Play Guitar Part 1

Learning to play the guitar is tough, and even tougher on your own. That is why I have collaborated with Kathy Unruh of ABC Learn Guitar.com to bring you this series on "How to Play Guitar" for beginners.

Knowing how the guitar strings are identified is foundational to everything else you will learn on the guitar!

You will find this first lesson to be very easy and straight-forward, but don't overlook it's importance! With that said, lets begin!

Did you know that you already understand something about playing the guitar? That’s right! Seven simple letters:

A B C D E F G

These seven letters make up the MUSICAL ALPHABET and with them you will learn:

How the Strings are Identified

How the Fretboard Works

How to Read Music

How to Play Chords

It's a good idea to become familiar with the various parts of a guitar before we go any further. Take a minute or so right now to examine the graphics below.

ACOUSTIC GUITAR

Here is another graphic showing the parts of an electric guitar.

ELECTRIC GUITAR

The basic guitar is equipped with six strings. They are numbered in order from the highest sounding (first), down to the lowest sounding (sixth).

1 = First (high)
2 = Second
3 = Third
4 = Fourth
5 = Fifth
6 = Sixth (low)

Each one is also identified with a letter from the Musical Alphabet:

1 = E
2 = B
3 = G
4 = D
5 = A
6 = E

Here is a simple acrostic which I have my students use to help them memorize the letters associated with each string. Start from the sixth and move up to the first.

--------------------------------------------------1 = Ears--------
------------------------------------------2 = Big------------------
----------------------------------3 = Grow------------------------
--------------------------4 = Dogs--------------------------------
------------------5 = And-----------------------------------------
----------6 = Elephants-------------------------------------------

They are referred to as OPEN tones when played in this manner.

LESSON OBJECTIVE: To memorize the letters and numbers associated with each string.

PRACTICE: Play the open guitar strings by starting on the sixth string and moving to the first. Say the acrostic out loud as you hear the sound of each tone. Then repeat the process saying just the first letter of each word in the acrostic. After you have memorized the letters associated with each tone in this order, try saying them in reverse by starting on the first and moving back to the sixth.

I hope you enjoyed your first lesson on how to identify the guitar strings. Now you're on your way to learning how to play the guitar!

GO TO THE NEXT LESSON:

-Kathy Unruh, www.abclearnguitar.com (Friday March 6th, 2009.)