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Lesson I
Picking, Fretting, & Major Chords
Picking & Fretting
Before you can play anything, you have to know how to hold the guitar, how to hold the pick
correctly, and how to hold the strings down on the fretboard.
Below are a couple of resources that can show you how to do
this.
Major Chords
The first thing I have my students learn are the Major chords.
This gets them used to the guitar by building their finger strength
(fretting), improving their picking accuracy, and seeing how different
patterns on the strings make different sounds. They also immediately
start learning the chords that they will be using throughout the rest
of their guitar playing lives. The following is an excellent source
for learning the major chords on-line.
When you first start playing the major chords or any chords, you should
play each string of the chord making sure that each note sounds clear.
After you get each note sounding clear, take your hand off the chord,
fret it again, and again play each string. Keep doing this until each note
of the chord sounds good the first time you fret it. If you are having
trouble getting each note to sound clear, do the following.
- Check to see that your fretting fingers are not touching a string that
they should not be touching. Only the tip of the finger should be
touching the string. Don't lay your finger flat.
- Make sure that you are holding the string all the way down to the wood of
the guitar. If not, it will buzz.
- Make sure that your fingers are between the frets(lines).
Playing each note over and over again may seem boring at first, but every
time you do this, your picking hand is memorizing where the strings are.
Your fretting hand is also memorizing the chord pattern. Remember:
Practice makes perfect!
A guitarist must put in many hours of practice to sound good. If you want
to get better faster, you must practice more. Just be sure that
you are practicing correctly or you are wasting your time. I usually tell
my students to get a calender and write down how much they practice each day.
I have them try to get at least an hour a day of practice. If they miss a day,
I tell them they should practice 2 hours the next day to make up for it.
This works well and if you are honest with yourself, you will be surprised what
you can do 6 months from now. Just remember that you will be learning new
things all the time, so that hour gets shorter and shorter as you get better.
Here are some posters showing chords that might help you in learning the guitar:
Guitar posters
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