1st things 1st:
learn how to tune the instrument by ear.
it took me a good year before i knew what an 'E' was by ear alon. if you get stuck use a tuner, tuning key, or piano/keyboard.
the next thing to focus on is the major chords.
there are 7:
A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.
start off practicing the A, C, D, E, and G.
practice strumming these chords.
a good chord finding website is:
http://www.chordfind.com/
while practicing these chords in different patterns
(i.e.: A,E&D, or G,C&D etc)
get yourself familiar with the pentatonic blues scale in 'A'
it starts on the fifth fret.
memorize it and practice this up and down up and down.
this will get your fingers moving faster and you will overtime memorize the individual notes. experiment with bends, hammers and slides.
once you feel comfortable struming the major open chords
and transitioning back and forth between each of them to teach you fingers where to effortlessly go on the fret board. then try the chords 'F' and 'B'.
they will introduce you to bar chords, mostly played on electric.
as well as learning those two new chords it is about this time to learn the minors for every chord youve have learned.
now practice and experiment with all the new chord combinations youve learned.
also, as you continue to get better with the pentotonic blues scale in 'A', learn the blues scale in 'G'
compare the relationship of the fingering positions as the blues scale in 'a' that you have been practicing. it is the same finger placements, exept played on the 3rd fret rather than the fifth. then learn the blues scale in 'E'. this will give you another way of playing the same note positions as the 'G' and 'A'.
you can play these same scales in the same way on different frets to change the chord. try on the 1st fret to play over the F chord.
learn blues chord progressions. such as (E, A, and B) (G,C and D) (A, D, and E)
go online and learn your favorite three or four chord songs.
many popular band only use open major chords or bar chords in thier songs.
(note: not the great bands though i.e. the beatles)
once you have become familiar with the open chords:
A, B, C, D, E, F, and G,
learn them in bar chords or power chords.
for instince, instead of playing the open D chord on the 2nd and third frets,
you can bar it starting on the 'a' string on the fifth fret to make it a barred D chord.
(generally you play open chords acoustically and barred chords electrically)
notice the relationship between each of the bar chords and thier positions.
there is a whole step (skip over one whole fret) between the barred D chord and the barred E chord. (on the 'a' string)
as is the same between the C chord and the D chord. or the G chord and the A chord. notice the relationship between the newly learned bar chords and the corrosponding blues scales.
also notice that the only chords that are not separated by a whole step is :
E to F, and B to C...only a half step away in relation to each other (the very next fret)
(notice F and B chords are not open unlike the other 5 chords)
in the steps inbetween all the chords (except E to F and B to C)
are sharps (#) and flats (B)
so one half step Above the barred 'D' chord is D#. (#=sharp).
one half step above the 'C' chord is C#.
and so on and so forth.
also
one half step Down from the from the barred 'D' chord is Db. (b=flat)
one half step down from the 'E' chord is Eb.
(you will come to realize that one half step down from 'D' is the same thing as
on half step up from 'C'. therefore* C# is the same chord as Db)
(*generally speakin)
now experiement with all the new chords in different combinations.
now after you are comfortable playing those chords...learn all the 7ths.
(A7, B7, C7, D7, E7, F7, G7)
the easiest to start with is: A7, B7, E7, and D7
also learn the ionian scales for each of the chords to play lead that is more serious and less bluesy.
this should at least get you started.
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