Nischal Albatross Lyrics and Chords

Learning the notes on the guitar fretboard is the first step in becoming a good guitar player!

For me, being a piano student before learning how to play the guitar, I found it is a much more complicated process than learning the piano keyboard. The piano keyboard layout is fairly easy to learn. From left to right on the white keys, A,B,C,D,E,F,G, then A,B,C,D,E,F,G, then A,B,C,D,E,F,G, and so on with the black keys being the sharps and flats. With the guitar, you have five different “shapes” to learn. But don’t let that discourage you. With time and practice, you will be able to spot the notes on the fretboard just as easily as spotting them on the piano.

Their are different methods and opinions as to which is the best, but everyone is different. You could use memorization using the illustration below (example #1), but when I was beginning, I found this method to be very difficult. The method I am going to explain here is the one that worked for me. It mainly involves learning by association. By using this method, and referring to the illustration below (example #1) only for verification, you will be able to identify the notes on the guitar fretboard quickly and easily.

                                                                                                                            example #1

The first thing we want to do is learn the open chords of “A”, “C”, “D”, “E”, and “G”, which will give us our 5 shapes. I don’t want you to bite off more than you can chew, so we will take them one at a time. For this lesson we will concentrate on the open “A” chord. I will cover the other open chords in my next blogs.

First lets identify the fingers on your left hand. Please note that I am right handed and will explain things as right handed. If you are left handed, you will have to reverse things accordingly. Sorry for any inconvenience. In the illustration below, you can see the numbering of your left hand which is “T” being the thumb, “1” being the index finger, “2” being the middle finger, “3” being the ring finger, and “4” being the pinky ( example #2).

example #2                                                    example #3                                                                    example #4

Secondly, lets look at the guitar fretboard. In the illustration above (example #3) the strings are numbered #1, #2,#3,#4,#5 and #6 with #1 being the thinnest up to #6 being the thickest. The guitar frets are numbered #1, #2, #3, #4, etc. (Example #4 above).

Now let’s look at the open “A” chord.

While sitting up straight, with the back of the guitar touching your belly, the bottom of the guitar should be resting securely on your lap. With your wrist curled upward from underneath the neck of the guitar, hold down string #4 on the 2nd fret with finger #1. Hold down string #3 on the 2nd fret with finger #2, and hold down string #2 on the 2nd fret with finger #3. (example #5) Being careful not to touch the other strings, strum downward across the strings from #5 to #1. Congratulations, you have just played an open “A” chord.

The 5 notes (example #5) played or the spelling of the open “A” chord is as follows:        

an “E” on the 1st string

a “C#” (C sharp) on the 2nd string

an “A” on the 3rd string

an “E” on the 4th string

an “A” on the 5th string

Don’t play the 6th string                                                                                                                                                                                example #5

As you can see, we have 2 “E” notes, a “C” note, and 2 “A” notes. For this lesson, I want you to focus on the 2 “A” notes. We will focus on the others in upcoming blogs. Take note of their location and sound. Notice that the “A” on the 3rd string is one octave higher than the “A” on the 5th string. Notice the relation to each other. This relation is known as an interval or the distance between the 2 notes.

Practice Exercise:

Play the “A” chord several times over and over, releasing your fingers and reapplying them to get the feel of the shape. Concentrate on the two “A” notes and play them individually, together and in the chord shape. Please note that you may experience some soreness on your fingertips when beginning, but this will ease up over time. The more you play the quicker you will build up finger strength, build callous on your fingertips and feel no discomfort at all.

Remember it is important to tune up properly before every practice (Why? Be sure to read my previous blog . For your convenience, I have included the following links to some electronic tuners that are highly rated based on customer reviews. I purchased the shown below for my 9 year old granddaughter. As mentioned in a previous post It is a great little tuner. It clamps onto the headstock of your guitar and flips up and rotates for easy viewing. The needle tells you if you are too high or too low, and the display turns green when you are right on the proper tone. It displays the string # and the note. My granddaughter now has no problems tuning her guitar properly.

The                                                 These two have good ratings also!