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Beginner Guitar Tips...
Keep it simple, develop naturally
This lesson is all about straightforward, practical beginner guitar tips to help you make the most of, and expand on, those open position chords you will have come across.
It's a good idea to first make sure you're familiar with these beginner guitar chords here.
Work through the tips below for new, but simple ways to play these chords and shapes to create very different sounds.
First, observe the finger diagram above and label your fingers 1-4 for this lesson.
Beginner Guitar Tips - Gluing fingers to the fretboard
I'm pretty sure nobody will take that literally...
This technique not only creates new sounds for those open position
chords, it also makes changing chord in these early days much smoother
because you're rooting one or two fingers to a particular spot and
changing chord around them...
See the diagram below and watch the changes with your 3rd and 4th fingers never moving from that one spot as though they're glued to the fretboard. Click the diagram to hear...
 This
means you're only moving two fingers - you should therefore find
changing chords a bit easier because you focus on moving those first 2
fingers and getting them in position first, then practice to follow
quicker and quicker with the other fingers (if needed for the chord).
That's how I did it at first - gradual improvement is the most important of all the beginner guitar tips.
Beginner Guitar Tips - Simple on/off movements
Taking the basic chords of C major and A minor, if we
raise and drop notes, for example, by adding our 4th finger on the next
fret, we can add a bit of colour to a chord progression. See below, and
click to hear an example...
 So
we've started on a regular C major, dropped one note and then brought
our 4th finger in to add a note, then a similar action for A minor.
This is a good way to find new chord voicings - just try adding and
removing notes in the chord and see if you like the sound of it!
This is also a great way to strengthen that pinky finger, as it's probably the weakest of all your fingers.
Beginner Guitar Tips - Combine the last two tips...
A mixture of moving shapes and strings around and "gluing" a couple of
fingers down can build a nice chord progression and raise it above
those typical beginner chords.
In the example below, we're first moving a
two-string shape down, then adding our 2nd finger before dropping a
string down one fret. Very simple movements, but interesting results.
See the diagram below and click to hear...
 You
may be wondering "why am I being told to use fingers 3 and 4 for that
first movement?" - well, you don't have to, but to make sure changing
position on those last couple of movements is comfortable, you have to
anticipate which fingers will be best used for a particular chord.
The next exercise looks at this more closely...
Beginner Guitar Tips - Choosing the right fingers for later
Each of the open position beginner chords you learn
have default fingerings, but it's often useful to adjust these so any
following movements sit comfortably with you.
With the example below, by using our 2nd, 3rd and
4th fingers for E major instead of our 1st 2nd and 3rd, we can slide
straight up the fretboard quicker and more smoothly...
Click diagram to hear
 That's
a nice sounding movement, and made easier because we used a different
fingering which allowed us to also add that 1st finger sharply for a
bass note when we move up to the 2nd fret.
This is also effective for movements involving guitar barre chords or any sliding, moveable shape.
Beginner Guitar Tips - simple harmonies
You don't need a lead guitarist to sort out the simple
harmonies - by fretting a regular chord shape (e.g. E minor, A7) you
can add a sequence of extra notes using an available finger (usually
4th finger) and play around with a simple harmony.
Click the diagram below to hear an example...
 You
can also pick the strings of the chord individually and use a simple
harmony by moving one or two strings around the chord shape.
This instantly adds depth to your music by creating a "voice" harmony over the chord.
Experiment with it over all the open position chords, major, minor and 7th.
Beginner Guitar Tips - One shape, 3 chords
If you, again, start on a base chord to mess around with and use vertical movements on your guitar fretboard, you can create some nice progressions with alternate voicings to the chord they would usually be.
E.g. below is an example starting out on C major,
then simply moving part of that shape up a string which is in fact an
altered voicing of F major. Then we move that same shape down to the
lowest strings for an altered G major voicing.
This is, essentially, how you will end up learning
different chord voicings - by moving already familiar shapes around the
fretboard and "discovering" them...
So, very simple beginner
guitar tips, very simple actions have created very different sounds on
your guitar, all from moving a few strings around, and adding our 4th
finger into the mix occasionally.
Always start with those basic chords and work from
there - you can create way more interesting music by experimenting and
altering chords.
Thanks for your time and see you soon hopefully!
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