Beginner Guitar Lessons: Guitar Lesson 4

1. Lesson 4 introduction: Welcome to beginner guitar lessons. Lesson for my name is Chris Rope, and I'm the founder of the guitar training camp. If you've never played guitar before or you're a beginner looking to improve your skills than my beginner guitar lessons are for you, this course is going to be 10 lessons in total. I will be releasing each lesson one at a time, so you have the time needed toe work on and learn the material in each lesson. If you like the 1st 4 lessons and you want the next six lessons, make sure you sign up is one of my students. Here's some clips of what you'll be learning in Less and four starts with open G in May Have a second friend whole step to be for 12 and skip three and four and playing open a chord. I'm gonna show you three different finger rings to do that. This is the one that I use personally, but you can choose any one of the three Theo Open. A minor chord is my favorite open chord. I'm not exactly sure why, but it's easy to play, and I think it sounds great. G minor pentatonic scale some information about May I have a bachelors of music degree from Berklee College of Music , and I've been teaching guitar full time for more than 18 years. I've told more than 30,000 private guitar lessons, so I'm very experienced with what students need to get started on guitar. For more details about the course, check out the course description. I look forward to seeing you inside the course. 2. Notes on the third string: in this lesson, you will be learning the notes on your third string. All right, These are the natural notes on the third string, which is your G string. Third string starts with open G. I'm a second fret whole step to be And it's 1/2 step to see because being so you're always together. And from C to D is a whole step from D T is a whole step from e two f is 1/2 step. So I just go up one fret and then from f g is a whole step. They were back up the G and that's one active. If you go up 12 friends, you start on a G group for French will come to a G again. So there's natural notes once again our g Hey, B c d g. Now let's go ahead and take a look at where all the sharps are on the third string. All right. For the Sharps, we have g sharp right here on the first fret then a is right here, so a sharp will be right here and be and see her here. That would mean C Sharp would have to be right here way Have d sharp then we have f sharp right here on the 11th. Fret one more time. We have g sharp, a sharp C sharp d sharp on then f sharp right here. Now let's take a look at the flats going down the neck. Right. Here's G. That means G flat would have to be right here on the 11th. Fret such g flat, then we would have e flat, then D flat B flat and then a flat. Ah, more time. Start here with G flat on the 11th. Thank E flat on the eighth. Fret way Have d flat on the six friend right here. Then we would have B flat on three and then a flat on the first fret. Those are the notes on your G string or your third strength. A quick tip to learning the notes on your strings. If you find yourself forgetting the notes on your guitar every time that you pick it up, go over all the natural notes on the entire guitar. That sounds like it would take forever. But as long as you know the string name and the pattern of the notes, you could do this exercise in a minute or two. This exercise will really help you with remembering the nose 3. Sight reading on your third string: Let's take a look at how to read the main natural notes on the third string. All right, In this exercise, we're taking a look at what are the main notes that you're gonna play on the third string and their third string opens going to G, And then we're also going to be working with a, which is on the third string. Second fret reason there's only two main notes mean to natural notes. That we're going to read on the second string is because we went G a this be right here, which will be the next natural note above in a this be you play on the second string open. So when you're just learning basic reading, you're probably gonna re be appear. You pregnant, read in the second fret So typically you'll see books and instructional material. They'll only be having you on the third string play G and A s. So I'm gonna go ahead and play through this exercise sound like this 34 gene, a gene, a gene 234 and gene a gene. So if we go and take a look at the first measure, we have 2/2 notes they come in on beats one and three. We start with 1/2 note on G, so it's gonna go 12 and then on beat number three. We come and comes in here with an A. So it goes 34 within a for measure number two. Looks like we have at It's going to go a g a. Those were all quarter notes there. Each one beat. So we're just going a gene a measure number three. We have a whole note, which is four beats, and that is an open G one, 234 Then, for measure number four, we have 2/4 notes and then 1/2 note was gonna go G a G. I'm just gonna play this exercise a couple times so you can go ahead and play along with me one, too. 34 on one more time. 12 34 312341234 Those are the main to note. You need to know how to read on the third string 4. Rhythm 2: in this lesson, you're going to be learning to play another rhythm. I will show you how to count and strum the rhythm. Let's take a look for this exercise. One of rhythm to I chose to use an open D chord. It's pretty easy cord, and if you notice for all three measures, you don't change the court it all. I did that on purpose. In the next exercises, you will be changing court. But for this 1st 1 I just wanted you to play the rhythm and not have to worry about changing chords. So the first measure it's going to go one two and step three and four, and the reason I'm skipping the downbeat of three is because that is tied to the end of two . That's why if you look in the if you look down below where the notes are, you'll see the there is little. It's a little line connecting those notes going from the end of 2 to 3. That means they're tied. It means we're extending the eighth note on the end of two. An extra eighth note to the end of three time. That measure goes 12 and skip three and four things is a common strum pattern that you can use in a lot of songs. If you're not sure what the play, This is a normal pattern ago. Ah, works Well, that's why I use this strum pattern in particular. So now we're gonna play all three measures. It's gonna go 12 and step three and four, two and three to play it again and I won't count aloud. You can just go ahead and play along with me. 34 exercise One of rhythm number two are in this exercise to it's the exact same rhythm strum pattern as the 1st 1 except on changing chords. I'm going to start with a G chord and in the second measure, go to a D chord on In the third measure, I go to a C chord sound like this one too. 341234 to 3. Now, one of the hardest things you're gonna as a beginner, you're gonna have a lot of trouble going from one chord to the next. Transitioning eso. I understand that that's gonna be a problem. So I would just play the first rhythm. 12 and three and four And just take your time. Get the next court set up than playing. Ah, we're gonna see a data set to see. Set it up. Good. 12 and three. It's gonna be a while until you're able to smoothly transition between the cords s. Oh, don't worry about that. That's gonna come in time. One little trick from going from a G two a d chord is you leave your third finger down that there is a finger in common between the still. If you're able to do that, it makes the transition a lot quicker. But in the beginning, it doesn't feel any easier. But in the long run, it will be easier. So I'll play through that one more time so you can strum along with me. 12 34 on three for two Teoh! And now go ahead and I will play that without any counting. 12 34 That was exercised to of rhythm number two and exercise number three. It's going to be the same rhythm. I just chose a couple different chords gonna put in a minor start and g chord on the d chord. So I'm going couch in 1234 23 I'll do it another time. Slower. 34123 and four and 12 and three, 23 For now, I will go ahead and play it without any counting. 12 34 That's how you play exercise. Three. For rhythm number two, that was rhythm number two. When you practice playing rhythm, make sure you practise the exercises slowly, incorrectly and then speed them up. In the beginning, it's really important to focus on getting your hand and your tapping foot to sync up. I often suggest that you count the rhythm out loud as you play it. This makes playing the rhythm seem harder at first, but I've seen a lot of students get the rhythms down much quicker when they count them out loud. 5. Learning to play the open A chord: I think this lesson I'm going to show you how to play the open a chord, playing open a chord. I'm gonna show you three different finger rings to do that. This is the one that I use personally, but you can choose any one of the three eso. What you're doing here is you're putting your second finger on the fourth string. Second fret and putting it here on it on the eve. The note E there, we're gonna put our third finger here on the third string. Second fret Just the note. A We're gonna take our pinkie and put it on the second string. Second fret, which is the notes? C sharp. So what we're doing here is we're strumming strings one through five or five through one. What I like to do it doesn't hurt If you hit the E in the bottom, the opening me personally, I want to hear the a the root of the court in the bottom. So what I do is I just let my my thumb here touch the six string and I just from then I end up strumming all six strings. It's just the six strings muted out so you don't hear it. That's the first way to do it. The second fingering which I do seal and a lot of educational books. They use fingers 12 and three like this. The same exact notes that I'm playing. It just fingers. 12 and three seems to be a real popular way to show people how to play a I'm not used to that one as much You, my high e string was the first time was meted out a little. It's like that. So we have this way Way this fingering on the third fingering, uh, which I think is even weirder. Um, some people like this finger eyes where I put my on this. See here on the 42 4th string. Second fret, um, I used my second finger and then my first finger goes on the third string Second fret, And then my third finger here is going to go on the second string. Third fret. So it kind of looks like this. You're probably not familiar, but here's how you play in a major seventh chord on, and then you move this finger up. I find this to be the most uncomfortable a cord to play. I think this one and this, uh, this one are way more more comfortable. But this one, Some people say if you have bigger fingers, this one works better because you're not trying to jam them all in a row. This gives you a little more room if you have a bigger fingers. But that is three different ways to play. An open a chord. And that's how you play the open a chord using multiple finger rings. 6. Learning to play the open A minor chord: the Open. A minor chord is my favorite open chord. I'm not exactly sure why, but it's easy to play, and I think it sounds great. Let's take a look at how to play it for the A minor chord look like this. Now we're gonna build that. We're gonna start with our second finger on 42 4th string second fret, which is an e. They're gonna take our third finger and put it on the third string Second fret, which is unknown. A right here they take our first finger and put it on the second string. First fret, which is C. They were gonna play the first string open so they know it's going to go a B Hey, see, on what I'm doing here is I typically will strum strings one through five or five through one on. Then I like to let my my thumb touch the six string to mute it out to do a flesh Butte and then I'll strum all six drinks way. I don't have to hear the either low e. It's not the worst thing in the world. It is part of the court. By typically what if I'm playing on a minor court I want to hear in a in the bottom, usually, so I just go ahead. You have to six string and this is what an A minor chord looks like. Beautiful sounding chord is my favorite open, minor chord, and that is how you play the open a minor chord. 7. The easiest way to get soloing: So you have a guitar and you want to start jamming. But you have no idea what the play. I'm going to show you the easiest and most used pattern on the guitar to get started soloing. Let's take a look. So this is the pattern that's going to allow you to solo over any major or minor key. So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to memorize this pattern. What we're gonna do is we're gonna I'm just gonna randomly pick somewhere on the neck. I'm gonna pick right here on the fifth. Fret happens to be where a is, and each finger is going to get assigned its own friend. 1234 So when I say on the six string 14 I'm referring to first finger and then your fourth finger, your pinky. So it's gonna go 14 than on the fifth string 13 that on the fourth string 13 on the third string is going 13 in the second string. It's 14 and then on the first string is 14 So once again, it's 14131313 141 floor. Make sure you go ahead and memorize that and practice the pattern. Kind of go through it a couple times. Just do you have it in your hands right now. Let's take a look at the next step. And how do we actually use this pattern to use this pattern to Seoul over a minor key keys can be there. Typically, they're going to be in a major or minor key. There's a lot of different types of scales, but in general you're gonna be running across major and minor scales. So if you want to play over a minor scale, let's say what if Ah, you look up back in track or you see that song is in G minor. What you want to do is you take that pattern wherever your first finger is. You wanna make sure that that's on the root note was, so if it's in G minor, you want to make sure you find a G right. Here's a G. So if I play this right here, E, I would be playing a G minor pentatonic scale. If I had to play over, let's say Ah, back in track I saw was in C minor. Why would start up here on C by using that pattern? This this pentatonic patterns. This is what I call minor pentatonic Position one. It allows you to be able to solo in all 12 keys. If it was an F minor, I'd start down here enough se, whatever D minor. So that patterns it's really great goes instantly. You can solo over any minor key pretty quickly. Now let's take a look at How would you use that? The soul over a major key. So if I wanted to use this pattern to solo over a major key, what I would do is, let's say, if I was going to play in a major, the song was in a major, the backing track. Instead of starting with my first finger here playing the pattern here, what you do is you start with your pinky on a and then play The way becomes a major pentatonic scale. So still a couple more. If it was be major, I'm starting my pinky soul over B minor. I started my first thing. Let's do another one. Let's say what if I had to solo over se e major, then I would start here on this e g o e minor. I would start here and playing up here with my start with my first thing. That's how you use that pattern to solo over major or minor. Now let's talk about one way. That I used to practice soloing over backing tracks or a piece of music is I would keep it really simple. And first just start with eyes simplicity and get like whole notes. So let's say the only thing you're allowed to do is play whole notes. Ah, whole notice. Four beats. So here are turning my little backing track here. It's really just I have a line six deal for with a little loop function, so I'm going to use placeholders, so it's not very exciting. It's very limiting. It's hard to get anything that kind of sounds good because you're letting it ring for so long. Ah, but you know, that's I. I looked at that like it's fun. It's an interesting, um, way of practicing. Just start with whole notes. Now let's go ahead and that's do half notes. So we're gonna be basically a playing notes every to be E should see what I What I always do is, um, I allow myself to play half those. But then I always let myself play longer notes. So if I just want to pause and hold a note out for a while, so I would be doing whole notes and half notes, so I think. Okay, now let's go ahead and let's do some quarter notes. So, basically, every time for every beat, every time you tap your foot, you can play a note so you can play its fastest quarter notes or slower place 1/4 to get. Okay, now let's try playing some eighth notes. Eighth notes are basically you take a court note and shop in half, you get 2/8 notes. So instead of going 1234 weaken Dio one and two and three and four end, we're gonna be able to play twice as fast way. Theo, You You don't have to worry, really, about how good. How good does it sound like this is the practice exercise, so feel free to experiment with. Those were completely random notes. They didn't sound good, but that's okay when you're practicing, feel free to make a lot of mistakes and just try different things. Because if you don't know what it sounds like, how you're going to know what it sounds like until you try it, Um, that's probably the next step would be going to triplets and 60 notes, but I don't think I'm gonna get into that in this lesson, since this is more for beginners. So that is some different techniques, different ways. I would use the practice to kind of get my inspiration going with the the major or minor pentatonic scale. That's the quickest way I know of to get started playing guitar leads. What you want to do now is find some backing tracks to solo. Make sure you play a lot of wrong notes so that you learn what notes sound bad so that you'll sound better in the future. Don't worry about how good or bad you sound. Just have a lot of fun and make a lot of noise