str. str, str. str, str str, str, str str, str str, str, onnons onnens Playing Guitar: A Beginner's Guide Page 2 The Right Hand Strumming Up until now, we haven't paid attention to the right hand. When you played songs in this book, you worked out for yourself what the right hand was supposed to be doing. We're going to pay closer attention to the right hand in this section, by showing you some different strumming and picking patterns. When you do these exercises, it might be helpful to hold the pick just at its edge, between your thumb and your forefinger, with your whole hand making a loose fist. You don't need to make the fist tight, or put a lot of pressure on the pick. The pointy end of the pick should be free to wobble up and down a bit. Here's the most basic strumming pattern. It's a series of all downstrokes, no upstrokes. The downstrokes are shown with a down arrow. CG mai —3—3—3—3 j;-—9—0—0—0O ;—09—o0—0—0 f-2—2—2—2 CU 3—3—3—3 vvrvy Here's another strumming pattern. It alternates downstrokes with upstrokes. The upstrokes are shown with an up arrow. Note: play the same chords on the upstrokes, even though they're not illustrated in the tablature. Co Gmail 3—3—3—3 0—o0—0—o 0—o0—o0—o 0—o—o0—o 2—2—2—2 3—3—3—3 vivytytyt You may see possibilities for mixing up the pattern even more, with different combinations of up and downstrokes. Experiment and have fun. Resources Chord Strumming 101 from Cyberfret.com (www.cyberfret.com/techniques/strumming/101/index.php)str, str str. str str. str str. str, str str, str str, ounon oonens Playing Guitar: A Beginner's Guide Page 22 Melody: Alternate Picking Let's take a break from strumming chords, and learn an important tool for playing single, melodic notes. This will be an important skill when we begin improvising We're going to learn a picking technique called alternating picking, and we're going to apply this technique to a scale that's heard in most forms of popular music: the pentatonic scale, Here's a melodic line to play that uses alternating picking with the pentatonic scale. To play this correctly, follow the up and downstroke markings on the tablature. It will feel difficult at first to continue alternating your strokes when you move from one string to another, but youll get the hang of it with practice. Fingering note: play this scale with your first finger on fret 5 and your pinky (finger 4) on fret 8 5——5-8 8 8-7 yeivytvytvt vt atv tart “One and Two and One and Two and One and Two and One and Two and” ans eos B—5—8 vyivtvytvtvtvrtvtyt "One and'Two and One and Two and One and Two and One and Two and The pentatonic scale is based on the major scale, which you can learn more about in the Appendix. It has the same notes as the major scale, except for two of them: the fourth and the seventh. Continue to review this run every so often. It will come in handy when we introduce improvising Resources Guitar Picking Technique from Chris Smith: www.indiana.edu/~smithe/cjsnet34.htmlPlaying Guitar: A Beginner's Guide Page 23 Chords: Bass Note Picking We have a new version of the I-vi-IV-V-| song that uses Bass Note Picking. Play this song, giving special attention to what's happening on strings 5 and 6. When you play this with feeling, it's almost as if two different instruments are playing. C maj F maj st. 0 0 1 1 str. 2 1 1 1 0 str. 3 0 2 2 0 str 4 2 2 3 0 str.5 -3—— x x 3 2 str. 6 x x x x “one and. «Two. and.-«sThvee. = and. «Four and Bass Picking Practice smoothing the Bass Picking song out before you try this one, which introduces alternating bass picking. ste o—o o— —1 str. 2 1 1 1 oO str. 3 o—o 2 0 str 4 2 2 2 oO sin5 fa- x — x fo- x ra- x str.6 “— x -3- x “— x —x*x “One and Two and One and Two and One and Two anc Alternating Bass Pickingstr. str str, str str, str str. str, str str, str str, ounens ounon Playing Guitar: A Beginner's Guide Page 24 Improvising There's nothing magical about improvising, except the great feeling you get when you hit the right notes. In this section we show you how to hit those notes. Here are the steps we're going to approach improvising with: Record yourselt playing chord changes. Play back the recording, while you play the pentatonic scale over it. Play with the pentatonic scale: pick any notes from the scale you want. Change to a minor pentatonic scale to add a blues feeling Before you begin doing these steps, you'll want to practice this set of chord changes until you're fairly smooth at it. In fact, using a metronome while you practice would be helpful to you. Here are the chord changes you'll improvise over. Play these changes slowly, with a blues feeling [ C7 I Fr I 7 o0-0-0-0+0-~0-~0-~07141-1-1-170-0-0-0 pore dtr-rore-itinri-ini to1—1-1 3—3—3s—-3t43—-3-3-3l2-2-2-213 3-3-3 2-2-2-2t2-2-2-2t1-1-1-i11f2-2-2-2 3—3s—s—-3t3-3-3-313-3-3-3s13 3-3-3 xoxoxoxty ox lx oxtr lili li Dx ix ix ix Blues Changes (Once you can play this piece with a metronome, it's time for you to become just as comfortable with the pentatonic scale. Welll use the same scale pattern used in the section Alternate Picking. The tablature is included again here for your convenience, Practice the scale until you can play it with a metronome.str. str, str. str, str. str, str. str. str str. str str, oonens onnens Playing Guitar: A Beginner's Guide Page 25 5 8-7 vtvytvtvtvtyrtvtyt "One and'Two and One and Two and One and Two and One and Two and os e-s a—s—8 tebe vse tater vag "One and Two and One and Two and One and Two and One and Two and Pentatonic Scale (Once you can play the pentatonic scale with confidence, it's time to record the changes and play over them. Using a tape recorder, computer, or some other device that lets you record and play back several minutes of music, record the chord changes. Now for the fun. Once you're satisfied with the recording, rewind it, or do what you need to do to begin playing it from the beginning, Play the recording, and play the pentatonic scale, How does it sound? If it sounds a little stif to you, it's time to play with the scale a bit. Rewind the recording, and begin playing it again. This time, instead of playing a strict up and down pentatonic scale, play whatever pentatonic notes you want. Continue doing this, finding new ways to play the pentatonic scale. To improvise truly means to play. Let yourself have fun. Alternate the melodic patterns you use. Re-record the chord changes with a different rhythm. There are endless ways of getting the music to sound better than before. When you take a break from your experiments, try this new variation: Play exactly the same pentatonic scale, except move it up the neck by exactly three frets so that your first finger is on the eighth fret instead of the fifth In this new position, continue playing over the changes. How does it sound? Welcome to playing the Blues. Resources Book: Creativity in Improvisation, by Chris Azzara. Marc Sabatella’s Jazz Improvisation Primer at www.outsideshore.com ‘Aebersold's play along CD:Playing Guitar: A Beginner's Guide Page 26 Closing Note Dear Fellow Guitarist: Thank you for reading this ebook. | hope you enjoyed it and learned something from it Maybe the most important thing is that it has given you fuel to pursue more guitar goals. If that’s true, I'd lke to hear about it. Also, if there’s something you don't see in this book that you'd like to see, let me know that, too. | want to know about any musical successes that this book has helped you achieve. This information gives me fuel to write more, write better, and to become a better guitarist myselt For more support in achieving your musical goals, read the articles posted on the Maximum Musician web site, at www.MaximumMusician.com. Thank you again for reading Playing Guitar: A Beginner's Guide. Keep playing and learning, and discovering new paths to musical fulfillment Darrin Koltow MaximumMusician.com (407) 292 0871 2812 North Powers Drive, #69 Orlando, FL 32818Playing Guitar: A Beginner's Guide Page 27 Appendix The Major Scale The major scale is the basic building block of Western music. This section contains tablature to show you where to play the major scale on the guitar. Like the barre chords, these major scale forms are movable. In other words, you can move them from one place on the fretboard to another, and the pattern stays the same For example, it you wanted to play a D major scale instead of a C major scale, shift a pattern up two frets, so it's root note is D instead of C. Use the section called Notes on the Fretboard in this Appendix if you're having trouble identifying starting notes for the scale patterns.Playing Guitar: A Beginner's Guide Page 28 Major Scale Pattern 1: E Major Here's the first pattern for the major scale. Figuring out which finger to use for which note is generally pretty easy once you apply this one guideline: one finger goes to one fret. For example, in the following tab, the pinky will play notes only on the 7th fret, for any string. The third finger will play notes on the sixth fret for any string, and so on. To help you understand this, numbers are placed under the first few bars of each scale pattern, to show you which finger to use. lingering: 42142131 2