Well, if you're certain that you know what notes you can find on a guitar, where you can find them and how to read tablature, you can move on to lesson two.
Lesson 2
I am sure you have heard of 'chords' before. Lets' begin with the major chords. Every note has a chord, so there are seven major chords to learn. Let's look at the A chord first:
A chord: E -----------0-- B ---------2---- (l) G -------2------ (r) D -----2-------- (m) A ---0---------- E -X------------As you can see, three fingers are needed to play this chord: the little finger (l), the ring finger (r) and the middle finger (m). To play an A chord, place your fingers on the D, G and B string on the second fret. Then, play the chord, but don't forget not to play the first string. As you can see, I placed an -X- there, which means you shouldn't play that string. The -O- means that you should play the string open, without any finger on it. There you have it, the A chord!
C chord D chord E -----------0-- E -----------2-- (m) B ---------1---- (f) B ---------3---- (r) G -------0------ G -------2------ (f) D -----2-------- (m) D -----0-------- A ---3---------- (r) A ---X---------- E -X------------ E -X------------
E chord G chord E -----------0-- E -----------3-- (l) B ---------0---- B ---------0---- G -------1------ (m) G -------0------ D -----2-------- (l) D -----0-------- A ---2---------- (r) A ---2---------- (m) E -0------------ E -3------------ (r)Some of the above chords demand some stretching of fingers here and there, but with a little practise, you'll do alright.
Anyway, I told you there were seven major chords, but you played only five major chords until now. That's because the two 'missing' chords are the 'barre chords', and they are a bit harder than the others. The barre chords are the B chord ans the F chord. Let me write them down for you first:
B chord F chord E -----------2-- (f) E -----------1-- (f) B ---------4---- (l) B ---------1---- (f) G -------4------ (r) G -------2------ (m) D -----4-------- (m) D -----3-------- (l) A ---2---------- (f) A ---3---------- (r) E -X------------ E -1------------ (f)
Alright, let's look at the B chord first. As you can see, it looks like the A chord, only two frets (= one note) lower down the neck. But, you can see that the fore finger is used as well, on the second fret. This is the hard part. First, put your three fingers on the fourth fret. Then, only the fore finger is free. Put you fore finger on five of the six strings, just behind the second fret. Push hard, otherwise the chord will sound terrible.... Well, try to play it now!
Same goes for the F chord. Put your ring and little finger on the third fret, the middle finger on the second, and the finger that is left, the fore finger, on all six strings on the first fret. Then play the chord.
These are what you call 'barre chords'. They're hard to learn, but necessary, so take your time!
This was the second guitar lesson. You can practise this at home until you understand exactly what I wrote here. You can find the next lesson, lesson number 3, here!
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