How to tune your guitar

Playing an out of tune guitar sounds awful, alot of begginers are put off by thinking it’s them making the bad sound, it’s actually the guitar. Tuning a guitar isn’t that hard, there are a few ways of doing it. The standard tuning for guitar is EADGBe
Method 1 – Manually

At first this technique might seem really hard but it’s worth learning incase you don’t have an electric tuner with you.

First you need to get your E string in tune. You can do this by getting a friend with an in tune instrument or and keyboard/piano to play an E. Try to match the exact sound by twisting the 1st peg on the head of your guitar. Once you have your first string in tune play the 5th fret on the E string. That should match the tone on the open A string. Turn the A tuning key until they match. Repeat this process for the following 2 strings. When you get to the 4th string you must play the 4th fret instead of the 5th. After that it goes back to the 5th fret.

Method 2 – Electric tuners

At almost all guitar stores you can get an electric guitar tuner for around £10. For electric guitar you plug you lead into the tuner like you would with an amp. Play the string you want to tune open (not pressing any frets) and the tuner will tell you if it should be higher or lower.  For acoustic guitar there may be a recording button where you play the string, it will then be the same as electric.

Method 3 – Via PC 

If you have a microphone on your computer you can download programs simular you the electric tuner above. You can get microphones at ‘Game‘ stores for 98p. My favourate program is called In-Tune, it’s really easy to use and is free for 30 days. You can download it here: http://www.musicmasterworks.com

Method 4 – Online

You can tune your guitar using this site: http://www.710.com/reload/fun/tune.htm You match the sound from the pc with your guitar. Personally i think this is hard and uneffective but you may like it.

Hopfully one of the above methods suits you, it’s alway worth learning more than one method just incase.

Chords

You may be thinking, why do we need to learn these chords? Punk rock is power chords not open chords! You’re wrong. Listen to Should I stay or Should I Go by The Clash, it uses open chords and it’s a great song.

Number Your Fingers

So it’s easy to explain, we’re going to number your fingers.

1 – Index

2- Middle

3- Ring/3rd Finger

4- Pinky/Little finger

The chords we are going to learn today are:

CAGED

C Chord

You need you put your index finger on the 5th sting from your face, fret one. Middle finger on the 3rd string 2nd fret and finally ring/3rd finger 2nd string 3rd fret. Also don’t strum the first string.

A Chord

I think the A chord is one the the easiest.

G Chord

E Chord

D Chord

Those are all the chords for today, it’s important to try to learn these of by heart, good luck! Incase you were wondering, here’s how to play Should I Stay Or Should I Go that i mentioned earlier.
Should I Stay Or Should I Go? – The Clash

1 = D D G G G G D
2 =  G G F F F F G

3= A A A A A A A

Verse

1

1

2

1

3

1

Power Chords

Power chords are the basis of punk music. You should try to learn as many of these as you can.

C    C# D D# E B Eii    F F# G G# A A#
E----------------------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------------------
G---5---6--7--8--2-4-9---------------------------------------
D---5---6--7--8--0-4-9---3--4-5-6--7-8---------------------
A---3---4--5--6--0-2-7---3--4-5-6--7-8---------------------
E---------------------------1--2-3-4--5-6------------------------

Finger Position

When I first started playing punk rock I was confused about the positioning of power chords. I’m Going to use C chord for my example.

C
E-------
B-------
G---5---
D---5---
A---3---
E--------

First we must bar the 3rd fret for the 5th string to the bottom. The you use your 3rd finger and pinky on fret 5, like this:

Now you’ve learnt power chords, let’s play a song using them.

She hates me – Puddle of Mud

e-------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------
G-----------3-3-3-------------5--5-5-5-
D--3-3-3---3-3-3---5-5-5----5--5-5-5-
A--3-3-3---1-1-1---5-5-5----3--3-3-3-
E--1-1-1-------------3-3-3--------------

Target Time: 5 secs

Click here to listen to’She hates me’

Your first songs

Now that you can read music, let’s learn a song! I’ll give you the tab for the song an audio file so you know what it should sound like and finally a target time to play the song in. Remember keep practising, you will get faster and make less mistakes the more you play it.

Smoke on the water – Easy version

E-|-0--3--5-|-0--3--6--5-|-0--3--5--3--0-|
B-|-------------------------------------------|
G-|-------------------------------------------|
D-|-------------------------------------------|
A-|-------------------------------------------|
E-|--------------------------------------------|

Target time: 10-12 seconds
Click here to listen to ‘Smoke on the water’

James Bond Theme

e:--------------|-----------|----------|
B:--------------|-----------|----------|
G:--------------|-----------|----------|
D:--------------|-----------|----------|
A:--------------|-----------|----------|
E:0----2222---|0000--3333|-210---|

e:------------------------|
B:------------------------|
G:2-0---------------------|
D:---------2-0-2----------|
A:------------------------|
E:------------------------|

(Repeat as many times as you want)

Estimated time:  20 secs

Click here to listen to 'James Bond Theme Song'

Come as you are - Nirvana

|-----|-----------------------------|
|-----|-----------------------------|
|-----|-----------------------------|
|-----|-----------------------------|
|-----|------0---0----------2-----2---|
|-0-0-|-1-2---2---2-2-1-0---0----0-|

(repeat)

Target time: 10 secs

Click here to listen to ‘Come as you are’

What the hell is tab?

Tab is short for tablature, it’s a from of “musical notation”, basicly it tell you what to play, like shett music on piano. Reading tab is acually really easy.

As you can see from the diagram there are 6 horisonal lines, these repsesent strings. On the left it says “eadgbe” these are the notes that the stings play, EADGBE is the standard tuning for guitar. Lastly the is a number 3 in the middle, the number repersents what fret  to play, if the number is 0, you play the sting open (don’t hold any frets). If there is an X, you don’t play the string.
You always read music left to right, just like writing, also if there and more than 1 notes above each other, you play them at the same time.

Well done, you now know how to read music!

Guitar lesson 1

First you’ll need a guitar (electric is possable), you can find out about buying a guitar an another article. You’ll also need a pick, when your first starting out you’ll want a pick of medium thickness.

Parts of a guitar

Sitting position

Sit on an armless chair with your legs crossed. Rest the body of the guitar on your thigh and hold the neck of the guitar with your left hand (assuming your right handed.)

First note

If you look on the neck of your guitar there are small metal bars running across the surface, these are frets. On a electric guitar there are 22 frets. There are also dots on some the frets, these mark the 3rd,5th,7th,9th,12th,15th,17th,19th and the 21st frets, these are just to help you know where you are when your playing.

Now take your index finger on your left hand and push down just infront of the metal bar on the first fret (the one nearest the headstock of your guitar)

With your right hand hold you pick in between you index finger and thumb and puck the string.

Click here to learn how to ‘pick’

Experiament picking on different strings and frets, you’ll notice a change it sound, the higher the fret, the higher the note, the thinner the string, the higher the note.

Thanks for reading my lesson! Now move onto lesson 2!