Absolute Beginner? You Need to Know This

0:00 If you're an absolute beginner on guitar, you'll struggle to learn anything if you don't know these diagrams. They'll show you how to play chords, scales, and where the notes are on the fretboard. It's pretty easy. I'll walk you through it step by step, and by the end of this video, you'll be reading them like a pro. We're going to start with this diagram, and you'll usually see this when you're learning chords, but you'll also see it for other things, which we'll get to in a second. Now, for this diagram, imagine you're looking at the guitar like this. This is your low E string, the thickest one. And this is your high E string, the smallest one. Some diagrams might show the thickness of the strings like this, but not always. By the way, from low to high, the names of the strings are even after

0:45 dinner, giant boys eat, or some people like Eddie ate dynamite, goodbye Eddie. This thick line here is the nut of your guitar. And then we have frets numbers 1 2 3 and four. So these horizontal lines represent the frets on your guitar. These little metal lines here. By the way, when you're pressing your finger down, you're not going to press it right on the fret. You're going to just press it right next to the fret. Sometimes it might start on a higher fret, though. And if so, it'll be labeled with a number here, like this. But more on that in a second. If you're looking at a chord diagram, the chord will be labeled at the top. And if it's just a letter, like the letter A, that's going to be a

1:31 major chord, A major. And if it's anything else, it'll be labeled. So, let's use a minor as an example. A minor chord is usually labeled with a lowercase M. Or sometimes you might see it like this or with a dash next to it. Now, if you see an X up here, that means that you do not play that string. You can either just not play it or you can mute it with one of your fingers. In this case, on the A minor chord, I like to roll my thumb over the top and mute the low E string [music] with that. So, I'm playing all six strings. [music] You just can't hear that one. Or another example would be this C chord. So, you can mute the low E string

2:19 with the tip of your third finger. or this G chord where you're muting the A string with the bottom of this finger. [music] If it has an O up here, you just play that string open without pressing [music] any fingers down. And then you have your finger numbers right here. And the finger numbers are going to be 1 2 3 and four. So on this A minor chord, we don't play the low E string. The A string is open. The D string, we're gonna put our second finger on the second fret. The G string, we're going to put our third finger on the second fret. And then the B string, first

3:06 finger on the first fret. And then the high E string is open. Play them all together. And that is your [music] A minor chord. Now, they won't always label the finger numbers on the strings. Sometimes you might see it with just dots. And that's because there's different ways to play some of these chords. And if they don't have the finger numbers, you'll just have to use whichever fingers make the most sense depending on what chord you're coming from or what chord you're going to. But if you're brand new to guitar, you might want to try to find some that actually have the fingers on there so you're not just guessing. I'll give you a little cheat sheet in the description that has some basic open chords with the finger numbers. And I'll give you a few different ways to play some of those chords. So, usually when you see chords,

3:53 they're going to be labeled with this type of diagram, but sometimes you might also see it used to show how to play scales or where the notes are on the fretboard. Now, if we're looking at the notes on the fretboard, this one up here above the nut shows what that note would be if you played that string open. So, in [music] this case, an E. And then here is your F and then your F sharp or G flat and then G, [music] etc. Now, we're not going to get into where the notes are in this video, but I did make a video on that, and I will link it in the description. Now, before we get to this next diagram, let me show you how this one can be used for scales.

4:39 This is the pattern for a major scale. And if you don't know what that means, don't worry about it for right now. For now, I just want you to understand how to read this. Now, if you notice, there's a little number on the side, and that is telling us which fret that is. So, this is the eighth fret. And if you play that low E string on the eighth fret, that note is a C. So, this is the C major scale. And the way that you read it is you start here with your second finger [music] on the eighth fret. And then you move up to the next note on the low E string with your fourth finger on [music] the 10th fret. And then you go down to the next string, the A string. First finger on the seventh fret. Second

5:28 finger on the eighth fret. Fourth finger on the 10th fret. And then the D string. fingers 1, 3, and four on the 7th, 9inth, and 10th fret. And then you just continue that pattern all the way up. Next, we're going to take a look at horizontal view. But before we get to that, if you're watching this, I'm assuming you're a beginner guitar player, and that's what the entire focus of this channel is, to make learning guitar easy for beginners. So, if that's you, hit that subscribe button. Now in this view we have the low E string on the bottom. So from low to high even [music] after dinner giant boys eat.

6:14 >> So let me get this straight. On my guitar the low E string is on the top but on this diagram you're saying it's on the bottom. Are they trying to confuse beginners? >> Now when I was learning that threw me off in the beginning but once it was explained to me like this it really helped. So hopefully this helps you too. If you're looking down at your guitar, that's how you'll see it. Angle the neck slightly, and the low E string is on the bottom. First fret, second fret, third fret, fourth fret. Or you can imagine it laying flat in your lap with the headstock on the left. And that's this exact layout, the low E string on the bottom. It might be a little weird in the beginning, but trust me, you get used to it with time. But it is important to learn this way because the majority of the time, that's how you're going to see it. And you'll also need to learn to think in that way to be able to

7:01 read guitar tabs. But more on that in a second. So we have E A D G B E. And if it starts on another fret like the C scale we did earlier, that will be labeled here or maybe up here. or some will just have dots like the dots on the neck of your guitar with the fret numbers on the top or on the bottom to help you understand where you're at on the neck. Now, if you're reading a scale in this layout, start on the low E string, eighth fret with your second finger, and then 10th fret with your fourth finger. Then you go down to the next string, the A string, seventh fret with your first finger, [music]

7:48 eighth fret with your second finger, 10th fret with your fourth finger, and then the D string. And then just keep repeating that pattern all the way up. Sometimes you might also see this layout to label the notes on the fretboard or all kinds of other things. Now, although this view is pretty standard, and that's how you'll normally see it, sometimes you might see it flipped around. Like in my fretboard video, I showed it like this. Like if you're watching someone play the guitar. So the low E string's on the top and this is frets number 1 2 3 and four. But whatever you're looking at, in order to know where you're at, just make sure you pay close attention to either one, the thickness of the strings, so the thickest being your low E string, or two, see if the frets are labeled, or three, a lot of times it'll

8:35 just have the names of the strings over here. Now, this is a great starting point, but there's one thing missing. If you want to learn how to play songs, learning how to read guitar tabs will make that 10 times easier. Tabs are also used to write out scales, patterns, and all kinds of stuff. So, if you want a simple beginner guide to reading guitar tabs, check out this video right