Guitar Basics: Top 10 Things to Learn

Regardless of the style of guitar you want to play, there are fundamentals that every guitar player needs to know.

Regardless of the style of guitar you want to play, it’s important to know the fundamentals that need to be covered. Whether you want to play in a band, sing and play, or be a singer-songwriter, you’ll need to work on specific areas and skills. Here’s an overview of the ten fundamental things to learn to become a proficient guitar player:

1. Chords

The first thing that almost all guitar players learn is chords. A chord is played by holding down multiple notes simultaneously on the fingering hand. The opposite hand makes a chord sound by strumming it or finger picking it. There is nothing more fundamental than playing basic chords.

The first 14 chords are E, A, D, G ,C, Em, Am, Dm, E7, A7, D7, G7, B7, C7. Typically, barre chords are learned next. Barres have an advantage because they can be moved to different keys. Their disadvantage is that they’re harder to play, at least initially.

The ability to play chords and switch them smoothly is the first requirement for playing alone or with a group. It immediately qualifies you for a band in the role of rhythm guitar. This job is an accompaniment job and does not have the attention given to the Lead guitar player but it is your quickest route to playing in a band!

2. Technique

Technique is the ability to control your hands individually and in combination. It is primarily a physical skill and not a musical skill. The training and development of your hands is a prerequisite and necessary to develop musical skills.

Sports offers a good parallel. Football has physical skills and football skills. Passing, receiving, blocking, running and tackling are football skills. Running through tires, road work, weight lifting, wind sprints and stretching are physical skills. You need both to be successful.

There are many exercises designed to get your hands in shape. Finger independence drills, barres and stretches are just three good ways to develop your hands.

3. Notes on the Neck

It’s unbelievable how weak guitar players are on knowing the notes on their own instrument! No other instrument suffers from this same fate. Imagine a piano player not knowing the note names of the keys…or a trumpet player not knowing what notes come out if they push specific valve combinations. Yet, an amazingly high percentage of guitar players don’t know the notes on the neck.

This problem has certainly been created by the guitar world’s penchant for tablature and chord picture diagrams. Despite this, there is no excuse for the failure on the part of guitar players to learn what is absolutely rudimentary on any other instrument. The notes on the neck must be not only learned but mastered.

4. Strums

This skill is part of the rhythm guitar role. All songs, besides having chords, have a strum that is responsible for the “feel” of the song. If you play the wrong strum with a song, something will sound off. The strum helps keep the tempo steady and propels the music forward.

Strumming captures the most primitive element of music – rhythm. That tendency to tap our feet when we hear music can often be traced to the strumming pattern of the guitar.

5. Finger Picking

Finger picking is an alternative to strumming. Like strumming, finger picking uses the non-fingering hand and produces sound from chords. Fingerpicking was most common in Folk music but it has certainly made its way into mainstream contemporary music through singer-songwriters and country artists. James Taylor is an outstanding finger pick artist who has fused Folk, Country, Rock and Pop music into a seamless original form. His influence has been significant ever since the beginning of the Folk-Rock movement.

6. Scales

Scales are organized streams of notes that can be used to generate melody or improvisation. There are many kinds of scales to learn depending on the musical style you choose. The two most common contemporary scales are the Blues Scale and the Pentatonic Scale. The Blues Scale is used in the darker forms of Blues and in heavier Rock Music. The Pentatonic Scale is used in all things Southern: Southern Rock, brighter Blues, Country music and even Motown.

Beyond these scales, there are many more to learn if the music you play needs them. Santana used the Dorian Scale to great effect while Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits made a living from the Aeolian Scale.

7. Lead Guitar Techniques

The lead guitar embellishments are physical moves that impact the sound of the guitar in a very significant way. Bends, slides, glisses, vibrato and harmonics are just some of the techniques employed. These are “guitaristic” effects, not external effects such as reverb, chorus and distortion. As in all cases, the style of music dictates which embellishments are applicable. Traditional Jazz guitar uses few bends while Blues music lives on bends as well as the other embellishments.

8. Rhythm

Rhythm is one of the three primary components of music; it encompasses several aspects. On the one hand, rhythm is the duration of a note or a chord. It also includes tempo, ie, beats per second, as measured by a metronome and the stability of the beat.

Rhythm, as in tempo, can vary during a song. Some songs maintain a steady tempo from beginning to end. Other songs vary the tempo. Slowing down is called Ritardando and speeding up is called Acclerando. These are intentional musical effects and not the result of a guitar player not being able to keep steady time or rhythm. The ability to “keep time” is one of the most important skills a guitar player can develop.

9. Ear

The development of the ear brings your musical insides – out. Music is the only hearing art. As such, the ear acts as the intermediary between your musical ideas and the execution of these ideas. Solfeggio, the Italian art of sight singing, has been used for centuries to develop musicianship. Ear training contributes to the ability to play what you hear. There are virtually unlimited applications of ear training from working songs out by ear to improvising to writing. The European tradition of ear training has been far more stringent than that of the United States.

10. Songs

This area is your song list, your repertoire, what you can play from beginning to end. Without a repertoire, you have nothing to play. An audience is certainly not interested in listening to scales, arpeggios or exercises of any kind. They respond to songs no matter what style of music you play. It could be original or cover but one way or another, you need to learn songs.

What does it mean to learn a song? The singer-songwriter’s version of learning a song would be to memorize the chords, the strum or finger pick, the melody, the form, the chords and the lyrics. The jazz guitarist version is to learn the single note melody, the chord changes, the form, the melody and chord version (combining single note melody and chords) and the improvisational structure. Unless you use the lyrics as inspiration for the mood and feel of a song, lyrics are not part of the instrumental process.

Visit Chuck Anderson’s website to purchase his CDs and educational materials. Chuck’s guitar books include: Unlocking the Guitar – Open Tunings; Unlocking the Guitar – Strums; Unlocking the Guitar: Notes on the Neck; Modular Phonetic Rhythm; Master Picking; Mastering the Modes; the Six Secrets of Guitar Fingering. Some of Chuck’s products are carried in the Music After 50 eBook store, which also has basic guitar chord books by Curt Sheller.