LESSON SERIES - SKILL LEVEL 1

Diagrams & Reading Basics

In this series, you'll get started learning about the musical alphabet, the names of the guitar strings, the note names on the treble clef, tabs, chord diagrams, and scale diagrams.

Series Overview

DIAGRAMS & READING BASICS - 1/8

In this series, we’re going to get familiar with the natural musical alphabet, the names of the open strings, reading chord diagrams, reading scale diagrams, reading tabs, and reading sheet music. These concepts are essential to being able to effectively communicate with other guitar players and musicians and are the primary ways you’ll learn new chords, scales, and songs.

If you’re brand new to the guitar, this series is perfect place to start. You don’t need any previous experience with the guitar or any other musical instrument to be able to get the most from these videos. The concepts covered in this series will give you a great foundation for all the future things you’ll learn on the guitar.

In the next video, we’ll go over the natural musical alphabet.

The Natural Musical Alphabet

DIAGRAMS & READING BASICS - 2/8

Before we get into learning chords and scales, you’ll need to learn the natural musical alphabet. If you know the alphabet, then you’ll already know the musical alphabet. It’s simply the first seven letters: A B C D E F G. You’ll want to make sure you memorize this forwards and backwards, as you’ll be using it both ways.

Along with the natural musical alphabet you’ll be using sharps and flats. But for now, we aren’t going to worry too much about them. This may seem really simple, but it’s important that you know the natural musical alphabet like the back of your hand. You’ll be using it in just about every single thing you do on the guitar.

In the next video, we’ll be learning the names of the open strings of the guitar.

Natural Musical Alphabet

A B C D E F G

Names Of The Open Strings

DIAGRAMS & READING BASICS - VIDEO 3/8

In this lesson, we’ll be learning the names of the open strings of the guitar. Learning the string names is easy to put off, but it is very important to know when you are learning new chords and scales, or when you want to properly tune your guitar. The names of the strings from thickest to thinnest are: E A D G B E.

It can be challenging to remember the order, so it’s best to use a mnemonic device. A good acronym to use is “Eat All Day Go to Bed Early”. You’ll want to memorize the string names backwards and forwards since you won’t always be counting from the lowest string to the highest. Work on going through the string names forwards and backwards in your daily practice time.

In the next video, we’ll learn how to read chord diagrams.

Reading Chord Diagrams

DIAGRAMS & READING BASICS - 4/8

You’ll be learning a ton of different chord shapes throughout your guitar career. So it’s important to know how to easily read and recognize chord diagrams. In this video, we’ll be going over the different elements you may see in a chord diagram. You may not know these chords yet, but it’s good to just get familiar with the things you’ll be seeing in the future.

There are 6 vertical lines. These represent the strings of the guitar. The one that’s furthest to the left is your low E, and the furthest to the right is your high E. The horizontal lines represent the frets. In the first example, you’ll see that this chord diagram also includes the nut of the guitar so you can tell where you are. Most chord diagrams only show 4 frets at a time. 

The numbers inside the circles represent the finger you are supposed to place on that string and fret. You’ll see that some of the circles are white, and others are black. The black dots are the root notes of the chord. For example, in a C chord, all the C notes are going to be black. When you see an “X” above a string, it means you leave that string out of the chord. If you see a circle above a string, then you’ll play that string open when playing the chord. 

We’ll look at one other chord diagram so that you can see two other elements. The first of these is a black block. This black block represents a bar that you’ll make when you need to cover multiple strings with one finger. You’ll also see that this diagram doesn’t include a nut, and instead has a number showing you which fret this chord is to be played on.

The next video will go over scale diagrams.

Reading Scale Diagrams

DIAGRAMS & READING BASICS - 5/8

Scale diagrams are very similar to chord diagrams. The only major difference is that instead of strumming all these notes at once, you’ll play them one after the other. The string orientation is the exact same as in chord diagrams, and the frets will still be represented by the horizontal lines. The number to the left is there to tell you which fret to play this scale at.

Also, you’ll see that the numbers inside the circles will tell you which finger to use for that note. Remember that the black circles represent the root notes of the scale. In this case, we are looking at an A major pentatonic scale, so the A notes within the scale are our root notes. You don’t need to know this scale yet, it’s just about understanding how to read the diagram.

In the next lesson, we’ll go over how to read guitar tabs.

Tab Basics

DIAGRAMS & READING BASICS - 6/8

Tab or tablature is a simpler alternative to standard music notation. It’s specific system only used on the guitar. In this lesson, we’ll go over the basic things you’ll see in tablature. Quite often you’ll see standard notation sitting above the tab, but we are just going to focus on the tab section in this video.

There are six horizontal lines that represent the six strings on the guitar. The bottom line is your low E string and the top line is your high E string. The numbers tell you which fret to play and depending on which line it’s on, you’ll be able to tell which string to play. Single notes the go horizontally will usually refer to a melody. Vertically stacked numbers represent a chord. These notes are to be played at the same time. There’s a lot more to guitar tabs, but we’ll save that for a later lesson.

In the next video, we’ll learn the basics of sheet music.

Sheet Music Basics

DIAGRAMS & READING BASICS - 7/8

In this video, we’ll learn the basics of sheet music. Reading sheet music can be very intimidating for some newer guitar players. Don’t feel like you need to have everything down at the end of this lesson. We are just going to get familiar with some of the more common elements that you might come across when learning the guitar.

The staff is what we call the placeholder for all the notes. Guitar is written on the treble (G) clef. After the treble clef you’ll see the key signature which is a group of sharps or flats that tell you which key the song is in. Next to that, you’ll see the time signature. The time signature tells you how many beats are in each measure. Measures are separated by the vertical lines spaced out on the staff. 

You’ll need to know the natural musical alphabet to know the notes on the lines and spaces. The names of the 5 lines are E G B D F. Most people remember this with the acronym “Every Good Boy Does Fine”. The names of the spaces are F A C E. Which can be remembered easily because it spells the word “face”.

On the staff, you’ll see different notes. There are quite a few different notes, but we’ll go over the 3 most common. The first is whole notes, which is a hollow circle that is counted as four beats. A half note is just a whole note with a stem, and it represents two beats. A quarter note is a filled in circle with a step, and it is counted for one beat. 

Rests are note values that you don’t play for. The first of these is a whole rest, which looks like a solid block hanging from the middle line of the staff. The whole rest is counted as four beats. A half rest is a block sitting on top of the line, and it is counted as two beats. A quarter rest looks like a squiggly symbol, and it is counted as one beat.

You’ll also see sharp, flat, and natural signs throughout sheet music. A sharp just raises the note it’s next to by one half-step. A flat lowers the note it’s next to by one half-step. And a natural just brings it back to neither sharp nor flat. The notes on the staff only range from the E on your D string to the F on your high E string, so anything beyond that will use lines above or below the staff that we call ledger lines.

Finally, you might see numbers above or beside the notes on the staff. A number in a circle sitting above a note is telling you which string to play the note on. A number beside the note is telling you which finger you should use to play that note.

In the next video, we’ll recap the things we went over in this series.

Series Review

DIAGRAMS & READING BASICS - 8/8

Congratulations! You made it to the end of this series on diagrams and reading basics. This series should have given you a good foundation for learning some more music theory in the future. These basic theory concepts are essential for understanding how to properly communicate with other guitar players and to understand the chords and scales you’ll learn in later lessons.

You should now have a solid grasp of the natural musical alphabet and the names of the open strings of the guitar. Also, you should be able to read basic chord and scale diagrams. Finally, you should also be able to understand how to read simple tab and sheet music. These concepts are very important for learning how to play the guitar, so feel free to go through this series again if you need further clarification.