Lesson 6

The only chords on the guitar that I don't know how to play, are bar chords. They are more complex chords that take a long time to learn. There are other chords that u can play instead of bar chords that sound really similar. I have been watching YouTube videos to teach me how to play bar chords. Another thing that I didn't know how to do was tuning a guitar. But I found an app that helps you tune your guitar and I downloaded it on my phone. When you open the app, it will have the names of the strings. You click on one of them and it makes the sound that the string is supposed to sound like. Then just play the string and then on the screen, there will be a line in the middle. If the dot is to the left of the line, its too low. If the dot goes to the right of the line, then its too high. Then you should already know to turn the tuning peg counter clockwise. This app really helped me learn to tune my guitar! So that is one of the things that I have learned from  this project and hopefully, soon, bar chords.

Lesson 5

Sweet Home Alabama is actually really simple once you know how to play D, G and C9 very well. A guitar exercise that I did with my guitar teacher really helped with me learning my chords. He would call out random chords and I would have to play the chords in the same order he called them out and in the strumming pattern he told me to do. This would really help you learn chords. At first, getting your fingers on the chords might be a little bit hard and you might be a little slow. But, after you learn them and get used to them, then you'll know exactly where they are, how to play them and you will be able to get to the chord right away. Just try this exercise and have someone call out the chords to you and you practice playing.

Lesson 4

In this post I will explain more chords and strumming patterns. The first song I learned how to play on guitar was Sweet Home Alabama. It requires you to know the D chord and two new chords (C9 and G) Before the video, I will teach you how to play those two new chords.

This is a C9 chord. To play this, you put your 1st finger on the 5th string, of the 2nd fret. Then, put your 2nd finger on the 6th string of the 2nd fret. After that, put your 3rd finger on the 2nd string of, again, the 2nd fret. Finally, put your 4th finger on the 1st string of, of course, the 2nd fret. That's how you play C9 chord!

Lesson 3

In this post, I will be talking about strumming patterns.

 

 

This is a simple strumming pattern. The down mean that you will be strumming down for all of these beats.

 

This is another strumming pattern. In you head just count one, two, three, four, over and over again. When you count one and two, you should go down on both numbers. Then three and four, you should strum up on both numbers. Then go back to one and two. On one, strum down and on two strum up.

There are many different strumming patterns that you could use. You could even pick some random pattern. In my next post I will be talking about strumming with chords.  

 

lesson 2

To play guitar, you will need to learn some chords. The first chord I was ever taught was Em or E minor. This is probably the easiest note there is besides D. At first, it is probably not going to come out pretty unless you press them down really hard and strum. It will hurt but then you will develop calluses which is a thickened and hardened part of the skin. You develop this from having to press down on the strings so much.

This is an Em. You only have to use two fingers for this chord.

 The two and the three are your fingers. The two being your second finger and the three being your third finger. Make sure you put your fingers in the 2nd fret. To tell that it is the 2nd fret, you go to the nut and count the first fret then then second fret. Put your fingers behind the 2nd fret and there is the Em.

To play the D chord:

You put your 1st finger on the 3rd string of the 2nd fret. Then put your second finger on the 1st string of the 2nd fret. After that, put your 3rd finger on the 2nd string of the 3rd fret. That is how you play a D chord.

lesson 1

 

The first thing needed to know before you play guitar is all the guitar parts. As you can see in the picture, the head is at the very top. Then comes the tuning peg which you use to tune the guitar. Until you know how to tune a guitar, you will need to buy a tuner. To use the tuner, you turn it on and pick a string. Then you turn the peg of that string clock wise, until the light on the tuner turns green. Do this to every string. After the tuning peg, is the nut. The nut is just the white piece at under the tuning pegs that stops the strings from vibrating beyond the neck. Then, there is the fingerboard, also called the neck. On the fingerboard, there is the strings which is what you place your fingers on to play a chord. After that is the frets. Those are the metal strips that run across the fingerboard. You place your fingers behind them and strum at the sound hole which produces a note. They should be kept smooth to keep the strings from buzzing. Then the sound hole is where the sound comes out from and where you lose your guitar pic if your not careful. You strum the strings over the hole and that produces the sound. If you do lose your guitar pic, just tilt you guitar so the sound hole is facing down the shake it up and down at an angle so the pic will slip out. After that is the rib which is just a design in the guitar where the guitar body curves. The body is the biggest part of the guitar. Inside is where the sound bounces around and then comes out the sound hole. It is designed to amplify the sound of the guitar. Finally, the bridge, where the strings are attached to the guitar's body. Vibration is transferred through the bridge and vibrates to produce the tone. All of these parts are very important to know to play guitar.

Project change

I have decided to change my project. I have changed it because I cant do anything with the kindness project, really. I want to do something that I am more interested in. I am still interested in being kind and going against bullying but I wanted to do a project with something I enjoy doing. Therefore, I have chosen to do a project on playing guitar. I will blog about how to play it and how to do certain chords. I will post videos of me playing chords and playing songs. So pretty much, I am just giving virtual lessons. This will also help me learn some new songs. By the end of this project, I hope to have learned how to do more bar chords which are the hardest chords. You don't need bar chords to be able to play guitar but it is still cool to know so that you can play the few songs that have to have bar chords.