You're Ready to Play!

This first set of exercises will give you a taste of what playing is like. We will start by playing single notes. I'm going to show you what notes to play using a series of video clips. The video clips will demonstrates each movement. Just follow along.

Remember to always try to place your fingers closely behind the frets. This is easy to forget until you get used to playing. You get your best leverage when you place your finger just behind, even touching, the fret. This is the area where you have to use the least downward force to sound the note.

In the first Video, you will see a right-hand close-up, since you don't need to do anything with your left hand, except support the guitar.

Open First String (High E) The high E string is shown in red in the photo to the right. First, play the open 1st String (High E). For this short exercise, don't touch the strings with your left hand. Play the high E string un-fretted. Use all down-strokes with the pick, or with your thumb.
Click on the Video button to the right. It should automatically open your AVI player and play a video clip. If it doesn't, you will have to open your AVI player manually.

You only need to do this exercise a few times. Just enough to give you a feel for picking a single string. You can use a flat pick or your right thumb to pick the string.