Guitar for everyone: a step-by-step guide to notes, chords, and playing basics

259 Pages·2010·33.268 MB·English

by  Keefe, Julie;Weissman, Dick

Download play-along audio tracks at
knackbooks.com/guitar!
®
MAKE IT EASY!
Have you always wanted to play the gui-
tar, but been turned off by the latest “how GUITAR
to” book? Enter Knack Guitar for Everyone. ®
With 350 full-color photos—along with
clear, step-by-step instructions geared toward
achievable results; more than fifty music G
foR e veRyone
exercises; and accompanying audio tracks
U
at knackbooks.com/guitar—it makes truly be-
I
friending the world’s most popular instrument
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easier than ever. You’ll learn to choose what
A
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style of guitar is right for you. And you’ll finally Dick Weissman is the award-winning author of
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master the basics—how to find a guitar, how sixteen books about music and the music busi-
A
to hold it, and how to develop simple tech- ness, and over forty instructional music folios
f
niques that will provide you with years of fun! on guitar, banjo, and songwriting. Previously an N
o
associate professor in the Music & Entertainment
350 full-color photos Industry Program at the University of Colorado R H
Gear Care & Tuning at Denver, he is also a noted performer, having E O
recorded six solo CDs and appeared on the Today
Holding the Guitar v M
Show and on numerous radio and local televi-
Tablature & Music
sion shows. He lives in Portland, Oregon. Visit the E E
Strings * Basic Songs
author at dickweissman.com. R ,
C, F, & Simple Chords

Fingerpicking Julie Keefe is a freelance photojournalist based y G
in Portland, Oregon. Visit her at keefeklicker.com. o R
n E
® E
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US $19.95/CAN $24.95 N
A Step-by-Step Guide to Notes, Chords, and Playing Basics

Knack is an imprint of H
Globe Pequot Press
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Guilford, Connecticut
www.KnackBooks.com M Dick Weissman
C WEISSMAN E Photographs by Julie Keefe
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guitar
for everyone
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KNACK
guitar
for everyone
a Step-by-Step guide to notes, Chords, and Playing Basics
Dick weissman

Photographs by Julie keefe
Photo editor John klicker
®
Guilford, Connecticut
An imprint of Globe Pequot Press
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®
Copyright © 2010 by Morris Book Publishing, LLC Printed in China
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying and recording, or by any information The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our
storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted knowledge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on
in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be the part of the author or Globe Pequot Press. The author and Globe
addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Pequot Press disclaim any liability in connection with the use of
Department, P.O. Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437. this information.
Knack is a registered trademark of Morris Publishing Group, LLC,
and is used with express permission.
Editor: Keith Wallman
Development Editors: Imee Curiel, Katie Benoit
Cover Design: Paul Beatrice, Bret Kerr
Text Design: Paul Beatrice
Layout: Kevin Mak
Cover photos © shutterstock; back cover photo by Julie Keefe
All interior photos by Julie Keefe
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on
file.
ISBN 978-1-59921-511-2
The following manufacturers/names appearing in Knack Guitar for
Everyone with CD are trademarks:
Daisy Rock, Euphanon, Gibson LS, Gore-Tex, Harmony, Kyser, Larson
Brothers, Martin, Maurer, Prairie State, Stahl, Vega, Washington
Guitar Company
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This book is dedicated to all of the aspiring guitar players out Acknowledgments
there. There are so many styles of guitar and so many fine play-
Special thanks are due to Imee Curiel, Maureen Graney,
ers that it’s easy to get discouraged. Remember that if you try to
Katie Benoit, and Keith Wallman for guiding me through
practice on a regular basis, you can do it.
the Knack process. Thanks also go to Richard Colombo,
Dan McIlhenny, and John Sabastinas at Artichoke Music;
Dan Rhiger at Medicine Whistle Studios, who recorded the
accompanying audio tracks; Terry Prohaska, who translated
the music to Finale; and to our fine photographer Julie Keefe
and photo editor John Klicker.
00Knack_FM_Guitar_i-xi.indd 5 6/29/10 11:35 AM
Contents
Introduction ...........................................viii Chapter 6: Left-hand Basics
D Chord ..............................................54
Chapter 1: Introducing the Guitar A7 Chord ..............................................56
Basic Guitars ........................................... xii Changing Chords—D to A7 ............................58
Acoustic Guitars ........................................2 Practicing A7-D ........................................60
Electric & Miscellaneous Guitars .........................4 Chord Changing Problems .............................62
Vintage & Travel Guitars .................................6 Warped Necks & Truss Rods ............................64
Important Guitar Parts ..................................8
Chapter 7: Position of the Right Hand
Chapter 2: Buying Guitars/First Steps Right Thumb or Pick ...................................66
Hand Size & Nylon-string Guitars .......................10 Down & Up Strumming ................................68
Hand Size & Steel-string Guitars ........................12 Chord Changes & Strums ..............................70
The Height of the Strings ..............................14 Mixing It Up ...........................................72
Fingernails .............................................16 More Mixing ...........................................74
Filing the Fingernails ...................................18
Chapter 8: Tablature & Music
Chapter 3: Guitar Gear The Tablature System ..................................76
Picks ...................................................20 Reading Tablature .....................................78
Thumb Picks & Fingerpicks .............................22 Reading Music .........................................80
The Capo ..............................................24 Notes on the Guitar ....................................82
Slides ..................................................26 Rhythms ...............................................84
Slides & Pick Guards ...................................28 Chords ................................................86
Chapter 4: Care & Tuning Chapter 9: Strings & Our First Song
Neck Size & Action .....................................30 Chord Fingerings ......................................88
Changing the Strings ..................................32 String Thicknesses .....................................90
Amplifiers .............................................34 Strings of Different Materials ...........................92
Guitar Cases & Guitar Stands ...........................36 “Skip to My Lou” .......................................94
Electronic Tuners ......................................38 “Skip to My Lou,” Part II .................................96
Guitar Parts ............................................40 The Simple G Chord ...................................98
Chapter 5: Holding the Guitar Chapter 10: First Three-chord Song
Guitar Straps ...........................................42 Chord Changes ......................................100
Standing & Sitting .....................................44 More Chord Practice ..................................102
Left-hand Position .....................................46 The Thumb-Index Strum ..............................104
Right-hand Position. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 Another Strum .......................................106
Right-hand Pick Position ...............................50 Pick-style Double Strum ..............................108
Guitar Stands & Cleaning Cloths .......................52 The “Crawdad Song” ..................................110

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Chapter 11: The Right-hand Arpeggio Chapter 16: The Key of G
Thumb & 3 Fingers, Together. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112 Another Set of Chords ................................172
Thumb & 3 Fingers, Individually .......................114 Practical Capo Use ....................................174
Learning a Melody ....................................116 Capo at the 2nd Fret ..................................176
Right-hand Arpeggios ................................118 “Tell Old Bill” ..........................................178
Backwards Arpeggio ..................................120 Strum for “Tell Old Bill” ................................180
The Forward-Backward Arpeggio .....................122 A New Strum .........................................182
More Arpeggios ......................................124
Chapter 17: Hammering On
Chapter 12: C, F & Simple G7 Chords Hammering On .......................................184
C, F, & G7 Chords ......................................126 Hammering On Chords ...............................186
Troubleshooting F ....................................128 Hammering the G Chord .............................188
Practicing the Changes ...............................130 A Minor Hammers ....................................190
“Kumbaya” ...........................................132 More A Minor Hammers ..............................192
Strumming ...........................................134 Hammered Melody ...................................194
Chapter 13: Waltz Time (3/4) Chapter 18: Advanced Hammering On
Introducing the Waltz .................................136 Hammering Non-chord Notes ........................196
3/4 Strums ...........................................138 A7 Hammers .........................................198
Right-hand Variation ..................................140 E Minor Hammers ....................................200
3/4 Pick Playing .......................................142 More E Minor Hammers ..............................202
“The Knack Waltz” .....................................144 Hammering Plus ......................................204
“The Knack Waltz, Part II” ..............................146
Chapter 19: Fingerpicking
Chapter 14: Introducing the Am Chord Right-hand Position. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .206
The Am Chord ........................................148 The Basic Strum ......................................208
C, Am, F, G7 ..........................................150 Fingerpicking in Action ...............................210
Chord Progression in Action ..........................152 Reversing the Order ..................................212
Up & Down Picks .....................................154 Fingerpicking Songs ..................................214
Single a Simple Rock Melody .........................156 Combining the Patterns ..............................216
Create Your Own Melody .............................158
Chapter 20: Resources
Chapter 15: Introducing the Capo Chord Diagrams ......................................218
Introducing the Capo .................................160 Suggested Books & CDs ..............................224
More Capos ..........................................162 Suggested Videos & Web Sites ........................226
Various Capos ........................................164
Partial & Third Hand Capos ............................166 Glossary ..............................................228
How to Use the Capo .................................168 Index .................................................234
Two Guitars & the Capo ...............................170
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introduCtion
The guitar is the world’s most popular instrument. It is found today. In the early 1600s the round-backed lute, often with
in its familiar six-string form in Africa, Asia, Europe, and in multiple strings, was even more popular than the guitar,
North and South America. The instrument that most people especially at the English court. Some of these instruments
are familiar with has six strings and metal bars called frets even had triple sets of strings. By that period, most guitars
that run the length of the fingerboard. In many parts of had gone from four strings to five strings.
the world people play such instruments as ouds, banjos, or The lute was somewhat difficult to master due to its large
mandolins, that are like members of the guitar’s extended number of strings, and the guitar achieved a broader base
family. Some of these instruments have different numbers of popularity. Eventually the lute and its cousin the vihuela
of strings, some lack frets, and some have shapes that are
quite different from the guitar.
n
o The origins of the guitar go back to 2000 b.c. to a five-string
i
t Assyrian instrument. Other guitar-like instruments appear in
C
u Egyptian cave paintings dated to around 1300 b.c. The Greek
d
o kithara was a harp-like instrument held in the player’s lap,
r
t and supposedly the Romans spread the lyre through the
n
i Roman Empire. Another relative of the guitar is the rebab, a
Persian instrument that dates to the tenth century and is still
played in Iran and other Asian countries today.
Some combination of the kithara and the Arabic lute
brought the guitar to Spain, where it began to assume
the shape that we know today. It wasn’t a simple process,
though. The immediate ancestors of the guitar often had
four strings, and later the strings became doubled, as in
the construction of the mandolin. So the four-string guitar
really had eight strings, and they were played as four double
strings. In other words, the strings were in pairs, with the two
strings in each pair positioned quite close to one another. A
similar arrangement is found on the contemporary 12-string
guitar (six pairs) or the mandolin (four pairs).
During the course of its evolution, the guitar had to defeat
some competitors to become the instrument that we know
viii
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i
n
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became virtually extinct, and the guitar became popular
throughout Europe. By 1800 the lowest string was added to
the guitar, and from that point forward the six-string guitar
became the standard model favored by most guitarists.
Over the years the bracing patterns used for the guitar,
the shape of the guitar’s sound hole, the types of strings
used on the various instruments, and amplification have
created many changes in the way the guitar sounds, and
in the techniques used to play it. The original gut strings,
made from sheepgut, were replaced by nylon strings after
World War II. Around 1880 steel-string guitars were made
by Orville Gibson, among others, and they replaced their
nylon-string brothers for players in the folk, country, and
blues genres. Pioneer guitar and mandolin designer Lloyd
Loar introduced guitars with f holes, instead of round holes.
These were holes shaped like violin holes used in jazz gui-
tars. The Gibson L5, in particular, was the favorite axe of
many of the early jazz players.
By the mid-1930s electric guitars were introduced into the
world of the guitar. Prior to the invention of the pure elec-
tric instrument, the same Lloyd Loar had experimented with
putting pickups on f-hole guitars. Rickenbacker made the
first electric guitars, which were lap steel instruments rather
than typical guitars, but by 1936 Gibson had introduced the founding father of classical guitar as we know it today.
pickups as standard fare on some of its f-hole models. Through his many public appearances, recordings, publica-
Part of the evolution of the guitar has come about because tions, and master classes, Segovia brought the classical gui-
of the work of specific musicians whose mastery of the tar from obscurity into its current role as an instrument used
instrument has brought innovations in both playing tech- for solo recitals, chamber music, and orchestral works.
niques and in the technology used by luthiers and guitar Jazz guitar evolved through the early work of pioneering
manufacturers. Although there have been many fine gui- guitarists Eddie Lang and Lonnie Johnson, and through
tarists before and after him, Andres Segovia is considered Charlie Christian’s brilliant work with Benny Goodman and
ix
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