickly playing individual notes.
THE BASICS
Here are a couple of classic songs which have very obvious riffs played throughout the whole song. Read the tab and have a go at playing them.
Remember, the bottom line of the tab is the 6th string (thickest top string) of your guitar.
Michael Jackson - Beat it
Led Zepplin - Heartbreaker
TIPS AND TRICKS
The best thing you can do before attempting to play a new riff is it listen to that song a lot. People feel they know the song, but when it comes to playing the riff they miss important elements, or they have problems with the timing.
Active listening is very important for a musician!
9 THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GUITAR MASTERY BARRE CHORDS
WHAT IT IS
Barre chords are when you start playing chord shapes up the neck using your index finger to press down vertically on all strings, replacing the nut. Mastering this will open you up to lots of new sounds and effects when playing.
The problem is that it’s a little tricky and can take a lot of repetitive practice to get it right. This is the point where a lot of people give up. Unfortunately for them, they don’t realise that a lot of guitar fun is on the other side of learning barre chords.
THE BASICS
To make the barre you need to use the edge of you index finger to firmly press down on all strings. Think of you finger’s edge like the blade of a knife. Here are some examples of a common Major and Minor barre chord position.
The barre is always done with your index Numer 2 is your middle finger, 3 your This is what you hand should look like finger (finger 1). ring finger, and 4 your pinky. when making the F Major shape.
TIPS AND TRICKS
The key to understanding barre chords is to think of them as movable shapes. The shape can be moved up and down the fretboard, without altering the fingering at all, to give you any one of 12 different chords.
The note at the fret which the shape is built determines the name of the chord. The G minor above is a G because the 6th string on the 3rd fret is a G, and that is a minor position shape.
10 THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GUITAR MASTERY POWER CHORDS
WHAT IT IS
A power chord is a type of chord which only consist of 2 notes, compared to 3 note chords such as the open chords and barre chords.
When playing a power chord we generally just play 2 or three of the strings at a time, and the strumming is quite quick and contains more of a percussive hitting effect. Power chords are really common in heavy metal and punk rock music but can be seen in other genres too.
THE BASICS
Here are some chord diagrams for commonly used power chords. The “X” above the diagram is telling you NOT to play that string.
TIPS AND TRICKS
When talking about chords we will label that chord with a major or minor sound. Power chords on the other hand don’t have a major or minor quality because we aren’t playing the third note.
We often call power chords 5 chords, or fifths as they contain only the first and fifth note.
11 THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GUITAR MASTERY PENTATONIC SCALES
WHAT IT IS
Now that you know the basics of chords, your focus is to start learning scales. Scales are a series of notes in a key (the key of A for example) which sound really good when played together.
Pentatonic means 5 (penta) and note (tonic), so a pentatonic scale consists of 5 notes. This scale is a great entry point for starting to improvise over songs, and creating riffs and solos. The pentatonic scale has 5 different positions which all interconnect working up the whole guitar neck. When starting out, focus on memorising only Pentatonic Position 1 (see below).
Once you have position 1 memorised, then start learning the other 4 positions.
THE BASICS
Below is the Minor Pentatonic Scale Position 1 in the key of A, starting on the 6th string (thickest string) of the 5th fret. The orange numbers below are showing the A note inside the scale. This position alone can be used to play many guitar riffs and solos.
1 4 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 fret 5
NOTE: The scale above is in the key of A because we start on the A note on the 5th fret. This is why we call it the A Minor Pentatonic Scale. By simply moving the starting finger to a different fret, you are changing the key of the scale. If you played the same thing starting on fret 3, you would be playing the G Minor Pentatonic Scale.
TIPS AND TRICKS
Remember to use your fingers efficiently. In this scale position you would use your first finger on the 5th fret, third finger on the 7th fret, and your fourth finger on the 8th fret.
Another important thing to practice is alternate picking. Try picking the strings with down and up movements instead of just down. Getting really good at alternate picking will allow you to play much faster, and sound a lot smoother.
12 THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GUITAR MASTERY ARPEGGIOS
WHAT IT IS
An arpeggio is when you play each note of a chord individually, instead of strumming them all at the same time.
This can be used as an effect to emphasize the melody and make the song sound a lot more harmonic. Arpeggios are also used a lot in Jazz as a way of improvising over each chord change.
THE BASICS
Below is an A minor open chord, and next to it the tablature showing you how to play the Arpeggio for that chord.
TIPS AND TRICKS
Recap: As you should know by now, guitar chords are made up of 3 notes. We call these notes the 1st, the 3rd, and the 5th. These notes are numbered based on their sequence in the particular scale you are playing.
For example, if we had an A Major chord the 3 notes would be - A, C, E - as they are the 1st, 3rd, and 5th.
AFirst B CThird D EFifth F G
13 THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GUITAR MASTERY MAJOR SCALE FORMULA
WHAT IT IS
The Major Scale is a series of 7 notes. The first scale you will learn is the C Major Scale, formed by playing the 7 natural notes. Natural notes means the note doesn’t contain sharps(#) or flats(b).
C Major Scale = C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C A Major Scale = A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A (Contains natural notes and sharps)
THE BASICS
The major scale follows a formula, a reoccurring sequence, which consists of whole steps and half steps. These steps are what we use to measure the difference between notes. You will see this often represented by W (whole steps) and H (half steps).
Major Scale Formula = W,W,H,W,W,W,H
A great way to understand this, and literally see it in black and white, is by looking at piano keys.
TIPS AND TRICKS
Much like the pentatonic scale, the major scale interconnects all over the guitar neck and consists of 5 different positions.
Memorising the C major scale is a great way to help you memorise the guitar neck and note positions as it only contains natural notes. See our complete lesson Memorise the Guitar Neck with C Major Scale
14 THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GUITAR MASTERY STRING EFFECTS
WHAT IT IS
Once you are familiar with the Pentatonic and Major Scales, the next step is to learn to add some string effects to make your improvisation and soloing sound less robotic, and allow you to add some emotion to what you are playing.
We can do this by adding common effects like string bending, slides, hammer ons and pull offs.
THE BASICS
String Bending = to play a note and use your fretting hand to push the string up causing the sound to go up in pitch, giving off a bending sensation.
Sliding = To play one note, then keeping your finger on the string, slide up or down to the next note.
The Hammer On = to quickly slam your finger on to a string right while the noteis still strongly sounding (ringing out).
The Pull Off = the opposite of the hammer-on. Strike the string and while the note is still ringing, release the fretting finger.
Examples of hammer ons in tablature
TIPS AND TRICKS
All of these different string effects may seem quite easy to understand, but making them sound good is a whole different story. We advise learning a few famous riffs and solos which have lots of these effects. When playing with the solo you will notice the subtle nuances of each effect for that particular sound.
Are bending far enough? Are your hammer ons too hard, or too soft?
15 THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GUITAR MASTERY OCTAVES
WHAT IT IS
The term octave in music theory is when you play the same note (for example an A) but in a frequency (an octave) higher. A B C D E F G A (this A is an octave higher or lower in the scale).
Octave chords are similar to power chords (chords consisting of the 1st and 5th note) but instead of playing the 5th, we play the 8th (or the 1st) note an octave or more higher. So when playing this chord you are just playing the same note in 2 different locations on the guitar.
THE BASICS
Below are some examples of the octave chords on the guitar neck. The tricky part of playing these chords is isolating just the 2 notes and muffling the other strings.
1 4 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 4 fret 5
An example of a full octave on the piano from C to C. Playing all The 3 A notes (in orange) demontrate the octave these white keys from C to C is the C Major Scale. cycle in the Am Pentatonic Scale.
TIPS AND TRICKS
Understanding octaves is fundamental knowledge as you are literally going through every note in the musical alphabet. From here on, everything is repeating itself in higher or lower octaves (pitches).
16 THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GUITAR MASTERY ALTERNATE TUNING
WHAT IT IS
As you should be well aware of by now, the tuning of your guitar (Standard tuning) is: E B G D A E - from bottom thinnest string to top thickest string.
This is the tuning used for the majority of most western music, and you should make sure you know all your chords and scales based on standard tuning before experimenting with alternate tuning.
Alternate tunings generally fall into 2 categories. They are either open tunings, meaning the strings are in tune to the sound of a chord when they are all played open, or they are adaptated tunings specifically designed to use one or more open strings.
Open tuning is used a lot with slide guitar, and adapted tuning is commonly used to add extra bass notes or modal sounds to your chords and scales.
THE BASICS
After you feel comfortable with standard tuning, playing around with alternate tuning can be really fun, and help you discover cool new sounds on the guitar.
TIPS AND TRICKS
When playing Flat Tuning, or Tone Down, everything is exactly the same as standard tuning except tuned down a half note (flat) or a full note (tone down).
Drop D is exactly the same as standard tuning except the 6th string is lowered by a tone to the D note. This makes it sound the same as the open 4th string but an octave lower in pitch. This tuning is ideal for playing in the key of D because you can use the open 6th string to play the bass note.
17 CONGRATULATIONS Now that you know all these elements which make up the most important aspects of playing the guitar, and creating your own music, it’s time to put your fingers to the fretboard and practice as much as possible.
Get online and find resources that go deeper into these subjects, find teachers who you resonate with, and create your own path with this lifelong practice of playing the guitar.
As B.B. King once said,
“The more you put into this instrument, the more you get out of it,” which is something that we can guarantee to be true, and only hope that this book has been a catalyst to helping you realise this youself.
WHAT NOW? Want to really accelerate your learning with our 80/20 teaching principles? Take a look at the complete 80/20 guitar course.
The 8020 guitar course teaches you not only how to play and understand all your favourite songs, but we really focus on giving you the skill set and frameworks to be able to create your own music.
This 12 week, online course starts with the basics, teaching you the most importnat aspects of guitar playing technique with just the right amount of music theory, making it very easy to understand and instantly applicable.
By the end of this course we guarantee that you won’t be just playing all your favourite songs, but you’ll be creating your own music.
18 ABOUT US
TODD FISHWICK Todd has been playing, teaching, and performing for over 25 years. He has toured Australia and the U.S.A. performing in rock and punk bands. He currently works for the Australian Education Department, teaching and promoting music and the art of playing guitar to inspired, upcoming musicians.
Formally, he holds an Advanced Diploma of Contemporary Music, a Bachelor of Music majoring in Music Studies, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Education.
CHAD FISHWICK Originally a self-taught guitar player, Chad has been around music since a young age and has claimed it to be a fundamental part of his personal growth. His main objective with Wail Guitar is to help people discover how powerful and lifechanging a daily guitar playing habit can be.
He was influenced heavily by latin styled music while living in Brazil and other locations in South America.
FOLLOW Click on the icons below to follow us on these social channels. We are constantly adding new lessons and trying to connect guitar players all over the world.
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