Hi guys!

Great meeting you today, Aubahn! Here is what to play this week.

G chord

This is the version of the G chord we played in class today. — I was saying use finger 3; but I’m changing that to finger 4.

  • LH (Left Hand) fingers: index = 1, middle = 2, ring = 3, pinky = 4
  • The horizontal lines here are the frets. The metal things on the guitar neck. — When holding the guitar, they are actually vertical to us
  • Have your fingers curled onto the frets. Be nice and strong on the strings
  • Have the fingers directly to the left of the frets
  • The High E string is often written as a lowercase “e,” like I have it here
  • Play this chord. Strum down and up repeatedly

Em chord

The E minor chord. This one needs you to hold it down sort of like a Spiderman move, haha.

  • Based on the previous diagram, you can infer what exactly is meant by this one
  • The numbers there are the LH fingerings
  • The white dots are the open strings
  • Play this chord. Strum down and up repeatedly

Memorize the string names

  • E A D G B E — Lowest to highest
  • “Eat A Darn Good Breakfast Everyday”

Posture

Here is the order of things to pay attention to when positioning yourself in good guitar posture.

  • Sit down with your body slightly slanted; that is, your knees pointing left
  • Put the guitar with the body on your right thigh
  • Have the guitar head pushed somewhat forward from your left side — The idea here: have your wrists as straight and as free as possible to be able to move around and play things with plenty of space for both arms to do so

Stretching & Rest

Make sure to follow these directions too. Trust me, this is more important than most people realize.

Rest

  • Rest your during and after a guitar playing session — 30 seconds to a minute is a fair amount of time for a break
  • The fingers are more delicate than other muscles in the body so do not overwork them

Stretch

  • Here is a video describing the main stretches to do during and after a guitar playing session. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=1XsLRQFV7rY — You don’t have to do so much during a playing session; just do it when it feels like it would be a comfortable moment for it. It’s a little more important to rest during and after the session. 
  • Also do the other ones I described: Neck movements & stretches, hip circles, body, arm, and leg stretches — again, primarily after a session

Additional tools

  • When time and resources allow, please get an appropriately sized guitar strap. Wearing this will help ensure that you maintain good posture
  • Get a tuner — There is a free app I use to help me tune my guitar; it’s called Tuner T1. You generally want to tune the guitar before every new playing session

I recommend at least ten minutes of playing everyday.

Have fun with this, Aubahn! Looking forward to our lesson in a week!