GuitarNut

In this exercise, we continue the previous exercise, which was to set the finger gap on 1 finger. Now we will practice setting the finger gap on all 4 fingers. Notice that my pinky finger comes way up? That’s not good, and its something I’m working on improving. Otherwise the exercise is just more spatial awareness training, and ear training.

In this exercise, we practice lifting our finger off of the string, to get a very precise gap. In my opinion, based on nothing at all... The gap between the finger and string should be about the same as the gap between the string and the fret, So that the string is situated half way between your fingers full range of travel, Or that your finger is twice as far from the fingerboard as your string is. Instead of claiming that this gap is the correct gap, i encourage each of you to experiment for yourself, and find the gap that works best for you. The point of the exercise ins’t to make a rigid rule about a gap, but rather just to bring your awareness to the fact that the gap exists, and that you will want to find the gap thats right for you. Obviously this will depend on your playing style, strength, and skill, in particular being able to do hammer-on’s This exercise will help with spatial awareness, that is, the knowing of exactly where your fingers are in relation to other things. Practice this exercise with all fingers, everywhere, on all strings, and at all frets.

In this exercise, we continue on from the previous exercise, which was to use 4 fingers to fret 1 note, Now in this exercise, we do the same thing, Which is to use 4 fingers to fret 1 note, And then we move down in 1 Half Step increments, and repeat the exercise. This is just a rote exercise, meant to strengthen, condition, calibrate, callous all of your fingers evenly, So that later, when you want to make chords or play melodies, all of your fingers will be up to the task, and you won’t be struggling as much with the basics.

In this exercise, we anchor the thumb near the 9th fret dot marker, And then fret the E string at the 12th fret, with each of your 4 fingers, one after another, back and forth until it is smooth and legato. This exercise is meant to do two things, 1) break the bad mental habit of thinking that you need to use a certain finger to make a certain sound. 2) make the good mental habit of thinking you can use any finger to make any sound. So, after you have mastered this exercise in the position shown, practice the exercise everywhere, on all strings, and all frets. While you would probably never actually play guitar this way, it does nimble up your fingers so that you can naturally “adjust” on the fly. Also, if you are a beginner guitar player who needs to develop callouses on your fingertips, this would be a good exercise for that. Also, if you are a beginner guitar player who needs to practice strengthening and conditioning your finger muscles evenly, this is a good exercise for that. By playing the exact same note with each finger, your ear can discern the differences on each finger, which you can then work on until each finger sounds the same.

In this exercise, we use use the song House of the Rising Sun to practice the A minor pentatonic scale in the 5th hand position. We start on a high A note, and work our way down the scale and resolve one octave lower on an A note. This particular exercise is good, because we usually start with a “root” note that is low, and the work our way “up” from there, whereas with this exercise, we start with a high note (that happens to be a root note) and working our way down to a lower root note. So if we learn to count up from 1 like 123456789101112 This would be learning to count down from 12 like 121110987654321 This exercise covers a range of 12 half-steps or a perfect octave.

In this video, i demonstrate one way to play the star spangled banner, mostly in the 4th hand position. I’ve always loved the song, and so i binge watched YouTube how-to videos, and each one of them had their own way of explaining it, And none of those lessons “clicked” with me, which was discouraging because i really wanted to master playing this song. So i just kept noodling around and incorporating all the ideas from all those lessons, and came up with this version. In this rendition, you’ll notice a lot of extra-curricular clanking and banging around, and thats somewhat intentional. It turns out, that when you play this song in the 4th hand position, all of the open sting notes just happen to clank and clash in a perfectly imperfect way. This song could be played in this hand position, more cleanly, and it would sound good, However, i like the way the mistakes sound, so i not only don’t try to avoid them, i go out of my way to make sure i make them! I suppose if its on purpose, its no longer a mistake... Anyway, if you want to replicate the mistakes, its mostly just a matter of “accidentally” hitting 2 strings instead of 1, and the extra string you hit on accident is usually the adjacent open string that sounds lower. So for example, if you want to hit a note on the A string, then you simply play the note on the A string AND “accidentally” also play the Open E string, So that nearly every note that is supposed to be played, is “accidentally” accompanied by an open string that is not supposed to be played... We use this song as a lesson, because its old and in the public domain, It has that major sound that we want to practice, It will probably never go out of style, Its based on an old English Pub drinking song... Everyone who covers this song, owns it. Jimi Hendrix version of this song at Woodstock is mind-blowing. The first time i heard it, i thought it sounded like a guitar falling down a flight of stairs, But after some research, i discovered that there are many “sounds of war” in the song, such as a machine gun, a bomb dropping, women screaming, an ambulance or air raid siren... And after you know thats the sounds he was trying to achieve, you can “hear” it yourself. Have a listen... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MFLy8eGtSYo Jimi videos disappear fast so heres a search in case video gets taken down https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=jimi+woodstock+star+spangled+banner

In this exercise, we practice House Of The Rising Sun chords AA,CC,DD,FF,AA,E7E7 Repeat thru song. The E7 chord is made by making a normal E major chord, and then lifting the ring finger, or “sus” meaning suspended or lifted finger. This lowers the E note octave on the D string down 2 half steps to a Minor 7 sound on the Open D string Other than the E7, which is easy, the rest of the chords are straight forward open chords in the 1st hand position. For an eagle eye view, and to get a sense of why we do things in the sequence we do them, If you were to go to any guitar teacher, they may try to show you how to play these kinds of chords on day 1 of your lessons, before you have even had a chance to figure out how to fret even 1 note, they are trying to make you fret 3 notes! And what makes it worse is, its the farthest away hand position, so you have to reach, and your shoulder gets tired quick, Then the frets are spread out farther at that end of the fretboard, making fingering some chords or reaching some notes tricky, And the first hand position is also where its hardest to fret the strings, because the nut action. The first hand position is the worst hand position, and yet thats exactly where they start every guitar student. So these lessons are planned so that you start on the 12th fret, which is where the frets are spaced nicely, your eye can see clearly, the action is easiest, and your shoulder isn’t exhausted after a few minutes practice. So we start at the 12th hand position and work our way down to the 1st hand position, and then work our way back up from the 1st hand position back to the 12th hand position. This song, House of the Rising Sun, is a very important blues standard, perhaps the standard of all standards... Its so old that nobody knows who wrote it, and its also in the public domain, so you can cover it. This song is the perfect teaching tool, because you can start very simple, and keep building on this song, re-inventing it every time you play it. This song is also the doorway to the Minor Pentatonic, which is the doorway to the Blues, and Rock and Roll, and Metal music. So if you are a student of music, and you are digging deep to find the roots of the music you love, this song is what you have been looking for!

In this exercise, we practice the C Major chord in the 1st hand position. C major’s ‘relative’ is A minor. Both the C major and A minor chord anchor the pointer finger on the B string, 1st fret, And to change from one chord to the other you just move your middle and ring fingers. This C shape can be modified to make it more moveable, but its awkward, so guitarists just find another way to make the sound they want to hear. This C chord is 1 of the 3 critical components to the so-called “3 chord trick” or “3 chord song”, The other 2 chords being G and D. Mastering this chord is a milestone in your guitar development, because it indicates that you are able to articulate 3 fingers, and fret 3 notes, at the same time. Considering that we started these guitar lessons practicing to master playing just 1 note, with just 1 finger... Soon, after you have mastered the G and D chords, and are able to transition between the GCD chords, you will be ready to try and play songs, and will be moving from beginner guitar to intermediate guitar.

In this exercise, we practice making the A minor chord shape, which is the same as the E minor chord shape, but everything is moved up one string. The A Major is made by using the pinky finger to sharpen the note on the B string, which is the 3rd scale degree, up from a minor 3rd, to a major3rd. It would be unusual to play both the A minor and A major chords in the same song, But this exercise is good for ear training, and listening to the difference between a minor and major sound, which is usually dictated by whether the 3rd scale degree is minor or major 3 half steps for minor 3rd 4 half steps for major 3rd

In this exercise, we practice the E major and E minor chord in the 1st hand position. Since this guitar is tuned E standard, (EADgbe) the lowest sounding note is E, and so the lowest sounding chord is also E. The difference between these two chords is just whether the pointer finger sharpening the highest sounding note, which is the 3rd, from minor3rd to major3rd, The E major shape, if moved up one string, becomes the A minor shape. While it would be unusual to play both of these chords in the same song, This exercise is still good for learning to hear the difference between a minor and major sound, contrasted with each other, like A-B testing.

In this lesson, we continue to use the song House of the Rising Sun to practice the minor pentatonic scale. In the previous lesson, which was the first verse, we started at the low root note, and worked our way up from there. In this lesson, which is the second verse, we start at a high root note, and work our way back down from there.

In this exercise, we practice the minor pentatonic scale notes, By using the song, house of the rising sun. House of The Rising Sun, is like the standard song of all standard songs. Its a very old song, that is in the public domain, And that has been covered by everyone. I suspect this is because the song is such an excellent teaching tool, that music teachers can’t help but to use it to teach music to their students. The overall structure of the song, including the minor pentatonic scale, and the 12 bar blues beat/rhythm turnaround, Makes it so that its approachable for a beginner, Easy to improve for an intermediate player, And truly a song you can re-interpret every time you play it. This is a landmark song for any guitar student, especially anyone following these set of beginner guitar lessons from start to finish. This could be one of the first 5 songs you learn, and will help unlock so much more music in the future.

In this lesson, we continue on from the previous two lessons, which were, to build a bar barre, with the pointer finger and/or thumb, as an anchor point, And then to use the other 3 fingers to explore all reachable notes, following the “1 finger per fret” rule. In this exercise, we kind of ignore the frets, and just let our hand relax and melt into the string/fret matrix. Everyones hands are unique in size, and therefore everyones hands will fit differently at the 5th hand position. As you can see in this video, when my hand is relaxed, my pinky finger cant reach the 8th fret. While i could theoretically stretch my fingers out to reach the 8th fret, that would require more effort, and we are trying to work toward effortless playing... So as you practice this box shape up and down the neck, you will find that each hand position feels slightly different than the adjacent hand position, Ranging from feeling like the frets are too far apart, to feeling like the frets are too close together. And somewhere in between those two extremes, there is a sweet spot, where the distance between the frets fits your relaxed finger spread better than anywhere else on the neck. Find this sweet spot hand position, and just noodle around there for a while.

In this exercise, we continue on from the previous exercise, which was to practice making a bar barre shape with the thumb and pointer finger across all 6 strings, at the 5th hand position, To make half of the box shape, So now we move on, and use the other 3 fingers to reach the other half of the notes. In this video, there are shown a few shapes and scale degrees, 3 root triangle shape. F shape (major shape) Minor 3rd (minor shape) Perfect 4th and 5th, which can be thought of as minor or blues shapes within the context of this box shape The A Minor Pentatonic and C Major Pentatonic are relative minor/major of each other, and thus use the same notes, but from different starting points, Where the Am5 starts on E string 5th fret A note, And CM5 starts on E string 8th fret C note. If you follow the “1 finger per fret” rule, Then your pointer finger will play all the strings at the 5th fret, And your middle finger will play all the strings at the 6th fret, And your ring finger will play all the strings on the 7th fret, And your pinky finger will play all the strings at the 8th fret... Then your entire hand will have to micro-adjust between each note. The most difficult note to reach will be with your pinky finger on the 8th fret low E string, So if you start there, at the most difficult note to reach, and work your way back thru each note, they should get progressively easier to reach. That note just happens to be a Minor 3rd interval, within the context of this box shape, So unfortunately its an important note, and you really will need to practice reaching for it with your pinky finger, which is your weakest finger, at its most extreme reach... But the good news is, this is the most difficult of all the normal maneuvers, so if you can master this one maneuver, then you know you can master any maneuver on guitar.

In this exercise, we use the thumb and pointer finger to make a bar or barre across all of the strings, This exercise is shown at the 5th hand position, which is when your fret hand pointer finger is just behind the 5th fret, closer to the nut, However this exercise should be practiced on all frets. (Hand positions) This moveable bar barre shape works in all hand positions, and your hand position will dictate which key you are in. because i am tuned standard E (EADgbe), and my hand is in the 5th position, that means the notes played on both outside strings (E-e) will both be A notes, which are two full octaves apart, or 24 half steps. These outside strings provide you with a low-note and high-note that are always the same note, thus always sound good together, and are always in key, no matter what. Up one string from the Low E is the A string, which, because i am already in the 5th hand position, means i am in the key of A, and so this open A string can be played open or fretted and will sound good both ways. Because the A string is somewhat tricky to fret with your thumb and fingers like this, its ok to just not bother too much if you get it or not, because it will sound good either way. If you accidentally don’t fret the A string, it will sound as an A note. If you accidentally do fret the A string, it will sound as a Perfect 4th note. There is a video on youtube “Why you suck at guitar - Barre Chords” which i recommend you take a detour and watch, as he does a pretty good job of explaining how to make these bar barre shapes, which looks easy but can be very frustrating in practice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrlF4Tc8qC8 This particular bar barre shape exercise will become the foundation on which to build more later... In particular, all of these notes make up every-other-note in the 2 note per string minor pentatonic scale. This shape is the backbone for the A minor pentatonic scale, And more importantly is the backbone for the A minor pentatonic box shape, And also the A blues scale. If we think of a box shape as having 4 sides, then this bar shape alone is 1 whole side of the box, A huge square box which is 24 half steps on each side, (given a 24 fret guitar) And from this bar barre, or side of the box, we can use it as an anchor or reference point, to know where all of the notes are, that are reachable from the bar anchor. Every scale degree 1-12: is reachable from this shape, So its a good exercise to work out in your mind where each scale degree is, by number 1-12 Later, we will do exercises that only use the notes of a certain scale (minor pentatonic and blues) And since you have already practiced counting half steps, finding and naming these scale degrees will be easier This box shape is one of the things that made Jimi Hendrix great, in my opinion, Hendrix is often thought of as a guitarist, but he usually sang lead vocals too, and merely accompanied himself on guitar, while the rest of the band followed his lead. So if you binge watch Jimi Hendrix videos, watch very carefully every detail of how he moves, from head to toe. And notice that often when he sings, he has his hand locked in this box shape, And when he is not singing, he moves his hand position a lot more. So, he can alternate between singing lead, and playing lead guitar, And when he is singing lead, his hand is locked into a shape that insures he is in the right key. Another even better example is Kris Kristofferson who literally played an entire concert, solo, just him and his acoustic guitar, standing at a microphone all night... And the entire night Kris only played 2 chords An E chord and A chord. For every song on the setlist. And while i am always impressed by musicians who shred on guitar, Kris taught me to appreciate minimalism, and how you can write a lot of songs without getting too hung up on chord progressions and music theory So if this exercise, done in the 5th hand position, is in the key of A minor pentatonic / A blues This exercise, if done with all open strings, would then be in the key if E minor pentatonic / E minor blues. Or if this exercise was done at the 12th hand position, it would also be in the key of E minor pentatonic / E minor blues From an eagle eye view of the lesson plan, this exercise is important because is signifies a milestone in guitar development, Specifically, that you are able to fret notes with your thumb and all fingers, That you are able to move from note to note, and string to string, without getting lost, That you have learned the easy half of the box shape, And that once you learn the other half of the box shape, you will then know 2 different scales, which are the minor pentatonic, and blues scales, You will have a foundation on which to build more bar barre chord shapes, And perhaps most importantly, you will soon be able to forget about all of these lessons in counting half steps and naming scale degrees, and just play the guitar, without thinking about it. Because you will be preoccupied singing, Or working on songwriting, Because at the end of the day, nobody is going to pay you to practice scales, But if you are lucky, and work hard, one day someone might give you a penny or nickel to sing a song, and accompany yourself on guitar. FREEBIRD!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aEVxyMqXBo

in this exercise, we use our middle and pinky fingers to fret 2 notes on 1 string, 2 half-steps, or 1 whole step apart. Then we move to the adjacent string and repeat, which is 5 half steps, or a perfect 4th. This exercise is important because this is an important root level maneuver when playing a major scale starting on the low E string with a root1-M2 interval on the E string, and then the P4-P5 interval on the A string. Its also a good exercise for practicing using your middle and pinky fingers for anchor/reference/pivot points, Which can be used as a foundation on which to build more later...

In this exercise, we use different combinations of adjacent fingers, to fret 2 adjacent notes on one string, And then moving to the adjacent string and repeating. The previous exercise used the fingers 1-2, So in this exercise we will be using fingers 2-3 (middle and ring) fingers 3-4 (ring and pinky) This exercise combines two exercises we did earlier, which are 1 Half-step using adjacent fingers on one string. 5 half-steps by jumping to adjacent string at the same fret. This exercise will help you build spatial awareness in 2 different axis Axis 1 is the half step on a string, Axis 2 is the perfect 4th between the strings Bonus points for working out what happens to the interval between the G and B strings, and what you have to do to correct the interval to match your intended pattern. Hint: you have to sharpen the note on the B string

In this exercise, we use the pointer and ring fingers to fret 2 notes on 1 string, 2 half steps apart, or a whole note... Before moving on to the next string and repeating. This exercise helps build spatial awareness not only physically in your hands, But also aurally, in your ears. If we look at this lesson from an eagle eye view, it is composed of two exercises that we have already done earlier, which are, Using Pointer and Ring fingers to do a whole step interval on one string. Using pointer finger to do a perfect 4th interval between two strings.

In this exercise, we use 2 adjacent fingers to fret 2 adjacent notes on 1 string, And then moving to the adjacent string and repeating. This exercise helps develop your fingers sense of where they are on the fingerboard, Or what is called ‘spacial awareness’, which is a very important concept that we will continue to work on. Spacial awareness allows us to expand ourselves beyond our physical body, to at least an imaginary bubble the size of your wingspan and reach in every direction. Spacial awareness helps us dance, And dance helps us feel the music, And feeling the music helps make better music...

In this exercise, we use all 4 fingers to fret 4 adjacent notes on 1 string, at the 12th fret Before moving to the adjacent string... This exercise is a good intermediate point in your guitar lessons. From a beginners view, if we can do this exercise LEGATO, meaning even and smooth, from beginning to end, That means our picking hand is able to pick out 4 notes on a string before moving on to another string. That means each of our fingers has been trained, and exercised, and abused, and blistered, and calloused, strengthened, and grip calibrated, and toned down, and brought under control, and open, and loose, and relaxed, and working effortlessly, and comfortably, and... From the moment you master this relatively simple exercise, you will be ready to start taking away notes from it, stripping it down, analyzing the notes that we use, and don’t use... There is not a single scale that is not contained within the outline of these notes, in any hand position. So from this point forward, as an intermediate student, your job is to chip away at this exercise, to play every possible combination of notes, from any starting note... To learn all of the scales starting with the chromatic. “Chrome” like a mirror, reflects all colors. So a chromatic scale is all notes, usually thought of as 12 half-steps within an octave, But in truth the chromatic scale is like a number line 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 But then also all the infinite space between 1 and 2, etc. Think slide guitar... Next learn where the Root, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Perfect Octave 8va are. These anchor points will be used more often than others during normal guitar playing, and will give you the foundational reference point - anchors you can use to build more upon later. Next, learn the minor and major pentatonic scales, And use these pentatonic scales as a frame work upon which to learn the natural minor and major scales... Next, practice each of these scales, but use each different scale degree note as the root note. This is mode.

In this exercise, we use 3 fingers to fret 3 adjacent notes on a single string. From a music theory view, this combination of notes would only work in the blues scale between the perfect 4th, blue note, perfect 5 interval... Which to me, is all the reason we need to practice it... But beyond music theory, this maneuver is very helpful from a “noodling” view, in that you kind of dip your toe in the water, but you don’t have to commit to anything You can use this maneuver as a passing-note or pick-up note. It lets you keep on listening to yourself, while you try to find the note you actually wanted to hear Music purists would say that a good musician should play the right note, right on time, without any extra noodling or fill. Even Jimi Hendrix was unpopular with some other musicians he jammed with, because he was noodling around too much... But then there are those of us who never heard the noodling as mistakes or imperfections, and just considered it part of the Jimi Hendrix Experience This maneuver is also an introduction to “the 3-finger thing” as some musicians call it. With 3 fingers on one string, you can get different kinds of control on bends and tone.

In this exercise, we use the pointer and pinky finger across 3 half steps. Usually you would learn that 3 half-steps is a minor 3rd, And usually you would learn that, within the context of the Minor Pentatonic Scale. These being your first 2 notes: root1 - m3 However, 3 half-step maneuvers are not limited to the role of minor 3rd, And therefore, the rote exercises we do today, will help us make these maneuvers more easily when we have to do them in other contexts.

In this exercise, we practice anchoring at 3 points, which are all 3 the root notes/octaves This illustration shows 3 E notes at the 12th fret, However this shape is moveable up and down the frets. This is a very common 3 point anchor that a lot of musicians use. I know this because i have watched so musicians use it, that i figured there had to be something special about it, and there is... This shape gives you a good solid foundation on which to build other shapes, both from a music theory view, and from a practical technique view.

In this exercise, we use the opening notes of the Star Spangled Banner to practice the F shape in any hand position. The way these music lessons are set up, is that what you learn first, will help you learn what comes next. So this lesson is a good illustration of of approach. On the one hand, we are merely practicing working on the F shape in different hand positions. On the other hand, we are learning the star spangled banner song, which will probably never go out of style. The Star Spangled Banner itself is just a basic melody player in a major key So these 4 notes we practice here, will become a foundation on which to learn more about music and songs

In this video, we go thru the first half of making a box shape, which is usually to establish which notes are in our scale or chord. If we think about the open strings on a guitar as EADGBe, those open notes, together, comprise half of the notes of an E minor pentatonic scale. If you bar all of the strings on any fret, those notes will be half of the minor pentatonic scale, and the key will be where ever your hand position is. The box shape is important because it lets us just pin down all the strings, like a capo, and use this half notes as the anchor points, from which to reference the other half of the notes. Using a box shape allows you to just plant your hand in one hand position, and play either chords, or scales, or both, without much effort, which allows the guitarist to focus on other things such as singing.