The Basics And Beyond

Obviously this section covers the basics of the guitar and should be the choice destination for beginning guitarists, but there is a lot of material here that even some intermediate or advanced players may benefit from. Follow the links on the right to access the topics in this section. Below is a run down of some of the topics you'll come across in this section.

Where Do I Start?!

With all the information to digest in the site you many not know where to start. That's alright, because we've got you covered. I've put together this guideline to help you determine where to start. I've put links to core pages in chronological order.

Click Here for "Getting Started".

Getting In Tune

The first thing you should whenever you pick up the guitar to play or practice is get it in tune. The sound of an out of tune guitar ranks up there with the sound of fingernails scratching on a chalkboard. It can be very discouraging to play an out of tune guitar, because nothing you play will sound right. In fact some beginners quit playing at all because of this very reason.

Tuning your guitar is something you get better at with practice. It takes time to develop your ears to the point that you are able to fine-tune your instrument. Once you have developed your "hearing power" you may hear subtle differences in pitch that you haven't heard before.

Go to Tuning Your Guitar to learn more.

Why Reading Music Is Not Important

Traditional music notation was created to show what happens on a piano, not a guitar. The guitar's fretboard is drastically different than a piano's keyboard and requires a different sort of notation called tablature. Unlike traditional music notation, tablature doesn't take years to master, it only takes minutes. Tablature gives us a visual representation of the fretboard and tells you precisely where to play on the fretboard.

Visit How To Read Tablature to learn more.

Practice Tips

It's up to you! There's no way to make you practice and that's the only way you're going to get any better. You cannot avoid getting better with regular practice, but if you don't practice you will find yourself getting no where. Here are some some tips to help improve your practice time:

It's a good idea to practice at least a little every day. Set aside some time each day to practice undisturbed. Even if it's only 10 or 15 minutes a day, you will marked improvement from day to day or week to week.
Set both short and long term goals. An example of a short term goal may be to learn your basic chord patterns. An example of a long term goal may be to learn all the notes on the fretboard.
If you start to feel too much discomfort in your hands and/or fingers you may want to take a break or wait until the next day to continue. Over time the muscles in your hands will develop to the point where they won't cramp as much, and your fingertips will develop hard callouses.
Don't get ahead of yourself. If you come across something that you do not understand don't skip it and go on to something else. Stop and click the support button or visit the forums so that you get the help you need to understand. Skipping material is like skipping chapters in a novel: you'll be scratching your head in confusion.
Concentrate on your weaknesses. Don't spend most of your practice time on the areas that you would consider your strengths. Take the time to make your weaknesses strong.
Try recording a practice session then go back a month or two later and listen to it. You'll be amazed at the progress you've made if you've stuck with regular practice.

Getting To Know The Fretboard

It's highly important that you begin to get familiar with the names of the notes on the frets of a guitar. Knowing them will serve you to a great degree in the future when learning chord and scale systems.

Memorizing the name of the notes on the entire fretboard may seem like a daunting task, because a standard guitar has 21 or more frets. That's 126 or more frets with notes to memorize... or is it? In reality it's not as bad as that. We've made it as simple as possible.

In the right-hand column under "Discover The Fretboard" are a series of links that will help you become familiar with the fretboard and it's notes. You don't have to learn them all right away but it's a long term goal that you should strive for, so working on learning them on a regular basis is a good idea.

You can get started by going to Utilizing Dot Inlays.

Chord Basics

Chords are a fundamental element in music. One of the reasons that the guitar is such a popular instrument is it's ability to play chords. If you think about it most instruments don't have this ability. Of course keyboard instruments like pianos have this ability, but what about trumpets, or saxophone, etc.?

In this section we present the 5 basic chord patterns. They are C, A, G, E, and D. Together they spell the word CAGED which should help you to remember their names. This CAGED system is unique to the guitar. All other chord patterns on the guitar can be built off of these 5 basic patterns. The other chord patterns can be found in the Chords section.

To get started learning your basic chord patterns you'll want to 1st learn How To Read A Chord Diagram.

Intervals And Relative Pitch

Intervals are the distance between 2 notes. Recognizing the sound of different intervals by ear is a key part of your development as a guitarist. When you hear a note, the ability to the know the pitch of any other note from the previous note is called "relative pitch". We've included several ear training exercises that will help you develop relative pitch, but first you'll want to learn your intervals.