A 15 year old guitarist really desperate for lessons and that is apparently broke posted on Craigslist. Here's my response:
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Quote:
The attached will help you out a lot. What it is showing you is every note on the guitar, on the left, for the scale. Start using E Minor, the most common scale used in guitar based music. The root of the scale is E. You can play "freely" around this scale to build muscle memory, get your dexterity in good shape, or jam along to a record. As long as the note is listed on the scale, it will be fine to mess around with. However, songwriting is much different. Just playing within the scale with no regards to harmony or melody is a great way to practice and easily memorize all these notes, but it it will result in poorly conceived music that is frustrating and uncomfortable to hear.
On the right it is showing you the notes of the scale arranged differently so that the notes that do not sound good in certain places are missing. This shows you which notes are allowed to be played after the current one. The "flow" of the chart is top to bottom with the leftmost note being the note you are on and the notes on the same line are the choices. It is showing you that If you are playing an E, you can play anything else in the scale you want next. If you played a C next, you are limited to choosing a G,D, or another C for the third note. There are complex reasons for this I won't get into, but believe me, every song is written this way for the most part.
There are only a few chords you need to start. Once you have basically mastered the two things above, which will take years, you can start using more complex chords. It will take thick callouses on your fingertips and a lot of experience to play something such as the "E minor chord." For now, these are the only thing you need and what is used primarily in Pop and faster Metal styles. Keep in mind these can be moved anywhere, but we will assume you want them to be E's. Don't worry about the notes that are not the low E, they do not create a perception of pitch, so just pretend the chord is one note (which it is in fact)
Perfect fourth (EA)
D
A - 0
E - 0
Perfect fifth (EBE) (aka Power Chord)
D - 2
A - 2
E - 0
Suspended 4th (EAB)
D - 2
A - 0
E - 0
Suspended 2nd (EBF#)
D - 4
A - 2
E - 0
General Tips:
Always, no matter what pick up and down, never in the same direction every time. James from Metallica may downpick 90% of the time but he does so at the expense of speed and agility. Do you really want his 30 year old bad habit he never corrected? Eventually you'll have to play very tough picking patterns and sooner or later this bad habit is going mess you up. I didn't listen and found myself VERY slowly (about one note per second) going back and making that natural back and forth the default picking motion.
Play three notes per string. Playing four or more will just repeat the exact same notes and will be confusing until you know exactly what you're doing and know exactly where every note is without thinking.
Each finger should play it's own fret position. Index finger on fret 1, middle on two, ect. Yes, this is tough. Stick with it though. I found it tougher to use the open strings when I started. I suggest learning to fret every note and to start on the A string's 7th fret as opposed to the E string open. When you are totally comfortable, then I would suggest getting used to the way the open strings. To start you shouldn't have to move much or at all. All 7 notes are right there on three strings.
When you practice, never ever hit two notes sitting next to each other such a B followed by a C.
Do not worry about Drop D or anything else right now until you know what you are doing to affect the placement of the notes.
That will keep you busy for a WHILE and keep your money in your pocket too. There are no tricks. Just thousands of hours of boring memorization. Music is a language. If you learn how to speak it you can say whatever you want with it. I suggest hammering away at that chart instead of trying to learn songs. The songs will be far harder than you can imagine and your muscles in your hands are nowhere close to being able to make it work. This will take time. Build good habits now while your hands will do what you want instead of what you've told them a million times before and always know the options for the next note when practicing.
I can't stress enough, get your stereo louder than your amp and screw around in a scale with no attention to the notes played in proper order otherwise, just use the notes listed as part of the scale. It is a fun way of learning where these notes are at until it becomes boring and unsatisfying because you'll wanna hit the RIGHT notes by then. For now it will sound like everything is "right" when playing along and it will be great motivation when you accidentally hit the exact notes a few times. Write back and let me know how it goes.
See you on the road in a few years, you'll easily play like you're 10 years older than you'll be 5 years from now if you go this way.
~C
Most hilarious thing I've read in aaaaaages!
