Annotation: This article describes the first steps of learning the guitar: how to hold, where to start. The first lesson from the portal PesniGitara!

I bet you have ever heard how beautiful a regular six-string guitar sounds! And, you 100% heard!

Nowadays, there are no problems with this - there are a lot of mp3 records, videos ... It used to be more difficult: someone heard it in the army, someone on cassette recorders, and of course, in the yard!

The guitar is a very sensitive instrument, but learning to play is not that difficult (at least).

There are two ways to learn how to play the guitar:

1. Sign up for training courses in your city (music schools, individual lessons, etc.)

• pros: learning from a professional is always very easy, and if you have the desire, you will quickly master this tool.
• Minuses A: have to pay money.

Learn to play yourself.

• pros: You can learn how to play at any time and at no cost.
• Minuses: Good advice, you will have to draw from the net / books on self-teaching guitar.

And so, if you have chosen to study with a professional, sign up and go ahead to study.

If, however, you do not have the opportunity to learn guitar from a pro in your city, or for some other reason, you want to be self-taught, we hope that our portal will help you!

Learning to play the guitar. First steps

First of all, let's decide what we will need in the learning process:

1. Guitar. If it is not there, then I think that it is not a problem to take an instrument from someone you know (there are actually many guitarists).
2. Hands. Of course, you can also play with your feet, it already depends on the uniqueness of your body structure.
3. Head
4. Effort and patience. These are the most important factors in learning to play the guitar. If there is no desire and patience, write, it's gone.

When you have everything you need (attention: some things must be given to you at birth!), you can start training!

And so, for starters, take the guitar in hand. If you are right-handed, then the strings on the fingerboard (a stick is one on which the strings are stretched (for those who do not know; D)) should be arranged in this order:

1. e (The thickest one. You can try to play "The Locomotive's Farewell" by holding the string on the first fret, pull it well (don't just tear it) and hold it all the way to the right.)
2. H(B) (Second thickest string, fifth on the list)
3. F (Third thickest. Fourth on the list)
4. D (Fourth thickest. Third on the list)
5. A (Fifth thickest. Second on the list)
6. E (The thinnest.)

Great, now we know the names of the strings and how to hold the guitar correctly (there will be a separate article for left-handers).

We turn to a more complex process - we take the first steps.

We hope our article helped you. Sincerely, Portal

Guitar Lessons

Hello! In this section, I will try to collect all their guitar lessons for beginners. From them you can learn play from scratch even if you know absolutely nothing.

Please do not skip classes. Go!

Section 1. The most common questions for beginners

Section 2. About the guitar

Section 3. Training

Section 4. Useful

My guitar lessons are attractive because EVERYTHING is written here in CLEAR language, that is, you don’t have to ask for additional literature and sit and think what this or that word means.

According to my guitar lessons from scratch, ANY beginner of ANY age will be able to learn. I recorded these lessons specifically for beginner guitarists. We can say that this is your own online guitar tutor.

In the first section You are waiting for answers to the most popular questions of beginners. You will learn how easy or difficult it is to learn how to play the guitar, how long it takes and whether anyone can learn.

In the second section You will learn about the structure of the guitar, the correct seat when playing the guitar and read the history of the origin and creation of the guitar. We'll also talk about guitar tuning. Before you can play your guitar, you need to tune it properly. This can be done using special tools, or you can do it yourself.

Third section- directly learning the game. Here we begin to get acquainted with chords, fight, learn our first song on the guitar. Then we will get acquainted with searches. A little later, it’s worth improving your level of playing the guitar by getting acquainted with different playing techniques (harbing, pulling, hammer, legato, sliding, and others). In the end, I recommend learning tablature. After that, I specially prepared the section of the Analysis of songs on the guitar - there you can find my analysis of the songs.

Last section- informational. Here you will find various useful information about the guitar, accessories and tools for the guitar.

The popularity of learning by lesson

my site is a little over half a year old, but I already observe, how popular it is for beginners to learn the basics of the guitar by lessons

look at the number of visits to my site for the month of august

it's not so much, of course, but my site is only six months old! In a year it will be much more, I think that once in 5.

From these statistics, it becomes clear that for a long time attending a guitar school no longer the only way good to learn how to play the guitar. It is unimaginable how many people learn to play the guitar online, because even I know many competitors who teach how to play the guitar, while they have 5 or even 10 times more visits than I do. But literally 10 years ago there were not so many videos and courses on learning to play the guitar, but now everything has become much easier. There are many tutorials and various videos on the Internet, where popular melodies and songs are intelligibly and clearly analyzed.

Let's see, for what requests visit the site most often

September 11, I created a page " Guitar Lessons"and I think that it will be a great help for my tutorial. In this article, I tried to put everything in order.

You can see for yourself how popular guitar lessons are...

From this we can draw several conclusions:

• learning to play the guitar yourself is not difficult;
• guitar lessons are really relevant;
• guitar basics can be learned without tutors and guitar schools.

Learn, try, play! And I will try my best to help you.

It is difficult to imagine a musical instrument that would be more popular than a guitar. Contrary to popular misconceptions, playing it is not as difficult as people used to think. Of course, it will take years to comprehend all the subtleties and nuances, but you can master the most basic techniques in 1-2 months, and in a couple of months you will be able to confidently play the songs of your favorite bands. So how do you learn to play electric guitar?

In general, learning to play a conventional acoustic guitar is not much different from learning to play an electric guitar, but of course there are a few differences. Acoustic and electric guitars have different sound production techniques. The electric guitar is most often played with a pick, while the acoustic guitar is played with the fingers. And if on acoustics playing with a mediator is also possible, then on an electric guitar you can’t really play with your fingers, because your fingers are not able to give such a sound as with a mediator. This is to the question of whether it is possible to learn to play the electric guitar, and not the acoustic.

Misconception #1

In order to learn how to play, it is not necessary to spend money on an expensive and good instrument. On the contrary, if you learn on a low-quality guitar, when you switch to a more intelligent instrument, it will be much easier to play.

This is a fairly common misconception among beginner guitarists looking for an instrument. It is dictated either by banal greed, or no less banal ignorance. As you know, a miser pays twice.

The professionalism of a guitarist is never measured by the degree to which he is able to play the instrument. Poor-quality guitars very often have protruding, unpolished frets, an uncomfortable neck, which can lead to incorrect hand placement and even injuries (it’s not easy to scratch on bad frets, but very easy, especially when you play something fast).

Such guitars often sound bad, and this is fraught with injury to your hearing, and it is more difficult to restore it than scratched fingers. You also don’t need to buy name branded guitars of famous guitarists, because it’s far from a fact that you will definitely decide to realize yourself in this area further.

Now a quality tool for a beginner can be purchased at a very affordable price. For an electric guitar, it ranges from 8 to 15 thousand rubles. We will talk more about how to learn to play the electric guitar and choose your instrument in this article.

Misconception #2

I won't be able to learn to play the guitar because I have no hearing.

Everyone has a rumor. It's just that for someone it can be better and sharper, but for someone it is not sufficiently developed. Hearing can always be developed, since there are many exercises on the Web for this.

Another similar misconception: It's hard to learn how to play electric guitar without hearing. Yes, if for some reason you do not want or cannot improve your ear for music, you will not be able to select a melody by ear or transfer it from sound, but you can play without it - by notes or tablature.

Misconception #3

You have to sing along with the guitar, but I can't.

Is it difficult to learn how to play the electric guitar without singing? Maybe this misconception makes sense in the circle of non-professional guitarists, but at its core it is complete nonsense. If you want to sing and accompany yourself on an instrument - you are welcome, if you don’t want to - also no problem, focus on technique, on the complexity of the music itself.

Very often one can observe how the performance of complex and beautiful passages and melodies causes a very restrained reaction from people who are ignorant of music, and from three "thieves" chords that can be mastered in three days, if not less, the crowd is delighted.

Try not to pay attention to this, if you play really well, musicians will speak positively about your work, and their comments are much more important for professional growth than the reviews of mothers, grandmothers, friends, etc. Never let anyone reproach you for being unprofessional due to the fact that you play an independent part and do not sing - the opinion of the person who made such a remark to you should not have any influence on you.

Tool selection

The price is never the quality, but the chance to buy for 20 thousand is much more than for 5. Check with your familiar guitarists. For starters, you can choose an electric guitar for a small price, but a well-known and trusted brand.

• Epiphone;
• Ibanez;
• Fender squier;
• Yamaha;
• Jackson.

Take a tuner to the store, tune the instrument, check that all the strings sound and do not mow up or down in sound. Run your hand along the side of the fretboard to see how well the frets are polished, twist the pegs. Make sure that you like the guitar in terms of color and shape, this is a very important psychological point: a nice-looking instrument will provide motivation for learning.

First steps

You bought your first instrument, brought it home, unpacked it, sat on the sofa and thought about how to quickly learn how to play the electric guitar.

First, set it up, even if the store has already set it up. A tuner is used for tuning, it can be purchased at the same music store. Take the guitar in your hands in the way that is comfortable for you, the main thing is that you do not experience discomfort in the muscles of your arms and back.

Connect the guitar to the combo amplifier, if there is none, for the first time you can download a special program on your PC that replaces it and connect the guitar to it. No need to rush to find the notes of your favorite songs and solos, for now you can still play them, but scales and simple melodies can be learned to play. On an electric guitar, the principle of learning is slightly different from acoustics, but in general there is nothing complicated there.

Extraction with the right hand

The strings on the frets are clamped with the left hand in order to change the pitch of the sound, and with the right hand this same sound is extracted, this is how all guitarists play: both right-handed and left-handed. There are special left-handed guitars, where the opposite is true, but as practice shows, they play well on right-handed models, besides, left-handed guitars are a bit more expensive.

Position your right hand so that the forearm rests on the curve of the guitar, and the hand itself hangs over the strings like a twig. With your thumb, try to extract the sound from the highest sixth string. To do this, simply gently pull the string down and slightly away from you. The sixth, fifth and fourth strings are considered bass strings: the sound is extracted from them with the thumb. The index finger is responsible for the third string, the middle finger for the second, and the ring finger for the first.

The extraction of sound from the lower strings occurs as follows: with the pad of your finger, you pull the string from the bottom up and a little towards yourself. To fix the extraction with your right hand, you can play busts. The simplest is played like this: sixth string, third, second, first, second, third. Don't forget that each string is "attached" to a specific finger.

Such enumeration is used in the intro of Metallica's Nothing Else Matters. After two weeks of practice, when you feel more confident with the instrument, you can try to learn the intro of this song in full. A beginner is not advised to go further than the introduction, since in this song there is a barre technique that can cause difficulties for a beginner. Other iterations:

• bass (sixth, fifth or fourth), third, second, third, first, third, second, third;
• bass, first, second, third;
• bass, third, second + first (pull at the same time), third;
• bass, third + second + first.

Extraction with the left hand

The thumb is located behind the neck of the guitar and is pressed against it, as if leaning. It’s not worth pressing it on purpose, it will adhere to the neck itself when you start playing. Form a kind of dome from the brush, as if holding an apple. The strings should be pressed with the pads of the fingers so that when pressed, the finger retains its shape, does not blur along the fretboard, and does not turn out.

Important: do not press with the pads that we see when we look at our palm from the back, but with those that we see when we look under the nails. All fingers of the left hand should produce sound of the same quality.

Exercise for the left hand

• "Snake" - you pinch a string with your index finger, extract a sound with your right hand, then clamp the next fret on the same string with your middle finger, without releasing your index finger, and again extract the sound. As a result, all 4 fingers should be in a line on the string. Then we do the opposite: we remove the little finger, we extract the sound, we remove the nameless one, we extract it, and so on.
• "Spider" - the beginning is the same as in the "snake", but after all our fingers are on the string, we do not remove them, and transfer the index finger to the string higher, but in the same fret, while the rest of the fingers remain on the same line. So alternately rearranging the fingers "crawl" up, and then also "slide down." Make sure that in these exercises all the notes sound clear, do not rattle, press the strings tightly. Gradually increase the pace.

How to read tablature?

Every guitarist who thinks about how to learn to play the electric guitar from scratch also thinks about what he should play. You can do this either by notes or by tablature. There is nothing complicated in musical notation in itself, but few people manage to understand it on their own, the teacher’s explanation would be the most successful option: this is the question of where to learn to play the electric guitar.

Tablature is much easier to use. It has six rulers, the top one being the thinnest string. On these rulers there are numbers indicating the frets. Thus, we see from which string and at which fret we need to extract the sound. The only significant disadvantage of tablature is that it is almost impossible to follow the rhythm on them. Yes, the creators of the tablature try to compensate for this in every possible way: they make spaces between the numbers where there are longer notes, but you won’t be able to follow the rhythm the way you would by notes, by tablature.

What should a newbie play?

• Pop rock bands like Imagine Dragons, Green Day, 30 Seconds to mars, Sum 41 - their songs are very simple and suitable for getting your hands on.
• More classical stuff like Scorpions, AC/DC songs. You don't have to take complicated solos, you can just learn some riffs.
• If you want something more complicated, then you can pay attention to Metallica and Megadeth (before four months of training, it makes no sense to start these songs). Nothing else matters, Fade to black, Muster of puppets (very beautiful solo, it's easy and your listeners will appreciate it), Enter sandman, Trust, Promise (one of the few Megadeth ballads).

It is very easy for a person who plays the guitar to become the soul of the company. Would you like to express yourself? To do this, it is enough to learn how to produce melodic sounds from six strings. If there is absolutely no time for a music school or for lessons from a specialist, you should try to master the instrument at home. You will need to stock up on patience, perseverance and a little inspiration will not hurt.

To get started, you need a tool. If you go to the store for a new guitar, call a knowledgeable person with you. There are many features that you may not pay attention to, but the connoisseur will notice. It's a good idea to set up the instrument right there and try to play it. It is advisable to choose a guitar adapted to metal strings. But it's not worth starting with them. They require a lot of effort when pressed and as a result pierce the skin. Synthetic strings are pretty good to start with. Their duration is more modest, but the fingers from them are less vulnerable. Subsequently, when the skin becomes rough, replace them with metal ones. Get ready for the fact that you will need a lot of time. Classes should not be suspended even for a day. Having hearing makes the task much easier, but it is not a prerequisite. Anyone can learn how to play. The weight of the guitar during playing is transferred to the right knee, and the soundboard is held on top with the right hand. As for the left hand, it should be absolutely free. The strings are numbered from bottom to top. A neck is attached to the body, with a head at the base. On it you can find the pegs on which the strings are wound. The neck itself is divided by narrow planks into intervals - frets. Their numbering starts from the side of the head towards the body. The fret located near the head is called the first.

First you need to learn the location of the fingers on the fingerboard, then quickly rearrange them. The most common chords are Em /E-minor/, Am /A-minor/, Dm /D-minor/. To take Am, you need to press the 2nd string of the first fret with your index finger, and set the ring and middle strings to the 3rd and 4th of the second fret. To play a Dm chord: press the 1st string of the first fret with your index finger, set the middle one to the 3rd st. second fret, and nameless, at this time, we emboss on the 2nd and 3rd. The most unpretentious Em sounds when clamping the 5th and 4th strings of the 2nd fret. When playing chords, see if the strings are sounding, if they are not touched by other fingers or are clamped. Press them not between the thresholds, but near them. Difficult? Not at all. With a little practice, the fingers themselves will be able to be installed in the right places. After taking the chord with the left hand, we begin to use the right. It is used for alternately pulling the strings /picking/ or beating with fingers from top to bottom (fight game). One common picking is to twitch the bass with your thumb. For an Em chord, the bass is the sixth string, Am is the fifth, and Dm is the fourth. Bring your performance to perfection. Then work on a continuous sound - press the chords with your left hand, pluck the strings with your right. With the change of the chord, we change the bass. It will take persistence to master the automatic "movement" of the fingers. But if it comes out - hear the melody. Start studying musical notation after you understand a little with chords. Many beginners, when they see the notes, are so frightened that the inspiration fades to nothing.

How to learn to play the guitar on your own from scratch at home and is it really possible to do it? Many now think that for this you need to take various guitar courses or go to a music school. But I will say - no, in order to learn how to play the guitar, you need patience and strong fingers of the left hand.

I will tell you my story, how I learned to play, and from the story you will understand how to learn to play from scratch while sitting at home. While studying at the institute and living in a hostel, I managed to meet people who can play the guitar. I really liked guitar gatherings (usually with alcohol) and soon I was on fire with the idea of ​​learning how to play. I began to ask the craftsmen to teach them how to play, followed the fingers of their hands, memorized. No one wanted to explain to me the features of the game for a long time, everyone said: do it like this, then like this, but a lot was incomprehensible to me. For example, even at what point to rearrange the chord during the game.

Then I was lucky, they gave me a guitar for a day, and by that time I had already learned the location of the fingers for the simplest chords: am, dm, c, em - but I could not put chords in the way that the fingers of my left hand were not prepared. At first I decided that I needed to learn how to play a fight. I would play some simple chord and learn how to play a fight. My very first fight was: down, down (dead), up, up, down (pears) - I don’t know what it’s called, but for me it turned out to be the easiest. Another simple fight: down, up, down (muted).

Mute in brackets means that the strings must be muffled with the palm of your hand, i.e. as soon as you lead down, you must immediately quickly muffle the strings so that their sound does not continue.

I could play the fight only by looking at the strings, then when I looked away (for example, to rearrange a chord), everything went astray. As a result, from morning to evening I sat with this guitar, the fingers of my left hand hurt very much, it even seems that there were small cuts from the strings, but I learned to play the fight, with joints, of course, but still.

In the morning, no one was in a hurry to take the guitar away from me, I decided to consolidate what I had learned and I began to get very good at it, despite the pain in my fingers. I decided that today I would need to learn how to rearrange the chords to get a more or less pleasant melody. With chords, it was even more difficult: I could not move all the fingers to another chord at once, I rearranged them one by one. For example, holding down the dm chord and switching to am, I first moved the middle and ring fingers, and then the index finger - it was easier for me that way. My fingers hurt from the strings, but the desire to learn was stronger.

It was all weekends, there were studies on weekdays and it was difficult to get to the guitar, there were many study tasks, and the fingers did not pass. By the next weekend, I managed to take the instrument again, things were much better, at least the fight was already playing on the machine, and I could rearrange the chords only when I looked at my hand. A month later, I already played these 4 chords on the machine and was able to play simple songs. Then I learned to play barre F with the same quiet glanders - I really liked the sound of this chord.

Soon, having mastered, so to speak, the basics of guitar technique, I wanted to learn how to play by brute force. It turned out to be much easier than playing in combat. Everything is simple here: the thumb pulls the bass strings, the index, middle and nameless first 3 strings. The simplest enumeration: 6 (or 5 string, or you can alternate), 3, 2, 1, 2, 3. As you lose the enumeration, change the chord and so on.

About a year later, I bought myself a guitar for 4,000 rubles from the Colombo brand. I didn’t know much about guitars, so they gave it to me with nylon strings, at that time I didn’t even know that such existed. I took it home, and the guitar from the store was naturally not tuned, I decided that the sound was not very good and bought metal strings. By the way, I also bought a tuner for tuning the strings, since according to my hearing I still didn’t know how to tune (and even now).

Having my own guitar, I played almost every day when I had free time, I even started to improvise, swapping chords, changing beats, etc. The playing technique improved every time and then I decided to learn some long beautiful melody without words. Once I heard the song Nothing Else Matters by Metallica and realized that this is the song. For those who want to see my game, watch the video. Of course, I have a lot of jambs when performing this song, but I am learning and will improve. And to all novice guitarists I will say again: to learn how to play the guitar, you need strong fingers and patience.