Guitar Lessons

By Vinnie

Version 2.1

Guitar Lessons 1
 Guitar Lessons

Index:

Index: ____________________________________________________________________ 2
Introduction:_______________________________________________________________ 3
Chapter 1: Learning the chords. _______________________________________________ 3
Lesson 1: ________________________________________________________________ 3
Lesson 2: ________________________________________________________________ 5
Lesson 3: ________________________________________________________________ 6
Lesson 4: ________________________________________________________________ 6
Chapter 2: Playing Solo's_____________________________________________________ 6
Lesson 5: ________________________________________________________________ 6
Lesson 6: ________________________________________________________________ 9
Lesson 7: _______________________________________________________________ 10
Lesson 8: _______________________________________________________________ 10
Chapter 3: Playing with(out) plectrum _________________________________________ 11
Lesson 9: _______________________________________________________________ 11
1: Choice of your plectrum _______________________________________________ 11
2: How and where to hold your plectrum ____________________________________ 11
Chapter 4: Use of guitars; amplifiers, pedals, capo’s, bottlenecks,… _________________ 13
Chapter 5: Tuning your guitar. _______________________________________________ 14
Outro: ___________________________________________________________________ 16

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Introduction:

Although this script is ment for beginners, you still have to have a little pre-knowledge, eg:
The chords you have to look up yourself, I’m not going to explain how to read tabs either.
Maybe some lessons are too difficult (too easy for better players??) for beginners, but with
some practice it should be possible.
The chords I wrote are used in normal tuning meaning, top ‘till down: E, A, G, D, B, e.
A little advice; practice, practice, practice! This course contains everything I know. So if I
can learn from you, just let me know OK? Have fun!

Vinnie (E- mail: Vincent_Malisse@yahoo.com)

Chapter 1: Learning the chords.

Lesson 1:

First thing you do is learning your basic open chords. (A->G +minors & 7's)
Here are the basic chords:
A B C
fret 1 fret 2 fret 4 fret 1 fret 2 fret 3
•
• • • •
• • •
• • • •
• •

D E F
fret 2 fret 3 fret 1 fret 2 fret 1 fret 2 fret 3
• •
• •
• • • •
• • •
• • •
•

G Am Bm
fret 2 fret 3 fret 1 fret 2 fret 2 fret 3 fret 4
• •
• • •
• • •
• • •
• •
•

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 Cm Dm Em
fret 3 fret 4 fret 5 fret 1 fret 2 fret 3 fret 2
• •
• • •
• • •
• • •
• •

Fm Gm A7
fret 1 fret 3 fret 3 fret 5 fret 2 fret 3
• • •
• • •
• • •
• • • • •
• • • •
• •

B7 C7 D7
fret 2 fret 3 fret 4 fret 1 fret 2 fret 3 fret 1 fret2
• •
• • • •
• • •
• • •
• •

E7 F7 G7
fret 1 fret 2 fret 1 fret 2 fret 3 fret 1 fret 2 fret 3
• •
•
• • •
•
• • • •
• •

With these chords you can play a lot of songs. The chords really are equal to notes, but as I
can't read notes I'm not going to try and explain.
My tip for you to learn and easily play these chords is, when you change chord, to move very
fast finger by finger, leaving always one finger on it's place while moving the others. But
that's only for your own feeling. Mastering these chords is one of the most boring stuff while
learning for guitar, but with these you can already play basic guitar (acoustic).
A hint for easily learning these chords is to take a song you like to learn and learn it (<= this
is the hardest bit). When you can play it you move on to another song with almost the same
chords (1 or 2 different ones).
When you finally ha ve mastered these chords you can move on to the next lesson if you like
to learn more.

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Lesson 2:

Bar-shaped chords are mostly used for songs with distortion. My advice to you is: When
using distortion, use the bar-shaped chords, it just sounds better. (Oasis often uses open
chords with distortion and I'm sorry to say, but Oasis SUCKS BIGTIME!!!) E and G (open)
can be used if you only hit the top 2 or 3 strings.
The frets always change half a note. So if you move an open chord say one fret down (the fret
neck) and we add our index finger for the bar (or a capo), we get a (bar-shaped) chord that is
half a tone higher then the open chord itself.

Schematics for E and Am:

E----------------->F--------->G-------->A---------->B-------->C------------->D------------->E
Open 1fret 2frets 2frets 2frets 1fret 2frets 2frets Octave
Chord
1/2tone 1tone 1tone 1tone 1/2tone 1tone 1tone

Am--------->Bm--------->Cm-------->Dm---------->Em--------->Fm--------->Gm--------->Am
Open 2frets 1fret 2frets 2frets 1fret 2frets 2frets Octave
Chord
1tone 1/2tone 1tone 1tone 1/2tone 1tone 1tone

Power chords are generally A or Em schematics (like above), if you want a sad or depressed
tone in your music you should use the Am schematic. This gives the best effect. An Em
schematic can be used to express aggression, but you should decide for yourself what sounds
best. Bar-shaped chords are used a lot in punk music and grunge (Nirvana, offspring
greenday, ...) Metallica eg also uses bar-shaped chords in their basics, but they use a lot of
mixins (Little solo's, they don't play the six strings but only the 2 or 3 top strings, they also
use another way of playing then just the ordinary playing)

Remember: from each open chord there's a schematic for bar-shaped chords, but their not
used very often, and their not always that easy to play. In Jazz music they sometimes use the
other schematics.

Note: For the Am schematic you mostly begin striking the strings from the A string down,
you only strike from E string down if you would like some extra bass depth.

Let's go to next lesson OK?

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Lesson 3:

You ever saw chords like F#7#9 or Badd9 or Csus4...?? Only one advice: look them up!!!
I can only say that # sounds half a tone higher (move down 1fret) and b sounds half a tone
lower (move up 1fret) If you come across something like Fes or Fis, just remember that
Fes=Fb en Fis=F# (=E). In a lot of tablatures they mix chords eg.: Fm (bar-shaped) = your
open Am, but moved up until 8th fret, but F5= F but without your middle finger is very, very
often used as Fm, same with G5, A5... just remember minor=5.
I think they use minor in Europe and 5's in America, but I'm not sure, maybe there’s a slight
difference.
F can also be played like an open chord if you play it like FM (major).

Lesson 4:

Muting; a very important aspect in your guitar playing. Use the right timing and you can
make the effect of chords so much nicer. There are two ways to mute the strings: with your
plectrum hand and with your fret hand. With your plectrum hand you can mute by laying the
base of your hand on the strings (don’t press) if you play at the same time your top strings you
can also make that hitting sound like Metallica. You can also mute by putting your fret hand
on your strings without pressing. Both ways sound a little different.

Chapter 2: Playing Solo's

Lesson 5:

Now let's go to the solo's. These are just the basics where you can play solos with which
chords. THERE ARE RULES FOR PLAYING YOUR SOLO'S!!!
First Rule: Playing good solo's asks for a lot of feeling!!!!
The first place where you can play you're solo in is in you're chord itself. eg: You use a G
chord (bar-shaped): then you can play your solo on:
string 1: fret 3
string 2: fret 3
string 3: fret 3, fret 4
string 4: fret 3, fret 5
string 5: fret 3, fret 5
string 6: fret 3

e->E=Normal tuning=>
e:-3-------------------------------
B:----3----------------------------
G:-------4--3----------------------
D:-------------5--3----------------
A:-------------------5--3----------
E:-------------------------3-------

I mostly use these places for very short solos in between. Mark Knöfler uses this a lot.
Another place is the pentatonic (penta=5, but I don't really know where it stands for)
And it's more an extension from you're 'inchord' solo's. For G you can play you're pentatonic:

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string 1: fret 3, fret 6
string 2: fret 3, fret 6
string 3: fret 3, fret 5
string 4: fret 3, fret 5
string 5: fret 3, fret 5
string 6: fret 3, fret 6

e:--3--6-------------------------------
B:--------3--6-------------------------
G:--------------3--5-------------------
D:--------------------3--5-------------
A:--------------------------3--5-------
E:--------------------------------3--6-

TIP: Begin where you hold your bar and count:

e string: 4 frets
B string: 4 frets
G string: 3 frets
D string: 3 frets
A string: 3 frets
E string: 4 frets

For G pentatonic:
1 2 3 4
fret 3 (15) fret 5 (17) fret 6 (18)
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •

You also can use both of them together. You can also use the pentatonic an octave higher (for
G beginning at fret 15) or use the inchord solos from an octave higher or from the minor
chords!!! Just practice and listen and you will learn soon enough what sounds and what
doesn't.

A next step is the use of scales. Scales are those places all over your frets you may play in
that key. A scale is generally used for a type of music eg. The Dorian scale is excellent for
rock music. E minor is good for blues etc.
Here are some scales all in E.

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Guitar Lessons 8
The Spanish and the blues scale are very obvious I think. The Dorian scale can be used for
rock music and blues. The Locrian scale is useful for Jazz if I’m not mistaken. Note that
your 1 octave higher and you can start the scale over again further down the frets. For another
chord just shift the whole thing. Some of the places overlap some pentatonics or inchord
places. I suggest you use especially those places which overlap the chords in your song. This
scale is more difficult then the others, but for me it extended my way of playing solo’s.
You can be sure of it that all the great players over the world use these scales. I even think if
you practice enough you can change the scales in your song (eg first you use a Dorian and
then you switch to blue s) I would not recommend you to do that often though

Note that I still haven't mentioned "hammer-ons", "pull-offs", "bending", ... and the choice of
you're plectrum or the way the use it!!!!! This can give an extra dimension to your songs. I
will explain this in another chapter.

TIP: If I compose a song, I start with determing how it must sound: sad, aggressive, soft,
funky, ...
In function of my choice I then start by choosing my chord combination (rhythm guitar) and
then you can see where to put your solo and how to play it (lead guitar). Then you can finish
a song by putting the little details in it. You can also begin with a song if you come across a
good rhythm, when you’re just jammin’, and write the lyrics later, but I don’t think there will
be as much feeling in them, then if you would write them first (When you’re depressed,
happy, angry,…). You also can play very rhythmic or more melodic. Try to determine what
your song needs and choose. Maybe you need them both. (at the same time?? <= Santana
does this very well.)
=>Lesson 6

Lesson 6:

Playing solo's like Kirk Hammet (Metallica) is very different and less melodic. They use a lot
of picking, hammer-ons, pull-offs, ... They repeat sometimes 5, 6, 7, or more times a small
piece of the solo, making it sound faster, longer, but not newer. Try this and you'll see what I
mean.

e:--15p-14p-12p--17p-15p-12---------------
B:----------------------------------------
G:----------------------------------------
D:----------------------------------------
A:----------------------------------------
E:----------------------------------------

(You keep your index finger on 12, begin with ring finger on 15 (17) and middle finger on 14
(15), p stands for pull-offs)
That piece is used in Metallica "The Four Horsemen" (on Bay Area Trashers it's called "the
Mechanix" I think) and is repeated 12 (!) times really fast before playing another piece of the
solo. These kind of solo's are mixed with the method above, bending, pull-offs, ...

Metallica solo’s are difficult because Kirk Hammett has very long fingers and big hands,
some guitar players can get their fingers from first to seventh (or further?) fret while others
only get until four or five. So people with small hands have a little disadvantage, but just
adapt by playing in a little different style, you’ll figure it out.
Next Lesson? =>

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Lesson 7:

Now is the time to learn about hammer-ons, pull-offs, picking, vibrato, bending, ...
Remember that these techniques are easier when you use distortion.
There's not much to tell so I'm just going to say how to do it:
always with fret hand:
hammer-ons: hit with your finger the string you want to play and hold, then play on. (fast)
pull-offs: like the word says pull the string.
picking: almost the same as pull-off, but now you just release the string by lifting your finger.
pull-offs and picking are often used after hammer-ons!! Nice example: "Thunderstruck"
(AC/DC)
bending: just move your finger (vertically, not horizontally) up or down (bending the string.),
you will get a tone that is about 1/2 -> 1 & 1/2 tone higher then the original tone, depending
on how much you bend. This asks a little feeling. You can also use sliding (up) for almost
the same effect. Nice practice song: "Wonderful Tonight" (Eric Clapton)
other nice effect is to bend first and release it when you hit the string.
sliding: just slide with your finger 'till the fret you want. (Up or down.)
vibrato: keep your finger on the string and vibrate with your finger over the string, the effect
is rather small in comparison with the other techniques, but done right it is very nice and in
my opinion very difficult. B.B. King uses this a lot.
Cryin’: This is very difficult, you have to hit the string very short with power and bend it at
the same time giving it a cryin’ sound (blues). Hold your plectrum more at the tip. The
amount of the effect depends on how hard you hit the string and how much you bend it. This
also asks for a lot of feeling. Personally I think this is one of the nicest effects. You can
really feel yourself playing!
Staccato: Very short notes, very ‘strict’, nice examples are, “blood, sugar sex, magik” and
“funky monk”(Red Hot Chilipeppers), “selfstyled” (Urban Dance Squad) and “Play That
Funky Music” (Wild Cherry)
This isn’t very difficult.

Bending and vibrato is mostly used in slower songs, while the rest is often used in real fast
songs. It's not a rule, but just something I've noticed.

Maybe if you can play all the effects you can try to combine them: eg.: Try a cryin’ effect and
directly after a vibrato effect. This gives a very nice tune, but in my opinion very difficult.

Note: I've heard about musicians who use their other hand for some picks; eg Kirk Hammet
on the intro of "Don't Tread On Me" He uses his other hand for holding strings and playing
with his plectrum!!! The fret hand is used normally. I've tried it ones and this is very, very
difficult!!!! He does this because he has to play a string on the second fret and a string on the
ninth fret at the same time!!

Lesson 8:

Scratching is not that difficult. You just move the side of your plectrum over the string, but to
make it sound like Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) does, I don’t really know.

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Chapter 3: Playing with(out) plectrum

Lesson 9:

You ever noticed that on some days your music doesn’t sound and on other it does sound?
Maybe you were just having a bad day or maybe your guitar is broke,…? Reasons enough,
but one of the reasons why it sometimes doesn’t sound is simple: the choice of your plectrum,
or the way that you hold it. This is not so easy to explain, try to feel what I mean while your
playing.

1: Choice of your plectrum

For getting ‘noise’ out your guitar it really doesn’t matter wich plectrum you use, but if you
really want to finish something with the greatest care of detail, then it does matter. Besides,
some music you can play easier with the right plectrum.

In my opinion you generally do this:

Power chords (Punk Music) à thin plectrum
Chords + little “in between solo’s” (basic blues) à middle plectrum
Solo’s, lead guitar (eg.:“Still got the blues” [Gary Moore]): à thick Plectrum

(I mostly use Dunlops: 0.66mm, 0.73mm, 0.88mm)

That’s just basic, you can also use a thinner plectrum, but from a harder material.
You thought that was it? Here comes something else: playing songs with open chords can ask
a lot of feeling for the choice of the right plectrum.
eg.: I play “The House Of The Rising Sun” (The Animals) as chords, but I play each string
with that little more accent. A thick plectrum is here the right choice. For “Put Your Lights
On” (Santana feat. Everlast) I want the strings of each chord in harmony so I choose a thin
plectrum.
But still there’s more: Not only the choice of your chords or the way they should sound is
important, You can get so much more out of your guitar. You want to sound like Metallica?
They really hit their strings a lot and play very fast on one string (“Motorbreath”). This is
easier with a thin plectrum.
Striking your strings up- or down ways is important too. Try to find a nice and smooth
rhythm in your guitar playing.

2: How and where to hold your plectrum

Still that’s not all: Even the way you hold your plectrum can make a difference, when you
just play open chords it doesn’t matter that much, but if you play bar-shaped chords or solo’s
you should think about how to hold your plectrum, when you are really going for it you can
hold your plectrum with three fingers: thumb, index- and middle finger: this so you can hold
your plectrum real tight so it doesn’t slip out your hand (eg punk music with a lot of power
chords). If you like more stability in your playing eg for songs which require hitting certain
strings, you can hold your plectrum with just index finger and thumb (you bend your index
finger under the plectrum, so the plectrum lies on a sort of plateau) You can use your pinkie
for stability of your hand by leaning on the guitar. A nice example where I use this is ‘Drive’
from REM.

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And yet there’s more: The place where you hold your plectrum is important. If you play
open chords or power chords, hold it more on the wide and of your plectrum. If you play
more with really hitting the strings hold it more at the tip.
Solos are more difficult, for fast clean playing. Hold it more in the middle, if you want to use
an effect, crying (ç very difficult), vibrato,… hold it more to the tip. So in solo’s you often
have to change your fingers in the way you hold your fingers.

Sometimes it is better to play without plectrum (eg intro: ‘Notting Else Matters’ by Metallica)
When I play without plectrum, I also use my pinkie to support my hand for stability. You can
also play chords and solos without plectrum:
Chords you play more with your fingernails:
Down: index è ring finger
Up: thumb
This is easier because you don’t stick with your fingers between the strings (ç sometimes
that really hurts doesn’t it??)
Solos are possible, but a plectrum is much better (for the effects) Solos with your hand are not
that difficult: You hold your hand like you hold your plectrum and play with your index
finger.

You can also play partially with hand and partially with plectrum: When you have to play eg
the top string and the lowest string at the same time you can play the top string with plectrum
and the lowest string with ring finger, but this asks for a little practice. (intro: ‘welcome Home
(sanitarium)’ by Metallica).

That’s about it what I can tell you about how to play your guitar, now we can move on to a
few details for that finishing touch.

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Chapter 4: Use of guitars; amplifiers, pedals, capo’s, bottlenecks,…
If you want the exact right sound for a song you should consider some other elements then
just the way you’re playing.
Guitars: There several sorts of guitars to choose from, three basic guitars are: Les Pauls,
Stratocaster and Telecaster. They’re different in sound because they have different pick-ups,
more important; they also sound different if used with pedals!! It could be that a Les Pauls
sounds good if you use a certain serie of pedals, but that the Stratocaster sounds absolutely
perfect and vice versa. Remember (that a tremo lo arm can mean wonder or disaster in a song,
choose wisely!) Same with your choice of amplifier.

This is my guitar.
Legend Les Pauls.

Stratocaster
.

Les Pauls

Look at the different Pick-

ups (Humbuckers and
Single-coils) There‘s a
huge difference in sound!!

My pedals (Boss ME-30)

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One more thing: your electric guitar is an electronic instrument; you can use this knowledge
for effects!! Not only your pedals can change your signal!! If you move your pick-ups up or
down or if you change those little things at the end were your strings attach to your guitar.
You can tilt them, if I’m not mistaking that’s what Jimi Hendrix did to make his guitar sound
different. He was the first one to understand that your guitar is an electronic device!!!

Your pedals are important too, but it’s too much to explain, but I will tell you one thing; If
you use whawha with distortion you should try to switch them in your serie!! A whawha
before your distortion gives another sound then your distortion before your whawha!!!

Also pay attention to the choice of your strings. They all sound different. Personally I always
choose D’Addario for my Les Pauls & Dean Markle y for my Strat.
About capo’s there’s even less to tell: just use it. It sounds real nice when you’re playing
acoustic.
Bottlenecks are a little more difficult, you don’t press on your strings!! You just let it “rest”
on them!! Remember that it is not so easy as it looks. Nice effect though.

Feedback is also very dependent on your equipment and you can use your feedback in some
parts of some songs for something extra, but timing your feedback is not always that easy
because it depends on the choice of yo ur guitar, which pick ups are ‘activated’, your
amplifier, and the choice of your pedals (and which parameter of each pedal is more accented)
On Woodstock ’99 I’ve seen Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) play a little solo with
his feedback and his tremolo arm!! I’ve tried this and it wasn’t so easy as it looked, maybe
there’s a little trick to it??

Chapter 5: Tuning your guitar.

Nothing difficult about this. Two ways to do this:
1) With an electronic tuner or a whistle, piano,…
2) If one string sounds good you can tune your guitar without help:
A string has to sound like E string, but hold (E string) fifth fret down!!
Same with the rest except your B string this sounds like the G string but with fourth fret
down.
IMPORTANT: Both tunings must match!! If one way of tuning doesn’t match the other, you
should change the length of the string in question; this has to do with the right frequency and
stuff. You can also change your guitar tuning higher or lower then E tuning.

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 As bonus, some nice pictures of guitars:

G400 (Humbucker)

Squier
(Single-Coil)

Zoom4040
multipedal
(Not really my
choice of pedals)

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Outro:
That’s it. I hope I was to some assistance in your quest for learning and mastering your
guitar. Maybe there are a couple of little mistakes in the text: My apologies.
For the rest: Let your music be your guide and have fun in whatever you do in life.
Bye

Vinnie

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