Guitar Mastery Simplified: How Anyone Can Quickly Become a Strumming, Chords, and Lead Guitar Ninja (2 page)

What style…size…string-type…color and then what about all
the things you don’t know about guitars, right? 

Let’s simplify the process a bit.

Firstly, you probably have an idea whether you want an
electric or acoustic guitar.  Acoustic guitars are those guitars
(typically with a sound hole) that are loud enough to be heard without
amplification.  Sure you can hear an electric when not plugged in, but it
sounds pretty wimpy without an amp. 

To seemingly complicate the matter, we have acoustics that
can be plugged in for amplification, making them electric, and there are
semi-hollow electric guitars, making them “acoustic” to a degree.  The
style of music and how you will be playing will often times be the determining
factor as to what type of guitar you will want to get.  Usually the
heavier the music, the more an electric will suit you. 

There are not a lot of “
Screamo
”
bands playing acoustically these days and not a ton of bluegrass players
shredding a Les Paul through a Marshall stack. 

With that being said, the rules have been broken so there is
nothing holding you back from doing either of those or anywhere in
between.  Let’s talk a bit about the differences between the two before
going any further.

Acoustic guitars don’t need an amp, so they are nice and
portable.  The action (distance from string to fret board) tends to be a
little higher than electrics and the strings are typically thicker, making bending
and intricate licks/noodling
more difficult.
  They sound great
playing open chords and fingerpicking.

On the other hand, electrics usually have lower action
making soloing and subtle movements easier.  I’m asked a lot about what
beginners should start with.  For different reasons I would choose both,
but most of the time, I would say an acoustic would be my choice.  There
is less to be distracted by with an acoustic and you can play so many different
styles easily on the acoustic.  When directing a student to a new guitar
purchase, the main variables for me always come down to:
budget, feel
and
sound
(in no particular order).  

Trying a bunch of guitars in your price range will give you
a great education on feel and sound.  I KNOW you want the pretty red
guitar, but don’t pick the guitar because it’s red if it sounds or plays
poorly.  The prettiness will get old.  Poor sound or feel does not go
away.

If you have a $300 budget, there is no need in seriously
looking at the $1000 guitars, although knowing what they feel and sound like
would be helpful to your education.  I have some expensive guitars and
some “
cheapos
.”  Sometimes more money gets you
“more
guitar
” and sometimes more money just makes you
think you are getting a better guitar. 

I recently played two different classical (nylon string)
guitars.  One was $5000 and the other was $100.  Can you guess which
one sounded and played better?  You would be surprised. 

For one, I was not in the mood to drop $5000 on a classical,
so that price range was not a consideration.  However, if I did not look
at the prices or brands, the $100 guitar played and sounded as good as the
$5000 model. 
Now, this does not always happen, but it happens
. 
There are some great cheap guitars and some terrible expensive ones. 
Higher prices usually equate to better woods, craftsmanship, etc., but
manufacturers are getting really good at producing good guitars at cheaper
prices. 

DON’T let the price alone dictate a guitar purchase. 
You will be sorry.  So, figure out what your budget is and try to stick to
it.  You can get an acceptable $150 acoustic or electric if you know what
to look for.  I have guitars priced from $100 to several thousand dollars,
but none were purchased regarding price alone. 

Let me clarify
: more expensive guitars TYPICALLY
equate to better guitars, but be careful in using price to determine a guitars
worth.

Feel is an important variable in choosing an instrument.
 
In fact, there are so many other variables other than the guitar itself that
dictate sound (strings, pick, technique, etc.), whereas feel is a harder thing
to change on a guitar.  For smaller folks and kids, there are ¾ and ½ size
guitars that might be easier to play chords on.  There are different
full-sized acoustic bodies like jumbo, dreadnought and parlor as well. 
But you don’t need to know the names. 

Use your common sense.  If a guitar body is too big,
try a smaller one.  Electric bodies usually run much smaller than
acoustics. 

String action is also important as high action (string
height) can make chording and fretting difficult and discouraging.  The
only way for you to know what is “normal” or “high” is to try a bunch of
guitars.  Try some expensive ones too, so you can get an idea for
different price ranges and what the extra money may or may not buy you. 

Keep in mind that string action can usually be adjusted, if
everything else works for you.  Many electric guitars have adjustable
bridges.  Acoustic guitar bridges can be “shimmed” or trimmed to give
optimal action.  Most guitar necks are also adjustable. 

However, neither of these adjustments are ones that I would
suggest beginners to attempt.  I prefer to have an expert adjust them,
however with experience and trial/error you can get pretty good at this type of
thing.  Okay, so all that said, make sure the “feel” of the guitar is the
best out of all the guitars that you try.

Sound is the other important variable.
 
Different woods and their ages, string types, pick type etc., are some of the
variables that dictate sound of the guitar.  Make sure that you are
comparing apples to apples, such as comparing guitars with the same pick,
playing the same songs, etc. 

Even playing in different rooms will make the guitar sound
differently.  If playing several electrics, make sure you are playing them
all through the same amp with the same settings.  A bad sounding guitar
through a great amp will typically sound better than a great guitar through a
bad amp, so USE THE SAME VARIABLES!

Buying a first guitar is best done at a store where you can
get an education in the process. 
Don’t be afraid to ask questions
,
try a bunch of guitars and get what you want.  Be polite, but you are
getting ready to spend some money, so don’t be rushed or talked into something
that does not resonate with you (feel, sound and budget).  It’s okay to
consider other prices and find out about different woods, etc. but ultimately
it’s what YOU are most happy with, not the sales person. 

Take brand names with a grain of salt.  There is not a
best guitar,
only what’s best for you
.  There may be more suitable
guitars for specific jobs, but keep an open mind.  That is, don’t buy a
guitar just because of the name.  I have brand name guitars that you would
know and others that you would not, but I love them all for different
reasons. 

BUDGET, FEEL and SOUND… repeat the mantra after me… BUDGET,
FEEL and SOUND…
BUDGET, FEEL and SOUND.
  Now go
fall in love with a guitar!

Click here to receive free videos
on right and left hand techniques and exercises that will quickly boost your
guitar playing ability.

As
with
learning anything new, it’s very important to become familiar with
nomenclature.  I’ve provided this graphic so you can learn and can get
used to using the proper terms for the components of your guitar.  You’ll
just sound smarter, too!

Click here to receive free
videos on right and left hand techniques and exercises that will quickly boost
your guitar playing ability.

The First Guitar Lesson That I Teach EVERY New Student

No matter the style of playing,
EVERY
student must understand a few
basic principle techniques that they will use for the rest of their guitar
playing.  THIS is the guitar lesson that covers them!
I’m going to break this down into some basic bite-sized pieces:

Posture
- Make sure that your guitar is supported by
your guitar strap.  Don’t have it so low that you can’t play your chords
correctly.  No amount of “cool look” replaces bad playing.  If you
are not using a guitar strap, make sure that your guitar is supported by your
legs,
arm/body etc. so that you are NOT holding the guitar
in place with your fretting hand.  That type of grip will only ensure that
you won’t be able to play chords/scales well.

Hold the guitar pick comfortably, but firmly between the
index finger and thumb.  

Hint:
If you are doing a lot of heavy
acoustic-type strumming, check out some thinner picks, instead of medium and
heavy gauge.  They will tend to pull out of your hand when strumming the
guitar, if they are too thick.  Also, if you do go with a thin pick, get
“nylon” type guitar picks as they tend not to split like standard picks do.
 Save the medium and heavy gauge picks for more intricate electric or acoustic
playing.  I use all different gauges depending on what I’m playing.
 My rule is: the more intricate the picking the heavier the gauge and
vice-versa.

FINGERTIPS!!!  This is
THE #1 rule for ALL
beginner guitar players
.  For the fretting-hand, play on your
fingertips!  Playing on the “pads” of your
fingers,
is bad practice and will make for sloppy playing and all sorts of frustration
later down the road.  

A good rule of thumb to remember is:
ALWAYS keep your top
knuckle of the fretting-hand curved.
 
The more, the
better as a hard, fast rule.
 The only exception to this is if you
are doing bar chords or double-stops.

Click here to receive free videos
on right and left hand techniques and exercises that will quickly boost your
guitar playing ability.

Guitar tablature
is a system of notation that
graphically represents music by showing you the strings and frets that are to
be played. It also can show some degree of “feel” or technique with slides,
hammer-
ons
, pull-
offs,
slurs, vibrato, etc.

Since tablature is somewhat of a shortcut system there are
not a lot of official rules to this notation. In fact, transcriptions vary from
tab to tab as one transcriber may illustrate something differently than
another.

That being said
, I’m going to try to be as thorough
as possible regarding the subject so that you have a good grasp of how to
interpret it.  A note is represented by placing a number (which indicates
the fret to play), on the appropriate string.

One thing that tablature does not illustrate is the duration
of notes.  It does not tell you how long a note should be held out.
 Sometimes tab transcribers will specifically put longer spaces between
notes on the line to denote duration, but it’s not quantifiable; it is simply a
basic idea.

That being said
, most people don’t use tablature
unless it’s a song that they already know and can hum, so that part becomes less
of an issue, except with more intricate parts.

Also, even though tablature has been around for centuries,
some of the techniques used by rock/pop guitar players are
fairly new
. 
Here’s some
free
tablature paper
that is on my website.

In tablature, each line represents a string on the guitar
.
 The thickest string is the bottom line and the thinnest string is the top
line.  So basically, it’s the opposite of the way that you think it might
be.  One way to remember this is to think of the
higher lines as the
higher pitched strings and the lower lines as the lower pitched strings.