This thread will cover all aspects of guitar, from history of it to playing it, to its unique mechanics, different tunings and strings working on it, the different types of them, getting tones, pedal-boards, amplifiers, wow it is a lot I hope you fill inspiration here, I welcome you to add to this thread with your unique perspective!


















All about guitar!................................






































part 1. I would like to begin with a tiny bit of guitar history i think you may enjoy presented in a film.

Next. the musical layout of the guitar.












A. The first important thing, regarding the layout of the guitar is to understand how your notes are laid out .( compared to piano lets say or other instruments.) In this above image, we can see the entire fret-board layout of the white keys on the piano or in other words the "natural" notes.























B. ergonomics of guitar. (how to fretting hand, how to picking hand)


Instances where we make open chord shapes, We can "wrap" our fretting hand around the neck with our thumb coming over the top for comfort.






Instances where we have to "reach" the fat strings we rotate our wrist bringing the thumb towards the middle of the back of neck right below our "middle" finger.

Here we use the natural shape of a closed hand to grip the guitar pick, in order to stay relaxed and fell comfortable while we play.


Here is a view of fretting hand (chord shape) as well as picking hand (finger picking technique)


































Here we see standing with the guitar











Here we see sitting with the guitar


(the man is "drooling" over the beauty of that acoustic here.)

 

Last edited: May 2, 2017

When we first start to learn the guitar we usually are taught the most basic chord shapes, so that we can begin to play, build up our co-ordination, and just plain have some fun!










lets start of by using the above chart for our chords reference and learn 100 popular songs you know of with one single chord progression

we will play
I D major , A major,B minor, G major or I V vi IV in the key of D major/ b minor

the notes are 1. d 2. e 3. f# 4. g 5. A 6.b 7. c#

to build our chords for each number we skip every other note.

1. d f# a = d major
2. e g b = e minor
3. f# a c# = f# minor
4. g b d = g major
5. a c# e = a major
6. b d f# = b minor
7. c# e f# = c# diminished

this progression is named I V vi IV or chord numbers 1,5,6,4

d major, a major, b minor, g major

to add in note for solo or melody or harmony we use the 7 notes of this key.

here our chords x= no play, and the number is fret number big string to little string

1. xx0232 5. x03330 6. x24432 4. 320033

D major----A minor----B minor------G major--


now a trick to add solo notes is to outline the note of b minor chord backwards from high to low in between each chord played










Next we will go to this website

https://play.riffstation.com/







here you can pick any song you know and play along with the chords displaying right with the song for you to play along pick some songs you know the melody well. pick some top radio songs you hear all the time. this exercise is to develop timing and your ear to how the melodies mix with the foundation ( the chords.)
















After a little while we find out there is much more chords than we realized at first!





We don't want to overwhelm ourselves, by trying to deal with all these chords right away though.
First, we need a way to understand how these chords get grouped together .

















We learn about simple ways (method)to understand a guitar layout ( the unique part)









Above we see a method called the CAGED system. this type of method can help us do 2 things.
1. memorize the guitars layout regarding its notes and shapes.
2. navigate the fret-board using the method, with the understanding of music theory itself which is universal.
This means taking the attributes unique to guitar, and combing that knowledge with the attributes about the way all music works.






The CAGED system means to fill the guitar fret-board with C major triad or CEG the shapes that it gives you lays out the shapes for the CAGED open chord shapes.






the CAGED system is actually one of many ways to do this. we can use it or another .WE get to choose what we feel comfortable with. here are some other alternative to the CAGED system.



1. Triads



Here we have the C maj triad across the fretboard

Here we have the A minor triad across the fretboard

Here we have the B diminished TRIAD across the fretboard











2. A second alternative to CAGED system is 3 note per string scale shapes.

Here we see the C major key with 3 note per string scale shape. It is called Ionian mode when start on 8th fret and play 3 notes per string.



Here we see major key but starting on the D note on 10th fret( playing 3 notes per string) it is called the Dorian mode








Advanced Guitar lesson SWEEPING
--------------------------------------------

3. A third option is to outline a chord shape while adding in passing tones , commonly using the pentatonic shapes ( 5 notes)

here we see a 2 notes per string pattern that begins on 5th fret starting on A. the notes are of the a minor triad. ACE but then 2 added notes . they are D and G this makes a 5 note scale called pentatonic the notes for a minor pentatonic are ACDEG






If we outlined a C maj triad instead we would have this shape below. it has the C maj triad notes of CEG with extra notes D and A this gives us CDEGA 5 notes or pentatonic notice how it is the same 5 notes as a minor pentatonic this means we could use either shaped displayed in these picture depending on the chord we outlining.




Lets say we wanted to outline the G maj triad shape or GBD chord , what would it look like? wow !...look at that, it is the same shape as the C maj pentatonic but starting from a G note.
it gives us the 5 notes GABDE

 

Last edited: May 20, 2017

Thank you for your time.. and your courage

 

We have gone over the basics of guitar .standing and sitting with it, from your using hands to getting used to its unique fret-board and simple chords. and finally to expanding into more chords and scale shapes that exist on the fret-board. This gets us interested in the instrument, able to play music, build up our co-ordination and skill, and able to learn to add in new creative things.

The next important step is to cover MUSIC THEORY itself, especially if we have no formal training or background in it. This will give us the ability (if we decide) to explore all available options related to the guitar in a songwriting context, or even a band context ( with other instruments)
I have previously covered some of this in depth in the middle of the first page of the thread "the secrets of music" located in education . but i will present a little here also.
the first thing is the circle of fifths.

YES I KNOW , it can seem a little ALIEN at first!

But what I can do is present to you a FREE FULL MUSIC THEORY COURSE with a real actual teacher. the gentleman covers this information step by step in proper order in such a way you can go through as fast or slow as you want.

Now there ARE 47 videos in this free course (accessible from the gentleman youtube channel)don't be overwhelmed if it is new to you. Go at a pace YOU feel comfortable with , and I hope you enjoy it!















Lets look at the Guitar's fret-board mapped out with different (major-minor) keys

we have seen C major- A minor this is the notes 1.C 2.D 3.E 4.F. 5.G .6.A. 7.B


But lets look at some other keys , for example here is the G major mapped on the fret-board

We can see that the notes of (G maj-E min) key are 1.G 2.A 3.B 4.C 5.D 6.E 7.F#



we can see that it is one note different than our C maj key.


This moves our shape on the guitar like a conveyor belt what USED to be the shape starting at the bottom C at the 8th fret,is slid over to G on 3rd fret and all other shapes move also. this makes the guitar unique the shapes all stay same for different keys , it is just that they slide like a conveyor to the new note. this is different to a piano where the shapes change for patterns.


Here we see E major shape across the neck, we can see it is identical shapes as G major (but starting on E) but the whole guitar's fret-board pattern is slid 3 notes to the left, from G maj to E maj

 

Last edited: May 1, 2017

That is three awesome posts for me as a guitar novice, right there. Thank you, I will have use for this!

 

Thank you fine folks! i appreciate your support very much everyone!

 

(a fun fact about recent developments in guitars)


In recent years, guitar makers or (luthiers funny name right!)
have expanded the instrument in many ways, one is addition of more strings, and longer scale length , so that the guitar can reach down to lower notes for more variety of sound! here is a picture of an electric guitar 10 string! holy mother of............


here is a link to a 8 string spanish muti-scale guitar! (mult-scale or "fanned fret" means the high strings and the low strings have different distance in between the frets. the reason for this is the scale length effects the clarity and the tone of the string when played.

http://www.rondomusic.com/product8084.html

Also, recent guitar designs use different materials in the making of the instrument allowing for a variety of different looks and designs
for examples this luthier (guitar builder) makes guitars for the metal genre. he uses carbon fiber material and aluminum to create the ultimate beasts for that particular genre of music.



Here is another, differnt luthier and company that makes more vintage style guitars BUt made from aluminum! wow dont need to worry about dropping that thing!
http://www.electricalguitarcompany.com/

 

Last edited: Apr 29, 2017

Please note , I will be updating the first sets of posts periodically and adding in examples ,lessons and follow alongs thank you folks.

 

writing your next book?

 

In a way you are right herr durr, I hope to have helpful information contained within that might be difficult to locate sometimes.

right now the thread is just beginning to be fleshed out.

 

congrats for the awsome thread

 

Thank you for your kind words Adamdog you rock!

 

Advanced Guitar JAZZ
---------------------------------

 

Last edited: May 20, 2017

https://play.riffstation.com/

this site you can see how any song was written , once you reverse engineer say 100 songs you aware of it really opens up your mind to the process of how music is written

 

And don't forget Lemmy's advice:

 

Wow! Many thanks. Busy like a bee as always.

But i have to say those Gibson guys were not the smartest. I mean how stupid can you be ...?

At the beginning I had Fender Stratocaster and Ibanez e-guitars and allways wanted a Gibson. Later there was nothing better than a Shergold Masquerader from the 70ies (Joy Division) for me. I really liked how easy and clean you could play this thing. But at the end and after a year of testing i wasn't able to buy it. (Really expensive!) So now I only use an accoustic guitar to play randomly for the kids. And of couse to find melodys and harmonies. Because nothing is easier than using a guitar for this.

 

In he is talking about the long and clean sustain.

 

Great i recently bought an acoustic guitar. Having some real problems with the left hand. Not as flexible as i'd like it to be.
Yet!

 

you will get it, my fine friend.

here , a gift for that exact purpose!!

practice these chords







here is the full page of each these are called "Drop 2 & 4 chords" and also "Drop 3 chords" they are all movable across the neck for any keys, they give you a fat thick rich sound spread out 3d sound.

http://mattwarnockguitar.com/drop-2-and-4

http://mattwarnockguitar.com/drop-3



Begin in the KEY of C major CDEFGAB and practices all versions of these chords

C maj7
D minor 7
E min7
F major7
G dom7 same as ( G7)
A min7
B min7flat5

here, play these chord progressions with the different inversions listed.

warm up
------
Dmin7 to G7 to C maj7


Progression 1.
------------------------
F maj7 to B min7flat5 to E min7 to A min7 to D min7 to G7 to C maj 7


progression 2.
-------------------
Dmin7 to G7 to Cmaj7 to F maj7 to B min7flat5 to E min7 to A min7

progression 3.
------------------

G7 to C maj7 to F maj7 to B min7flat5 to E min7 to A min7 to D min7

progression 4.
-----------------
A min7 to D min7 to G7 to C maj 7 to F maj7 to B min7flat5 to E min7

 

Last edited: Jun 7, 2017

these exercises, are NOT just important for playing jazz, they help you unlock music in general applicable for anything you would want to write.

 

Last edited: Jun 28, 2017