Welcome to the King Of The Strings guitar lessons. This book accompanies the online video lessons. It will provide you with all the knowledge you need to become a great guitar player, much faster than you would expect! Let s start with the most important lesson Enjoy playing music! Lesson 1. Watch the video closely to learn how to hold the guitar in the correct way. There are many possibilities. Most important is that you feel comfortable and relaxed while you hold your guitar. No muscles should be stressed. The strings on the guitar are numbered from 1 (the thinnest string) to 6, and should be tuned as followed: 1 E 2 B 3 G 4 D 5 A 6 E The fingers we use in the right hand are indicated with letters: Thumb: p Index finger: i Middle finger: m Ring finger: a Pinky finger: c Those in the left hand with numbers: Index finger: 1 Middle finger: 2 Ring finger: 3 Pinky finger: 4 How to read tablature: As mentioned earlier, every string has it s own number. There are 6 strings, so we draw six lines: B G D A
Each line is representing a string. If you find a 0 on one of those lines, it means you need to play the string open (without using the left hand). E 0 B G D A If for instance a 1 is written on that line, you need to press the first fret with your left hand. E 1 B G D A When you see an x it means you re not supposed to play that string. Exercise: Nothing Else Matters (Metallica) We are going to play some open strings (a string is open when you don t use the left hand to press any frets ). Play the open strings in this order: E (6) - G - B - E - B - G. If you keep repeating this you ll notice you re playing the intro of Metallica s Nothing Else Matters! As you see in the score the letters p - i - m - a - m - i show you what to do in your right hand. Now let s move over to the left hand. Many popular songs, including most Pop, Rock and Metal songs, can be played with just a few simple chords. Now they may not seem simple in the beginning, but once you ve mastered these basic chords you ll be surprised by how many songs you can actually play! By the end of this King Of The Strings guitar course you ll be able to play almost any pop or rock song.
Exercise: The Drunken Sailor (Irish Traditional) Let s start with a very simple (but world-famous) song, The Drunken Sailor. The two chords you need to know are E-minor (Em) and D. Em D x x Play the chords in this order: Switching between chords is very difficult for every beginning guitar player. Take your time to get used to these chords. Practice slowly to switch between de EM and the D chord. Mastering this skill is a huge step forward! Most pop song are based on just four chords; Em, D, G and C. In the next lesson you ll learn the G chord and the C chord which will enable you to play almost any pop song!
Lesson 2. As mentioned before, there is an incredible amount of pop and rock songs that can be played with just a few chords. In the previous lesson we discussed the Em chord and the D chord. Now let s add C and G. C 1 x G The G chord can be difficult at first, because of the wide stretch, but it s worth it! Once you ve mastered these chords you ll enter a new world, in which you suddenly can play more songs than you ever expected! With these chords can play songs by Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Metallica, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bruno Mars, The Cranberries, Green Day, The Beatles, Boston, Bob Marley, John Denver, Aerosmith, Iron Maiden, The Offspring, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Leonard Cohen, The Animals and many many more. Exercise: Brick In The Wall (Pink Floyd) This song contains of 3 chords, Em, G and D.
Exercise: Knocking On Heavens Door (Bob Dylan) This time we use G, D and C. Exercise: Zombie (The Cranberries) Now we use all 4 chords: Em, C, G, D. Try to sing the chorus of Bon Jovi s It s My Life over these chords, you ll notice it works! Right hand technique After mastering these four basic chords, your left hand is ready for playing many pop songs. What about the right hand? Most simple pop an rock songs are written in a time signature of 4/4. This means there are 4 beats in every bar. The most easy way to play the chords in the right hand is to strum them. This means you just het all the strings with 1 finger, preferably the middle finger or index finger. For now practice the songs like this: count from 1 to 4 and strum a chord on every beat.
Lesson 3. Guitar playing is more than just playing chords. In this lesson we ll look at one of the most famous guitar riffs ever written. Exercise: Smoke On The Water (Deep Purple) In the left hand play everything with the fingers 1 and 2, in the right hand play everything with i and m, just like it s shown in the video lesson. In the next video lessons I will be showing you more chords, more riffs, melodies, techniques and tricks. By the end of these lessons you ll be able to play the complete arrangement of Smoke On The Water for solo guitar. This means you play the guitar riffs, vocal melodies and baselines all at the same time, on one guitar! I ll also teach you songs by Metallica, Green Day, Pink Floyd, Bruno Mars, The Animals, Iron Maiden, AC/DC and more more awesome bands. Also I ll teach you how to play a basic blues, improvise over a blues with a blues scale and I ll introduce you to some very cool Spanish flamenco guitar tunes. Hope to see you in the next guitar lessons. The complete King Of The Strings guitar method is available at www.kingofthestrings.com.