Acoustic Guitar Lessons
for Proper Playing Techniques

Acoustic Guitar Lessons

Covers various aspects of playing the instrument. We will begin playing by going through the anatomy of the guitar, popular scales, Major and Minor chord shapes, and finally putting the chords to songs.

To start, you'll need to get a guitar with six strings, a light pick, and the discipline to put in the time to practice.

Anatomy of the Acoustic Guitar

The parts of an acoustic guitar are shown and labeled in this diagram.

1. Headstock

2. Tuning Heads

3. Nut

4. Neck

5. Body

6. Bridge

Let's now explore the possibilities of working on some popular scales for our acoustic guitar lessons.

Pentatonic Scale

Click here to download the Ami Pentatonic Scale

One of the objectives of acoustic guitar lessons is to open up different areas for you to explore and find what you are looking for in your progress. Learning various popular scales will assist you to widen your choice of notes when jamming with friends.

A minor Pentatonic Scale (1 pos for acoustic guitar lessons)

Please refer to the Ami Pentatonic Scale you downloaded earlier.

The notes A, C, D, E, G forms the notes of the scale.

We will start from the top of the neck called the 1st position.

Diagram of Ami scale: refer to Ami Pentatonic Scale.

On your acoustic guitar, play the first note A on the 5th open string.

Follow up with the C note on the 5th string 3rd fret.

Play the 4th string open D note.

Fret the 4th string 2nd fret for the E note.

Play the 3rd string for open G note, then fret the 3rd string, 2nd fret for the octave A note.

Listen to the sound of the notes and get familiar with it.

Keep practicing this scale till you know it by heart.

A minor Pentatonic Scale for acoustic guitar lessons

Refer to the diagram and note that this scale is now played an octave higher.

The first note A is played on the 3rd string, at the 2nd fret.

The C note is on the 2nd string, 1st fret.

The D note is also played on the 2nd string at the 3rd fret.

The E note is played on the 1st open string.

Followed by the G note on the 1st string, 3rd fret.

The last A note played on the 1st string, 5th fret.

Apply this scale to your acoustic guitar playing and you will see it can get your creative juices going

The C Major Scale

Click here to download C Major Scale chart

In most acoustic guitar lessons, the learning of the major and minor scales and its related chords are the basics of every good guitar player, Playing scales helps the dexterity of the hands and good coordination for both hands are developed.

Very popular basic scales like the major and minor scales have been used in millions of songs. A little juggling of the notes and we have some very interesting sounds to play with. These scales will be a great help when you really get into playing and working them out will pay off for you.

C Major Scale

Refer to Guitar Scales lesson

Refer to diagram of C major scale.

Acoustic guitar playing requires one to know the basic major scales. Refer back to the home page and review guitar scales and learn how to form them. Try playing the scales in all keys. By doing this it will enable you to have a better approach to this topic.

C major Scale for acoustic guitar lessons

The C major scale is made up of these notes:

C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C

Have your acoustic guitar in a comfortable position. Avoid tensing the fretting hand, begin on the 5th string, 3rd fret and hit the C note, then play the 4th string open D note, follow up on the 4th string and fret the 2nd fret for the E note, and then on the same string fret the 3rd fret for the F note.

Move down to the 3rd string and play the open G note, then follow up on the same string and fret the 2nd fret for the A note.

Next move to the 2nd string and play the open B note, follow up on the same string and fret the 1st fret for the C note.

There you now have your C major scale.

Approaching the scales in its sequence of C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, in a song will make it sound too scaly. Here's when you can be more creative and start juggling the notes around. Try playing a mixture of notes, example C, G, D, A, B, E, or this version E, C, B, D, A, G. The idea is to use the notes to juggle and create different intervals, that will break the monotony of the scale.

Recognizing Intervals in acoustic guitar lessons

What are intervals? Why do we need them in our acoustic guitar lessons? How do we use them in music?

Pertaining to the first issue----- What are Intervals?

Intervals are the distance between two notes for example, C - E.

Why do we need them in our acoustic guitar lessons?

We need to use intervals in our chord shapes for piano, acoustic and electric guitar playing. Arranging, orchestration, vocal writing requires knowledge in these areas. Using intervals in music gives us control over the sound of the arrangement and the guitar solos too.

Here is a break down for Intervals in acoustic guitar lessons:

Click here to download Interval Chart

Starting from the 1st measure horizontally:

1* C - C = Octave

2* C - D = Major2nd

3* C - E = Major3rd

4* C - F = Perfeth4th

5* C - G = Perfect5th

6* C - A = Major6th

7* C - B = Major7th

8* C - C = Octaves

9* C - Db = Minor2nd

10*C - Eb = Minor3rd

11*C - G# = Augmented5th

12*C - G = Perfect5th

13*C - Bb = Minor7th

14*C - F# = Augmented4th

15*C - Gb = Diminished5th

16*C - Ab = Minor6th

The way to recognize these intervals is to determine whether they are Consonant or Dissonant intervals. The way to practice this is to classify and group all the Consonants together and the Dissonant intervals into another group.

Consonant Intervals in acoustic guitar lessons

All Major and Minor 3rds, Per4ths and 5ths, Major and Minor 6ths.

Dissonant Intervals in acoustic guitar lessons

All Dissonant intervals are--- Major and Minor 2nds, Major and Minor 2nds, Augmented4ths and 5ths,and Diminished 5ths

Play and listen to these intervals, work with the scales and see what notes are consonant and what are dissonant notes. Note how these intervals color the sound. Once you have a feel of these, try them out. We will now work on some chord changes and use the scales and implement some nice voicing.

Lets now proceed to the next guitar lesson - Acoustic Guitar Chords

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