In this lesson, you are going to learn how to tune your guitar and play your very first chords. This is very important because without being properly in tune, anything you play on the guitar will not sound right. It might even sound quite unpleasant. We can avoid this by learning how to get our guitar in tune.
Once you get your guitar, amp, and tone set, you can then progress forward wtowhere the fun comes in. Learn to tune up your guitar and play it! Start with open chords first. These are great because they require only one finger to form and play them. Chords like Open E, Open A & Open DDThese are the easiest to learn and will set a solid foundation for your development of playing rock guitar.
But first, we must get in tune
Before you start playing anything on the guitar, you want to make sure that you’re in tune. This means that all six strings are at the correct pitch relative to each other. This way, when you play them, they will be in harmony with each other. And for this, we need a guitar tuner.
When it comes to guitar tuners, there are many to choose from but for getting started I recommend you get a simple clip-on tuner. These can be found at your local store or online at a place like Amazon.com.
How to tune your guitar
Now that you have learned a little bit about the guitar, you are ready to learn about how to tune it. But before you do, I’d recommend you learn the names of the guitar strings. This will allow you to know what to tune the guitar strings to.
Names of the Guitar Strings
The names of the strings are (from thickest to thinnest)
6-E
5-A
4-D
3-G
2-B
1-E
A good way to remember this would be to use an acronym. Eddie Ate Dynamite, Goodbye Eddie. Or you could do it in reverse. Easter Bunnies Go Dancing After Easter. Either way is fine, it doesn’t matter as long as it helps you to remember the string name. After you learn and remember your string’s name, you are now ready to tune your guitar with a guitar tuner. I recommend a Snark clip-on tuner
Watch the video lesson below
Learning your first chords
Once the guitar is in tune and everything is set to go we can now proceed to play the guitar and start to make music with it. And this is where it starts to get fun.
The very first chords you want to learn are your open power chords. We start with these because they are the easiest to play. As stated before, they only require one finger. Your index finger or first finger will do.
Guitar tabs
In addition to that, it is best to learn a little bit about how one might read these chords on a sheet of music paper as well. Like tablature. This is simplified sheet music for the guitar. Here is an example of what a guitar tab looks like.
The horizontal lines represent your guitar strings. The biggest on the bottom, and the smallest on the top. Numbers are placed on the lines to represent the frets on which you will put your fingers. Except for the 0, which stands for open, which means you play the string without putting your finger on it.
Chord charts
These are similar to guitar tabs, but they face upward and represent just the first few frets of the fretboard. This is the most common way to read guitar chords. Don't overlook reading chord charts, as they can be very beneficial to your playing.
The vertical lines represent the 6 guitar strings, with the biggest being on the left and the smallest on the right. The horizontal lines indicate the nut and the 1st 5 frets. With these, instead of numbers, you will have dots that indicate what string and fret to put your fingers on.
Strum only two strings
When playing power chords with two fingers, be sure to only strum the two strings that the chord is on. This will make it easy to get a good sound out of your guitar to start. Eventually, as time progresses and you learn more complex chord voicings, you’ll strum more strings and get more sound out of your guitar, but for now, just strum the two that the chords are made of.
By taking this approach to form and play simple two-finger chords, you will be able to build self-confidence fairly quickly, and you will be setting yourself up for more two-note chords that move up and down the fretboard.
Practice, practice, practice
In this lesson, we have learned about how to tune our guitar and start off playing simple one-finger and two-finger chords. By doing this, we are now setting a foundation for our other chords that are needed to learn for playing the art of rock guitar.
There are many guitar chords to learn but these are the easiest and most common to start with for playing rock guitar. Not just guitar mind you, but rock guitar. This is a certain style of guitar playing. Very much like Jazz Country or Blues.
Rock Guitar 101
Now if you are interested in learning more about how to get started playing rock guitar I recommend you check out the book I authored and self-published on Amazon.
Rock Guitar 101 is a simple step-by-step method book for beginners. It is designed to teach the fundamental principles of the art with easy-to-understand lessons and full-color pictures so you can learn easily and get quick results.
It goes over everything that is needed to get started. From what type of guitar, amp, tuner, and chords to learn, how to develop timing for better rhythm playing, intro to lead guitar, and much much more. It even has a rockstar training quiz at the end to make sure the student fully understands the material.
And the best thing about it is no previous musical knowledge is necessary. This book can be learned by anyone at any age who wishes to learn the art of rock guitar playing. All that is necessary is the desire to learn and want to get better.
Additional training
So, if you have that desire, check out the book and get started enjoying the fun of playing rock guitar. You’ll be glad you did. If you feel private instruction can help you further, contact me, and we can set up a free consultation.
Guitar lessons are a great way to learn. They can help you to get the desired results that you are looking for in half the amount of time. You can also get personal insights, tips, and tricks that can help you further. No matter how you choose to learn guitar, just get started.
Thanks for your time reading and until our next lesson, take care.
Sincerely, Dwayne Jenkins
