How to Play a Guitar

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By: Mike Hammil

Learning how to play a guitar is not hard at all. Most people are intimidated by the guitar and opt for a different instrument. The guitar is incorporated into just about every genre of music that exists. By learning to play a guitar, you can enjoy many different styles of playing.

If you want to be really good at playing guitar, all it takes is practice. Of course, this is AFTER the basics are learned. Reading music is a good skill as well, so learn to read sheet music. It definitely will help.

If you look at the guitar, you will notice that the strings run from the end of the body, up the neck to the headstock. Here is where they are tightened or loosened for tuning. The first thing you need to do is tune the guitar. This can be done manually to get started playing right away.

Manual tuning
The strings, from the thickest one upward, are tuned to E, A, D, G, B and E. To tune the guitar, start at the low E string and place your finger behind the 5th fret. This gives you an A, which is the tone of the 5th string. Play both strings together and turn the tuning key for the 5th string (located on the headstock) until they sound the same.
Repeat this for all the strings but when you get to the 2nd and 3rd string, you will tune the 2nd string to the 4th fret of the third string. Return to the 5th fret of the 2nd string to tune the high E string.

This method works fine as long as the low E string is actually tuned to an E. For accuracy, you may want to buy a tuner. It’s a good investment and it is very important to ALWAYS be in tune when you learn to play a guitar.

Now you’re in tune, let’s learn some notes and chords in the.
We will use C major to start with because it has no sharps or flats to worry about. The notes in C major are C, D, E, F, G, A, B and C. These notes are played as follows:
• C 5th string, 3rd fret.
• D 4th string, open (no frets)
• E 4th string, 2nd fret
• F 4th string, 3rd fret
• G 3rd string open
• A 3rd string, 2nd fret
• B 2nd string open
• C 2nd string, 1st fret

The chords are C, F, and G so we’ll get to those in a moment. These chords are played as follows:
• The C chord has the notes C, E and G and is fingered at the 2nd string-1st fret, 3rd string-open, 4th string-3rd fret, 5th string-3rd fret. Strum from the 5th string up.
• The F chord has the notes F, A and C and is fingered at the 1st string-1stfret, 2nd string-1st fret, 3rd string-2nd fret, 4th string-3rd fret. Strum only these four strings.
• The G chord has the notes G, B and D and is fingered at the 6th string-3rd fret, 5th string-2nd fret, 1st string-3rd fret. Strum all strings together.

With these notes and chords, you have a good jump on how to play a guitar.