the floor.)
Standing with the guitar: To play the guitar in a standing position, you use an adjustable strap that positions the guitar to your body size and taste of playing. Some people like to have the guitar up high (above the belt), because this position makes playing easier. But it looks less cool. So many players like to lower the guitar to a position that doesn’t seem quite so geeky. In some styles, such as bluegrass, it’s okay to have the guitar up high. But rock ’n’ rollers like it way down low. Of course, you should always base your guitar-positioning strategy on what feels most comfortable to you, not what’s fashionable. After all, when has fashion ever involved your personal comfort?
Whether you practice while sitting or standing — or do both in equal measure — the key is to be consistent in the way you hold the guitar in each position. If you want a more thorough explanation of holding the guitar and sitting and standing with the guitar (including photographs), check out Guitar For Dummies, 2nd Edition.
Brushing Up On Guitar Notation
In this book, we use several notation methods for presenting the music examples and exercises. Keep in mind that you don’t have to read music well to get some guidance from the notation. In fact, you don’t really have to be able to read music at all if you just use your ears and listen to the audio tracks that accompany this book. You can get pretty far this way, but you could do better by having at least a passing familiarity with the notation conventions we use. The following sections cover all the notation systems you encounter in this book.
Decoding tablature
Figure 1-1 shows a tab staff and some sample notes and a chord. Here are a few points to keep in mind when reading tab:
The lines of the tab staff represent guitar strings, from the 1st string on top (high E) to the 6th string on bottom (low E).
A numeral appearing on any given line tells you to press, or fret, that string at that numbered fret. For example, if you see the numeral 2 on the second line from the top, you need to press down the 2nd string at the 2nd fret (actually, the space between the 1st and 2nd fret, closer to the 2nd metal fret wire).
A 0 on a line means that you play the open string — that is, unfretted, with no left-hand finger touching the string.
When you see stacked notes, as in bar 3 of Figure 1-1, that notation tells you to play the fretted strings all at the same time, which produces a chord. The fretted strings in the figure form a D major chord.
FIGURE 1-1: An example of guitar tablature, or tab.
Comprehending chord diagrams
A chord diagram is a graphic representation of the guitar neck that shows you exactly where to put your left-hand fingers. Figure 1-2 shows the anatomy of a chord diagram. The following list defines each of the different parts:
The capital letter above the diagram indicates the name of the chord. Additional letters or numbers that follow define the chord’s quality (minor, seventh, and so on).
The grid of vertical and horizontal lines represents the fretboard, as if you held the guitar upright and faced the headstock.
The six vertical lines represent the guitar strings, with the leftmost line as the 6th (low E) string. The five horizontal lines represent the frets. The thick horizontal line at the top is the nut, so the 1st fret (where you can place your finger) is actually between the nut and the next horizontal line.
Dots on vertical lines between horizontal fret lines show you which notes to fret.
An X above a string means that you don’t play it. An O above a string means that you play it open (unfretted by a left-hand finger).
The numbers below the diagram indicate the left-hand fingering.
FIGURE 1-2: The anatomy of a chord diagram.
Interpreting neck diagrams
In addition to presenting written music examples on a standard music staff and a tab staff, throughout this book we also sometimes show you a pattern on a neck diagram. A neck diagram shows several frets of the neck with the low E string appearing at the bottom. It’s as if you took a chord diagram and rotated it one quarter turn (90 degrees) counterclockwise, stretched it out sideways, and then added a few more frets. The horizontal lines represent the strings, and the vertical lines represent the frets. But unlike tab, a neck diagram doesn’t represent music played over time. Instead, it shows you all the notes at once.
In a neck diagram, dots on the horizontal lines tell you where to place your fingers, and the numbers inside those circles indicate which finger to use. If a dot appears in black with a white numeral, it signifies that the note is either the root (the letter name) of the chord or arpeggio, or the tonic (the note that gives the name) of the scale. Knowing the root and tonic notes enables you to identify the names of the scales, arpeggios, and chords as you move them around the neck to different starting notes. If you aren’t sure of the note names on the neck, check the 12-fret neck diagram on the Cheat Sheet. All neck diagrams are accompanied by standard music and tab staffs showing the same information (and with the note names below the tab staff and roots circled), but many people find a neck diagram more useful than a staff for learning scales, arpeggios, and chords.
Figure 1-3 shows a neck diagram with the notes of a two-octave major scale pattern in 4th position (meaning that your 1st finger is located at the 4th fret). Note that the roots appear in black circles and are found on the 6th, 4th, and 1st strings. To play the scale from Figure 1-3 in its ascending form, start with the lowest-sounding note (6th string, 5th fret) and proceed note by note to the highest (1st string, 5th fret).
