Part 2: Diggin’ In

PLAY GUITAR: [HOME] Part 1: The Basics. Part 2: Diggin’ In. Part 3: Playing Bass. Part 4: Chords & Songs

Tuning Your Guitar

There are 3 options when tuning your guitar. And you need to tune your guitar because it won’t sound good.

1. Tune with itself

2. Turn to a piano or other instrument

3. Tune with an app, an electronic tuner, pitch pipe, or built-in guitar tuner

ONE: TUNE THE GUITAR WITH ITSELF

Before you begin playing your guitar, you should tune your guitar at least with itself (relative tuning) so that when you are playing songs, they will sound right.  Tune the 6th string to a piano's E if possible. If no piano is available tune the 6th string the best you can to what you think the low E is. Then tune the rest of the strings according to the instructions below. (Be careful not to tune the 6th string too high, because by the time you get to the 1st string, it may be too tight to come into tune. This will cause the string to break. If no piano is available, purchase a pitch pipe or electronic tuner. See below.).:

• Press the 6th string in the 5th fret (A) and pluck both the 6th & the 5th strings (A). They should sound the same. If not, adjust the tuning pegs.

• Press the 5th string in the 5th fret (D) and pluck both the 5th & the 4th strings (D). They should sound the same. If not, adjust the tuning pegs.

• Press the 4th string in the 5th fret (G) and pluck both the 4th & the 3rd strings (G). They should sound the same. If not, adjust the tuning pegs.

• Press the 3rd string in the 4th fret (B) and pluck both the 3rd & the 2nd strings (B). They should sound the same. If not, adjust the tuning pegs.

• Press the 2nd string in the 5th fret (E) and pluck both the 2nd & the 1st strings (E). They should sound the same. If not, adjust the tuning pegs.

When adjusting the tuning pegs, turning the peg so that the string gets tighter will make the string sound higher in pitch. When you adjust the peg so that the string gets looser, the sound will be lower in pitch. Keep adjusting the appropriate string until both strings sound the same. Always start with he 6th string. Repeat this process with the 5th and 4th string, etc.  

Practice.  Take your guitar out of tune by loosening several of the strings except the low E (6th or top string).  Follow the above instructions and see if you can get it back in tune. But only do this if you have another way to tuning so you can get it back into tune if you get out of whack!

TWO: TUNE THE GUITAR TO A PIANO

The six strings of the guitar are tuned to the notes E - A - D - G - B - E. (Remember: Every American Dog Gets Big Ears.) Notice in the diagram below, how each string relates to the piano keyboard. You can play the low E on a piano, then pluck the 6th string (the big one at the top), and then turn the tuning peg at the end of the guitar to bring the guitar's string in tune with the piano's E. Do the same with the rest.

On a standard piano keyboard, the low E note is the E which is located two white keys to the right of the group of two black keys. Specifically, if you start from the lowest C on the piano (the leftmost key), count up 12 keys (including both white and black keys), and you'll find the low E note, which is the second E you encounter from the left on the keyboard.

THREE: TUNE THE GUITAR WITH ANOTHER DEVICE.

une the guitar with an app, a pitch pipe, an electronic tuner, or the built-in tuner in your guitar

Pianos are not always available when you want to tune your guitar. When playing with a band or other instruments, it is absolutely necessary to get your guitar in tune so that when you play with the other instruments, it will sound great instead of really bad. There are other options to tune your guitar besides the above-mentioned ones.

• A Pitch Pipe. You can purchase a pitch pipe [Amazon - $8] and blow on each note and tune your guitar to the sound.

• A Guitar Tuning App. You can download a guitar tuning app from the Apple or Google App stores. Check out the Fender Tuning App. It’s free and amazing. It has the following free tools:

  • A tuner

  • Find a chord

  • Play scales

  • Rhythm (which is AMAZING!). Click on the Rhythm option. Then click on Find a Beat. You can select all sorts of beats with a drum sound. I would encourage you to select the Straight Rock beat (at the top of the list). You can adjust the Beats Per Minute (BPM) to slow it down so that you can practice strumming and switching between the chords more easily OR play a simple song.

  • Metronome - this is a simple beat (like the Rhythm tool above)

• An Electric Guitar Tuner. This is the best option so far. You can purchase an electronic tuner. I have listed one from Amazon [$14] that I have. It clips on the end of the guitar neck.

• Built-in Electronic Tuner. Some guitars come with a built-in electronic tuner. That would be an important feature to consider if you want to buy a new guitar. You have to think down the road WHEN you’re playing with a band. The built-in tuner makes it really easy to tune between songs if necessary instead of getting out your phone app, pitch pipe, or an external electronic guitar tuner. Having a built-in tuner makes the guitar more expensive. You could just get a $14 one from Amazon. But having it built in is the most professional.

At least download the app, and save yourself many headaches by enjoying much better sounds each time you practice.

It is important to keep the guitar in tune so you can develop a musical ear (learning what sounds are correct). Before you play each time, check to see if the guitar is in tune with your app or tuner, or at least in tune with itself. Guitars can get out of tune because of the temperature changes in the room or during travel.

Music Theory 101

One of the most important things to understand about how music "works" is to learn about the NOTES, CHORDS, and KEYS. 

NOTES

• Notes Are Like Letters: Music notes are like letters in the alphabet. Just like we use 26 letters to make words, there are 8 basic or “natural” notes to make music, starting with middle C: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. These are the white keys on a piano keyboard (in the Key of C). That pattern is one octave (from the Latin “octo” meaning “eight,” like an octopus that has eight legs.). You can see one octave (in the Key of C) on a piano by finding two black keys followed by 3 black keys. The C note is the first white note to the LEFT of the set of two black keys and then ends at the next C note (see the picture). A standard piano has seven full octaves, plus 3 lower notes for a total of 88 keys or notes.

• Although there are 8 basic notes, there are actually 5 “in-between notes” (sharps # or flats ♭) that make up the 13 notes or piano keys in the picture. Each of these 13 notes is called a 1/2 step (C to C# is a half step but C to D is two half steps or 1 whole step). We only play 8 (the natural notes) of the 13 notes in the musical key that follow a pattern (see below). That’s confusing. Piano keys and the key of a song are different.

  • Piano Keys: Think of the piano like a big row of buttons. Each button makes a different sound when you press it, and we call those buttons 'piano keys.' They are the notes we play on the guitar. So when you play the piano, you're pressing these keys to make music!

  • The Key of a Song: Now, the key of a song is like picking a starting point. Imagine you’re playing a game, and the key of a song tells you which button on the piano you start with, and how the other buttons will sound together. It makes sure the music sounds nice and works together, just like a team!

  • The Pattern: When playing a song, we don’t play all 13 notes or all of the 1/2 step notes (on the piano or the guitar). It just won’t sound right. We follow a specific pattern. It’s easier to see on a piano with the white and black keys, but the same pattern applies to the guitar. If we start on the C note (see the piano picture). The major scale formula looks like a staircase with each note higher in pitch is called step. There are 13 1/2 steps, and if you skip a step, it's called a whole step jump. The pattern for a major scale is Whole step, Whole step, Half step, Whole step, Whole step, Whole step, and Half step. For the key of C, those notes or steps in the C scale just happen to be all white keys from middle C to the next C, on octave higher. It’s the same on the guitar. We’ll talk about that in a minute. For now, just remember the step pattern of W step, W step, H step, W step, W step, W step, and H step. or C to D to E to F to G to A to B to C. In the examples below, you will see what makes a C and a G scale based on a piano keyboard.

But since this is just an overview, let’s go on for now.
CHORDS

• Chords Are Like Friends: A chord is a group of notes played together, like friends who get along well. They follow the W step, W step, H step, W step, W step, W step, and H step pattern. The most basic chord is called a major triad, which is made up of three notes following the pattern.. When we play a major chord (the three notes together) they sound happy and bright! We have to use the WWhWWWh pattern to find the chord triad.

  • C chord - Following the WWhWWWh pattern, to play a C chord, you play the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes in that pattern, which are C, E, and G. Look at the keyboard above or the stairsteps.

  • D chord (D, F#, A)

  • E chord (E, G#, B)

  • F chord (F, A, C)

  • G chord (G, B, D)

  • A chord (A, C#, E)

• Making a Major Chord: When we place our fingers on the guitar fretboard or play an open string (when we don’t place our fingers), we make a triad chord. Examine the three chord structures below. Each illustrates WHY we place our fingers where we place them to make the chord. To make variations of each chord like C minor, Csus, or C7, it’s a matter of placing our fingers in different positions. More on that later.

KEYS or CHORD FAMILIES

• Chord Families: Just like families have members who hang together and get along well, triad chords (made up of 3 notes) have families too. Some chords just go together (sound right). For example, the C major chord (C, E, G) belongs to the Key or family of C, which consists of the following 3 note chords: C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdim, and C. (The Bdmin, in this case, is the 7th chord in this family. The 7th chord in any of the chord families doesn’t often come together for family reunions, so we don’t often have to play them.)

• Major and Minors: In each chord family or K, there are the more prominent members as well as the less prominent ones. We call the prominent chords Major chords and the less prominent Minor chords. In the Key of C (or family of chords), it looks like this:

  • C (MAJOR), Dm (minor), Em (minor), F (MAJOR), G (MAJOR), Am (minor). They are often marked with Roman numerals. The MAJOR chords are marked with capital Roman numerals and the minor chords are marked with lowercase Roman numerals., like this:

  • C (I), Dm (II), Em (iii), F (IV), G (V), Am (vi).

  • The MAJOR chords in the Key of C are C, F, and G. The major chords in the Key of G are G, C, D or I, IV, V. Once you know the order of MAJOR, minor, minor, MAJOR, MAJOR, minor, (or I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi) you could play any song in a different key. Just follow the pattern.

  • Here is a Guitar Chart of the most popular guitar keys for beginner guitarists: G, C, D, and A. Notice the I, IV, V chord in each Key. (Sometimes, people will just say we are going to play this song in the key of G, and they will say, it’s a 1, 5, 4, 1, 6 pattern for the chorus.

Transposing

(Or… BUT I CAN’T PLAY THAT SONG IN THAT KEY!!”)

The more you play songs, you will realize that although most songs can be played in G, they don't always sound the best in G either because of the sound of the chord progressions or that the song is either too high or low to sing with. Many songs in the key of G are harder to sing because they are too high to sing. There is a similar problem for songs the key is Eb. Eb songs are great for piano players but horrible for guitar players because of fingering positions. 

You have two options. 

Transpose it: The first option is to transpose the song. Transposing a song simply means changing all the chords from one family to another family that is easier to sing or play. For example, if you had a song that was in the key of F,(and the chord pattern is I, IV, V, I) and you weren’t very good at playing the Bb (the IV or the 4th chord triad), but you really loved that song, transpose it to G. You will use the same chord pattern of I, IV, V, I, but this time instead of playing F, B𝄫, C, F, you will be playing G, C, D, G.

Many times, musicians will play a song in a key and when they just know it is an I, IV, V, I pattern, they can just transpose the song into any key (if they can play those chords. If you can’t play those chords, you may have to opt for option two, the Capo.

Here is an online Chord Transposer

For example, as I was learning guitar, there were a lot of songs in the Key of F. But I couldn't play the Bb (the IV chord of the major scale). But since I can play the three major chords in the key of D (D, G, A) and the minors (Em, Fm, Bm), I could place the capo at the 3rd fret to get the right sound in the key of F, but play the D chords.
This is important when playing with a band because you may have a song that the keyboard player can play but you can’t. It is harder for beginning keyboard players to transpose music. If the song is in F, you can just throw on your capo on the 3rd fret. As you are playing the chords in the key of D, the sounds you are making are in the key of F. Your keyboardist is happy and all is well. No one knows the difference. Your piano player is glad he/she didn't have to transpose the song. They don’t make capos for pianos!
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More Coming Soon

https://www.graehmefloyd.com/guitar-notes/ Guitar fretboard.

Let’s Practice. Complete the Guitar Chords Worksheet.

circle of 5ths - https://muted.io/circle-of-fifths/

Pentatonic

Capo

https://www.thaliacapos.com/blogs/blog/how-to-use-a-guitar-capo-chart

https://www.jameyfaulkner.com/nucleus/guitar-capo-charts - much better chart

https://www.gearank.com/capo-chart/

https://lessons.com/guitar-lessons-for-beginners/how-to-use-a-capo - nice chart

Let’s play Step by Step in a higher key. - find that video and play with it.

Supplies

• Picks

• Tuner

• Capo

• Guitar stand - it’s nice to have a guitar stand to hold your guitar when not playing for a moment

• Guitar (classical, 6 string, 12 string, electric, bass) Go to a music shop like Guitar Center and try out several guitars

  • Classical often has plastic strings and a wider neck

  • 6 or 12-string acoustic - Check the body size and the action on the strings (how hard it is to push down)

    • You can get either electrified so you can play with a band in the future-RECOMMENDED-or not.

    • You can get a guitar with an onboard tuning system

  • Electric - you will need to purchase an amp. (You will get what you pay for)

  • Bass - you may want to learn bass also or instead of.

• Guitar Case (soft, hard) - hard will protect your guitar and the tuning of the guitar better

• Strings (classical, 6 string, 12 string, electric, bass)

• String changer

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

PLAY GUITAR: [HOME] Part 1: The Basics. Part 2: Diggin’ In. Part 3: Playing Bass. Part 4: Chords & Songs