So, now that I have a guitar, how do I start?

I’ve got an acoustic guitar. Should I start with tabs? Should I start with chords? scales? whole songs? Maby a helpful website? I don’t even know the terminology…

Congrats on getting a guitar! I’ve been playing for almost 2 years and I love it. I practice almost 6 hours a day. The main thing you need to know is PRACTICE. Not to brag, but most people think i’ve been playing alot longer than I have. That’s because of the amount of time I practice. Stuck on a chord? Practice it for hours, days, weeks, until you get it right. Before you start with chords or scales, you need to know some basic terminology.

Chords: 3 or more notes played at the same time
I’m sure you knew that one though

Chord Diagram: Shows you how to play a chord http://www.learn-guitar-online.com/chorddiagrams.html

Tab: It’s a different way of reading music for guitar. There are 6 lines, each representing a string. There are numbers on those strings telling you what fret to play.

http://guitar.about.com/library/blhowtoreadtab.htm

Position: If your book says to play in 1st position, that means you have your first finger cover the 1st fret, 2nd on the 2nd fret, etc. If it’s second position, then your first finger is on the second fret…and so on.

Major/Minor/Seventh, etc…: These are types of chords. Major means that the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the major scale are being played at the same times. So, if it was cmaj, then the notes would be C E G. A minor chord has the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the minor scale. So a cmin chord would be c, E flat, and g. There are alot of types of seventh chords that you will lean about eventually so I won’t cover all of them. The ones that you will see most often are Dominant sevenths, and Major sevenths. A dominant 7th chord is a major chord, plus a minor seventh (which means that the 7th note of that scale is flattened and then added to the major chord). A major 7th is a major chord plus a major seventh (not flattened).

I reccomend that you start out with learning the fingerings for chords first. In your book, look up how to play Gmaj, Amaj, Cmaj (this may be tricky at first), Dmaj. THen you can move on to other major chords, then minor chords, then 7th chords, and then all types of other chords (including barre chords when yor finger holds down more than one fret on more than one string).

When you learn scales, do not learn anything else until you’ve mastered the major scale!

If you need some help, E-mail me at ilovesheep808@yahoo.com I’ll be glad to help you.

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