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THIS IS THE LAST BEGINNERS GUITAR

GUIDE YOU WILL EVER NEED

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CHORD EDITION

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HISTORY

CHORDS

SONGS

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The Electric guitar is an absolutely amazing instrument with an extreme variety of playing techniques available to use by musicians to get great sound and music out of the instrument.

The first ever Electric Guitar was called the Rickenbacker “Frying pan”, created in 1931 by George Beauchamp. It’s known as the Frying pan guitar due to its shape representing that of a frying pan, Beauchamp was however unfortunate in being unable to obtain a patent for his idea for a number of years resulting in rival companies to produce them in the same time period. The reason why this guitar is the first mass produced is because George Beauchamp and his partner Adolph Rickenbacker, produced an electromagnetic pickup. The way this works is current is passed through a coil of wire wrapped around a magnet, creating a field which amplified the strings' vibrations. In the industry we call this a transducer, electromagnetic transducer.

HISTORY: THE ELECTRIC GUITAR

ACOUSTIC

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The reason all this mass development, demand and essential need for amplification through electricity was because of big bands, swing and orchestras were composed of a large number of instruments and instruments had to fight and some be drowned out by the other already louder instruments. So essentially, it was all a strive for quality of sound in general.

HISTORY: THE ELECTRIC GUITAR – PART 2

ACOUSTIC

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Fill this space with useless information about the acoustic guitar.

HISTORY: THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR

ELECTRIC

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A chord is a group of typically 3 or more chords (however there can be less, known as power chords) together which make a total chordal note. The typical chords learnt are:

C - D - G - EM - A - AMThe reason these are the chords people tend to learn is because they are the easiest to adjust to, being able to quickly switch to the shapes with your fingers to make sure the correct string is being pressed on the correct fret. By no means are they easy to just get, as soon as you pick up a guitar for the first time, but they are the easiest to learn over time compared to more complex chords that require further space apart on the fret board, as well as number of fingers required and what’s known as barring.

CHORDS – FOR THE BEGINNERS

ADVANCED

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The first chord that will be shown to you is Em (E Minor), which looks like this:

That diagram tells us that when holding the guitar we would put a finger on the

A (2nd) string at the 2nd fret, and the same fret on the D (3rd) string. We would then strum all strings to make the E Minor chord!

CHORDS – FOR THE BEGINNERS - E MINOR

ADVANCED

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The second chord that will be shown is the D chord, which looks like this:

The diagram is telling us, that on the 4th and 6th (G & High E) strings we should

Have our fingers on the 2nd fret. Then a 3rd finger on the 3rd fret on the 5th

(B) string. However, this chord is different to E Minor in that, we don’t strum

All strings. We can tell this from the crosses on the top of the diagram. The crosses above a string mean they are either not to be strummed or muted with your thumb. So only the bottom 4 strings should be strummed (DGBE).

CHORDS – FOR THE BEGINNERS - D

ADVANCED

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Next is the G chord, it’s a slightly different shape and looks like this:

The G requires you to stretch a little bit more with your left hand, however

Once you get used to it, its super easy. The Diagram is telling us that on the first string (E) has one of your fingers placed on the 3rd fret, it also has a finger on the 2nd (A) string, as well as on the 6th (High E) string on the 3rd fret. We play all the strings with this chord to sound the G chord.

CHORDS – FOR THE BEGINNERS - G

ADVANCED

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The C chord is a very popular chord. The C chord is another stretch one:

It requires you to have a finger on the 5th (B) string at the first fret, 3rd (D)

At the 2nd fret and one on the 2nd (A) string at the 3rd fret. The C chord is a very versatile and has many variations to get a slightly different sound such as Cadd9, Csus9, this can be done with other chords but overall I would say C is the most commonly used with Add’s and Sus’s.

CHORDS – FOR THE BEGINNERS - C

ADVANCED

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The A chord, is a nice chord. The A chord requires 3 fingers and looks like this:

Your first finger should be placed on the 3rd (D) string on the 2nd fret, also one

On the 4th (G) string on the 2nd fret as well as one on the 5th (B) string at the 2nd

Fret also. The A chord requires a 5 string strum (ADGBE) rather than all 6 strings, to correctly play the A chord.

CHORDS – FOR THE BEGINNERS - A

ADVANCED

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The A Minor chord is a nice chord to play, but its sad. It looks like this:

The reason its sad, is because it is like E minor, E minor is the minor chord

of E, Minor chords sound more down if you were to associate them with mood. For example, the happiest sounding song will have the least amount of minors in. Anyway, to play this you would be placing 1 finger on the 5th (B) string on the 3rd fret, one on the 4th (G) string on the 2nd fret and one on the 3rd (D) string on the 2nd fret also.

CHORDS – FOR THE BEGINNERS - A MINOR

ADVANCED

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If you can master the 4 chords the guide has taught you so far, through lots of practice, you can play songs with them chords in. BUT! Is that all you can play? No :D

You can use what is called a Capo. A capo “changes” the place in which the end of the guitar neck is and if you play the chords relative to what fret you clamp the capo to and then the chord shapes you have learnt throw out different chords to what would if there was no capo. For example, playing a G with capo on the 3rd fret, would ring out as a B flat. This means that you have even more songs available for you to play, so its definitely worth buying a capo, it means there is basically no extra learning to do either, except for how to clamp the capo on properly.

CHORDS – ADVANCED - DO THEY ONLY PLAY G C D EM?

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BASIC

SONGS - I KNOW THE CHORDS, HOW DO I PLAY THEM?

So, We know the chords now, If you don’t quite know how to play the chords yet or need to refresh your memory on the shapes etc. You can go to the chord pages by clicking here. So, Lets play some role-play, you love to listen to Foster the people, like more than the majority of school girls love 1 Direction. So your ultimate ‘fave’ song is Pumped up Kicks. The chords in Pumped up kicks are:

EM - G - D - A

So once you’ve got your capo stuck on the first fret, you’re ready to play right? Unfortunately not.

There is this thing called Strumming patterns. Strumming patterns the direction you have to strum in and how many times, an example could be with Pumped up kicks.

The Strumming pattern with pumped up kicks is down down up up down up. So on So while remembering to change chords at the proper time (you can do this by using your ears with the original as a guide track, so you would make sure you strum twice down, twice up, once down then once up again and then restart. Just like when learning the chords, you get used to it easily over time.

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SONGS - I KNOW THE CHORDS, HOW DO I PLAY THEM?

So you’ve become familiar with chords, chord shapes and strumming patters, you want to know what songs you can play after some practice with ease. So the next couple of pages will teach you a couple.

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SONGS - 1. rRIPTIDE - CAPO ON 1ST, HOWEVER SOUNDS GOOD CAPO 3RD

The Chords you will need is your A Minor, G and C. So, Stick your capo on 1st or 3rd and you’re ready.

Your intro is in the format is a fast Am, G, C. Following one after another quickly and consecutively. The strumming pattern changes throughout the verse but you will have to listen to the song to get the strumming pattern and then its different throughout the chorus.

Through the bridge You have Am, G, C and then again on the 2nd line of the bridge on the C it’s a hold. Which means you deviate from the style of the song and hold it until the start of the chorus.

You can find the TAB Here. You can listen to the song Here.

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SONGS - 1. PUMPED UP KICKS - CAPO ON 1ST

The Chords you will need is your A Minor, G and C. So, Stick your capo on 1st or 3rd and you’re ready.

Your intro is in the format is a fast Am, G, C. Following one after another quickly and consecutively. The strumming pattern changes throughout the verse but you will have to listen to the song to get the strumming pattern and then its different throughout the chorus.

Through the bridge You have Am, G, C and then again on the 2nd line of the bridge on the C it’s a hold. Which means you deviate from the style of the song and hold it until the start of the chorus.

You can find the TAB Here.

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