FREE GUITAR LESSONS

 The first notes you see one trhe fretboard are E, B, G, D, A, E.   If you were to pluck the G string  without fretting it, this would be an open G note.  If you fret the G string at the second fret, you would be playing an A note, and so forth. 

By the way, as you look over the fretboard above, you will notice that at the 12th fret, all the notes begin to repeat themselves again.   That's because from the 12th fret to the 24th fret, or however many frets you have on your guitar, you are playing the same notes as the first 12 frets, only one octave higher.  

HOW  TO  READ  GUITAR  TAB 

E__thin string______________________

B_________________________

G______________________5__

D___________________5__5__

A________________2__5__3__

E__thick string___0__0__3___ _

 Okay, in tab, the numbers represent the frets, and where you are to fret each note on each string.  Beginning with the low E string, 0 means it's an open note, in this case, since its on the E string, its an E note.  To play it, simply pluck the low E string without fretting.

On the next set of notes, we will play two notes at once, once again the 0 on the E string tells us it's to be played open, or unfretted, and the 2 on the A string tells us to fret the A string only, at the second fret.  Now strum both the E and A strings together.  This is a good time to talk about a very common mistake many guitar players make when they are just starting out - they will often fret, or hold down their strings way too hard.  You do not have to press really hard on the strings, just enough so as to make the notes ring out clearly.

Now the next set of notes there is no open notes at all, so fret the E string at the 3rd fret, fret the A string at the 5th fret, and fret the D string at the 5th fret as well.  Now strum all three strings at once.  You have now just played a three note power chord. 

In the final set of notes, you fret the A string at the 3rd fret, fret the

d strng at the 5th fret, and fret the G string at the 5th fret.  Strum all three strings together.

 GUITAR  TAB  SYMBOLS

  Now that we have a basic understanding of how tab works, lets look at some of the symbols that are commonly found in tab.

/ or \ is the symbol used for a slide.

sometimes you will see an S above the slide as well.

7/9  on this slide, if there was an arched line over the set of notes, this would be a legato slide, you would pluck the 7 note and slide up to the 9 note, letting it sound, but not plucking the 9 note.

sl  is usually the symbol for a slur, used alot in Blues.  7/9 with a sl above the notes in the tab would be played as follows;  pluck the 7 note, and rapidly slide up to the 9 and back to the 7 again.  This rapid movement from one note to another and back again is called a slur.

7/  or  \7  You see these alot in Blues as well.  You actually begin or end the slide from an unknown spot on the fretboard.  It's up to you and the effect you want, to determine where these begin and end.  Usually /7 would be played like this; pluck a note at the 5th or 6th fret, then slide up to the 7 note, but don't pluck it.  Notice I said usually, but its up to each player how to do this, and if you chose to start out at the third fret, that would also be okay.  Just remember, when you pluck that first note, rapidly move to the targeted note.

H  or two notes with an arched line over them, the second note being larger then the first note, this is known as a hammeron.  4  5  if these had an arched line over the notes, or an H over them, you would pluck the 4th note, and then hammer your finger down onto the 5th note, thus its called a hammeron. 

P or po is the symbol for a pulloff.    5   4   or two notes like these, with a curved line over them.  To play this, you would pluck the 5th note and pull off with your fingertip at the 4th fret.  You really have to practice at these to get them to sound good.

^^^^^^^^ a wavey line is the symbol for a vibrato,  Every player developes his or her own way of doing these, but basiclly you pluck the string and wiggle it up and down in an even motion.

B or curved arrows are the symbols for bends.There are many different types of bends and as many ways to play them, so i would suggest you study up on these and practice them often.

X or x is the symbol of muted strings.  Often several strings will be played together, muted, for a percussion effect.

PM------------------l  this is usually beneath the notes, and is the symbol for palm muting.  The notes without this under them are to be played clean or unmuted.

Well, there are many, many more tab symbols out there, but this should get you started.  I would reccomend looking up and learning the other symbols, and learn how to use them in your daily practice.

power    chords

Now that you know how to read tabs, let's take a look at power chords.  I won't cover every shape, but I will cover enough to get you started playing and putting together some cool sounds.  These will be simple two note power chords.

E

B

G

D

A____3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_11_12__13__14__

E____1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10__11__12__

and on the A and D strings they would be;

E

B

G

D____3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_11_12__13__14__

A____1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10__11__12__

E

Power chords are neither minor nor major, just just sound really cool when played in different combinations.  Now the root notes of the power chords for the first example I gave on these would be found along the low E string (thick string) and if you were to play the power chord at the 3rd fret eight times fast, that would be a G power chord, since the 3rd fret of the low E string is a G note.  Move up to the 5th fret and play that eight times fast and you are playing an A power chord, because the 5th fret of the low E string is an A note.  You might want to take a moment and study the notes along the E string on the fretboarsd diagram I posted at the beginning.  Those notes along the E string are your names of the power chords for the first example. 

Now it's up to you how you combine these together, Try skipping between frets as you move up and down the neck.  Try playing four or eight rapid beats and slide up a few frets and play 4 or 8 fast beats there...have fun.  Just a note, remember what I had said earlier on, from the 12th fret onward everything repeats itself.  So if you play a G power chord at the 3rd fret, one octave up you could play it at the 15th fret.  And if you played a A power chord at the 5th fret, one octave up you could play it at the 17th fret.  This same theory works for scales, full chords and barre chords as well.

Now what I said above also applies to the A and D strings in the second example, but in this case all your power chord names will come from the root notes found on the  A string.  So in the second example, if you play a power chord at the 3rd fret, it's a C power chord, because the 3rd fret of the A string is a C note.  And at the 5th fret, it's an D power chord, because the 5th fret of the A string is a D note.

Now in punk music, it is often said that anyone who knows how to play just three power chords can start up a band and put on a show.  Well, in the examples I've given above, there are alot more then three, so you should be ablwe to get some pretty good mileage out of em.

 Now once you have the two note power chords under your belt, here is a list of some of the more popular three note power chords that you may want to give a try...enjoy.

ADDITIONAL  TIPS

One good tip for a really good punk effect is palm muting.  Try out different patterns, but one pattern would be to play eight rapid notes - but on the eighth beat, play that one unmuted and quickly switch to the next note, rapidly play that one eight times, but on the eighth  beat play that one unmuted as you quickly move to your next chord.  Also, to set up your amp, just click onto the AMP SETTINGS link I'll be adding to this page, you will find many very good settings there, and several of them are for punk.

AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  SCALES

Since the minor pentatonic scale is the foundation for just about everything out there, and since it is the easiest scale to learn, I'll be using that as my scale of choice.  The A minor pentatonic to be exact.

The pentatonic scale, regardless of what key your in, is made up of five different notes.  What those five notes are depends on where you start out with the scale.  Lets look at the notes along the low E or thick string of the guitar.

Open E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E

Starting with your open E, moving down one fret at a time, these are the notes along the low E string.

If we start out our pentatonic scale at the 5th fret, then the root of the scale will begin at the 5th fret, which is the A note, thus, the scale would be in the key of A.   

Here is the minor pentatonic scale in the key of A...

E_________________________________________________________(5)____8____
B_______________________________________________5____8____
G____________________________________5____7____
D_________________________5____(7)____
A_______________5____7____
E____(5)____8________________________(low E, or thick string__________________

All of the notes in ( ) are A notes, or the root note.  You can look up my lesson on NOTE TARGETTING in the theory section to see how to best use these. 

This is a good time to introduce you to step patterns.  All scales have em.  W stands for a whole step, or the distance of two frets, and H stands for half step, or the distance of one fret.  Steps and intervals are the same thing, they are merely talking about the distance each note is spaced from the next.

The step pattern for the pentatonic scale, regardless of which key you play it is, is as follows;

W+H, W, W, W+H, W

We can change the root note and the notes within the minor pentatonic scale, but the distance between those notes does not change.  Because of this, we can move this scale up and down the neck of the guitar, changing from one key to another.

So lets change the key by moving the root to another fret and see how this works out...lets go to the key of G...same minor pentatonic scale, but starting out on the 3rd fret now...

E________________________________________________________(3)____6____
B______________________________________________3____6____
G____________________________________3____5____
D_________________________3____(5)____
A_______________3____5____
E____(3)____6____

Now compare the two scales, the first in the key of A, the second in the key of G, the distance between the notes have not changed.  The step pattern has not changed.  All we did was slide the entire shape from the fifth fret and moved it to the third fret.  Once you learn the shape of a scale, and understand that that shape does not change, then you begin to realize just how easily you can move these up and down the neck, from one key to another, and once you have that knowledge, you can then apply the same thing to any scale out there.  They are all moveable, just like this one.

Now the minor pentatonic has other shapes, but I am dealing with just this one shape for now, I will leave the other shapes, also called the caged system or box patterns, for others to dive into.  This is meant as only an introduction into the minor pentatonic scale.

Just to make sure you have understood this, lets now move the shape of the minor pentatonic scale one more time, lets now move it up to the 10th fret, or the D note, and see what we get in the key of D...

E______________________________________________________________10__13_
B______________________________________________________10____13____
G__________________________________________10____12____
D_____________________________10____(12)____
A_________________10____12____
E____(10)____13____

Once again, you can compare this to the other two examples, and you will see that the root has moved, changing the key, but the distance between the notes has stayed the same. 

Now if your wondering just what the names of the notes are under those numbers, please refer back to the diagram of the fretboard I gave you and you will be able to match the notes to the numbers.