Learn Guitar Tabs

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I know a lot of you are going to say, “Of course I’m playing guitar for fun.  That’s why I started in the first place”.

But..

You might find that it’s not turning out to be as much fun as you thought it was going to be.

That may be because you are having to learn a lot of chords, and lot of theory, and you haven’t been able to get down to the base, primal level of pure enjoyment that playing guitar can offer.

But imagine that you could play at a level that gave you the satisfaction that you are looking for.  No one is watching… Close your eyes and in your minds eye, play your guitar, just like you want to.  Just spend a few seconds and do it now..

If you can close your eyes and do this small amount of practice (in your mind) for a few seconds or even a few minutes a day, you will always have the drive to do some guitar practice and maybe even a little theory, because you know where that relatively small amount of work will take you.

So whether it be trying to get a better sound from your chords, or trying to learn guitar tabs, you can always give yourself the feeling that you will have once you can play guitar.

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I guess here are are talking about the two main types of guitar playing.

Playing chords – strumming.

Playing notes – plucking.

Of course, both types of playing are usually required to play in almost any style of music.

If we take rock guitar as a starting point, strumming is usually referred to as rhythm guitar, whereas plucking is a technique that is usually required for lead guitar.

Most people do start out playing chords, and hence play a rhythm guitar style.  But you need to be careful here.  Keep your eye on your ultimate goal, and if that is to play lead guitar, or some other style that requires picking, whether it be finger picking, or using a guitar pick (plectrum), try to begin working and practicing in that style early on.  If you don’t you might end up getting entrenched in the rhythm guitar style, and you may find it more difficult to move over to the picking style.

Playing chords is the fastest way to begin playing guitar.  But if your aim is to master the guitar, playing notes, and playing them well is going to be high on your list of priorities.

Either way, if you learn guitar tabs, you can play either type of guitar, in whatever style you want, as most music written for guitar can be found written in guitar tabs.

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When you first start to learn how to play guitar, you have enough to worry about without having the sounds you are producing, sound worse by being out of tune.

There are three main methods of tuning your guitar.

1. An Electronic Guitar Tuner – These are relatively inexpensive and can show you how far away you are on each string from correct tuning.

2. Guitar Pitch Pipes – Very cheap pipe you blow through for each string, and you tune each string to the same pitch as each of the notes the pipes play.

3. Using the 5th (and 4th on the G string) frets to match the tuning to the next string up.  This will get all of the strings in tune with each other, but you won’t be sure if the guitar is tuned “overall” to the correct pitch.

The best device is the electronic guitar tuner.  You can use it to check your tuning in the middle of a gig, without having to “hear” the pitch pipes, or the tuning between each string on your guitar.

Just one item to take note of here.  Some electronic guitar tuners have In and Out jacks so you can put them in line with the signal coming from your guitar, and your effect pedals, or amp.  The only problem is that some of them do introduce a small amount of noise (hiss or hum), so you should really have your tuner at a point where you are switch it in our out of the circuit that runs from your guitar, to your amp or other effect accessories.

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On an electric guitar, there are two main types of frets.  Standard Frets and Jumbo Frets. 

Standard Frets are quite low, and allow your finger to sit on the fretboard while you are playing a note.

Jumbo frets are much higher, and keep your finger from toughing the fretboard.  Jumbo frets are popular with rock and metal guitarist, as they are generally regarded as having a faster action and allow easier not bending.

If you are just starting out, you will find that playing a guitar with jumbo frets causes the tips of your fingers to hurt sooner, as there is more pressure applied to the fingertips, with none of the finger pressure going to the fretboard.

But, that is not the right reason to think that you should get a guitar without jumbo frets.  Your fingers will soon get used to the string pressure, and you may well find that playing a guitar with jumbo frets suits your style and you will end up with a better result for a small amount of pain in the short term.

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A major accessory that a lot of new guitar students overlook, is the guitar pick.

Picks come in many different shapes and sizes.  They are a very personal thing for most guitarist, and trying to use the wrong pick will make most guitarist feel that they are not connecting with the instrument.

If you are starting out, try buying a few different picks (you might find that the type of pick you actually end up liking the most, is not anything like the type of pick you first “picked” up).

Just to add – As you learn more guitar techniques, and your style changes, you may find that you change to a different type of pick.

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One thing that it’s important to impress on new guitar plays, is that your equipment has an important role to play in the sound and the playing experience you have.

When starting out, too many players buy a $200 comb of guitar and amp, and end up missing out on the great please that comes from playing a guitar with beautiful action and sound, and an amp that can deliver that sound in it’s most true form.  I know I’m assuming you are going to learn electric guitar when I talk about an amp, but I can’t leave that out for those of you who are starting out learning to play electric guitar.

My suggestion is to start with the best guitar you can afford, and have your guitar setup by a guitar technician.  I’d go as far as to say that if you are buying an electric guitar, that you don’t buy one with a tremolo bridge, if you cannot afford a really good one.  Cheaper tremolos will go out of tune, and end up being more of a pain, than a joy to play.

Start with a basic, solid guitar with good action and good sound.  You can save up to buy an amp a little later, and then effect pedels or effects processors later.  But learning on a good instrument is going to start you down the right road to successful playing.

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Staying on the theme of my last post, it’s so important to keep up your enjoyment of playing guitar so that you have the drive to keep going.

Learning guitar is not a 5 minute exercise, it will take some time.  Everyone is different, so understand that your own road to playing guitar may be longer or shorter than someone else.  That’s cool…  The most important thing is to enjoy playing, that’s why you started, right?

But, there are several things that I will talk about in future posts that can help you move forward more quickly, and without a lot of the pain that so many new guitarist go through using older teaching systems and without knowing some key points about their instrument.

Here is a short list of things that I highly recommend you look at sooner, rather than later, if you are just starting out, or even if you have been playing for some time.

• Have your guitar inspected and “Setup” by a qualified guitar technician.  Ironically, it’s almost more important for a beginner to have his or her guitar setup correctly with the “Action” set to suit both the instrument and the player.  So many beginners try to play guitars with bad action and intonation, and they struggle to get good sounds from the instrument.  More on this in a later post…
• Choose music that you love to listen to, and start working on playing it. Start with music that is near to your level of playing.  You may have a teacher who is teaching you styles that are not in your favorite music style.  It’s OK for you to start having fun playing the music you enjoy.  Keep up your enthusiasm.
• Learn Guitar Tabs. There is so much music written for guitar using guitar tabs, that you will probably be able to find some of the music you like to listen to, already written for you in tab format.

I’ll go into more detail a little later, but for now, you can have a think about the type of music you like to listen to, and try to get a feel for how you might play it on guitar.

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