I will be giving an intro to the guitar basics first and then I will touch on some more complicated stuff. The important thing to remember when you start learning guitar is "patience". Only then you will learn how to play guitar with ease. You may not get everything right in the first go, so keep practicing. Practice has no other substitute. So please hang on and go through my lens to get some interesting details about practicing guitar.
Knowing the Acoustic Guitar better
There are many different types of Acoustic Guitars - Acoustic Spanish Guitar, American guitar, Classical guitar with nylon strings - usually played in Spain and South America. A very popular song using this Spanish guitar is Bryan Adams' "Have you ever loved a woman?" You must hear that song, there are beautiful bits of Spanish style guitar playing in that song.
As you can see from the image, that guitar has 6 strings(im not getting into other details as you can see it from the image for yourself), The first string is the thickest and the last or 6th string is the thinnest
Lisa Pursell: The Basics of Electric Guitar
Learn the parts of the guitar, string directions, tuning, holding the guitar, and right hand position
Names of Strings:
Each string when played will produce a sound or in musical terms "NOTE". The first string will produce the most bass sound and the last string will produce the same note as of the first string but in a higher tone or "octave" in musical terms.
The strings are counted in a "down-up " pattern or, the first string is the thinnest string towards the bottom and then counting upwards till the thickest string or topmost string.
1st - E 2nd - B 3rd - G 4th - D 5th - A 6th - E
These are called Open Notes, meaning we are not using any fret(see the image) to produce other notes of the octave on a particular string.
What is an Octave ?
An Octave consists of 8 notes, which starts from the root or tonic note or the first note in a scale and goes up till the higher pitch of the root or tonic note is reached. For Eg: If we take a scale that starts at E that is E(open) F G A B C D and E. The last or eighth note is again E i.e. the same note as the root note or first note, but in a higher pitch. That's the only difference.
Let's take the most important and basic scale in music, C Major scale, in this scale root note or first note is C. And the scale progresses in this pattern C D E F G A B C(a.k.a the C Major Scale). You can see that the last note or 8th degree or 8th note in this scale is C, that is called an Octave (Octa meaning 8).
In a a standard guitar fret board, you can produce 2 or max 3 octaves on each string or you can play two octaves using all the six strings.
C Major Scale
In C Major scale C (or the root) is the Tonic, F(or the 4th note or degree) is the sub-dominant and G(or 5th note or degree) is called the Dominant. [See the pictorial representation ]
Practicing what you have learned till now
First you should practice with the open strings or without using the Frets. You have to use your "Plectrum" or "Pick" to strike each string in the order given below
First downward E A D G B E and then upwards E B G D A E ( you need to practice this till you gain speed)
You should never be in a hurry to gain speed. Patience is the key. So you have to practice the exercises atleast 2-3 hours daily.
When you are conversant with the above open string exercise, then you can try out using the FRETS as given in the picture. in this order.
1st String E(Open note)- F - G 2nd String A(Open note) - B - C 3rd String D(Open note) - E - F 4th String G(Open note) - A 5th String B(Open note) - C - D 6th String E(Open note) - F - G - A
Remember to strike the strings in an "Up - Down" pattern with your plectrum rather than only DOWN strokes. This will help you gain speed. First practice in a comfortable speed, and gradually increase your speed. Don't push yourself hard to gain speed, that will affect your perfection. if you try to switch to an uncomfortable speed sooner than you can, each note that you play won't be clearly audible. Speed should come naturally.
