The Basics. Part 1

Here is a list of topics:
01. Pic holding
02. Guitar holding (positioning)
03. Strumming
04. Picking Basic chord progression
05. Basic picking progression

Pic And Guitar Holding.
First, when you just pick up your guitar, you will need to know how to hold the pic and how to hold the guitar. Well all I can say is that I believe that everyone has their own certain style. I have never been told completely how to sit or how to hold my pic, I have developed my own style and I like it. You are meant to enjoy playing music so why should you feel that you have to do something one way, or else you are completely wrong. This, I feel is not the case. The only thing I have to say is to hold your pick with no more than 2 fingers and a thumb. There's just not enough room for anymore fingers on it.

To hold your guitar, sit up, preferably straight, have the part of your arm just below your elbow resting on the top 'corner' of the guitar. Keep roughly to that position and you'll do fine.

Strumming.
Strumming is if not the, one of the most important features of guitar playing. Many people think guitar is great because of the awesome solo's some people do, all the quick, sharp, gentle sounds used by picking.

But what most people don't know is that a good guitar soloist must first become a good rythm player. If you can grasp the concept and style of strumming, and rythm, you can grow to be a GREAT soloist. Learning rythm first gives you a sense of beat and timing. As well as giving you an ear for good sounds. Eventually after playing rythm for a while, you will automatically know which chords go well together and which don't.

So lets start with the basics.

When strumming, you should use your whole arm from elbow to fingers. I have seen many times when someone picks up a guitar and strums using only their arm. Doing this makes a strum, sound like many picks of each string. It is also harder to strum using this style. you should use your whole arm, from elbow to fingers, all to generate a smooth flowing pattern.

Here is your first exercise:

Holding your guitar in a position that feel comfortable with, and holding the pic comfortably, without holding down any strings, just strum the open strings. Up and down, up and down etc.

If you are finding yourself stiffening up, just stop playing, close your eyes, and just pretend your a floppy rag. Then start to play again, with enough effort to move your arm, but not too much. Try to keep each strum in the same timing. So don't strum one quick, then slow.

Every strum has the same timing. Now practise. Congratulations! You are on the way to becomming the next Santana or Tommy Emmanuel! Keep it up!

Picking.
One thing I want to stress right now at the start. Never try to be too quick, it will come in time, depending on how much practise you put in. Sorry to say this but you aren't quite the Metallica lead guitarist yet. But you are you, and what a priveledge it should be! I can guarrentee that if you put the time in, you will be picking nice and fast before you know it. Remember, time flies when you are having fun, so have fun and you will get better in no time at all!

Because you are just learning guitar, at the momment I suggest you concentrate on the strumming, but just for some change and fun, give picking a go.

Ok, at this stage, just try picking with down strokes. (only use the one motion to pick) Here you can get into the practical quickly.

But, before you do, you will need to know how to read tablature. You can find tablature for practically any song on the internet. So it is wise if you learnt how to read it. Tablature is basically just the way many people write music for guitar. The great thing is, it doesn't use silly little dots with tails on them. And doesn't use sharps or flats or any of the standard music notation. Tab (tablature for short) is just plain simple to understand and only tells you what you need to know. Tab has 6 lines, each line obviously representing a guitar string. The top line is the high e string (the thin one) and the bottom line is the low e string (the fat chuncky one) Quite easy so far. If you don't know the order of the strings off by heart, that is perfectly ok, just as long as you know the top line is the high e string and vise versa. Here we go.

e------------------------------
B---3----6---------------------
G--------------7---------------
D--------------------6---------
A--------------------------0---
E------------------------------

All this is saying is that first you play the 3rd fret of the B string, the 6th fret on the B string, then 7th fret on the G string, then the 6th fret on the D string, then the open A string (the A string with no fingers on it). Believe it or not, if you can understand that, you have pretty much learnt the basics of Tab. Congratulations!

Now try playing this, just to get your picking working:

e----------------------------0-
B-------------------0----------
G-----------0------------0-----
D----0----------0--------------
A--------0---------------------
E-0----------------------------

As you can get this properly without hitting any other strings, gradually get a little faster, just at a speed you can handle. After a while doing this, you should feel more comfortable with your fingers. When you have convinced yourself that you're ready to move on, move on.

Basic Chord Progression:

Ok, now these chord progressions, at first may seem a bit hard. But like I will say time and time again, the more you practise the better you will get. The chords we will use are G, A, and D. If you do not know what these chords look like. I suggest you go to the APEguitar chord section. You will find them there. Then come back here to put them into practise.

Each bar contains 4 beats. For each strum, use a downstroke. v = downstroke, ^ = upstroke.

v v v v   v v v v   v v v v   v v v v 
A       | D       | G       | D      ||

If you can't get it quickly, obviously do it slower. do it slower and slower until you get it perfectly. One thing I strongly suggest is that when you know how to play the chord but it takes you about 2 seconds to get your fingers into the right postions for the chord, then each beat should be 2 seconds long. Remember that people shouldn't even notice that you change the chord except for the differnt sound. Now just try and get that sounding nice.

Basic Picking Progression.
Now that you know basically how to pick, and you have put it into practise, now it is time to get your fingers working. try this and as it gets easier, get faster. Remember to start off slowly at first. Also, the idea here is to get all of your fingers moving, so use all four of your fingers not including your thumb.

e------------------------------------------1-2-3-4-
B----------------------------------1-2-3-4---------
G--------------------------1-2-3-4-----------------
D------------------1-2-3-4-------------------------
A----------1-2-3-4---------------------------------
E--1-2-3-4-----------------------------------------

e-4-3-2-1-----------------------------------------|
B---------4-3-2-1---------------------------------|
G-----------------4-3-2-1-------------------------|
D-------------------------4-3-2-1-----------------|
A---------------------------------4-3-2-1---------|
E-----------------------------------------4-3-2-1-|

As I said before, just gradually get quicker. Now look at yourself, just from reading this Lesson, you are on the way to becomming a famous guitar player!

Congratulations! Now it is time to move onto the next lesson I'll be posting soon to come. Good Luck!

POSTED: 04/30/2004 - 10:49 am

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Comments

[zarghuna]

hey can any one help me plz i can not understand the chords representations like G A D they said in da lesson but i can not find the apeguitar chords to understand them plz help me

This is the tab for those chords, if you can read tab then this should help.
G A D
|3| |0| |2|
|0| |2| |3|
|0| |2| |2|
|0| |2| |0|
|2| |0| |x|
|3| |x| |x|

[Alt_Metal_Luvr]

try going to www.cyberfret.com, somewhere on their site they have an online list of all the cords and their fingering

[busted_rule]

thank-you u av helped me alot

[blake2c]

thanks i am now on my way!

[stpd1]

you should add some strum patterns but other than that good lesson

[Acoustic4Life]

that helped me in no way whatsoever. i think most people would already know that stuff including me.

[RKG]

that is why it is called a beginners lesson. it TEACHES THE NEW BEGINNERS.

I for one learned some good practice techniques here.

[slash_andrew]

Great for beginers, it explains the basic of the guitar, how to hold the guitar, the pick, chord progression.

Great Lesson, truly for beginners

[slash_andrew]

G A D
|3| |0| |2|
|3| |2| |3|
|0| |2| |2|
|0| |2| |0|
|2| |0| |x|
|3| |x| |x|

G SOUNDS BETTER LIKE THIS

3
3
0
0
2
3

[Sweet_Babe_69]

This site is quite helpful,, thanks freaks!

[74datsun260z]

this helped out a lot. thank you.

[SUPERWOLF]

Thanks, good job!

[punkangel173]

Thanxs, that helped me with some practice techniques

Nice.

[RockerMike]

nice work High Voltage. Thanks

[dAt-X]

well, im not english and i dont understand some words, can u explain me what a pic is?

[Claff]

nice beginners lesson bro. rock on

[Whitematter33]

very nice very nice. Although I learned how to play guitar in a class in school. Reviewing the basic made me realize that I had much to work on. Well back to the drawing boards again..

[high voltage]

Glad you guys enjoyed my lesson.

[Claff]

..the strings upside down in ur lesson? or am i just that drunk LOL

[yanzirox0723]

u rok dude...

[FlamesFan_21]

Awesome lesson....great help. thanks

[high voltage]

Thanks guys. All this positive feedback is truely awesome.

[SilentFoX]

hey bro ive been playing for like 5 1\2 to 6 years and this article has helped me alot. any one who trys to play chords and get hand cramps and desides to quit plz dont. you will beat your self in the long run. thats what i did and i am having to go back and learn all the chords and scales so i can open my soloing to a more personal level. i can hold out rythem and come up with some next level stuff as far as song creating goes but at the solo i get stuck or caused to go to a more effects than shredding. so again thx alot for article and guys plz take the time learn these things. youll thank yourself later.

[CptMorgan]

good lesson, wish i read it sooner

[Unexplainable]

GREAT LESSON HELPED ME ALOT AND JUST TO THINK YOU COULD BE TEACHING THE NEXT JIMMI HENDRIX

[ac/dc lover]

THIS HELPED ME SO MUCH TANKS HIGH VOLTAGE PS. BY THE WAY ARE YOU A HUGE AC/DC FAN LIKE I AM IF SO COOL

[ac/dc lover]

WHY DO THE VVV.. KEEP ON GOIN ON AFTER YOU PLAY THE D LIKE THIS
..VVV..
..A/D/G/D//

[tomatopot]

this is an excellent lesson. it teaches every basic thing you need to know when starting without paying a teacher. but please, right some for slightly more advanced players aswell

[allenm]

that was the easiest to understand lesson ive ever seen on this site, except for this part:

v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v
A | D | G | D ||

y does the downstrokes keep on going? does that mean just keep playing in D?

[Pyroquist]

Its "practice" not "practise" you idiot..but an OK lesson

[DaddyTwoFoot]

Your little part on strumming makes no damn sense. It says to use your whole arm (which, by the way, is more than just elbow to fingers), then it says using your arm is hard to do, and then it says to use your arm again. WHICH WAY IS IT?!? Otherwise, not too bad of an article. 3 stars.

[crazy!chris!]

getting me on my way nice one!

[jamz0770]

great lesson dude really helped

[graphiteblimp+1]

not bad, not bad

[graphiteblimp+1]

please explain the vvv.. that keep going after the D chord

[Jet]

thanks alot dude, but you should of exsplained the A,D andG string

[wezman2k]

um...i really don't want to bash..but i have a comment on the first part...(holding the guitar).

it really is important that you hold the guitar in a decent position. it is unfair to an aspiring guitarist to tell them "just hold it the way that's comfortable"...because they may want to become the best they can be at the instrument. there is a fine line between comfortable and awkward. although the correct position to hold the guitar may seem AWKWARD to newer players, you should at least show them how to properly hold it and then let them make their own decision.

allenm:
that was the easiest to understand lesson ive ever seen on this site, except for this part:

v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v
A | D | G | D ||

y does the downstrokes keep on going? does that mean just keep playing in D?

When submitting a lesson, they take out any spaces more than 1, so you cannot properly space your lesson with spaces. Therefore his spacing of the chords was screwed up and it isn't very understandable.

[Aimilian0s]

gr8 job man

[Teddy b]

awesome lesson, I am beginner and this is just what i needed.
Thanks dude. 5 stars.

[platinochips28]

dude this was an awesome lesson...

[Destroy666]

this is an awesome lesson, im just beginning and is what i need plus some good exercises
first class

[petergillies]

allenm:
that was the easiest to understand lesson ive ever seen on this site, except for this part:

v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v
A | D | G | D ||

y does the downstrokes keep on going? does that mean just keep playing in D?

When submitting a lesson, they take out any spaces more than 1, so you cannot properly space your lesson with spaces. Therefore his spacing of the chords was screwed up and it isn't very understandable.

---..

Dont have a go at the formatting of the lesson, if you go to this site: http://www.geocities.com/apeguitar/lessons.htm
you'll find all the lessons here are ripped straight off ME! I thank you all for your great comments, but I am outraged that this 'high voltage' guy is completely ripping me off from all the hard work i went to in writing them. ApeGuitar is a small struggling site (although i know i havnt updated it in a long long time) i believe i still deserve some credit for my hours of work in writing those lessons.

[David Edwards]

If ultimate-guitar.com doesn?t start removing these plagiarized posts, (and I?m sure they know about them by now). The next step may be to alert their advertisers about what?s going on.

thank you for pointing this out, we are working on finding out the full details right now!

[endwy]

Sharing and free use is awesome. Thanks, Peter Gillies and all who share their own and cited works. Please, don't stop. I agree, plagiarism is just wrong!

To "high voltage" (apparent plagiarist): What a loser. Just curious; did that make you feel good?!???

To "pyroquist", who wrote "Its "practice" not "practise" you idiot..but an OK lesson":
If you pulled your head out of your a## you'd realize that just because your spelling is American doesn't make it the only one that's right.

[ShadowPitch]

Good job on this, must've taken you years....I'm a pretty shitty guitarist, scince I don't even know how to play >.< but oh well. I love it is very understandable, explaining the tabs and stuff. ehh. well, all I have to say is, good job! ^_^ (that times like, one thousand)
anyways, whatever about the spellings, it's great >_>;;;

[RAplayingmantis]

sweet finally a beginner lession that beginners and retards can understand thanks

[mcfly_dude]

Dude dat waz really kwl gr8 help thnx n if i can understand it ny1 can

[Indie_chick]

GR8 LESSON DUDE... I NOW KNOW HOW TO READ TABZ!! U ROCK!!

[burninator]

argh this is so frustrating i got the entire lesson but when i play the A chord my ring finger hits the 1st string! its so frustrating if someone has any tips PLEASE give me them i need them

[petergillies]

burninator:
argh this is so frustrating i got the entire lesson but when i play the A chord my ring finger hits the 1st string! its so frustrating if someone has any tips PLEASE give me them i need them

With each finger that is used to play a chord. Make sure that the string is hitting the middle of the tip of your finger. so when u take the finger off, u can see a big line (indent from string) across the middle of the tip of your finger. (most of the time running parralell with your finger nail). Also, make sure that you finger have an 'equal arc' in them. To explain more...our fingers have 2 joints within the finger, make sure both of these joints are bending quite evenly. By doing this, your fingers will look like a bridge, and when pressing the string with the middle of your finger at the same time, should eliminate any touching of other strings.

Does this help - if not, let me know.

--These tips are for open chords of course, with an exception for the F chord--

[i like cheese]

bo'selecta!!!!! i can play! i'm... you're a genius!!!!!

[namtetsuya]

thx

[Grazza_88]

thanks that was a good lesson it helped me heaps

[Socalbmxr1990]

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/lessons/chords/basic_chords.html
here is whole page about chords hope it helps!

[Socalbmxr1990]

oh and this has helped me tons, thanks alot

[Panny180]

Acoustic4Life :
that helped me in no way whatsoever. i think most people would already know that stuff including me.
-----

Well, don't go on a lesson fr beginners who have only just picked up a guitar, you knob.

Actually, that last note pattern shall help my speed.

[black-angel]

great lesson! but what does the ^ and v mean? you would be helping me alot if you replied..

[Casbah]

no

[stephen scott]

Its nice and straght-forward lesson. cheers*****

[0li]

great lesson, i want your babies

[Emerven]

this lesson really helps those in need of those crutial first steps when learning to play.. i for one really liked it.. and now i know some great practicing methods to. thanks man!

[east bay brat]

u think that people wont know how to hold a guitar but u think they know what chords are????? wtf nice lesson i will help some1

[5minutehallway]

I liked this. I've been playing for 2 years, but I've never got the hand of picking, I always fingerpick, the exercises really helped me!

[ljuco0358]

are the plain down arrows without letters under them open strings?

[RaWrKz]

This has helped me a lot thnx

[_propaganda]

thankyou.
if i ever become a famous rock star it will be all thanks to you.
=]

[Shwa123]

Great lesson. I think i'm slightly past this stage but I think the next few will be very useful for me. One very minor criticism, but I think beginners should practice alternating picking as soon as possible (as opposed to all downstrokes as mentioned), but what do I know?!

[Peeping Todd]

heel ya i wish ther were more ppl liek u 2 teach us n00bs i giv dis lesson 3 thumbs up XD!!!!!

[BRIGGS T]

its a good start

[heatherxrayex3]

thanks .. this realy helped.

[Billie236]

Thank Your So Much That Helped so much man but unfortunately I'm too Much of a Begginer to Chord Progress Fast enough but I'm Sure I'll Get There in good time I'll practice everyday Cheers!!


Green Day Rocks!!!!

please Visit My Site www.allyourgreendayneeds.piczo.com Once Again Thanks for the Lesson

[Billie236]

Thumb is not a finger where you said : "Also, the idea here is to get all of your fingers moving, so use all four of your fingers not including your thumb." Thats wrong

[lil-emz]

thanks bro it really helped me even though ive had ma guitar 4 ages im still learnin da basics lol

[kicxer]

thanks,for the great lesson!

[Spacetoad]

I don't know if you're still responding to these, but I need some help. The A chord demands that you finger the third fret for the D, G, and B strings, while leaving the high E and A string open. My problem is I don't know how to go about fingering the third fret without muting the open strings. I can't lay down a finger across the fretboard, because I cannot bend it up soon enough to allow the high E to ring out, and I can't fret each string individually, because then my fingers are crowded and the B string is being held down so high up from the fret, it's barely touching it. Then my ring finger is usually touching the high E anyway. I don't know how much of a problem this is with other people, since I have abnormally huge fingers. (At first I thought this would be an advantage.) I know some chords demand that you lay a finger across the fretboard, but with those chords all the frets after that are higher, so it's not a problem.

I hope someone can help me, and I hope I made myself clear. Sorry for leaving such a long message.

[Stef_123]

I LOVE YOUUU

[Billie236]

Did you know that the basic chord progression shown is actually the main riff for Green Day's song Warning

Anyways great lesson helped me out a lot but took me forever to master

[laith_siryani]

yo thankS!! this lesson is gr8.. but i think i'll forget it on my way 2 my friends house!! he has the guitar; not me.. but i'm the one in love with it1!

[homer g]

nice lesson helped heaps

[Iplaytogetgirls]

Ha ha. Girls here I come. Jaykay.
But really good lesson. I have been playing for a few months and help me improve my basic skills.

[[WoW]]

nice , thank you this helped alot i guess i am hooked now

[Apoc112]

thanks for the tips... the practice definitely helps

[woodsy93]

that's the worst advide`

[woodsy93]

RHANKS THAT HELPED ME ALOT I'M COMING AFTER THE GIRLS WITH THIS ONE

[Samantha_4_yaa]

This just might work =)

[JukeRamone]

wat about if ur left handed

[MidnightPhoeniX]

I couldn't be more thrilled that UG has these sections . . . If you are just starting out - this is the place you really need to be!

[nuis]

I got confused on that strumming-picking thing. On the 'strumming' topic it comes: "Many people think guitar is great because of the awesome solo's some people do, all the quick, sharp, gentle sounds used by picking." so strumming is the same as picking? I'm not a native english speaker, so I may not get the word 'strumming' correctly.

[nuis]

I got confused on that strumming-picking thing. On the 'strumming' topic it comes: "Many people think guitar is great because of the awesome solo's some people do, all the quick, sharp, gentle sounds used by picking." so strumming is the same as picking? Im not a native english speaker, so I may not get the word 'strumming' correctly.

[Neilisa]

great

[muzikgurl3]

not bad

[tonsy]

Practice makes perfect....

[Coheed/Cambria]

pretty awsome.....

[Coheed/Cambria]

yeah.....

[ZombieNation727]

Strumming refers to hitting multiple strings at once while picking is usually just one string at a time. That's my understanding, someone else correct me if I'm wrong.

[ZombieNation727]

For the left-handed poster:
If you have a left-handed guitar it should be exactly the same.
If your trying to play left-handed with a right-handed guitar what I did was put the strings on the guitar in upside down order (base E on top if it's in a right-handed position) so that when you turn it to be left-handed the strings are in the 'normal' order. I find it much easier that way than trying to learn everything upside down. If you have any questions I'd be happy to clarify.

[Surjit]

Spacetoad wrote:

I don't know if you're still responding to these, but I need some help. The A chord demands that you finger the third fret for the D, G, and B strings, while leaving the high E and A string open. My problem is I don't know how to go about fingering the third fret without muting the open strings. I can't lay down a finger across the fretboard, because I cannot bend it up soon enough to allow the high E to ring out, and I can't fret each string individually, because then my fingers are crowded and the B string is being held down so high up from the fret, it's barely touching it. Then my ring finger is usually touching the high E anyway. I don't know how much of a problem this is with other people, since I have abnormally huge fingers. (At first I thought this would be an advantage.) I know some chords demand that you lay a finger across the fretboard, but with those chords all the frets after that are higher, so it's not a problem.

I hope someone can help me, and I hope I made myself clear. Sorry for leaving such a long message.

I manage to jam all 3 of my fingers onto the fretboard.

[Cheech79]

Great lesson!! Good way to practice

[esot3r1c]

PROPS thx for the great lesson
people like you make it easier for people like us

[bluntman1985]

hey guy i cant play that bloody A chord i dot know if its cause of my fat fingers or what which fingers do you use

[K3AG5]

Awesome Dude!, Great lesson..descriptive and very Very useful!

Cheers

[Zchwarzenegger]

is the 1st fret the farest out on the fretboard or the closest?

[Zchwarzenegger]

farthest*

[x-Dio-x]

farthest

[x-Dio-x]

nice

very easy to understand and super useful

[slicker_192]

e-----1-2-3-4-
B-----1-2-3-4-----
G-----1-2-3-4-----
D--- --1-2-3-4-----
A-----1-2-3-4-----
E--1-2-3-4-----

i don't get this.
hw actually this thing work?
1-2-3-4 refers to fret or my fingers?
can someone explain this to me?

[coleggy]

Cool, I now can atleast make some sort of noise , Thanks.....