Basic Technique
Tuning and basic technique form a kind of chicken-egg situation - you can't practice technique without being relatively in-tune, and you can't tune the guitar without any knowledge of how to get it to make sound. I'm covering basic technique first - this doesn't require the entire guitar to be in-tune, only that the strings have sufficient tension to sustain string resonance. If they currently don't, tighten them up using the tuners - just don't go so tight that they feel like they may snap.
Contents
PreReqs
- Introduction for reading tab
- Guitar Parts and Functions
- Holding the Guitar and Pick
Picking
Let's start with picking. This refers to playing a single string at a time. Later we will cover strumming techniques, but I recommend learning to play single notes first. This helps to develop each finger individually, as well as giving you a better understanding of the instrument and theory rather than learning a handful of chord shapes.
Your common picking motion should come from either your wrist or elbow, not your finger/thumb joints. As your technique develops, you may be able to add inflection and accents using your fingers, but as a beginner, you don't want to get in the habit of using them exclusively. This can lead to difficulty crossing strings, strumming, and speed, as well as leading to injury.
The picking motion is similar to waving hello to someone. You are "chopping", not "slapping" or "flapping". The relative distance from your hand to the guitar body should not change much during your picking motion. You want to "push through" the string, applying greater and greater pressure against the string until it slides off the tip of the pick. You do not want to apply some tension to the string then move the pick from the body, which I call "pecking", like a bird trying to eat a worm. The motion you use to play a single string should also work for multiple strings by simply continuing it (if you are "pecking" it will require a pecking motion for each string).
The pick should also remain "pointing" at or perpendicular to the guitar face, so it is equally easy to pick downstrokes as well as upstrokes through the string. As you push on the string, it will push back on the natural give of your pick and your grip, until the pick is angled enough to allow the string to slide off its tip.
Depending on your pick choice and how heavy-handed you are, even with a good grip, you may find it is difficult to "release" the string without significant force...causing the resulting string resonance to be too strong with fret buzz and a detuned sound during the attack of the note. Try loosening your grip on the pick, or maybe even try a thinner pick.
Downstrokes and Upstrokes
A downstroke is when you push the pick from closest to your head towards your feet. It feels like you are pushing the pick down through the string(s). This is the most common picking stroke, similar to a hammer motion or how you hit a table top with a stick. An upstroke is the reverse, almost like you are pulling the pick up through the string(s). An upstroke may feel a little strange at first. It's not necessary to master it at first - just be aware that you eventually will need to use both. You don't want to start making big circular movements with your hand where you are picking the strings going down but moving your hand far away from the strings when coming back up. Naturally you will have to move it slightly away from the strings when coming back up if you are only using downstrokes, but it shouldn't be drastic. This will only make upstrokes that more difficult to master when you start to incorporate them into your playing.
Manipulating Dynamics
The location on the pick where it initially touches the string will be relatively close to the tip. Depending on your pick choice and how you grip it, there will be a certain amount of pick surface you apply to the string where you can pick comfortably and with sufficient control over dynamic range.
This will vary depending on the desired dynamic level you want to achieve. For loud, aggressive playing, you will really want to "dig in", using more of the pick. Similarly, how tight you hold the pick will also determine how far from equillibrium you displace the string before it begins to slide and snaps off the tip of the pick. Both of these variables should be kept within a comfortable range as you develop as a player. You don't want to use either method to the point of discomfort without trying to incorporate some of the other method first. Eventually, it will become very natural to vary both the amount of pick used and right hand tension at the same time without even thinking about it.
Manipulating Tone
The main method to manipulate tone is where you pick the string. Moving close to where the strings touch the bridge, you get a very bright, metallic sound, similar to sitar. Moving closer to the middle of the string (12th fret), you get a more hollow, bell-like sound, similar to a harp.
The above section on dynamics will also affect tone in most cases. Playing harder usually causes the string to slap against the frets during the initial part of its sound, adding a kind of raucousness to your playing. If anything, it makes your playing more percussive and each note can be heard more clearly. Rock music typically involves compression or distortion of the signal, which tends to reduce the dynamic range of the instrument. Thus, picking dynamics tend to influence tone more than actual volume.
The pick angle can be manipulated to subtly alter your tone. I do not mean the angle in relation to the body. The pick should be relatively perpendicular to the body. I'm talking about its angle in relation to the strings. Normal position for me is slightly angled - the pick is almost parallel to the string. If it were completely parallel, the string would touch the entire face of the pick during the picking motion and may not slide off of it as easily, especially if you hold the pick tight. On the other hand, turning the pick completely perpendicular to the string feels very awkward - you will find it hard to apply pressure to the string, as the string quickly and easily slides towards the tip of the pick. These different feels don't simply affect feel - they translate into the tone the string produces. My advice is to get comfortable picking in general before starting to manipulate tone in this manner.
Left-Hand Fretting
As for the left-hand, the important thing is the quality of your fretting. (Fretting is the act of pushing the string down against a fret.) You want to push the string down right "behind" (towards the nut side of) the fret, so that it is held firmly against the fret. This gets a clean sound. If you hold the string lightly against the fret or far away from it, the string has the ability to come off and slam down against the fret as it resonates, which sounds like metal hitting metal. It is noisy, making it more difficult to hear the note you are trying to play. It also dimishes sustain, causing the note to fade out more quickly. A badly-fretted note will sound like "pinck" whereas a well-fretted one will sound like "biiiiiinnnngggg". Open strings are automatically fretted perfectly and make a good reference to determine how well you are fretting; however, they do have a bell-like quality that you cannot get from a fretted note. They are also less likely to have fret buzz - there's only so well that you can fret a fret.
Try to use the tips of your left-hand fingers to fret - this flesh is a little firmer than your fingerprints and makes for a cleaner fretting. It may be a bit painful at first, especially on the thin strings. You definitely don't want your finger tips to become raw and painful or start bleeding - don't overwork them at first. Over a week or two, your finger tips will start developing calluses, protecting them from injury, reducing pain, and making them firmer.
Be sure not to press down too hard when fretting. The additional tension will actually bend the string behind the fret, causing it to have greater tension and thus vibrate at a higher frequency than desired. In short, your notes will be sharp. Press down just hard enough to get a clean sound. Also, make sure you are behind the fret, not on top or even slightly in front of it. If so, part of your finger will be touching the vibrating part of the string, slightly dampening it, causing it to lose sustain and higher-frequency overtones.
Quick Recap:
- Use your fingertips
- Fret right behind the desired fret, not directly in between or on top of frets
- Use only as much pressure as necessary, no more
Fingering
The basic guideline that your left-hand should follow is each finger is assigned its own fret. So if you were to play the below tab on any string:
i m r p --1--2--3--4--
You would use your index finger on the first fret, then your middle finger on 2nd fret, ring on 3rd, pinky on 4th. Note that you can hold down any frets behind the one you are playing without any real impact on tone. This can somtimes improve economy of motion. For example, look at the following tab:
p
r------
m------------
i------------------
--1--2--3--4--3--2--1--
You can leave your index finger on the first fret the entire time. You could also leave your middle finger on there except for the first and last notes. This is less overall motion than if you were to press each fret down then unfret that one for the next note. Think about the nut - it is always "fretted", but when you fret any fret, the fact that the nut is fretted doesn't matter.
Muting
Something that always gets glossed over is muting. Just as important as being able to create sound is being able to mute it. Guitar strings will naturally convert any energy they encounter into resonance. That means any bump to the guitar, even things as slight as fretting or bumping a string, will induce audible resonance in other strings. Even sound waves hitting the strings will induce vibrations, which is particularly evident on cranked up electric guitars in the form of feedback.
Muting is performed with both hands for maximum effectiveness. The left hand should lay multiple fingers flat across all the strings, using enough pressure to dampen vibrations without using enough pressure to push any of the strings against the frets. The right hand should rest the side part of its palm near the pinky against the strings - again just enough to dampen the strings from vibrating. The further away from the bridge and nut you touch the strings, the greater the chance of success; however, it is impractical to move your right hand too far from the bridge. And it's probably excessive to move your left hand away from the location of the notes you want to play.
Unless strumming full chords, there's likely going to be some string you don't want to ring out while you are playing. I like to use my right palm to mute the thicker strings "above" the one(s) I'm playing and my left index finger (even if that's (one of) the finger(s) I'm using to fret) to mute all the thinner strings "below" the one(s) I'm playing. This doesn't need to be perfect - just enough to get the job done. And it's not worth trying to get it right off the bat. We'll talk more about it as we go along.
Note: the muting described here is different from the technique palm muting, covered later.
Left-Hand Grip
As for left hand position or how you "hold" the neck, there are basically two different extremes. Neither is "correct" - you will vary this depending on what you are trying to play.
The "proper" technique I was taught when I first started and lots of instruction books use is to place your thumb in the middle of the back of the neck, then angle your hand so your fingers are parallel with the frets when laid on top all the strings. Then curl your fingers so that the very tips of your fingers are used to fret the strings. As you play more, the tips of your fingers will callus and become firmer, making them ideal for making contact with the strings. This technique is great for classical guitar or acoustic, where there's less need for muting, lead playing, and vibrato. You can finger complex chords and reach notes on the thicker strings higher on the fretboard. However, if you observe most modern rock guitar players, even the well-learned virtuoso ones, most deviate heavily from this technique.
The "modern" technique involves placing your thumb closer to (or in some cases wrapped around) the top of the fretboard. Your fingers will naturally be more flat than curled when fretting, and it will be difficult to impossible to turn your wrist to make your fingers parallel to the frets. There are a couple advantages to this. First, you can sometimes use your thumb to fret a note on the 6th string, which allows for some more interesting chords. Second, flatter fingers are more useful to mute neighboring strings while fretting. Third, this technique allow you to use rotation of your left wrist to perform bends and vibrato, which naturally has more control than trying to use your finger muscles or bending your left wrist.
As I said neither technique is correct, and you will likely always be somewhere between both extremes. I would suggest attempting to use more proper technique when starting, as it is more difficult to develop. As we move more into lead playing and bends you will want to gravitate more towards modern technique.
Homework
- Practice plucking open strings. Make sure you are not using your thumb joints to pluck but your wrist or elbow (or combination of both). Make sure you are not "pecking" but are "pushing through" each string.
- Try downpicking an open string 8 times in a row - be sure not to hit the string with an accidental upstroke but also make sure you aren't making large movements in your hand to do so.
- Try downpicking and uppicking an open string 16 times.
- Practice fretting each string at the 5th fret. Hold the string against the fret while downpicking. Try pushing harder/looser with the fretting hand and observe the impact on the quality of tone. Also, try moving the position of your finger where you fret the note - try fretting in the middle of the fret, on top of it, slightly in front of it, and right behind it - you should be able to hear the slight differences in tone and find that right behind the fret yields the cleanest tone.
- Practice the --1--2--3--4--3--2--1-- excercise above on each string. Go slow at first. Try only using one finger to fret at a time, then try it again while holding the frets below the one being played.
- Repeat the --1--2--3--4--3--2--1-- exercise while focusing on "proper" left hand grip, then repeat again using "modern" grip - modern grip should be more apparent on the 1st and 2nd strings, while the proper or classical grip and modern grip seem more similar for the 5th and 6th strings.
- Start practicing the Basic Technique Exercises. You may not be able to do all of them yet - just try to do most of them.