Introduction to the guitar - Week 1

Author: Justin Sandercoe

Learning the A, D and E chords

Welcome to the first of my series of lessons for the beginner guitarist. Hopefully you have the guitar on your knee (in tune I hope, if not sort it out at Tuning Your Guitar) and you are ready to start playing. The first thing that you need to know is how to read chord boxes.

These show you where to put your fingers on the fingerboard. The six vertical lines represent the six strings, the one furthest left is the thickest. The two close together lines at the top of the box represent the nut (the plastic, bone or metal piece that the stings go through on the headstock) and the rest of the lines represent the frets.

Your First Chord

Look at the chord box for the D chord. (Either above or below). The black dots are the places where you should position your left hand fingers (Sorry, but I will always write for right handed players, you lefties will just have to swap the hand over, not too hard is it?). The numbers next to them tell you which finger to use, your index finger is your 1st and your little finger is the 4th.

Try to place your fingers in the places shown with the correct fingering. Most students find it is easier to arrange their fingers by number order starting with your first finger. Try it and see if it works for you, but it is not important. Place your first finger on the 3rd string, second fret. The second finger on the 1st string, also on the second fret and your third finger on the 2nd string on the 3rd fret.

The fingers should be just behind the appropriate frets. If a finger is touching the fret it, the note will sound dead or muted and if it is too far back from the fret the note will buzz. You may find that your fingers will not stretch to where you want them to go at first, but it won't take long for them to find the way to play it. Just let you hand get used to moving in ways that it may never have done before.

When you start playing it is better to keep your thumb placed behind the neck. Have it resting about 3/4 of the way toward the sixth string, firmly planted on the pad of the thumb (not the end). Your palm should not be touching anywhere.

Check which strings should be played, in this case you should NOT play the thickest two strings. Now strum down with your thumb or plectrum from the 4th string down (toward the ground).

How did it sound?

What you may need to do now is make some adjustments. Don't worry if the ends of your fingers get a bit sore, just take a short break if it bothers you too much. Check that each finger is not touching anywhere where it should not. On this D chord it is quite common for your third finger to be touching the 1st string and stopping it sounding. If this is the case then try to angle the finger more directly down on the string with the end of your finger. Try to let there be a small gap between the edge of your first finger and the fingerboard. The palm of your hand should not be touching the guitar neck anywhere.

When you strum be aware of where you start the strum from. Although it may seem like a lot to think about at the start, the quality of your playing will be worth the little extra time to get it right. It will be tempting sometimes to just disregard it and strum away on your favourite tune. When this urge hits you, just do it. But when you PRACTICE then be careful of what notes you are hitting. Have a listen to what our D chord sounds like if all 6 strings are plucked. Pretty rough, and it makes the chord muddy and unclear.

Strum this chord and play around with getting it sounding nice for a 5 minutes or so. Have a bit of a play around and see what it sounds like. Check the notes regularly by plucking the strings one at a time and checking that each note is clear, and not buzzing. A good pattern to get into is to strum the chord, the play each note individually (starting from the thickest string that you should play), make any necessary adjustments and then strum the chord again, with it nice and clear. The take a second break and try it again. Get this chord into your MEMORY.

Next up...

If you followed the instructions above you should be confident with your first chord! Well done. If not go back and try again. Unfortunately I'm not aware of any one chord songs so now we have to move onto our next two chords so you can play a song.

Below are three neck diagrams, for A, E and D (which we have just looked at). The next chord to approach is the A chord. It has the first, second and third fingers, all in a row in the second fret. If you have big fingers you may find this quite hard (if you need to you can swap around your first and second fingers) especially as all the fingers should be as near to the frets as possible. You should not pick the 6th string, but all the rest should sound. Put your fingers down and then strum, check individually, and then strum again.

On the A chord the bits to watch out for are that your third finger is not touching the 1st string, and that your fingers are pressing hard enough to get all the notes sounding out. This chord can take bit of adjusting, and check that you left had palm is not touching the neck.

Next is the E chord, and it is quite a bit easier than the A. Arrange your fingers as shown on the neck diagram below and then strum, check individually and then strum again. Check that your 1st finger is not touching on any of the strings that it should not touch and check that all the strings are nice and clear. This one is also made easier by the fact that all the strings are played.

Spend some time working on changing between the chord shapes and find ways to help yourself remember these chords. It is very important that you commit these chords to memory..

Onto some songs

Below are some songs that use the chords we have just learnt. There are many more examples of 3 chord songs, but soon you will have learnt these well enough to move onto some more chords (the next ones we learn are no harder, you'll be pleased to know). Check them out and have a strum around. The most important thing is that you play the chords every day and and get used to changing between them a quickly and accurately as possible.

Each note underneath the chords represent a strum, so in this example you do two strums on A, two strums on E and then four on the D. And so on and so on and so on and so on. Wonder how much they made from this song?.

Next up is the classic wild thing. Don't worry about the rhythm for now, just be concerned with the chords and how many times to strum. Note that for the bridge section has a G chord. For now just strum the strings open from the 5th string, like strumming a chord if you forgot to put any fingers down.

This is another great easy tune, 3 chords in a pattern for the whole song. We like that.

And lastly we have another classic poptastic tune (we'll get into some more material really soon, but we need to take it easy to start off). The rhythm shows that it is all played with up strums. Perhaps you would like to try it once you are feeling a bit more confident?

Want some more....

There are many more examples of songs that can be played with just these 3 chords such as:

U2 - Desire

Animals- Baby please don't go

Katrina And The Waves - Walking on Sunshine

The Rolling Stones - Carol, Little Red Rooster, The Last Time and Around And Around.

Buddy Holly - That'll be the day

The Beatles - Roll over Beethoven

Elvis Presley - Hound Dog

Look around and get some sheet music from Amazon, your local music store or from the web. I really recommend getting an easy songbook, with lots of "easy to play" songs. There are many available, so get one that is in the style you like.

Well that is all for this instalment, have fun, practice hard, tick off the practice boxes if you are using the schedule above, and most of all, enjoy yourself!