First Things First...

Before I even pluck one string, I want to cover a few topics that are absolutely essential to someone (like me!) who wants to learn how to play guitar. The first thing you need to know is what the notes are on a guitar. Holding the guitar upright in front of you, if you start from the right string (the thinnest) and move upward (to the thickest string), the names of the string are: E, B, G, D, A, E. The first and last string on a guitar are both an "E" string.


Since there is no pattern or logic to the order, there's an easy acronym to remember:




E: EASTER
B:BUNNY
G:GOES
D:DANCING
A:AT
E:EASTER






I'll admit it took me a few days to remember this without referring to my instructional book, and even now I have trouble every now and then.


In addition to these notes, there are also SHARPS and FLATS that relate to natural notes.
These sharps and flats are denoted by:

Ab (flat)

A (natural)

A# (sharp)

The picture here displays an easy diagram of sharps and flats:

Notice how there's no sharps or flats between the B and C chord or the E and F chord.




Now, here are some basic major chords to start out with:

The numbers denote what finger you use for each string (1=index finger, 2=middle finger, etc.) These exercises were kinda boring and repetitive but they helped me develop a comfortable finger placement routine that I would practice a little bit before starting to play. In my next blog I'll start doing some basic chord strumming and learning the 2 main types of guitar diagrams: Chord diagrams and Tablature.