First 5-chord review and recap- Beatles and Green Day

The first 5 chords are G, C, G7, Em, and D. This video will illustrate those chords and the progression used in the songs, In My Life by the Beatles and When September Ends by Green Day.




The Progression played in the video...

G       D       Em     G7     C       C       G       G
| / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |

With each chord, please listen and observe these characteristics:

• Clarity- with practice, each note within the chord should ring clearly. If the notes buzz or sound muffled it might be because:
• your thumb is not positioned correctly behind the neck
• Your callouses are still developing on your fingertips
• Your fingers are lying flat and not arching over the strings
• Motion- Once you are happy with the sound of the chords the next challenge is to move smoothly from one to the other
• try to be economical with your hand movement- find the shortest path and move directly without wasted hand or finger movement
• move slowly with your strumming patterns. Only move as fast as your weakest chord change. This will help develop consistency between chords.
• Strumming- The most advanced strums are basically combinations of up and down strokes. When we have trouble with strums it generally is a result of the following:
• keep your wrist relaxed so there is a natural flow on the up and down strokes.
• Try to sync your hand motion with the rise and fall of your tapping foot. This will help you play more consistently in time.
• Say the strumming pattern in your head as you play until it becomes second nature. (syncopated = "down  down-up  up-down-up"), etc.

A Bit of Information Gathering...

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Guitar 1 - Day 1

Here is a quick overview of the first two basic chords. One finger G and one finger C.

Guitar Starter Tips

I wanted to share some thoughts about starting on the guitar. Having played most of my life, I have made plenty of mistakes and fail on a daily basis. Hopefully this advice will be of some benefit.

• Be patient
• Progress often comes slowly. If you want instant gratification, you may be disappointed. Make small goals for yourself and chart your progress toward those goals. 
• Regular, consistent practice
• Seems like a no-brainer, right? Regular and consistent doesn't necessarily mean endless hours of practice. 15 minutes of targeted practice on a routine basis will yield results you can measure and be proud of.
• When your hands get sore or fingers get tired, take a break.
• You are building muscles and callouses in places you have never built muscles and callouses before. Sore hands mean your muscles are growing. Give them a chance to build and strengthen.
• Listen
• You learn so much from absorbing the sounds around you. We have never lived in a time when resources are so readily available. Take advantage of these opportunities.

Guitar I: End of Term

As we head toward the end of the school year. I wanted to collect some of the posts in one easy to find location. The skills and content in these posts are the basic skills and understanding for beginner guitarists. I will be listening to each of you to measure your progress toward attaining these benchmarks.

Open Position Chords
All of these chords should be memorized. You should be able to move between them at a moderate tempo both strumming and with finger style patterns.

Strumming Patterns
These are the basic strumming patterns we used throughout the class.

Single Note Reading
You should be able to play this melody, at a moderate tempo, with notes on the first two strings of the guitar.

Finger style patterns
You should be able to apply these finger style patterns to any chord progression using the open position chords (first link).
Sample chord progressions:
C-G-Em-D
G-B7-Em-C
C-A7-D-Em-G7-C
etc.

Previous Concepts and Review Post
Additional techniques, scales and concepts are connected to this link.

Keep strummin' !

Guitar 1: Self-Reflection

E Minor Pentatonic Scale

It is said that when Prometheus was stealing fire from the Gods, he also grabbed the pentatonic scale for the expressed intent of making guitar players very happy. The 5 note pentatonic scale is an incredibly useful scale. Because the scale removes the "trouble" notes (4th and 7th), the happy guitarist can bang away at the remaining notes without fear of "wrong" sounding notes.

Audio

Another great feature of the scale is it's universal sonic qualities. Technically it is a minor scale, but it is equally effective playing over Major sounding chord progressions.

|Em / / / | Am / / / |
Try the scale over these minor chords and you will hear how it smoothly connects with the minor quality of the chords. A song like "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd is a good illustration of how a minor progression and the minor pentatonic scale work hand-in hand.

|E / / / | A / / / |
When using major chords and the minor pentatonic scale you tend to get more of a bluesy sound. Jimi Hendrix was masterful at combining major blues progressions and using the minor pentatonic to get down and dirty.

For our more advanced (or adventurous) players, here is a cool pattern that makes use of descending groups of 4 notes within the scale. Patterns such as this one helps to get a lot of mileage from the 5 note scale.

Audio


E minor Blues
The Pentatonic Scale was seemingly made to be played over the blues. Here are a few choruses of the blues in E minor with which to try out the scale.