Chords for 5 Things Every Beginner Guitarist SHOULD Learn

[Bb] _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _
[N] Hey everybody, I'm Rick Gatos today's everything music.
I'm gonna do something a little different
We're gonna talk about five things every beginner guitarists need to learn now
I don't usually do videos like this the reason that I'm doing this today is because
My kids can't take lessons now because we're stuck at home
So I decided I'm gonna teach my two daughters how to play the guitar
Now I've taught a lot of beginner guitar lessons before
I'm gonna teach some things right from the beginning that they're gonna
Eventually need to know and it's better if you teach beginner guitarists this
Right off the bat now.
I've taught many beginner guitar lessons before I taught guitar here in Atlanta from 1994 to 1999
I had 50 students a week and many of them were beginner guitarists
So I am very well versed at teaching beginning guitar.
Okay, the first one I want to talk about is the basic
Strumming pattern.
This is really the basis of all rhythm guitar playing and and it will help your rhythm
Just in general if you can learn this simple pattern
We're gonna do it with an E minor chord here in open position
All of the things I'm gonna talk about today are gonna involve open position chords.
[Em] Okay, so I'm gonna use an E minor chord
Right here.
Now the strumming pattern is this down down up up down [Bm] down [Ab] down up up down up
What this does is get [N] your hand moving in an up-down pattern and you play down strokes on
Downbeats and up strokes on upbeats and it's gonna be the basis for alternate picking for all the scales that you're gonna learn
Later on and it's gonna improve your rhythm
But it's not an easy pattern for beginners to get so your hand has to never stop [Abm] moving like this down down up up
Down up down down up up down up.
You notice my hand never stops moving like [Em] this _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Eb] up
Number two when you're learning your basic chords learn [G] your G chord
With [D] the third finger on the B string.
I'll tell you [Gm] why you'll see in a lot of books that the G major [G] chord is taught like
This _ _ the open B [Eb] string the pinky on the [G] high E string
I don't like that.
One of the reasons [C] is that if you go from [G] C to G
_ It's actually pretty easy to play that chord voicing
The problem is that when you go from G [D] to D
You have to [G] completely lift your hand up all the [D] fingers and replace them on the D chord
Which [N] typically beginners find very difficult the third finger if you play it that note D
They're in [G] the G chord and [D] you go to a D chord you use that as your anchor [G] point to play D.
So watch my hand
_ [D] _ [G] _ [D] _ _
[G] [D] G
And that's a good thing to practice right there to learn how to change chords [Bb] without lifting
fingers [N] that are common between the [G] chords
G [D] _ [G] C add 9 G
that chord progression is in a million songs [D]
[G] and
C add 9 is really a substitute chord for C [N] major
Now if you want to learn every song on the radio if you add an E minor chord
But keep these [G] two fingers here and put [B] your two fingers where they [G] would go on an E minor chord
You can pretty much play any song on the radio _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ those four [G] chords four
One [D] six five you [N] can pretty much put them in any order and you get any song that you've heard over the last 15 years
That's pop or country if you put a capo on you can really play with any song on the radio because it changes the [F] key
[C] Same shapes and [Am] _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ [Ab] I'm doing my same [F] strumming back down down up [C] up down up down down up up [Am] down
_ _ [G]
Number _ _ [N] _ three is muting the low E string many chords like [D] D
See my thumb here.
My thumb is going over [N] the top a lot of guitar methods will tell you to have your thumb behind the
Neck, this is the proper position for muting the low E string
Thumb around the neck [D] and block that
_ [Gbm] _
I'm
Muting that string if I don't [Abm] mute that and I have my thumb back here and I hit that low E string [D] by accident
_ _ [E] For it sounds really bad because it's not even the right chord that no E is not [D] in that D chord
_ _ correct or
_ Incorrect [N] you may as well learn your D major chord right off the bat muting the low E string same [G] with a [A] major
_ _ _ [N] Even though a major does have that note in it that [A] low E
_ Sounds bad _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ see
[C] _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
[N] So right there those three things are
Incredibly important and you should learn right from the start
When I teach my girls how to play guitar today the first thing I'm gonna do after I teach him a minor in the strumming pattern
Probably I'll teach him tomorrow how to mute that low string you need a smaller [B] guitar to do that
For a child, but my daughter [N] Lennon can do it on this guitar.
Definitely.
So that's number three number four is
_ _ Changing chords seamlessly.
So this is a trick that I would always show my beginner guitar students
It's playing your last upstroke with no hands on the strings.
Okay, so let's say I'm going from
C G to [C] D.
Okay, so each of these chords
[G] Now _ _ [D] the D has that one note that is common [C] between them from [G] C to G
[C] even if you play [G] C
G like that, but I [C] like
[G] _ It sounds better.
So I'm gonna [C] play
_ _ _ [G] _ _
That [Ab] last upstroke [B] in the pattern you lift your hand up you play the [Em] open [G] strings and that gives you [Gb] enough time
Once you [C] practice it for a few days to change chords, right?
_ _ _ [G] _ So I'm [C] going down down up up [G] down up change _
that little [C] thing there
_ _ _ [G] You [N] don't even notice it right that I'm playing all the strings [C] open _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ Did it [G] again?
_ _ Up down [C] up change, right?
[G] change
_ _ [C] change _ _
[G] _ _ [N] That will improve your guitar playing and enable you to play songs [Ab] in rhythm and change chords quicker
and I would simply [C] just _ _ [G] _ I
[N] Practice that a hundred times until you get it
Number five is a simple flat picking exercise that I would always teach my beginning guitar students
The reason I teach this is once again to practice alternate picking so this will
Eventually come into play when you're playing scales any type of lead guitar playing
You're gonna have to know how to skip strings and isolate the particular single strings
With your pick without hitting the wrong one
So I usually [Gm] will start with the D chord and I will play [D] this pattern D string B string G string E string so
_ _ That's the pattern.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
So I'm going down up down up.
That's the pattern _
_ _ _ _ _ [N] If I go to a C add 9 chord, I use the same pattern, but I just [G] start with the fifth string on this [C] note C
[G] You _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ [G] _ _ notice what I [Bb] did there when I change from D [D] to C add 9.
_ _ [G] I
Added [C] that note to give me time.
[N] It's the same thing as I did using the open strings
I added that note to [D] make the transition sound smooth
Now _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ I go to the G chord.
I'm doing the same pattern
so if I'm playing the low G and I'm going way down to the B string and
_ _ [N] What that does is it gives you a feel for where the strings are this particular flat picking exercise will help you play
and isolate strings
Properly that's all for now
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