Music Primer: Guitar and Notes

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START

I decided to conduct an experiment in teaching and developing the population's musical abilities. That is, to teach musical notation by correspondence to whoever needs it, as well as the simplest guitar chords, how to tune a guitar, etc., etc.

It seems to many that playing the guitar is very difficult, but that's not true (or rather, not quite true)—everything is much simpler!

I also decided to help the working class figure out and learn how to use music editors (by the way, all the notes used on the SPECCY are denoted the same way in guitar 'language' :)).

As proof of this, I provide a table of notes, which you can see right down below:

Some explanations for the table: in the top row you can see the notes—this is how note names look in some language (I forgot which one: either Latin or something else :)), used in all music editors!!!, and also used to denote guitar notes and chords, which will be discussed just below. In the bottom row are the standard note names in Russian, which you have heard about in schools!

Moving on...

Now I'll tell you about the positions of these very notes on the guitar fretboard (for those who are completely clueless: the guitar neck is the stick protruding from a very large box shaped like a female body from the legs to the neck, and stretched across it (the neck) are steel (copper, fishing line, etc.) strings, which, strictly speaking, ring out, creating pleasant and not-so-pleasant sounds). So, you can once again see the fretboard with the "stretched" strings below:

!
"
#
$
%
&
'

Now for the explanations:

1. At the end (on the left) there are letters sitting on the 'strings'—these are the notes (in case anyone hasn't guessed yet) of the open (not pressed down by anything anywhere) 'strings'.
2. Further along the entire fretboard, the same kind of notes follow. Wherever a note is marked, that's where you need to press the string! That's where the catch is! Otherwise, there wouldn't be any fun in playing the guitar at all.
3. The "strings" are arranged on the fretboard in order from 1 to 6, i.e., the 1st string is the thinnest one and definitely not the other way around, and it is located at the bottom of the guitar when you hold the guitar in your hands and play! -).
4. Fret numbering starts from the beginning of the neck (see the left side of the drawing).
5. Figure out all the rest yourselves...

But in order for the guitar to sound good, it first needs to be tuned, strangely enough ;)

For proper tuning, it is best to use a tuning fork or some kind of piano or grand piano :).

Now, for a bit of variety and monstrosity, let's talk about guitar chords.

Chords can be all kinds of diverse/hideous things, and there are more than five thousand of them in the whole world... but don't be scared, we won't need those 5,000 at all, since most often only 1 to 10...15 of them are used for any given composition.

CHORDS are a sound (usually more pleasant than the opposite :) consisting of several—from 3 to 6—years, I mean notes :).

And chords can also be:

• seventh chords;
• dominant seventh chords;
• and some other kind, I don't remember...

Actually, we won't need any of the above either.

What we WILL need is this:

1. Minor chords: notation — "Capital Latin letter" + lowercase Latin "m" (em). The chord has a sort of "gloomy" coloring, most often used in sad and slow songs :( (together with the second type of chords :) — this information is necessary for those who want to figure out (transcribe by ear) other people's songs and compositions :);
2. Major chords: notation — "Capital Latin letter", coloring — "cheerful", used more often in styles like rock'n'roll, country, and other cheerful music (together with minor ones :)

All chords are practically identical (the same in their essence and simplicity, because when playing the guitar it is enough to remove or add one finger (see above) and you immediately get a different sound or a completely different chord!

There is also a 3rd type of chords — barre. These are the same chords as the regular ones, the difference being that 1 finger is added to all these chords, i.e., instead of the usual 3 fingers, a fourth one is used, which covers all the strings right before the chord itself. Let me explain for the slow-witted:

with the index finger of the left hand (all chords are fretted with the left hand—that's for a right-handed person; for a left-handed person everything is the exact opposite :) we press down all the strings on some fret, while pressing firmly against the back of the neck with the thumb of that same left hand! Next, it's dead simple: we finger the chord like a regular one, but with different fingers — middle, index, and pinky (regular chords are fingered like this — middle, ring, and index).

Since we've already gotten to the fingers, let's look at their designations:

I. Left hand (looking at your palm turned toward you, from left to right clockwise):
1) the thumb is not designated in any way due to not being used for playing;
2) 1;
3) 2;
4) 3;
5) 4.

P.S.: the numbers are the fingers (see above :).

II. Right hand (looking the same way, only the other way around :):
1) p;
2) i;
3) m;
4) a;
5) the pinky is not designated (see item I.1).

P.S.: from the thumb to the index finger, the fingers are read in order as — PIMA.

You may ask me: how can this help when working with a music editor? I'll tell you: notes, all the sharps, picking out melodies, etc., etc., and so on—all of this is used both on the guitar and in editors, and gradually I will also explain the differences and how to work in these very editors, provide descriptions and help guides, and also give various melody listings that you yourselves will be able to successfully type into your computer.

All of this will only happen if there is support for this column, because in this issue of my little newspaper << OUT SIDE >> it is an experiment that could end before it even begins (see the very beginning of this page :)!

With that, I bid you farewell! BYE!

SPECCY - THE BEST & RULEZzz!!!!!

THE END.

P.P.S. Listen to music more often!

THE BEST BANDS:

          METALLICA
            ARIA
          SEPULTURA
           KRUIZ-1
           SLAYER
           Gr.Ob.
         NAPALM DEATH
          MEGA DEATH
            ALISA
         AT THE GATES
            SODOM
         MISERY LOVES
           M.O.D.
           PANTERA
         DREAM THEATER
         PARADISE LOST
       TEATRE of TRAGEDY
           SIRRAH
          CHIZH & Co.
Well, that's enough! (-that's not a band :)