Play the Guitar: Lesson 17

   In the previous part we've talked about barre chords. Now we will talk a little more.

   Barre chords - An introduction (part III)

   If we're not ready for barre chords yet, why bring it up? We're still having problems with our regular chords! We don't need the aggravation...

   Well, yes, maybe. But I still wanted to make sure we're ready and "we" don't make the same mistakes I did!

   Playing in position

   So. In order to get ready for the barre chords when they come (one) and to generally improve our guitar playing (two), it is a good idea if we start a little exercise. The technical term is in position playing, but we don't need to know that, right now.

 
   This is our first in position playing exercise. In order to do it, we will press each position marked in the diagram, in sequence, from top to bottom and from the outside in. From the headstock towards the body. The position of our fingers is marked with 1, 2, 3, 4. They will not move left or right, they will stay in the position - hence the name - for the entire duration of the exercise. When we are done, we do it the other direction: from bottom to top and from the body towards the headstock. And... that's it!

   Oh, and by the way, those are the musical notes and that is a scale. Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do - Do, ti, la, sol, fa, mi, re, do. Or, if you prefer the international notation, that would be C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C - C, B, A, G, F, E, D, C.

   How does this help us? One, it strenghtens our fingers, and two, it brings us a little further along. Don't wanna do it? Fine! See if I care. They're your fingers...

To be continued...