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Guitar lesson: The E F G of Learning To Play Guitar Sheet Music

Author: Peter Edvinsson

Is it really possible to conquer the guitar fretboard? Do you find the notes you want to find? Is tabulature cheating? Let me invite you to the guitar fretboard!

I suggest that you right now start to take command over your guitar. Usually when you are playing your first guitar sheet music melodies you will have to learn the notes in the first position on the guitar. To have a good grasp of these notes on the guitar I suggest that you learn them slowly and with concentration.

I usually begin by teaching the notes on the first string like E on open string, F on fret 1 and G on fret 3. On string two you’ll find B on open string, C on fret 1 and D on fret 3. With these notes you can play the song Mary Had A Little Lamb.

Using the previous notes the melody can be played as follows:

E D C D E E E D D D E G G E D C D E E E E D D E D C

I hope you recognized the melody. This kind of music notation doesn’t give any hints as to how the rhythm is to be played but you already know the melody, right!

Is using tablature cheating? My father taught me some interesting things about learning to read guitar sheet music.

My dad was the only guitar tutor in the town where I lived and he taught mostly classical guitar pieces. His young students, I was one of them, learned those first guitar pieces very rapidly because he used a system similar to tablature showing the frets and strings to play, along with the sheet music. Tablature wasn’t common back then. I remember somebody remarking that his system prevented the children from learning to sight read sheet music.

His reply was that if somebody really wants to learn the notes they will anyway!

I agree with that and I have found that if a pupil is not motivated learning guitar sheet music they will not advance in this area whether they play with or without tablature.

Do you think your fingers has anything to do with guitar playing? I guess you’ll answer yes!

A more important question is if the fingers you choose to use can have a bearing upon your guitar playing. Left hand fingering means which finger you use when playing a specific note.

Usually when playing the first pieces on the guitar on the first frets one plays the notes on the first fret with the index finger, notes on the second fret with the middle finger, notes on the third fret with the ring finger and notes on the fourth fret with your little finger.

Why mess up everything with this fingering stuff? Isn’t it possible to play every melody with your left index finger and forget about fingerings?

Well, of course you can play melodies with your index finger but your progress will be very limited beyond just playing easy melodies.

Besides you’ll have to move your hand all the time as you change frets and, most importantly when reading sheet music, you’ll have to look at the guitar fretboard all the time instead of looking at the sheet music.

The important thing when learning to play the notes on the guitar is to make a conscious effort to learn the notes and not to work on too many notes at the same time.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/guitar-lesson-the-e-f-g-of-learning-to-play-guitar-sheet-music-10470.html

About the Author
Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com

Learning How to Read Music on Guitar

Author: D Fraser

If you play guitar, or are thinking about taking it up you should decide if being able to read guitar music is important to you or not. This have a big impact in how you decide to learn to play the instrument. Why? For a couple of reasons.

1.) Not learning how to read music and relying on Tablature to learn new tunes and just knowing the names of chords is a lot easier then comprehending musical theory and the notes on each string.

2.) If you decide you want to know how to read guitar music then it’s going to take a bit longer to learn the basics. There is more time that must be put in learning additional skills and knowledge needed later on.

What does it take to learn how to read guitar music

The initial part of learning to read music on guitar is learning the musical staff. This consists of the 5 lines and 4 spaces you see on any sheet music. Most guitar lesson home study programs should teach this, be sure to double check that it’s covered before you fork over any money.

The second portion of learning how to read guitar music is understanding the names of each string, and the notes on those strings up to the 5th fret. This corresponds to the notes you’ll be reading from sheet music. This is of course the beginning stages of learning to read music for guitar, and as you learn to read chords it will become more difficult.

The simplest way to Learn to Read Guitar Music

Learning to read sheet music on guitar isn’t impossible on your own, how ever it might take you sometime if you don’t have any previous musical experience. Having a quality guitar lesson book or video on hand will save you time while learning.

The popular learn guitar courses such as Learn and Master Guitar cover learning the notes on each string, how to read music, theory, and scales. These are all intertwined and will take you from just being a strumming guitar player to an intermediate and advanced player.

 

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/art-articles/learning-how-to-read-music-on-guitar-460438.html

About the Author

Check out our Guitar Lesson Reviews to help you pick a good Learn Guitar dvd that will teach you to read guitar music fast.

Tips on Changing Your Guitar Strings

Author: Axebay

Guitar strings must be changed when they start to look or feel rusty, start breaking, lose their tone and sound, or look dull. It is tough to know how long strings will be good as many factors such as climate, how often (or not) you use your instrument, whether you are playing in a band or just playing at home, will all effect the life of your strings. By and lare, when playing a full night with a band, strings will usually only last 3 – 6 gigs. After that, you risk the embarrassment of breaking a string during one of your amazing solos. Read the rest of this entry »

Bluegrass Music Tabs for Those Who Want to Play Themselves

Author: Amelie Mag

Particularly American bluegrass music has had for quite a while now its settled artists and their eager admirers. Bluegrass music seems to be a good companion at any moment because it sings the soul of regular people confronting with regular problems anyone can relate to. For those who hold a special place for that old-time melancholy atmosphere, there is no obstacle between them and their love for bluegrass music. However, bluegrass music is not as old as you may think. It indeed combines old rhythms with Scottish-Irish influences, but it dates back somewhere in the 1930s, when Bill Monroe turned it into a popular means of entertainment. Read the rest of this entry »

Guitar Chord Playing

Author: Ricky Sharples

Learning guitar chord playing is not going to be easy. But it will be a relatively short-term ordeal with great rewards at the end. There are some questions that learner guitar chord players are faced with that should be mentioned right at the start so you can get some understanding of the physical problems involved with guitar playing.

One question that confronts guitar students is where to place your left thumb when playing chords. Some guitar styles call for the sixth string to be fretted with the thumb. This adds a certain amount of versatility to your guitar playing but at the same time, there are some chords that are most easily played using the so-called “classical” position with the thumb placed at the center of the back of the guitar neck.

The classical position is really the only one you can use with the wider neck of the nylon string guitar. Steel string acoustics and electric guitars have thin necks that accommodate hooking the thumb over the neck. You can, of course, use both ways of chord playing but if you feel that you must use one method exclusively, the classical position will be the better one to go for.

The other big challenge for learning guitar chord playing students is barre chords. You will be learning open chords in the first position when you first learn to play the guitar. Open chords are fingered by between one and four left-hand fingers used to fret separate strings and leaving some chords sounding without being stopped by the fingers. Barre chords use the index finger placed across two, three or all sic strings with the second, third and pinky fingers fingering other frets.

Learning to apply the correct amount of pressure to play chords cleanly is the first part of learning to play both open and barre chords, then you must practice slowly and methodically so that you can change chords smoothly. This requires a great deal of daily practice. You need to practice the chord changes in your favorite songs to start with. This will give you something to aim for and the song will give you a rhythmic structure to relate your chord changes to.

If you are feeling that you now have a long sentence of boring and uncomfortable work ahead of you, you are only partially correct. The length of time you will need in order to learn guitar chord playing will be in proportion to the care you take in learning economy of movement when changing chords. Every time you give in to the urge to rush your chord changes you are making the learning process longer.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/guitar-chord-playing-1284118.html

About the Author

Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.