How to Play Guitar

Intro: How to Play Guitar

This instructible is based at complete beginners if you have played the guitar before then some of this may seem very obvious but if you haven't its not!

STEP 1: Getting a Guitar

Guitars can cost anything from about £5 (~$10) for a second hand acoustic in a charity shop to thousands of pounds. When you are a beginner just about anything you can get will do as long as it is not too damaged and has 6 strings, you can always upgrade it later.

If you have an electric guitar you will need an amp and lead (see pictures) but whatever you have you have I would recommend buying a plectrum (A.K.A pick) choose a medium or light type as they are most suited to beginners.

You could also get a tuner but they are not totally necessary (see next step)

STEP 2: How to Tune Your Guitar

The easiest way to tune your guitar is to go here and twist the pegs at the top so the tones match up to whats coming out of the speakers for each string. You can also buy a tuner from a music shop but that would be an extra expense and the online on would do nearly as well.

You will need to know which string is which in order to tune the guitar so the strings from thinest to thickest are:
1st string (E)
2nd string (B)
3rd string (G)
4th string (D)
5th string (A)
6th string (E)

Sometimes you may have to drop tune your guitar this is quite easy to do you simply tune the 6th string to whatever note the drop is, e.g. for drop D you would tune the 6th string to D.

STEP 3: Your First Tune

The easiest way to play the guitar is to learn guitar tab the six lines represent the six guitar strings the top one is the 6th string and the bottom one is the 1st string. The numbers represent which fret to put your finger on 0 is open string and the others go up in order.

The second picture shows how to put your hand on the back of the guitar albeit roughly as it is very hard to photograph your own hand on the back of the fingerboard holding the guitar right.

The third picture shows where I normally have my right hand. I was taught to use my thumb to pluck the first 3 strings and my next two fingers for the other 3 but if you use a plectrum this is irrelevant.

On your left hand try to use your first finger for the first fret, your second finger for the second fret, your third finger for you third fret and for numbers higher than that slide your hand up so your first finger is over the fourth fret etc.

For your first tune try the futurama theme (thanks to Nicolas Denis from gotfuturama.com), if you don't know how its meant to go listen to this.

E[-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------]
B[--------------------------------------------------------------------------------0--0-----------]
G[------2-2-----------------2-2--------------------2-1------------------2-1------------------]
D[-2-2-----0-0-2-2--2-2-----0-0-5-5-4-2--2-----0--0-4-2-2--2----------5-5-4-4---]
A[-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------]
E[-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------]

STEP 4: Chords

Playing chords is easy you just put your fingers on the right frets and strum down the strings (you don't strum down all the strings on all chords, the Os above the frets show to strum that as an open string but if there is no O then you don't strum that string and the numbers show which finger to put on which fret). Once you get used to the chords try practice changing between them and then when you get used to that try changing quickly as it is necessary in songs.

E (1st pic) 6 5 4 3 2 1  o_______o_o |_|_|_1_|_| |_2_3_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|

A (2nd Pic)6 5 4 3 2 1  __o_______o |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_1_2_3_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|

D (3rd Pic) 6 5 4 3 2 1  ____o______ |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_1_|_2 |_|_|_|_3_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|

 C(4th Pic) 6 5 4 3 2 1  ______o___o |_|_|_|_1_| |_|_2_|_|_| |_3_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|

G 6 5 4 3 2 1  ____o_o_o__ |_|_|_|_|_| |_1_|_|_|_| 2_|_|_|_|_3 |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|

There are obviously many more chords than this, these are just a few. If you search google for chord diagrams then you will be able to get many more. This is the website I used for these.

STEP 5: 3 Chord Songs

All credit goes to gmoon for this step he provided all these songs and this is literally copied and pasted from his comment. Thanks :-)

There must be thousands of 3 chord songs....Lots of classic american country (hank williams, woody guthrie, etc.)

Basic 12 bar blues in A (basis of lots of rock n roll/rock/pop songs):

A A A A / D D A A / E D A E

Normally it's bit more complicated for the right 'flavor' (and there are unlimited variations...):

A D7 A A7 / D7 D7 A A7 / E7 D7 A7 E7
(you can look these up here (they are dominant 7th).

But the major chords alone are a good place to start.

'La Bamba'--(normally in C : C/F/G) but in key of A is:

A D E (repeat..repeat...)
In C it is C F G F (but for that you will have to learn F)

Or "Blowin' In The Wind" by Bob Dylan. In the key of A the chords are A, D, and E...(I, IV, V.)

 A________D_________A____________________D_______E

How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?

(you can figure out the rest...)

'Sweet Jane' (Lou Reed) is:

D______A__G

Standin' on a corner..

(etc)

(chorus, repeat 4 times)

D____G

Sweet Jane

(I used underscores because using spaces wouldn't work.)

STEP 6: What to Do Now

You've learned the basics but now what you could do?

If you want to learn more chords there are chord diagrams here

For guitar tabs try here or here a quick google search renders lots of results. Most will be too hard for you as a beginner so try going to a music shop and seeing what they would recommend.

As for reading notation that would be for a different instructible!

But if you have anything to add feel free as i have enabled collaboration on this instructible.

Good Luck :-)

Comments

[Cali1213]

Yea this info is kinda basic... I got some good info about basic chords and some easy guitar songs that you can learn right online (through instructional videos) on www.easyguitarsongsonline.com it was pretty helpful !!

good luck keep strumming!

[Gamerboy4life]

Overall, it is not bad. But it is not the best guide I have ever seen.

BEWARE: THIS WILL NOT TEACH YOU EVERYTHING ABOUT THE BASICS OF GUITAR PLAYING. NEITHER WILL ANY OTHER GUIDE ON THE INTERNET.

THE BEST WAY TO LEARN GUITAR IS THROUGH MENTORING.


But that out of the way, It was informative, relatively accurate, although you need to stop referring to the strings as 1-2-3 etc etc. Refer to them as EADGBE and so on.

Remember this:

Eat
All
Day
Get
Big
Easy.


Also, I feel you butchered the chord and song parts of your guide. You need to provide tab PICTURES. I have been playing guitar for a long, LONG while, and even for me it is hard to read "internet tabs"

Take a picture, or show them to Ultimate Guitar or something.


Score IMHO: 3/5. Decent. But not terrible. It had several butchered qualities, but also some redeeming ones.

[Jamez Britton]

I tune my acoustic guitar to itself.

[Merugop]

Hey dude long time since i was on Instructables. (stupid school <.<) i've bought my first guitar a green fender squier strat hss affinity (stratocoaster) 125 euro (got an guitar bag, amplifier and cables for free) andi learned a few songs Hey there Delilah Stairway to heaven except the solo. Fireflies (ith had barrés 0.o) and WIth Me (Sum 41) and i tried some tabs but they confuse me when they say like ----P5-S3 etc. Can you make an advnced tab guide?

[yaly]

Isn't there C and F like in piano?

[Derpancakes]

Hey.... what Pacifica is that?? I have a 112J

[dannyo013]

If youve played long enough, you can tune a guitar almost perfectly with just an amp, a pick, and your bare hands. Just pick a single string and pick it, then tune as needed.

[nfk11]

me know 3 song.iron man,eye of the tiger andsilent night.

[jugglingninja33]

If you have an acoustic guitar, you will need a tuner with an external mic. If your acoustic can plug in though, it's not necessary.

[pindalanderz]

always remember:" The Easter Bunny Gets Drunk At Easter"--thats the tuning from bottom to top, or at least how i remember it.

[bowmaster]

Heres is top to bottom:Ed Ate Dung Good Bye Ed

[pindalanderz]

haha. thats a good one. my friend uses that except instead of dung he uses dynamite

[bowmaster]

I was in a hurry and did not know how to spell dynamite.

[MegaMaker]

Elephants and dogs grow big ears. Kinda depends on the dog.

[cloggy01]

aha thats funny i use "Elephants and Donkeys grow big ears" :D

[bowmaster]

Even ants do giant butt earrings.

[pyro man]

i do "every average dude gets busted eventually"

[Merugop]

Lol epic.

[backyardpyro217]

thats smart but how do u remember if its drop d,f,e,a,or b???

[pindalanderz]

usually you don't remember for those tunings but if you know how to tune your guitar to that tuning then you should be able to remember fairly well.