Don’t Forget!
Just wanted to give you a quick tip before we get started. When you learn how to play guitar, it is far more important for you to practice multiple times during a week than to practice only once for a long session. This is due to your brain processing information in chunks at a time and only holding a certain amount in short term storage.
A good example of this is phone numbers.It is very difficult to remember any more than 7 digits at a time.However, if you give yourself time between practicing, even if only 10 minutes, you’ll find that your brain is much more efficient at turning your short term practice into long term knowledge. More info on effective learning is contained in the Jamorama product.
Ok. That aside, let’s get started on the lesson. First of all, before beginning learning about chords, you should take a look at the guitar neck diagram below and make note of all the relevant pieces of information.
Frets
The guitar neck is divided into what are known as frets, making a fret board. Most guitars have around 20 frets.In these first few lessons we will be focusing on the first four and playing what are known as open chords. This simply means that some of the strings will ring openly without any fingers holding that string down on a fret.
Notice at the bottom of the diagram how the strings are numbered. When holding the guitar in a normal playing position the 1st string will be the bottom string and the 6th string will be the top string.You will here the strings referenced by number often in most teachings and also this is used when reading tablature which is a style of writing down music for the guitar.
You may also notice the term “tuning” below the guitar neck. This refers to the note that each string is set to make when struck openly. In the above diagram, I have shown the most common tuning called standard E tuning that consists of the notes E, A, D, G and B. Strings 1 and 6 are both tuned to the note E. The open 6th string is called low E. The open 1st string is called high E as it is two octaves higher than the 6th string open E.
Introduction to Chords
Lets now take some time to look at guitar chords. A guitarist will use many guitar chords in order to compile the sounds that all combined make a song. A chord is simply a combination of three or more notes played at the same time to create a sound on the guitar.In order to understand this lets look at chord diagrams. Chord diagrams are a way of illustrating how a chord is played. They very simple to use because the diagrams actually look like the neck of the guitar. In fact, in the example below I show you how the Jamorama instructional program actually takes a standard guitar chord diagram and uses the actual neck of the guitar to make illustrations instead. If you haven’t checked out the Jamorama technique of learning guitar you should definitely check it out. These instructional pages that you are currently reading are filled with techniques and information that comes from their techniques.
Check out the standard chord diagram above just to get your bearings on what a real chord chart looks like. It is basically just a guitar neck standing straight up. For the rest of our examples however we will be using these chord diagrams to make it simpler to see while we are learning the proper chord positions.
So, once you have a chord diagram then finger placing symbols are written into the diagram to show you what finger is placed in what position on each string. Each finger is given a number so that it can be matched up on the chord diagram. Check out the illustration below to see how the numbers are matched up with your fingers. Take a moment to let it all sink in, take a deep breath, and check out the next page where I teach you your first chord.
