Introduction
Lesson 0 - Introduction
Every lesson is designed to incorporate 4 elements: lesson information, technique, music theory, and application. Early lessons may not contain all 4 parts by necessity. Each lesson will have a "homework" assignment that you can practice.
The important thing to remember is that not every lesson is going to click right away. You may need to read through several times or press on and revisit later. Lessons are presented in an order that I feel goes from simple to complex. They are not required to be read in perfect order, so it's possible to jump around; but especially early-on they should be read in order to make more sense.
Also, I'm going to assume you are right-handed for the sake of clarity and brevity. If you are left-handed, anytime you see left in relation to a body or fretboard direction, switch it with right, etc.
Musical notation is not text friendly, so I will use tablature in this form:
fig. 1
C
e--0-------------------------
b--1--------------------0--1-
g--0--------------0--2-------
d--2-----0--2--3-------------
a--3--3----------------------
e----------------------------
c d e f g a b c
The horizontal lines represent the guitar strings. The letters on the left indicate the tuning used. If they are not present, assume standard tuning (more info in Lesson 4), which is the same as written above. The numbers indicate to play that note while fretting the indicated fret number (more in Lesson 3). 0 means don't fret any notes - use the open string. Tablature, like classical musical notation, is temporally aligned from left to right. So you play the left-most note(s) then the next one(s) to the right and so on. In the above example, you would strum an open C major chord across 5 strings, then play the C major scale one note at a time moving from the lowest note to the highest.
The "C" above that first chord indicates the chord name. This may or may not always be present. Similarly, the letters below the last string represent the note names of the single notes being played. All this will be covered in greater detail later on.
I may also use fretboard maps and chord charts. These take the below form, very similar to tablature (or tab):
fig. 2
|x|x|-|x|-| |o|-|-|-| |i|-|-|-|
|*|R|-|x|-| |-|i|-|-| |)|m|-|-|
|x|-|x|-|*| |o|-|-|-| |i|-|-|-|
|x|-|x|x|-| |-|-|m|-| |-|-|r|-|
|x|-|x|R|-| |-|-|-|r| |-|-|-|p|
|x|x|-|x|-| |o|-|-|-| |t|-|-|-|
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 1 2 3 4
Each line of text represents a string. The last line of text with the numbers may or may not be present. It specifies the fret numbers. Since fretboard maps and chord charts are patterns that can be used on any group of frets on the guitar, they are not necessarily tied to any particular fret numbers, which is where their power lies. The vertical bars represent division between frets.
The first figure is a fretboard map or scale map/chart/pattern. The x's represent frets on that string that are part of whatever scale is being illustrated. The R's indicate root notes of the scale. The *'s indicate that these are the same note, but can be played in either location. These maps are a more compact way than tab to demonstrate the fretboard pattern of a particular scale. The chord chart in the middle is exactly the same thing, but is not meant to simply indicate the member notes, but how to finger all the notes at the same time. o = open, i = index, m = middle, r = ring, p = pinky, t = thumb, ) = indicates to "barre" your index finger (discussed later).
The first map and middle chord chart represent the same information as the tab above, but in a more compact form.