Beginner Guitar Lesson Online
Learn The Basic Rudiments Of Music
For this beginner guitar lesson online we'll have a look at the basic rudiments of music.
Now I know what you're saying..."I don't want to have to learn to read music in order to be a better guitar player".
....the thing is you don't have to read music!
Here is a few benefits you'll get from doing this beginner guitar lesson online....
Benefit #1
By understanding the basic time values associated with the notes, you will know what it means when a lesson says a scale or rhythm pattern is played using 8th notes, 8th note triplets, 16th notes, etc.
Benefit #2
By understanding the time values you will learn how to count the time out as you play. This will be of help you when trying to figure out rhythm patterns from a tab or even sheet music.
Tablature is great but...
Let me say that I think guitar tab is a great tool for players out there that don't want to actually have to read music, but there is one draw back to it. When it comes to reading guitar tab, there is no time value associated with the numbers on the tab itself.
Fortunately, most of the guitar tablature books that are sold these days have the tab as well as the standard music notation printed above the tab. This can be helpful information.
By having a basic understanding of the rudiments and timing, you will be able to look at the standard notation and see the time values associated with each note or chord on the tab and be able to count it out. This is especially useful if you don't have a copy of the song on CD to listen to.
So let's get started with this beginner guitar lesson online, shall we?
The musical alphabet consists of seven letters:
A B C D E F G
Music is written on a staff, that consists of 5 parallel lines between which there are four spaces.
At the beginning of the staff you will find what's called a treble clef or "G" clef. It indicates the position of the G note on the staff.
Notes On The Staff
The other lines and spaces on the staff are as follows...
Other notes can be added by using short lines called ledger lines.
When a note is placed above the middle staff line its stem points downward, when the note is below the middle staff line the stem points up.
Lines drawn across the staff are called bar lines. They divide the staff into sections called bars or measures. A double line indicates either the end of a piece of music, or the end of an important section.
Note Values
Below are the time values (how long a note is held) that are assigned to each one of the notes in the musical scale.
For each note value there is an equivalent rest period that indicates a period of silence.
Time Signatures
On the staff line after the treble clef, you'll find the time signature. The time signature indicates the number of beats per bar (indicated by the top number) and the note value for each beat (indicated by the bottom number).
The most common time being the 4/4 time signature, also referred to as common time. Below indicates what each number in the time signature represents.
Top # 4 - indicates 4 beats per bar
Bottom # 4 - indicates each beat is worth a quarter note
In 4/4 time there has to be the equivalent of 4 quarter notes per bar, e.g.
The next most common time signature is Three Four Time written as 3/4 time.
Top # 3 - indicates 3 beats per bar
Bottom # 4 - indicates each beat is worth a quarter note
In 3/4 time there has to be the equivalent of 3 quarter notes per bar.
The Dotted Note
If a dot is placed after the note then it increases the value of the note by half.
Here some examples.....
Breakdown of Notes and Rests
This beginner guitar lesson online diagram shows the breakdown of the note values and how they relate to one another.
That's it for this beginner guitar lesson online!
If you have understood what was just explained then stay tuned for the next beginner guitar lesson online where I will go into more depth about counting out rhythm timings.
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