Beginners: Introduction to playing the Guitar (part two)

In this second part of my beginner lessons for playing the guitar we will put what was learnt in the first part into context. Playing single chords can be fun in itself, but it's nothing compared to actually putting those chords with other chords and bringing us closer to our goal, which is creating music.

This lesson will aid you in the daunting task of changing chords, and will bring your into the wonderful world of rhythm.

Let's start of with a very simple excersise in chord changing.
This will use the D chord, the C chord and the E chord.

Look at this diagram:

What this diagram means, is that you play the D chord four times (note that there are 4 "slashes"), the C chord four times (again, look at the slashes) and then the E chord eight times (to ensure you keep correct timing think of this as two lots of four strums).

Play each chord for the same amount of time (it may help to have a metronome or go to a website such as metronomeonline.com going so that you can play a chord each time the metronome clicks) to keep the rhythm even.

For this excersise I would recommend using all downstrokes (meaning you pick towards the floor).
At first it may feel awkward and hard to change the chord position, but if you keep practicing it will get much easier.

Some other chord progressions that sound good for this excersise are:

A G D D

Am C E E

Dm G C C

Em C D D

Also try to put your own chord progressions together, work out which chords sound good with each other!
If you feel comfortable changing chords at a steady pace with down strokes try adding some up strokes in (meaning picking towards the ceiling).

Some common picking patterns are:

Down Up Down Up etc etc.
This is an alternating pattern where you move your picking hand up and down as you play the chords. This can feel more natural than all downstrokes (or all upstrokes!)

Down Down Up Down etc
This pattern gives your playing a bit more of a spontanious dynamic, often heard in "campfire" songs.

Try out your own picking sequences, mix down and upstrokes together to find some interesting sounds.
I hope this is of some help!

Thanks for reading.
Next lesson we will have a brief look into scales.
If you have any questions, please comment on this blog post, email me at rory.guitarist@gmail.com or get to me at any of my networking sites:
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