We’ve met the notes on the High E String. There are two things to think of when we talk about notes. First, the name of the note, like E, F or G. Secondly, the duration of the note, like Whole Note or Half Note. I’ll admit – the two can easily be confused… Think of your notes as friends. Your friends have names (like E, for example) and generally are a “type” of person. I usually fill in “guy” or “gal” for this, but you can use any adjective you like. Just keep it clean – this blog is rated PG!
The Time Signature tells us how to organize our music. The top number (4, in this case) tells us that we have 4 beats to a measure. The bottom number (also a 4) indicates that each quarter note gets one beat. (Think fraction!) We’ll get to quarter notes in the next chapter.
If we change the top number to a 3, we now only have 3 beats per measure.
In the last example, we have 6 beats per measure with an eighth note (coming soon!) getting one beat.
OK – the High E String is lonely. Let’s give it a friend. OK – that was really corny, but you get the idea. There are six strings on the guitar, so we need to learn them all eventually. We’re going to move to the second or “B” string. Like the High E string, there are three notes on the B string. The open string (remember – no frets) gives us a B, the first fret gives us a C and the third fret gives us a D.
Notice the shape of the notes on this string. The guitar is based heavily on shapes – we use them a lot. Make sure you take note as this will cut down the time it takes to learn patterns later on.
Finally, we’re going to mix the two strings up.
Until next time…Play in the Key of YOU!