========== PLEASE NOTE =============== This is the continuation of my first post. Actually the site does not allow me to post all the things in one post. I thought I would post the second part in the same thread but after waiting a while, my first post do not appear in the forum. I think it is a moderated forum. so I have to post the second part as a new thread. I would like to ask admin if he can suggest me any other work around in the future for my other tutorials. ===================================== 3. Fret board and how to fret ============================== From the diagram of the guitar you already know what is a fret board. Now let us find out how can we create different music out of these six strings by using fret board. Let us examine what happens when we "fret" a string. By "fretting" a string, I mean holding down a string to the fret board tightly by using one's finger. For trying, put your left hand index finger in the first string (the thinnest string) at the first fret position. Hold it down to the fret board tightly. Now gently strike the first string with the other hand. Is it generating a clear "ting" sound? Yes! Congratulation! You have been able to fret a string properly. If you are confused about how it should sound, download this music file. The picture below shows you how you should fret the first string at the first fret position. So what you observed? Did you notice that the sound of the first string changes when you play it open (that is not fretting it down) and when you play it at a particular fret? Actually when you play the first string open, the sound it creates is written with the 'E' note. Then when you fret the first string at the first fret, it sounds just the next note after 'E'. That is, alphabetically, 'F'. Similarly come to the second string. Play it open. The sound is 'B'. Now fret the 2nd string at the first fret. Now play it again. This time the sound it creates is written with the next note after 'B'. Yes, this is 'C'. This way, if you play all the six strings of the guitar in open position, that is not fretting them, you will get E, B, G, D, A and E notes one by one as because the standard tuning is that. But if you go on fretting the first fret of any string, you will get just the next notes. But things are not always so easy. Here is the second tricky part. As you know there are seven musical notes - A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Starting from A the pitch of the sound for these notes go on increasing up to note G. So, B is higher pitched to A and C is higher in pitch to B and so on. So if we arrange them in the order of increasing pitch it will be as below- A - B - C - D - E - F - G But there are some in-between notes also. The next higher pitched note after A is actually A# (called A sharp) and then comes B. This means, A# is higher in pitch to A but lower in pitch to B. This way all the notes of music has their sharps accordingly. Like C#, F#, G# etc. But there are two exceptions. Interestingly, B and E notes do not have their corresponding sharps! Now with this knowledge, if we again try to rearrange the musical notes in order of increasing pitch, it will be as below- A - A# - B - C - C# - D - D# - E - F - F# - G - G# We can also represent the above pitch scale in a circular form. The reason behind doing this will be apparent later. Anyway, such a circle is shown below. Observe the circle in the page https://www.geocities.com/a_r_mitra/guitar-tutorial-1.html minutely and notice that after G# we are again coming back to A. Well now let us relate this circle to the fret board of our guitar. As I stated before, if you play the first string open, you will play E note. Then if you fret the first string at fret 1 and play again, you will play F note because this is the note that comes after E (see the circle above). Now if you fret the first string at second fret and play the string what note will you play then? Yes, that's F# note (not just G). And then if you fret at 3rd fret it will be G note and so on. Alright? This way we can play any note from the guitar just by fretting the proper string at proper fret. There is another interesting point to note. Look at the fret number 12. What are the notes you are seeing here? E, B, G, D, A, E - right? The same notes to which all the open strings of the guitar is tuned to. That is we get back the same initial notes at fret position 12. Then what is the difference between the sounds that we get when playing an open string and playing at fret 12? Well both of these two sounds are designated by the same note but they are actually one octave apart from each other. ========================================================== ========================================================== 4. Practicing a simple run - Sa - Re - Ga - Ma (Your first real musical home task) ========================================================== ========================================================== Well now we are in a position to start playing some real thing. Note the table below- Practice of traditional run in C major scale -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C Major Scale (1-2-3-4-5-6-7) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Indian Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dh Ni Sa* -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- English C D E F G A B C -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Position Notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fret 3 0 2 3 0 2 0 1 String 5 4 4 4 3 3 2 2 Finger R - M R - M - I Stroke D U D U D U D U -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd Position Notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fret 3 5 3 4 6 3 5 6 String 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 Finger I R I M L I R L Stroke D U D U D U D U -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The above table shows you how to play the run. Here we go- first note the heading. the heading says that the scale is C major. Right now you will not understand what a major scale is. But for the present moment notice only one thing that the starting note "Sa" is in the C note. I have written both Indian and English type names of the notes. In the fourth row I have written 1st position. This means that this is the first C major scale that you will find in the guitar. The following rows tell you how to play it. For example to play the first C note, hold down the 5th string in the 3rd fret with your ring (R) finger and strike downward. To play the next D note, play the 4th string open (as the fret number written there is 0, 0 fret means no fret, so play it open) with upward stroke. This way go on playing all 8 notes of the C major scale in first position. Notice that R = Ring finger, M = Middle finger, I = Index Finger and L = Little finger. U is the upward stroke and D is the downward stroke. Play the progression as exactly as I have said and for as many times as you can. Look, here I have written the music by instructing you how to play it on guitar. Therefore I have specifically mentioned the fret number and string to hold along with the fingering and stroking pattern. There is another way to do it. Writing the "Tab" of the music. But I assume being novice you still don't know what a "TAB" is. Once I teach you how to write and play "TAB", I will give you the music in "Tab" notation, too. Later on we will also learn an other more generic way of writing music which will be instrument independent. It is recommended that you play the run also in C major second position as I have given above in the table. Notice that playing the same sa-re-ga-ma in C major second position might seem a bit more difficult but still you should practice it because it lets you move your pinky. The flexibility of little finger is a must to be a good lead player. Practice the above lessons until you play it quite fast without looking at your fingers and fret board. the day after tomorrow I will come back with my new lesson. Good Bye. Taquila Also see the page https://www.geocities.com/a_r_mitra/guitar-tutorial-1.html
what happened to Comprehensive Guitar Tutorial lessons? Dear Taquila: I found your lessons very interesting and encouraging. Wondering what happened to next parts? I am eagerly waiting to learn next. Pls dont get back for the sake of all of us.....hope we will hear from you soon. Sharabo
Great work keep it up im new in this guitar field and want to learn alot plz try to help me out. Im really good in plucking but im lacking in knowing the cords while listening it.plz help me out plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. My id is nurav222@yahoo.co.in i will wait for ur reply and one day you will be proud to be my friend. Regards Varun jalota
hey buddy.. could you teach me how to tune using harmonics and and other theory I'd need for it.. I'm not formally trained.. just play by ear and tune the normal way suing my ear.. but I believe tuning with harmonics is better.. wanna learn that.. help me out.. someone..
