Well, in a nutshell, you’ll need to know your major and minor chords first.
But the most commonly used chords are probably:
G, Em, C, D, Am, F, E, A, and Dm.
Start with those first and then fill in the blanks as you go along.
Of course, you should order the Learn Guitar Chords DVD to learn over 100 of the most commonly used guitar chords!
But, we’re biased.
Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox
Learn to play guitar harmonics and transform your guitar into a zen garden of soothing sounds.
Harmonics are naturally occurring places on the string that when lightly touched split the resonating string into different proportions and produce new sounds. These places along the strings are called “nodes” and they are easy to find because they are mathematically and visually easy to understand.
Learn To Play Guitar Harmonics
Here’s what I mean:
For example. Play your E6 string. (The big, thick one). Now, lightly touch the string right over the 12th fret (don’t actually press it down, just lightly touch it) and pluck the string. You should hear a humming tone, it’s not too bright or jangly, but your guitar string should sound a little more mellow. What you’re hearing is the octave harmonic, you’re hearing the next E up the scale from the lower “open” E string sound.
Guess what? The 12th fret is the halfway point of your string stretched from the bridge to the nut (the two points from which the guitar string vibrates to produce sound). The halfway points (12th fret) on each string will produce the octave harmonic.
There are also “built-in” harmonics on the 1/3rd and 2/3rd’s points of the string. Can you visually divide your E string into thirds? About where would the harmonic node be 1/3rd of the way up the string? If you guessed the 5th fret, you’re smart.
Ok, bla bla bla, just tell me where all the harmonic nodes are!
You can find the tones on the 3rd (difficult to hear, takes practice), 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 15th, and 17th frets. There are more, but you’ll have to experiment to find them. Use your ears and listen for sounds on top of sounds.
Remember, just lightly touch the string, don’t press it down into the frets. You should hear glorious tones, not jangly steel strings.
Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox
No one’s going to practice the guitar for you. And there’s no magical button to press that will make you into an enchanted guitar elf with magical guitar elf skills. (Sorry, been playing too many video games). Ahem…
Learn to play your guitar by actually practicing. What a thought. Everyone else will tell you that all you have to do is this “trick” here, or just subscribe to my “I’ll Make You A Guitar Hero In 10 Minutes” blog.
Oh, Please.
That kind of advertising may have worked on our parents, but not us. We know better. Yes, Yes, we KNOW it actually takes work to get good at something. Just look at the Karate Kid. Man, did that guy have it rough for a few months. But you know what, that Crane Kick move was pretty epic, and he got the girl. How?
Practice.
Alright, so, here I am, yelling it from the rooftops, and there’s only one thing left for you to do. Stop surfing the mindless web (except of course for when you read our fabulous blog to get a kick in the, well, motivational area…) and go practice for a half an hour.
You’ll get better if you do.
Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox
First, some basic information about guitar strings:
1.) There are different strings for electric and acoustic guitars. They come in packages of 6 because there are 6 strings on a standard guitar. Buy your strings accordingly.
2.) There are different gauges (thickness) of strings. The thinner they are, the easier they are on your fingers, but they don’t sound quite as full or “deep” as thicker strings. If you are a beginner, stick with lighter gauge (thinner) strings until your fingers get used to it.
—–a.) Acoustic Guitar: Light, Medium, Heavy are the terms for thickness. Stick with light if you’re a beginner.
—–b.) Electric Guitar: 8′s, 9′s, 10′s, 11′s, 12′s are the terms for the thickness. 9′s or 10′s are what you probably want if you’re a beginner.
3.) Change your strings often, and more importantly, learn to do it yourself. It will save you money.
4.) A pack of strings will cost you anywhere between $4-$12 or more depending on the quality or brand.
Ok, so now the opinion section:
What brand should I buy, and from where?
1.) RotoSound strings. They’re an epic company based in the UK and make high quality strings that are perfectly priced. StringsAndBeyond.com is the best Guitar Strings website.
Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox
This article will attempt to explain the circle of fifths from a “practical use” standpoint as it pertains to chords in a diatonic function, and will not be an exhaustive, theoretical explanation of the circle of fifths. That’s what wikipedia is for.
No, no, this article will give you the visual cues you need to understand something about the relationship of chords as it appears in the circle of fifths. You will start to realize what it means to play “in a key” like in Back To The Future, when Marty McFly tells the band, “Alright boys, this one’s a blues riff IN B, watch me for the changes, and try to keep up.” Good thing Marty took the time to learn guitar chords.
What does it mean to play, think, or otherwise understand the concept of playing “in a key?” The circle of fifths provides the answer:
Pizza.
Well, that’s how I see it anyways. The proverbial slice of musical pie.
Look at the image below, and what you will begin to see is the arrangement of chord relationships as a slice of pie. Any chord found within the slice of pie is “in the key” of the upper middle letter. The example below shows the chords “in the key” of C.
Again, since everything in the shaded area “surrounds” the letter C, we say that this is the key of C. You could play any of these chords in any order and it would sound pretty good. That’s because each chord belongs to the key of C. It’s like all of the words in a sentence being in the same language, they make sense.
For a great way to learn lots of guitar chords, try the Learn Guitar Chords DVD available on our website or Amazon.com.
Here’s a picture of the key of E. It’s the same concept, but “different language.” The musical sentence will still make sense, but you’ll be speaking the key of E.
This simple visualization has many practical uses, for example, let’s say you’re writing a song, but you’re stuck on the three chords you already wrote for the chorus. How can you easily choose a good sounding chord for the verse or the bridge?
1.) Find the main chord you’re using in your song in the circle of fifths chart
2.) Visualize the slice of musical pie around that chord
3.) Choose any of those chords you haven’t used and see if it sounds good
Here’s another example, if you’re into listening to music and want to understand more about it.
1.) Google any song with the keywords “chords lyrics” added to the song title.
2.) Click on one of the search results.
3.) Look at the chord symbols above the lyrics
4.) Find those symbols on the circle of fifths chart and see if you can find the slice of pie that the song belongs in.
Usually, a song will either begin or end on the chord of the key that the song is “in.” Furthermore, you’ll start to see that the majority of songs out there mostly stay “in” a certain key. Sometimes you might see some “foreign” chords in the song, but hey, music is a great way to celebrate our differences, right?
So there you go, a simple way to visualize the circle of fifths.
