Guitar Basics, chapter 1

By Darrin Koltow

This is the start of a series of articles on the basics of Playing Guitar. We may cover the notes on the guitar; first chords and songs; how to stay motivated; why hamburgers have no ham and hot dogs have no dogs in them. This is not intended to be a comprehensive guide you can use to teach yourself. Instead, think of it as a collection of tips you might call "helpful hints to playing guitar." It's not just for beginners, but for all who are interested in reviewing the basics of playing.

Let's dive into the most basic of guitar basics.

What's it like to begin playing guitar? It's an adventure. There are so many sounds you want to create. You've heard songs that move you and have great meaning for you, and you want to "make them your own," so you decided to play guitar.

Let's make a fundamental assumption: that you are not just reading this to learn the basics of playing guitar, but also the basics of making music. The two are not the same thing. You can get real good at dancing your fingers over the fretboard without making a note of music, and without understanding at all what you're doing with music.

On the other hand, you can have a head full of music, sing twenty alternative melodies to your favorite tunes, plus sing their bass lines and arpeggios (which are chords played one note at a time, as in C, E, and G) while playing Pac Man and petting your dog with your foot -- and not have a clue as to how to start transferring the tones you can sing, feel and hear in your head to the guitar.

But we're going to talk about making music *and* making music *with the guitar.*

The piano

I'm not going to go into depth about this, because I don't want to ruffle any guitarist's feathers, or put out the impression that I love the piano more than the guitar. I just want to point out that it's easier to learn how music works on the piano than it is on the guitar.

I'll say that another way: you can more easily, quickly, and maybe more enjoyably understand how to make music, including your own and the music that other people make, by first studying a bit of piano before you pick up the guitar. For more about this, see this article. Again, I'm not saying to abandon the guitar for the piano. I'm saying "To *begin* understanding music, start with the piano." Enough said.

If you want to continue learning about music with the guitar, let's do it.

Tuning

It'd be great if the guitar was like an electronic synth in that it never needed tuning. I'd love to just pick up my guitar and start playing without taking the time to tune. But, as the tiny leprechaun hiding in my closet keeps reminding me, this is reality. So, we must tune. How do you do it?

There are lots of ways. Here's an effective one -- though probably not the most common one.

Get a pitch pipe or something else that can produce the first E note above middle C. Here's a sound file to help you do this: http://www.MaximumMusician.com/PairFiles/TUNER.MID

Tune the thinnest string on the guitar to this note. Start from a pitch that's lower than the E note, and tune *up* to it. Never tune down. The sky will fall and Sylvester Stallone will put out a trilogy of new Rocky movies if you tune down to a pitch. We don't want these things to happen, so tune up. Why? Because it's easier to knock a string that's tuned down out of tune than it is a string that's tuned up. Sorry, Sly.

If you're having trouble recognizing the difference in pitches between the string and your tuning device, don't worry: your ear is still growing accustomed to the sound. You will hear the difference the more you tune; I guarantee it. For now, get a buddy to tune for you, or listen for a pitch that's close to the target pitch.

Before we get to the B string, understand the approach we're taking here: we're going to tune all strings to *one* string. In other words, we tune one string and then tune each remaining string to it, as opposed to tuning each string based on the last string we tuned. Why do this? Because as sensitive as your hearing is, you'll make tiny mistakes in tuning one string to the previous one. By the time you reach the sixth string, all those little mistakes add up to a noticeable, ugly difference between the sixth string's pitch and the pitch you want it to have.

For that reason, the next time someone shows you how to tune using the "fifth fret" method applied to every string (except for the G string, which would tune to B at the fourth fret), send that person to this web page. And then tell 'em to get wise by reading Guitar Study.

Tuning procedure

More about what's on that tuning page in a minute. Let's tune first.

Once the high E string is tuned, do the B string. How? Fret and pluck the fifth fret on the second string. That's the same E note as the open E string. Fret and pluck. Sounds like something you do in an air raid drill. Or maybe some kind of grooming before a hot date. I know I said don't tune using the fifth fret. But it's cool for the B string, because you're tuning to the E string, which you know is in tune.

So, fret the fifth fret on the B string and tune up until the E note matches the open E string.

For the G string, do *not* press the fourth fret to tune to B. Skip back a couple of paragraphs and send me $200 if you were going to do this. In fact, send me $200 anyway. Just kidding. Fret the 9th fret on the G string and tune to the open E string.

String D gets tuned by pressing its 2nd fret and matching its E note to the open E string. Be careful: *this E note is an octave lower than the E note of the open E string.* If you try to tune the D string all the way up to get this E, you could seriously injure yourself as your string snaps.

For the A string, tune the 7th fret to the open E string. Again, this E is one octave lower than the E on the open E string, just as the D string, fret two is.

For the low E string, you can tune the 12th fret to the E string. Again, this E is one octave lower than the high E string's E. Double check the low E string by playing its B note (fret 7) against the open B string.

Now, strum a chord and enjoy the fruits of your tuning labor. That wasn't so bad, was it?

For more info on tuning, dig the tuning page mentioned above. The author of this site goes deep, deep, deep into tuning and intonation, back all the way to Pythagoras. As I used to say to a buddy of mine when I had found a terrific resource, "this site is the *stuff*" and I didn't say "stuff" either.

What else do we need to know about tuning?

Now that you've tuned your guitar in a way that ensures you've tuned it correctly, guess what: your guitar might still be out of tune. Even if the World's Greatest Tuner (WGT) tuned your guitar, some notes on your guitar might not be in tune with those same notes in other parts of the guitar. For example, play these D notes: second string, third fret, open D string and low E string, 10th fret. Do they all sound like the same note (taking differences in octaves into account)? If they don't, and you and the WGT are sure you tuned all six strings by the book, you may have a guitar with poor intonation. Here's a good way to remember what intonation means: "intonation" equals "In-tune-ayshun." Get it? "In tune."

What causes a guitar to have poor intonation? It could be warped or put together wrong: frets not lined up correctly, warped wood, and other structural problems; the former owner might has used it as a shovel. With new guitars that come from a manufacturer that's been making guitars for a while, these structural problems should not show up too often. Assume your guitar is built correctly and that it's structurally okay.

Instead, have a look at your strings. Dirty strings or strings whose thickness varies from one point to another point will make your guitar sound out of tune. I learned this one the hard way. You don't have to: replace your strings if they start looking funky or your version of Proud Mary starts sounding pretty shameful.

Alternate tunings

What we just did is called "standard tuning." If you think that strongly implies that there are tunings that are *not* standard, you are correct. Some tunes work great in standard tuning. This means, you can play them fairly easily, once you get the general feel of playing guitar.

But some tunes, such as some of those by the Rolling Stones, are more easily played with what's called "open G" tuning. This means the guitar will sound out a G major chord when you strum it -- without fretting any notes. If you want to learn more about open G and other alternate tunings, dig David Hodge's articles on GuitarNoise.com. In particular, dig this one: http://www.guitarnoise.com/beginner/20021005.html.

When you're first learning to play guitar, and especially if you're new to making music, stick with the standard tuning.

Stay tuned for more Guitar Basics.

Guitar Chords (GC) builds your chops and helps you identify the most important chords by ear. GC shows you how to substitute and combine chords; play Jazz, Rock and Blues progressions; transpose songs; put chords to a melody; apply fingerpicking, alternating bass, arpeggios, and much more.