Virtual Star Guitar Lesson 1 

Welcome to MyGuitarUniversity.com Virtual Star Guitar Lesson 1.  We are going to have a lot of fun learning to play the guitar and even more fun actually playing the guitar along with the “virtual band” included on these pages.  This course is different from other beginning guitar courses in that the focus is on actually playing the guitar immediately, not on learning a bunch of complicated music theory.

Music theory, or the mechanics of music, is very important and we will be covering this in greater and greater detail throughout the course, but we do not need to start with that in order to learn how to play the guitar.  Who wants to study for a month before they get to play a single note on the guitar? 

The Virtual Band

This course is meant to be very interactive.  You will be playing along with an instructor (me) via audio tracks linked in this lesson as well as playing along with a virtual band consisting of drums, bass guitar, and backing guitar.  You will be the fourth member of the band and can choose in some lessons which part you want to play – rhythm or lead guitar – or both.  We will build up the band examples slowly so you can get used to playing along with others.  By the time you have completed the course, you will be able to play in a real band since you will be very familiar with playing along with others.

Since you will be playing along with an instructor and a band, you will need to make sure your guitar is tuned properly or it will not sound good when playing along with the other musicians in the examples. If you do not have a tuner, you can check out our Guitar Tuner page here or click the Guitar Tuner tab at the top of each page.  There you will find links to some audio tracks of each properly tuned string so you can make sure your guitar tuning matches.

Now that all of that is out of the way, are you ready to get started?  This is going to be great!  But…where do we begin? 

Rhythm vs. Lead

Many beginning students are confused on what to start learning first when learning to play the guitar. Do you start off playing notes or do you start off learning chords?  If you watch a live band closely, you will see that guitar players play both chords and notes when they play a song.

Usually, if there is only one guitar player in the band that guitar player will tend to play chords throughout most of the song, but then may switch to notes when it is time for the guitar solo.  If there are two guitar players in the band, usually one guitar player plays chords and the other guitar player plays notes (a melody) throughout the song.  The guitar playing the chords is known as the rhythm guitar and it sounds something like this: 

Audio Example C1_1:

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Hear how the chords make up the structure of the song?  The other guitar which mostly plays notes is known as the lead guitar and it sounds something like this: 

Audio Example C1_2:

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Can you hear all of the individual notes which make up the melody?  Great!  As you can see, both chords and notes are necessary. What is really fun is when both guitars are playing at the same time in a band – a rhythm guitar and a lead guitar.

Listen to the following track containing both a rhythm and a lead guitar part.  Can you pick out the rhythm guitar playing the chords?  Can you pick out the lead guitar playing the notes that make up the melody? 

Audio Example C1_3:

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In this course we will be learning both rhythm guitar (chords) and lead guitar (notes).  We have to start somewhere though so which do we begin with?  Since chords are ultimately made up of notes, we are going to start with some notes first.  We will start learning some chords in a few lessons after we get your fingers moving and we will continue learning more notes and chords throughout the rest of the Virtual Star Guitar course.

A note is just a sound that you play on the guitar.  You play a note by placing a particular finger on a combination of string and fret and plucking that string with your pick.  Each combination of fret and string will produce a different note.  If you are not familiar with the terms string, fret, and pick, please take a look at the Guitar Overview here.  This will show you some of the basic parts of the guitar.  

Scale Patterns

There is a lot of technical music theory which explains all about the names of the notes and the specifics of combining them to make scales and chords, but it is complicated and can be confusing to new players.  We are going to start a bit differently.  We are going to start off learning a scale, but we are not going to learn the names of all of the notes that make up the scale to start with.  We are going to learn visually what the pattern of the scale looks like on the guitar fret board and come back to the names and music theory later.

By learning what the pattern of a scale looks like, we can then move that pattern around when we want to play in a different key.  We will talk more about keys later, but right now let’s jump right into our first scale example. 

G Major Scale – The First Note

The first scale we are going to learn is called the G Major scale.  We will learn the pattern of the G Major scale across all six strings.  Later we will learn the names of all of the notes on each string, but for now just know that the name of this scale is the G Major scale.

There are six strings on the guitar.  We are going to start with the fattest string at the top which is known as the 6th string.  Let’s take a look at our guitar neck.

bg_l1_guitar_neck

If we zoom in, we can see the 6th string which is at the very top and is the fattest.

bg_l1_guitar_neck_6_string

You will notice small metal bars dividing the guitar neck into sections.  These are known as frets.  Frets are what allow you to play different notes on the same string.  When we say “Put your finger on the 3rd fret”, we mean place your finger on the 3rd section of the fret board behind the 3rd fret bar.

bg_l1_guitar_neck_fret

To play a particular note on the guitar, we also need to know what string to play.  In this case we are going to use the 6th string.  Place your 1st finger on the 3rd fret on the 6th string.  The picture below shows me playing the note on my guitar.  It may look like I am pushing down more than one finger, but I can assure you that I am only pushing down my index finger.  Note the yellow dot.  This shows which finger I am using and where I am placing it.  I will use a yellow dot on all of the pictures so you know exactly what I am playing.

You may wonder why I am stretching my hand out instead of curling the fingers I am not using, which would be more comfortable.  The reason is you need to be ready to play the next notes in the scale.  By stretching out your hand, you will be ready to play the other notes in the scale quickly and accurately.  It will take a while for this hand position to become familiar, but soon it will feel very natural.  For now just try to mimic what I am doing.

bg_l1_string_6_note_1_ano

Another way to describe how to play a note is through guitar neck diagrams.  Here is an example.  Note that the 6th string is at the bottom of the diagram.

bg_l1_neck_drawing_1

At first it may seem that the diagram is upside down or backwards.  The diagram is actually drawn from the perspective of the person playing the guitar.  When you are holding a guitar and look down the strings, the diagram will make more sense.  Here are a couple of pictures to demonstrate how the guitar neck diagram matches up with an actual guitar.

bg_l1_neck_diagram_pic_1

bg_l1_neck_diagram_pic_2

bg_l1_neck_diagram_pic_3

Take another look at the diagram after studying these pictures.  Does it make sense now?

bg_l1_neck_drawing_2

Now pluck the 6th string with your pick while still holding your 1st finger on the 3rd fret.  You should hear a note ring out.  If the note does not sound, make sure that you are using only your fingertip of the 1st finger to push down the 6th string.  Also, make sure that you are right behind, but not on the metal fret bar.

Notice that I am using my fingertip to play the note.  Also notice that my thumb stays behind the guitar neck.  It does not come up over the fretboard.

bg_l1_back_of_neck

Note as well that I am as close to the 3rd fret as possible, but I am not touching it.  Try to keep your finger as close to the fret as you can, but do not let your finger go over that fret bar.  In these next few pictures, I have curled my other fingers so you can see how close my index finger is in relation to the fret.  Note that you want to actually play with your fingers stretched out as I mention above.  These next few pictures are just to illustrate the point.

bg_l1_correct_finger

(Correct placement)

bg_l1_incorrect_finger

(Incorrect placement)

bg_l1_incorrect_finger2

(Incorrect placement)

You may find that your note does not ring out, but sounds very short and muffled.  This could be due to a couple of things.  Make sure you are using the tip of your finger and that you are as close to the 3rd fret as possible without touching it.  Also make sure that you are not accidentally touching the 6th string with any other part of your hand or arm.  Here is what it should look like again with your fingers stretched out ready to play the next notes.

bg_l1_string_6_note_1_ano

If it still sounds muffled, don’t worry about it too much right now.  Playing guitar requires strong muscles in your hands and fingers that you probably have never worked out before.  It will take a short while for you to build up strength in your fingers to hold down those strings.  I promise that you will get a little bit better every day that you practice.

Should my fingers hurt when I play?

You may also find that your fingertips get a little bit sore after pushing down the strings for a while during the lessons.  This is perfectly normal for the beginning student.  Over time, your fingers will toughen up and it will not hurt at all when you play.  Try to play a little bit every day and those fingers will toughen up quickly.  If you find your fingers hurting too much, take a break or try again tomorrow. It will hurt a little bit less every day that you practice.  Ok. Back to our lesson. 

Playing with a drum track

That first note is pretty exciting, but it would be more exciting if we were playing it in a band.  When playing in a band or playing with anyone else, it is very important that everyone is playing to the same beat.  The beat is very like much like a heartbeat that continues throughout the song.  Each song will have its own heartbeat and these will vary greatly from song to song.  For our lesson here, we are going to have a beat that we will count out in groups of 4.  1-2-3-4. 1-2-3-4. 1-2-3-4 (etc).  You must be able to hear and count the beat when playing along with someone else or it will sound all garbled up.  Typically, you listen to the drummer for the beat.  That is the purpose of the drums, to keep the beat.

Let’s try an example.  The following track contains a drum beat that we will count in 4.  The track also contains a voiceover of me counting out the beat.  Note that there is a 4 beat intro before I start counting.  All examples in this course will have a 4 beat into.  The intro gives you a feel for how fast to count before you have to start.  If you have ever seen a live band, the intro is usually given by the drummer who clicks his drum sticks together for 4 beats before the band starts.  That is the same idea here.  Give it a listen. Is the beat obvious to you? 

Audio Example C1_4:

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Some students will find that they can naturally pick out the beat.  Other students may have to work at it a bit.  Don’t worry.  After you have done this enough, you will be able to pick out the beat without even thinking about it.  As an exercise, I want you to listen to the same audio track without my voiceover and I want you to say the beat out loud.  1-2-3-4. 1-2-3-4.  Don’t forget about the 4 beat intro.  Listen to those first 4 notes so you can see how fast the beat is going to be and then start counting out loud just like I did.  Give it a try.

Audio Example C1_5:

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How did you do?  If you had trouble, go through the example above with me counting out loud a few times until you can count along with the track without my voiceover.

Ok.  Back to our note.  Let’s try to play it along with the same drum beat.  We will pick the note and hold it for 4 beats then pick the note and hold it for 4 drum beats and continue in that manner.  Go ahead and count out loud to the track while you are playing.  You will pick the note each time on 1 and let the note sound for 2-3-4.  Give it a try along with me.  I will count out loud on this track along with you so you can see how it is done.  Don’t forget about the 4 beat intro. 

Audio Example C1_6:

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Here is a video of me playing along with the track so you can get an idea of what it should look like when you are playing it properly.  Give it a try with me if you like.

Video Example C1_6:

Get the Flash Player to see this content.

That sounds pretty good.  Are you ready to try it by yourself?  Here is the same drum track without my guitar.  Play the exact same thing you played along with me.  Remember, you will pick the note each time on 1 and let the note sound for 2-3-4.  Every note gets 4 drum beats.  You should continue to count out loud for now to make sure you keep the beat.  Give it a try. 

Audio Example C1_7:

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How did you do?  If you are having trouble, go back through the examples again.  It may seem confusing at first, but it will become very obvious after you try it a few times.  Eventually you will not have to even think about counting.  It will become automatic.  This will take a bit of time though so don’t worry about it too much for now.

Let’s talk some more about our scale.  The note you have been playing in these examples is called G. That is the starting point for our G Major scale.  You play the note G by placing your 1st finger on the 3rd fret of the 6th string.  In order to play any note, you need to know the finger to use, the fret to use, and the string to place your finger on.

We will be learning the G Major scale across all six strings.  We will be playing 3 notes per string.  That means we have a total of 18 notes to learn that will make up our G Major scale.  Once we learn the scale, we can use it to play solos.  In fact you will be playing your first solo in the next chapter. 

G Major Scale – The Second Note

The next note in our G Major scale pattern is played by placing your 2nd finger on the 5th fret on the 6th string and picking the 6th string.

bg_l1_neck_drawing_3

bg_l1_string_6_note_2_ano

Now let’s try it with a drum beat as we did previously.  We will pick the note and hold it for 4 drum beats (1-2-3-4) then pick the note and hold it for 4 drum beats (1-2-3-4) and continue in that manner.  Give it a

try along with me.  Remember that you will actually pick the note on beat 1 and continue to hold it through beats 2-3-4.  As always, don’t forget the 4 beat intro.

Audio Example C1_8:

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Here is a video of me playing along with the track so you can get an idea of what it should look like when you are playing it properly.  Give it a try with me if you like.

Video Example C1_8:

Get the Flash Player to see this content.

Excellent!  Are you ready to try it by yourself?  Here is the same drum track without my guitar.  Play the exact same thing you played along with me.  Every note gets 4 drum beats.  Try it now.

Audio Example C1_9:

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Now let’s try alternating between the first and second note.  You will use your 1st finger to play the first note and your 2nd finger to play the second note exactly like you did in the previous examples.  We will play the first note for 4 drum beats and then we will play the second note for 4 drum beats and then back to the first note for 4 drum beats and so on.  Let’s try it together.  I will leave the counting to you since I am sure by now you can count to 4.

Audio Example C1_10:

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Here is a video of me playing along with the track so you can get an idea of what it should look like when you are playing it properly.  Give it a try with me if you like.

Video Example C1_10:

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Ok.  Not too bad.  Now give it a try it by yourself.

Audio Example C1_11:

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G Major Scale – The Third Note

Good.  We are making some progress now.  There is one final note that we are going to play on the 6th string for our G Major scale pattern.  This note is played by putting your 4th finger on the 7th fret of the 6th string and picking the 6th string.

bg_l1_neck_drawing_4

bg_l1_string_6_note_3_ano

Now let’s try it with a drum beat as we did previously.  We will pick the note and hold it for 4 drum beats then pick the note and hold it for 4 drum beats and continue in that manner.  Give it a try along with me.

Audio Example C1_12:

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Here is a video of me playing along with the track so you can get an idea of what it should look like when you are playing it properly.  Give it a try with me if you like.

Video Example C1_12:

Get the Flash Player to see this content.

Excellent!  Are you ready to try it by yourself?  Here is the same drum track without my guitar.  Play the exact same thing you played along with me.  Every note gets 4 drum beats.  Try it now. 

Audio Example C1_13:

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Mixing It Up

Now let’s try alternating between all three notes.  You will use your 1st finger to play the first note and your 2nd finger to play the second note and your 4th finger to play the 3rd note exactly like you did in the previous examples.  We will play the 1st note for 4 drum beats then the 2nd note for 4 drum beats then the 3rd note for 4 drum beats then back to the 2nd note for 4 drum beats and finally the 1st note for 4 drum beats.

Don’t worry if it is a bit confusing trying to memorize what note to play for how many beats.  This is not something that you are going to have to do much longer.  We will discuss guitar music notation and how to read it in just a minute.  For now, I think the example will make it clear what I want you to do.  Let’s try it together. 

Audio Example C1_14:

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Here is a video of me playing along with the track so you can get an idea of what it should look like when you are playing it properly.  Give it a try with me if you like.

Video Example C1_14:

Get the Flash Player to see this content.

Excellent!  Are you ready to try it by yourself?  Here is the same drum track without my guitar.  Play the exact same thing you played along with me.  Every note gets 4 drum beats.  Try it now. 

Audio Example C1_15:

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Guitar Tablature

In the next chapter, we will continue with our G Major scale on the 5th string.  Before we move on though, let’s talk a bit about guitar notation.  As we saw in our last example on the 6th string, it gets very confusing trying to write out in sentences how to play a guitar part.  Take another look at this paragraph:

“Now let’s try alternating between all three notes.  You will use your 1st finger to play the first note and your 2nd finger to play the second note and your 4th finger to play the 3rd note exactly like you did in the previous examples.  We will play the 1st note for 4 drum beats then the 2nd note for 4 drum beats then the 3rd note for 4 drum beats then back to the 2nd note for 4 drum beats and finally the 1st note for 4 drum beats and repeat.”

This can get very confusing very quickly.  What we need is a way to convey this information in a graphical diagram.  We can then look at the graphical diagram to see what we are supposed to play.  This graphical diagram is called Guitar Tablature (Tab).  Let’s take a look.  Here is the same information as the paragraph above written in Guitar Tab format.

bg_l1_tab_1(Click to enlarge) 

Audio Example C1_16:

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There is a lot of information here so let’s break it down.  There are two main sections in the guitar Tab diagram.  The upper section that begins with the strange looking curvy symbol (called a treble clef) shows the actual musical notes.  Since we are not starting out learning the names of all of the notes, the only thing you need to be aware of for now is the type of note shown on the treble clef.

Whole Note

The round empty circle type of note is called a Whole Note.  A Whole Note gets 4 beats.  As you can see, each of the notes shown above on the treble clef are whole notes so they each get 4 beats.  Got it?  That’s pretty simple.

The second section of the guitar Tab diagram is what we are more interested in right now.  This is the lower section that begins with the word TAB.  What this part of the diagram is showing us is which string, which finger, and which fret to play.  There are six lines, each representing a string on the guitar.  The top line represents the thinnest 1st string on the guitar.  The bottom line represents the fattest 6th string on the guitar.  As you can see, each one of the notes in this example is played on the 6th string.

bg_l1_tab_2 (Click to enlarge)

The next thing you need to know for now is what the little numbers on the 6th string mean.  Can you guess?  That’s right.  The numbers tell which fret to put your finger on for that particular note.  The 3 means put your finger on the 3rd fret.  The 5 means put your finger on the 5th fret and so on.  Does that make sense?

The last thing you need to be aware of for now are the numbers in the little circles at the bottom.  What do you think those are?  Yep.  The numbers in the circles tell you which finger to use to play that particular note.

Putting It All Together

Let’s put it all together.  Starting from the beginning of the Tab diagram we will play the 1st note by placing our 1st finger on the 3rd fret on the 6th string and picking and holding the note for 4 beats.

How do we know to use our 1st finger?  We know to use our 1st finger because that is the number in the little circle at the bottom.  How do we know to play the note on the 6th string?  That is because the numbers are written on the very bottom line which represents the 6th string.  How do we know to place our finger on the 3rd fret?  That’s right.  It is because of the little number 3 drawn on the 6th string.  Why 4 beats?  That is because the musical note on the treble clef above the Tab section is shown to be a whole note and whole notes get 4 beats.  Whew!  That’s a lot of information.  Don’t worry though.  We are going to take this very slowly one step at a time.

bg_l1_tab_3 (Click to enlarge)

Ok?  Good.  Now let’s try the 2nd note in the diagram.  How is that note played?  You will put your 2nd finger on the 5th fret on the 6th string and pick and hold the note for 4 beats.  How do we know this?  Let’s break it down again.

We know to use our 2nd finger because of the 2 in the little circle underneath.  We know to place our 2nd finger on the 5th fret because of the number 5.  We know to put our finger on the 6th string because that is the string the 5 is written on.  We know to pick and hold the note because the musical note shown above the Tab section on the treble clef is a whole note and whole notes get 4 beats.  Got it?

Take a look at the remaining three notes.  Can you work out from the diagram what you are supposed to play?  Keep going over this example diagram until you understand it completely.  After a while it should be obvious that the following paragraph and the guitar tab diagram below it are equivalent.

“Now let’s try alternating between all three notes.  You will use your 1st finger to play the first note and your 2nd finger to play the second note and your 4th finger to play the 3rd note exactly like you did in the previous examples.  We will play the 1st note for 4 drum beats then the 2nd note for 4 drum beats then the 3rd note for 4 drum beats then back to the 2nd note for 4 drum beats and finally the 1st note for 4 drum beats and repeat.”

bg_l1_tab_4 (Click to enlarge) 

Audio Example C1_16:

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Learning The Scale Visually

You also need to become familiar with how the scale looks visually on the guitar neck.  This is going to be very important later when we learn about changing keys and is also essential to soloing.  Here is the scale pattern as seen visually on the neck.  Note that the first square shape is the starting note or root note.  In this case that note is G which makes sense because this is a G Major scale.  We will talk about all of the specific note stuff later.  For now, just observe what the pattern looks like on the 6th string.  I will include lots of guitar neck diagrams so you can get used to how the notes are laid out visually on the neck.

bg_l1_neck_drawing_5

Congratulations.  You have now learned the first few notes of the G Major scale on the 6th string.  You have learned how to make the notes by utilizing different combinations of fingers and frets.  You have also learned how to read guitar notation.  It is now time to move on to the 5th string and continue with our scale example.  Are you ready?

Continue on to Lesson 2…

View the Virtual Star Guitar lesson index…

Do you have any questions or comments on this lesson?  If so send me an email and I will respond shortly.  rbrewer@myguitaruniversity.com