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Introductory Guitar to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

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Using intervals, basic chord changes and simple fills to build a foundational set of skills on the guitar.
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guitarchalk.com http://www.guitarchalk.com/2014/06/introductory-guide-to-building-foundational-guitar-skills-lesson.html Introductory Guide to Building Foundational Guitar Skills Guitar players should constantly pursue foundational skills. You know...the basics. The stuff that we learn, then move on to more difficult and demanding tasks that we believe make us better players. But in reality it's the foundational skills that truly build talent It's mastering the basics that gives us a creative edge and a solid framework on which to improve. Why Study Foundational Guitar Skills? This is not specifically written for beginners. It can be used by beginners. Though any player, regardless of their abilities or experience can benefit from building a stronger base of foundational ability on the guitar. So don't avoid this simply because you already know your stuff. This is not specifically written for beginners. You certainly might. We'll maintain those skills and focus on areas that improve our baseline knowledge. Because improving the foundation strengthens the whole house. Since the technical aspects of our playing depend on elementary skills, we'll find that we improve in those areas as well, despite the fact we're not practicing them specifically. What We're Going to Cover
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Page 1: Introductory Guitar to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

guitarchalk.com http://www.guitarchalk.com/2014/06/introductory-guide-to-building-foundational-guitar-skills-lesson.html

Introductory Guide to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

Guitar players should constantly pursue foundational skills.

You know...the basics.

The stuff that we learn, then move on to more difficult and demanding tasks that we believe make us better players.

But in reality it's the foundational skills that truly build talent

It's mastering the basics that gives us a creative edge and a solid framework on which to improve.

Why Study Foundational Guitar Skills?This is not specifically written for beginners.

It can be used by beginners. Though any player, regardless of their abilities or experience can benefit from building astronger base of foundational ability on the guitar. So don't avoid this simply because you already know your stuff.

This is not specifically written for beginners.

You certainly might.

We'll maintain those skills and focus on areas that improve our baseline knowledge.

Because improving the foundation strengthens the whole house.

Since the technical aspects of our playing depend on elementary skills, we'll find that we improve in those areas aswell, despite the fact we're not practicing them specifically.

What We're Going to Cover

Page 2: Introductory Guitar to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

Sp our focus: Basic skills that continue to be used or built upon as we improve . Static knowledge like tuning,fretboard notes and basic music theory are assumed and will not be covered.

Broken into Four Topics

Broadly speaking, these skills can be broken into four different parts.

(Click to jump to section...)

1. Intervals

2. Basic, Open Chord Changes

3. Fills and Short Scales

4. Power Chord Shifting

Much of what we do on the guitar is derived from these four concepts. They're the essential knowledge pillars of theinstrument that are often worth far more time than they're given in a traditional lesson or classroom setting.

More complex knowledge comes as a result of mastering these simpler concepts.

Page 3: Introductory Guitar to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

If we loosely combine the list into a set of two skill categories, we get foundational skills for someone pursuing either alead or rhythm guitar role.

So you decide first what area of your playing you want to work on.

Then you learn the baseline skill-sets.

Those skill-sets eventually lead to more advanced technique and playing capabilities.

We'll continue to address each category on its own, but be sure to keep in mind that they do cross paths in manycases and that certain skills are going to be geared towards a different type of guitar player, depending on which roleyou want to fill.

IntervalsAn interval is simply the space between any two notes on the fretboard. The important ones for you to know on theguitar are the following.

Minor Second (One Fret Space)

Major Second (Two Fret Spaces)

Minor Third (Three Fret Spaces)

Major Third (Four Fret Spaces)

Perfect Fifth (Seven Fret Spaces)

These five intervals represent the fret to fret movements that you will be most often utilizing.

They're building blocks for your solos and even some of your chords.

Though everything on a guitar can be understood and represented by an interval, these are the five that matter themost.

Consider the tab for each interval.

Minor Second

E|--------B|--------G|--------D|--------A|--3--4--E|--------

Major Second

Page 4: Introductory Guitar to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

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

Minor Third

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

or...

E|--------B|--------G|--------D|-----1--A|--3-----E|--------

Major Third

E|--------B|--------G|--------D|-----2--A|--3-----E|--------

Perfect Fifth

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

Download Tab Sheet

Memorizing these has a few advantages.

First, they give you some foundational knowledge about why you're playing what you're playing and they help you puta name to vague movements.

Additionally, they help attribute a minor or major quality to what you're playing and will provide familiarity and structureonce you start learning more complex scales and chords.

Page 5: Introductory Guitar to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

The tab sheet (via the download link above) can be a good way to memorize them. If you want something a little morechallenging, here's a quiz sheet that you can print out to use either for yourself or for a student you might be teaching.

Answers are included in the document.

Using Intervals as a Jumping Off Point

Intervals make it easy to put terminology to movement and to know why a particular set of two notes sounds major,minor or resolves something in a song.

As you develop and begin to connect intervals, they turn into longer fills and patterns which eventually turn intotechnically advanced guitar solos. They're the first step in that direction and you'll always use them. So make sureyou've got them memorized and can comfortably define and use the important ones.

Basic Open Chord ChangesWe don't typically have a difficult time learning open chords.

They're the first ones we pick up even; the G, C, D, Em and a few other familiar campfire chords. Where we tend toget hung up is with changing between them.

When we change to or from those chords, buzzes, half mutes and mistakes tend to crop up.

But how do we fix that?

Time and practice helps, but if you move on to playing primarily lead guitar or using a lot of barre chords, open chordtransitions can get left behind.

To visualize this we need a progression, so let's start with something common: G, C and D.

Starting with the Root Note

For now, let's take every note out of each chord, except for the root note. If we learn to move that way, we canincrementally add the rest of the notes into the progression.

E|-----------B|-[G][C][D]-G|-----------D|--------0--A|-----3-----E|--3--------

When playing an open G, C and D you're playing these three notes. It's the skeleton of the progression and any othernotes you add are for flavor and decoration.

So first recognize that you don't always have to play all the notes in a chord .

Often times, even just the root note and an interval (major third, perfect fifth, etc.) are enough to compliment the bassline.

Start with the root, then add one more note to each chord.

Finger pickingE|-----------B|--------3--

Page 6: Introductory Guitar to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

G|--0--5--x--D|--x--x--0--A|--x--3-----E|--3--------

Above we've added the same note to each root, one octave higher. This adds body to our G, C and D and still allowsyou to change chords quite easily.

Finger pickingE|---------------B|--3---------5--G|--0----5----2--D|--x----x----0--A|--x----3-------E|--3------------

By adding another note to the G and D chords we give our progression a little more substance and now have analternative to the full open configuration for each chord.

In any given chord progression, you don't always need to play full chords .

One of the best ways to speed up your progressions is to minimize your approach to individual chords.

You don't always have to play every note of each chord and it usually sounds better if you don't. If you can start withthe root, then add notes as you get comfortable with the movement, you'll back into being comfortable with full chordssince you've learned how to handle each individual piece.

Let's look at another example.

Say you wanted to learn how to quickly move through E, A and B; a popular backing for blues and pentatonic-basedsolos.

The full compliment of each chord looks like this.

E|--0-----2--B|--0--2--4--G|--1--2--4--D|--2--2--4--A|--2--0--2--E|--0--------

If we want to learn this from the ground up, where do we start?

Notice first that the root notes are easy to pick up.

E|--0-----2--B|--0--2--4--G|--1--2--4--D|--2--2--4--A|--2--0--2--E|--0--------

Remember our intervals? We can grab the perfect fifth of each chord to play a simple power chord progression.

Page 7: Introductory Guitar to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

Root notes in red, perfect fifths in blue.E|--0-----2--B|--0--2--4--G|--1--2--4--D|--2--2--4--A|--2--0--2--E|--0--------

So here's the tab to start with.

E|-----------B|-----------G|-----------D|-----2--4--A|--2--0--2--E|--0--------

Both the full and simple version of this progression have value and it's not to say that you should exclusively hold toone or the other. But if you're going for speed, the simpler version is where you should start.

It also depends on the song and genre of music you're playing.

For example, a modern rock version of E, A and B would be well suited for the simple power chord configuration wecame up with.

Playing the full version of each chord wouldn't even be necessary.

That's a variable that you'll have to consider. For our progression, add notes to each chord one at a time until you getcomfortable changing quickly through the full progression.

Targeting Progressions

Chord progressions (particularly open chords) get reused a lot, and on their own aren't necessarily meant to make asong unique. That means you don't need to learn that many of them to play a lot of music. Particularly if you limityourself to one genre, the chord progressions will be consistent.

Thus targeting the more typically used progressions found in the music you like is a good strategy for working onspeed.

We can once again go back to our G, C and D example.

If you zero in on that progression and work on it for a week or so, you'll not only improve your speed, but you'll find anumber of different ways to play the progression itself.

Here are a couple resources that illustrate.

Anchoring the G-C-D Chord Progression

Six Different Ways to Play the G-C-D Chord Progression

Page 8: Introductory Guitar to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

Depending on the music you like to listen to, figure out which progressions and chords are used the most and thenwork on them in different orders and variations.

If you want some help figuring out what those chords and progressions are, refer to these two resources.

Analyzing the Chords of 1300 Popular Songs

Most Common Chord Progression Types

Fills and Short ScalesThis skill often gets overlooked in favor of lengthier and more complex solos.

Consider though that a good solo should have the following things.

1. Emotion

2. Highs and Lows

3. Melody

4. Musically Cohesive

To develop these characteristics in your lead play, it's best to start with short fills and solos that are only a fewnotes long.

That's why we start with "fills and short scales."

If you develop an ability to play three or four notes that are melodic and emotional, you can begin stringing thosethree-four note components together to make longer runs.

Eventually, you're able to develop solos that are both technical and musical.

To build this skill, you can use two basic structures.

1. Chord Shapes

2. Scales

Both of these structures are already in place for you, so basing your lead play off of them helps you find groups ofnotes that sound good and resolve when played in succession. stopped here

Page 9: Introductory Guitar to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

Let's take the Dmaj chord shape as our first example.

E|-----B|--5--G|--2--D|--0--A|-----E|-----

We can omit the root D and arpeggiate the last two notes.

E|--------B|-----5--G|--2-----D|--------A|--------E|--------

Use this as base camp for starting your fills and short runs. Know that your root or key is going to be the bass note; inthis case D. But if you moved the shape up two frets, you could find your root note by referring to the same originalchord shape.

E|--------B|--5--7--G|--2--4--D|--0--2--A|--------E|--------

The zero and two (highlighted in red) on the tab sheet are your root notes. So if you start at D and move two frets up,your new root note is E.

Let's come up with a few runs in the key of E.

E|-----------------B|-----7--5--4-----G|--4-----------4--D|-----------------A|-----------------E|-----------------

E|--------------------------B|-----4-----5-----7--------G|--4-----4-----4-----6--4--D|--------------------------A|--------------------------E|--------------------------

E|--------------------------------B|--7-----5--4--------------------G|-----6--------4-----------------D|-----------------6--4--3--------

Page 10: Introductory Guitar to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

A|--------------------------4--2--E|--------------------------------

Try the same tactic with the following E chord.

E|--0-----B|--0-----G|--9-----D|--9-----A|--------E|--------

Start by arpeggiating the chord and adding some simple intervals.

E|-----------------0--B|--------------0-----G|--------7--9--------D|--7--9--------------A|--------------------E|--------------------

E|----------------------12--B|------------------12------G|--------8--9--11----------D|--7--9--------------------A|--------------------------E|--------------------------

E|-------------------------------12--B|--------------------9--10--12------G|--------------8--9-----------------D|--------6--9-----------------------A|-----7-----------------------------E|--0--------------------------------

You can progressively build on shorter patterns to come up with something more interesting and dynamic. Thoughoften the simpler patterns are more than enough to compliment a chord progression or add to a piece of music.

Fills and Short Solo Technique

When you're learning this, it's good to keep things simple.

Fewer notes are fine and can often be better since you want to make sure that you're not over-saturating the musicwith too much noise.

Modern music isn't always as guitar-heavy as it used to be, so the better way to compliment a song can often be aminimal and more melodic approach, which is going to be easier for you as the guitar player anyway.

For example, if you want to arpeggiate a C major barre chord:

E|--------------3--B|-----------5-----G|--------5--------

Page 11: Introductory Guitar to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

D|-----5-----------A|--3--------------E|-----------------

Choose two notes, one being the root C.

E|--------------------B|-----5-----5-----5--G|--5-----5-----5-----D|--------------------A|--------------------E|--------------------

You rock back and forth between these two notes incorporating others at different intervals.

E|--------------------------------------------B|-----5-----5-----5----- 6-----5-----5----- 8--G|--5-----5-----5-----5-----5-----5-----5-----D|--------------------------------------------A|--------------------------------------------E|--------------------------------------------

For instance, we've added the F and G notes at the sixth and eighth frets.

Using this tactic in conjunction with alternate picking is the perfect way to handle short fills over top of chordprogressions.

When the notes you're playing are so few and minimal, a good way to give yourself some more presence is to addeffects while you're playing more minimal fills.

Page 12: Introductory Guitar to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

Flickr Commons Image Courtesy of Roadside Guitars

When choosing your effects, keep in mind that you're still trying to maintain a balance between subtlety and beingable to contribute something decorative to a song.

You don't want to overpower the song itself, and you also don't want to be too subtle that you can't be heard.

That means heavy effects like distortion or high gain aren't likely to mix well.

Try light modulation (chorus, flanger) or timing effects (delay, echo, tremolo).

Depending on the song and situation you'll need to experiment with different sounds, but here's a good way toapproach the entire process.

1. Examine the chord progression and come up with a melody to compliment.

2. Narrow down your melody to a few notes and tab out the pattern.

3. Choose an effect that suits the tempo and mood of the song you're playing.

Power Chord Shifting

Page 13: Introductory Guitar to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

Changing between two power chords is different than two open chords.

It's actually much easier, since you can go to a different chord simply by moving to another fret. Thus you can changechords with more speed.

But the simplicity of power chord changes shouldn't mean that we gloss over them. Power chords are somethingyou'll use often in most modern genres of music, so if you can get them anchored in your mind with proper technique,you'll be far better off.

It's a baseline skill that you never stop using, so let's learn how to do it right.

Using the Root Note for Quicker ChangesIf the goal is to get from point A to point B on the fretboard quicker, there are two different ways that can happen whentwo power chords are involved.

1. Moving Between Two Chords with a Root Note on the Same String.

2. Two Chords with a Root Note on a Different String.

You've got all 12 notes on both strings, so it's true that you could play every chord on the same string.

However, it's not always functional to play two chords that way.

Take F and C for example.

You've got four spots on the sixth and fifth string where either an F or C note occurs. F is highlighted in red and C ishighlighted in blue.

E|--------------B|--------------G|--------------D|--------------A|-----3-----8--E|--1-----8-----

Now, if you want to go from F to C, which jump makes more sense?

It should be obvious that the red eight to blue eight is the quickest option, while the one to the three is the second bestchoice.

Going from the first fret all the way to the eighth isn't functional, nor does it save time. So changing between powerchords quickly involves analyzing your progression a bit.

Here are our two F to C movements.

E|----------|--------B|----------|--------G|----------|--------

Page 14: Introductory Guitar to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

D|--10------|-----5--A|--8---10--|--3--3--E|------8---|--1-----

Another good example is the E, A and B progression. Given a quick glance, you might be tempted to play thatprogression this way.

E|-----------B|-----------G|-----------D|-----------A|--2--7--9--E|--0--5--7--

There's nothing wrong with this, but a closer look tells us that there are at least two ways to optimize this progressionand save ourselves some time.

E|-----------B|-----------G|-----------D|-----2--4--A|--2--0--2--E|--0--------

By moving everything down and using open bass notes, we can play the entire progression within four frets. In fact,our hand doesn't really have to move at all if we use our pointer finger for the first two chords.

The next configuration condenses our movement even further.

E|-----------B|-----------G|-----------D|-----7-----A|--7--0--9--E|--0-----7--

In this instance, we don't need to deviate past the seventh or ninth fret. It's a fast, simple way to play a power chordversion of E, A and B.

Examine your progressions and see if you can find out how to save yourself movement and get the chords as closetogether as possible. It'll make your changes smoother and will make it easier for you to memorize the progression forfuture use.

ConcludingYou're more likely to get the gig if you're accomplished and well-versed in the foundational elements of yourinstrument.

Sure, it can be boring to go back and cover something you've already learned, but inevitably you'll find news ways toimprove and uncover areas of lacking that you weren't even away of.

Look for those areas when you play.

Make it a point to dissect the simpler aspects of your playing and see if you really do have them down.

Page 15: Introductory Guitar to Building Foundational Guitar Skills

Chances are there's room to improve in even the most elementary aspects of your playing. Don't assume learning thebasics is a thing of the past just because you've been playing for a few years.

Retrace your steps and fill in the pot holes, because a road well-traveled needs to be maintained.

Constructive CriticismWe're in favor of it, but we've also got other mediums for it to take place. Namely Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus.

See you there.

Recommended Reading and ResourcesA Modern Method for Guitar by William Leavitt

Guitar Tone: Pursuing the Ultimate Guitar Sound by Mitch Gallagher

Flickr Commons Image Courtesy of mpburrows

About Robert Kittleberger

Robert is the founder and editor of Guitar Chalk and Guitar Bargain. You can get intouch with him here, or via Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus.

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