Natalie: Hi ya Gigajamer's, welcome to the show. This is episode three of the essential guitar skills course part one. I'm Natalie Barrass, David Young's our tutor. David, how are you are today?
David: I'm very well, how are you?
N: I'm raarring to go!
D: Fantastic
N: Raarring…
D: Yeah
N: …that's are very strange way of saying that word I apologise
D: That was a very strange way but never mind
N: (Laughs) What are our lesson objectives for today?
D: Okay, the lesson objectives today are to learn to read and play eighth notes…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …to learn two new chords, C5 and D5…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …and to combine the various rhythms we've learnt so far in with the eighth notes
N: I like it
D: Okay, shall I grab my guitar?
N: Grab it
D: Okay
N: So we're starting with eighth notes?
D: We're gonna start with eighth notes, yes. When we did the previous lessons we'd spoke about whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes, a whole notes lasts for the whole of a common time bar
N: Yes
D: A common time bar has four beats
N: Mmmhmm
D: So a whole note lasts for four beats. A half note lasts for two beats, being half of a common time bar, and a quarter note lasts for one beat, being a quarter of a common time bar
N: Exactly
D: Okay? But now we're gonna speak about the eighth note which, I think we can see, we can see here, looks similar to a quarter note in so far as it's a, it's got a black note head, it's filled in, but the stem also has a little tail on it
N: Oh yes
D: Okay? So that denotes an eighth note, as opposed to a quarter note. That's the difference
N: Okay
D: As we can see down there in exercise one we have a bar of quarter notes in the first bar, followed by a bar of eighth notes. Now then, when we have two eighth notes we can tie them together with a beam
N: Ah, with their tails almost
D: We can tie they're tails together in effect with this, with the top part which is the beam
N: Mmmhmm
D: So we can see, quite clearly there, how the four beats in a bar are divided up into two eighth notes
N: Mmmhmm
D: So each eighth note is worth half of one beat…
N: Right, so…
D: …because you get eight of those in one bar
N: How do you count those?
D: You count those as one and, two and, three and, four and. So let's say we've got the four main beats in the bar which would be one, two, three, four…
N: Yeah
D: …two notes, two eighth notes, per beat, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and
N: Mmmhmm
D: So if I were to count through, for example, a bar of quarter notes and then a bar of eighth notes, we'd have one, two, three, four, one and, two and, three and, four and
N: Mmmhmm
D: Two eighth notes to every quarter note
N: So you'd be, if you were playing the strings, you'd be playing that on the one and the 'and' as well
D: The one and the 'and' exactly
N: And the 'and'
(laughs)
D: So I think what we should do here is just demonstrate that by playing exercise number one
N: Yeah
D: If you'd like to boot up the guitar Xtractor for me please?
N: Booting it up as we speak
D: And I shall play what is, just on a chord of A5
N: Right
D: One bar of quarter notes
N: A5, show us that again quickly
D: A5 is on the fifth fret,…
N: Yeah
D: …rooted from the fifth fret. First finger goes on the six string…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …at the fifth fret
N: Yeah
D: Third finger goes on the seventh fret, on the fifth string, and we play strings six and five only with our pick or plectrum
N: Good description, here we go
D: Are we ready? Okay
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: So this is the quarter notes
D: Here's the eighth notes
N: Two, three, four, one and, two and, three and, four and, one, two, three, four
D & N: One and, two and, three and, four and, one, two, three, four, one
N: And, two and, three and, four and, one, two, three, four, one and, two and, three and, four and
(Xtractor stops playing)
D: Clear?
N: Good stuff. Very clear. What are the difficulties we may run into with playing these?
D: Well, I guess the only difficulties that people may run into is that there's more of these in a bar…
N: Yeah
D: …so you're playing a bit more frequently. You're right hand is gonna be playing more often
N: Mmmhmm
D: But once you get into the rhythm of it, you know, I think that'll probably become quite comfortable. And most rock music is played in eighth notes
N: Yeah
D: Rock rhythm, guitar power chord type stuff tends to be played in eighth note rhythms. There's variations on the rhythm, obviously…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …and we'll look at those in a second, but eighth notes are the, are the main basis I think for most of that type of guitar playing
N: I mean it really is the same technique isn't it,…
D: It's exactly the same technique…
N: …sort of striking from the top to the bottom?
D: …you're just playing a little bit more frequently…
N: Yeah
D: …you just have to loosen up in the right hand, try not to hit any additional guitar strings, and just, you know…
N: Yeah, and a good idea maybe with the Xtractor, slow it right down…
D: Slow it right down
N: …so you're doing it at a speed that you're comfortable with…
D: Of course
N: …maybe with quarter notes…
D: Yes
N: …and then you can…
D: Exactly
N: …speed it up
D: Always slow down to the speed that you're comfortable with, then start speeding it up which will, in turn will then push your technique up a little bit
N: Yeah, okay
D: Okay?
N: So, we're gonna…
D: So we'll move on…
N: …combine them I guess?
D: I think we will combine them. If we just have a look at exercise number two here, okay now what we've got here is a combination of quarter notes and eighth notes
N: Right
D: All mixed up together
N: Alright, so let's go through bar by bar
D: Okay, in bar one here we've, we start off with a quarter note, and we're on a chord of A5, followed by two eighth notes…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …again tied together with their beam so you can see that that's beat two…
N: Yeah
D: …you count those as two and. You've then got beat three, which is a quarter note…
N: Yeah
D: …and then we've got beat four, which is two eighth notes, so that's one, two and, three, four and
N: Okay is it worth doing, if we go through this maybe a bar at a time?
D: Yeah of course
N: So, first bar, I'm guessing that would sound one, two and, three, four and
D: Exactly, so on the guitar you've got, three, four
N: And once more
D: Okay, three, four
N: One, two and, three, four and. It's interesting, I mean, cos we've got quarter notes and…
D: Eighth notes
N: …eighth notes…
D: Yes
N: … there as well, even though eighth notes are combined in it we only say the 'and' when we've got eighth notes in it…
D: Exactly
N: …so as not to confuse ourselves
D: Yes, yes
N: Okay…
D: That's exactly right
N: …that's just one for my mind
D: Okay
N: (Laughs)
D: Yeah that's fine
N: Alright then, second bar
D: Second bar we're still in the chord of A5, so no problems in the chord department
N: No
D: Okay? But we start off with two eighth notes
N: So one and
D: One and. We've then got beat two which is a quarter note
N: Two
D: Okay? Beat three is two eighth notes again
D & N: Three and
D: And then we've got beat four
N: Four
D: So again that bar will sound like this on a guitar, one, two, three, four
N: One and, two, three and, four….three and, four. Great stuff. Bar three?
D: Okay bar three the chord changes to G5 as you can see
N: Mmmhmm
D: We'll worry about the chord changing in a second…
N: Yeah
D: …stick with the rhythm for the moment. Bar three starts off with four eighth notes
N: Okay
D: And as you can see, they're all tied together with a beam
N: Ahh, alright
D: We can tie four eighth notes together with a beam in the way that we can with two eighth notes
N: Mmmhmm
D: Again it just groups it up for you when you're reading something that might be quite fast. When you're a bit more experienced in reading as well, you can just see at a glance exactly what's coming up. You know what the sound of four eighth notes is, when you've been used to playing them quite a bit. So you can see exactly what's coming up, that's why it's done that way
N: Mmmhmm
D: Okay?
N: And it makes, you know in your head it's a continuous sound
D: You know it's a continuous sound, exactly, so we know that that's one and, two and. Beat three is in a quarter note
N: Yeah
D: Okay? And beat for is two eighth notes
N: Four and
D: Okay? So that bar, on a G5 now, sounds like this, three, four
N: Two and, three, four and
D: Okay?
N: I like it
D: That's what that bar does. Moving on to bar four, which is still on a G5, the first beat is a quarter note
N: Mmmhmm
D: The second beat is two eighth notes
N: Right
D: And the third beat is also two eighth notes
N: Ah, now those aren't tied together
D: Correct. We don't tie the beams, or we don't join the beams, over the middle of the bar, i.e. between beat two and beat three because…
N: Really? Why?
D: …yeah it's just a kind of musical grammar thing, you might say. That it's good music writing to always see the middle of the bar. So again, it's just for when you're reading quickly, you can see what's going on. If there's a lot of information joining over the middle of the bar it's quite hard to see how the bar divides up. So bar three, or beat three I should say, should always be clear if possible…
N: Mmm that's quite interesting
D: …so there we've got beat, beat one as I say is a quarter note. Beat two is a two and, two eighth notes
N: Yeah
D: Beat three, quite right…
N: Three and
D: …written as two eighth notes again, and then beat four is a quarter note
N: And that would sound like?
D: On G5 that will go, three, four
D & N: One, two and, three and, four, one, two and, three and, four
N: Lovely stuff
D: Okay? Shall we put all that together?
N: I think we should
D: See what it sounds like
N: So we've got A5 and G5
D: A5 we've spoken about
N: Yeah
D: G5 is the same shape of course, but it's at fret three…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …so the first finger is on the sixth string, on fret three, and the third finger is on the fifth fret on string five
N: Okay, let me just have a look at that
D: A5's at fret five
N: Yeah
D: G5 is two fret's lower…
N: Okay
D: …same shape
N: Good stuff, I'm gonna…
D: Okay
N: …slow this down so it's easier for me to count along for people watching…
D: Fine
N: …at home
D: Of course
N: So I've taken it down to seventy bpm…
D: Alright
N: …with the Xtractor…
D: Okay
N: …and I'm pushing play now
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: There's our count in, so we're at A5, one, two and, three, four and, one and, two, three and, four. G5, one and, two and, three, four and, one, two and, three and, four. One, two and, three, four and, one and, two, three and, four. G5, one and, two and, three, four and, one, two and, three and, four. One, two and, three, four and, one and, two, three and, four. G5, one and, two and, three, four and, one, two and, three and, four
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: I'm stopping you there
D: Ah, okay
N: Good, okay, so we've got that idea
D: Mmmhmm
N: There are some more exercises, aren't there, with the notes?
D: There's a few more exercises, and the key thing to understand is that we're gonna bring in all four note types that we've learnt so far, whole notes, half notes, quarter notes and eighth notes
N: Mmmhmm
D: So we subdivide the beats and we play all the permutations in the same exercise. For example, exercise number six is a very good one, which's got all four types of notes, and the chord's change in each bar
N: Okay
D: I'll give you a quick, a quick knock through that…
N: Well…
D: …so you can hear
N: …let's just quickly talk through, so we start with…
D: Okay
N: …in the first bar, A5
D: Yeah
N: And then it's a quick chord change then to G5 in the second bar
D: Yes
N: Back to A5
D: Yes
N: And then ending on G5…
D: Yes
N: …and the notes I can see we've got our quarters…
D: Yes
N: …our eighths…
D: Yes
N: …our half notes there…
D: Yes
N: …and then right at the end there…
D: We've got a whole note
N: …our old friend…
D: Yes, we haven't seen for a little while
N: …the whole note. Yes
D: There it is
N: Lasting four beats. Okay, if you play it through on your own?
D: Okay…
N: And I'll…
D: …one, two…
N: …I'll count through it
D: …three, four
N: One, two and, three, four, one and, two and, three, four, one and, two, three, four, whole note, one, two, three, four. One, two and, three, four, one and, two and, three, four, one and, two, three and…one
D & N: Two, three, four
N: Lovely, okay in the second half, we're gonna be learning some more chords with these notes
N: Welcome back to part two of lesson three, I'm still Natalie, he's still David, but we've got new things haven't we? We're still the same people…
D: We are
N: …but there are new things to be learning
D: We do have new things, yes. Up until now we've only learnt two chords…
N: Yes
D: …which are A5 and G5
N: Yes
D: We're now going to learn C5 and D5
N: Ooooh
D: Okay?
N: Okay
D: Now the shapes are exactly the same, so all four chords will have the same shape. And the main difference is that G5 and A5 root from the sixth string,…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …C5 and D5 root from the fifth string
N: Right
D: Okay? So if I just start with C5, for C5 we've got our first finger on the fifth string, at the third fret. We then put our third finger, on the fourth string, at the fifth fret. So as you can see that's the same shape as G5…
N: Yeah
D: …and A5…
N: Yeah
D: …it's just on two separate strings, two different strings. So on strings five and four, rather than six and five
N: So you've just kind of moved it down
D: I've kind of moved it down, so here's G5, rooting from the sixth strings, C5 is straight across, same frets, different strings
N: Okay, and what happens with your right hand when you're playing them?
D: Now then, we have to be a little bit more careful here. When we play G5 or A5 we've got nothing that we can crash into above the sixth string
N: Mmmhmm
D: But now we're playing on the fifth string we've gotta be careful to not hit the sixth string when we play the chord
N: Mmmhmm
D: So if I turn my guitar up, and I just play C5 for a second….what I'm doing is I'm placing my plectrum almost on the fifth string before I play it
N: Mmmhmm
D: Not right up here which would mean I'd actually have to bypass the sixth string on the way down, and hit them
N: Yeah
D: I'm just striking through….where I'm only bringing the plectrum just above the fifth string again, so the chance of me hitting the sixth string are minimal
N: Yeah
D: I have to say when people are learning this at first at home, they're practising it, chances are they're gonna hit the sixth string quite a few times
N: That looks a tricky manoeuvre cos you're sort of going in…
D: Yeah
N: …getting the fifth and the fourth, and then you've gotta come out again
D: Yeah, well you fall…
N: So it's not a strum, you're not going down…
D: No
N: …and covering them all
D: Well you move down and play the two strings, this is where it's difficult from this position where my hand's now played. I've just gotta make sure I don't bring it up to high…
N: Yeah
D: …up here, which means I crash into the sixth string. I've just gotta bring it back to where I began. And again after practise you start feeling where the strings are, you, you know, you can do it almost without looking
N: Mmmhmm
D: So it's just a case of running through it, getting used to the feel, don't worry too much about hitting the sixth string a few times at first, but be aware if you're doing it…
N: Yeah
D: …then eventually just try and miss it, you know,…
N: (Laughs)
D: …and just play strings five and four…
N: Right
D: …and everything will be absolutely fine. So that's C5, which roots from fret three…
N: Yes
D: …on the fifth string
N: Yes
D: D5 is the same shape again, but we're up at the fifth fret this time. Now, just to go through that more specifically…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …the first finger is on the fifth string, again, at fret five…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …and the third finger is at the seventh fret on string four. So again A5 is also at the fifth fret, but on strings six and five…
N: Yeah
D: …and D5 is also at the fifth fret, but on strings five and four. So to refer back to the two previous chords, if you like, we've got G5 and C5, at fret three…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …and we've got A5 and D5 at fret five. Again the key thing with the two new chords is try and avoid striking the sixth string with your plectrum
N: Mmmhmm
D: Chord-wise they're no more difficult that A5 and G5. Exactly the same
N: Okay
D: Okay? Which, I think, brings us to exercise number seven…
N: Indeed, because practise makes perfect
D: …in this lesson. Practise makes perfect. And what we've got here is an exercise which is the same exercise as when we introduced A5 and G5 way back in lesson one
N: Yeah
D: Same exercise, it's whole notes only, so four beat notes
N: Mmmhmm
D: C5 and D5, a bar of each. That's all we're gonna do. So if you'd like to bring up the guitar Xtractor for me?
N: I've brought it up, it's there already
D: Marvellous. We're gonna go C5, D5, C5, D5
N: Okay
D: And hopefully not hit too many sixth strings
N: (Laughs) I'll be looking out for that!
D: Ah, okay
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: So this is C5 first of all for a whole note, then up to D5, back down to C5, up to D5, C5, up to D5, C5, two, three, four, D5, two, three, four, all on the fifth string
D: All on the fifth string
N: D5, down to C5, three, four, D5, two, three, four. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four
(Xtractor stops playing)
D: Okay? Obviously, slow it down
N: Yeah
D: Down to about sixty maybe. Slower if need be, but hopefully about sixty, and practise it, and then start speeding it up…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …and see which speed you can play at without hitting the wrong strings. But I'm sure, for anyone who can already play A5 and G5…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …left-hand wise that'll be quite straight forward
N: Yeah
D: But it's more the right hand, just getting used to that, and obviously memorising where the chords go
N: Mmmhmm, and it's kind of helping in developing the sort of fluency
D: Yes of course…
N: Alright
D: …of course. Okay
N: Any more exercises…
D: Yeah, if we…
N: …that can help us with this?
D: …if we move on a little bit, keep going down there, let's have a look, if we've got exercise eight here, we've still got whole notes, but we're using all four chords
N: Ah
D: So this is the first time we've used four chords in an exercise, rather than just two chords
N: Yeah, so we've got D, A, G, C rather… G: C and G…
N: …and G
D: …and it also helps us learn the proximity of the chords to one another
N: Yeah, and looking at it here on the notes, if you've got those, the positioning…
D: Yeah
N: …on the stave
D: So I'm gonna start off with D5, which is on the fifth fret…
N: Mmmm
D: …fifth string root. A5 is also on the fifth fret but a sixth string root
N: Yeah
D: C5 is at the third fret, but a fifth string root…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …and G5 is also on the third fret, but a sixth string root. So you'll see the pattern that my hand's moving in if I run through this exercise
N: Mmmhmm
D: Okay, shall we give this one a…
N: Alright
D: …give this one a bit of a go? It's quite important to remember that A and D are on the same fret…
N: Yeah
D: …and G and C are on the same fret. It's quite useful to memorise immediately…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …which two chords are at the same fret. So I think that's a very important point
N: Alright, good stuff
D: Okay?
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: So we're going quite fast at eighty, but obviously if you're at home…
D: Okay
N: …slow it down, there's no shame. That's A, C and there's G
D: That's the D
N: Okay, up to the fifth fret, on D, and still there for A. Go up to the third for the C, still on the third for the G. D on the fifth, A on the fifth there, C on the third, G on the third
D: Yeah
N: Once more?
D: Okay
N: D on the fifth for that whole note. A on the fifth there for another whole note. C on the fifth…third, D on the third
D: Okay…
(Xtractor stops playing)
D: …and another thing to remember of course is in the Gigajam coursework, there's videos
N: Yeah
D: And, you know, diagrams, explaining how to play the chords, and close-up videos of hand positions and stuff, so it's quite straight forward
N: Mmmhmm. David, now that we've learnt those four chords, D, A, C and G…
D: Mmmhmm
N: …I noticed when you were playing exercise eight, there's a lot of movement with your left hand, have you got any sort of tips?
D: Yes, I think the thing to remember about your left hand is that your two fingers are connected, you need to move this shape as a shape, not as two separate fingers, if you see what I mean?
N: Yeah
D: So you need to relax, but you need to move it as one unit, it's very important. Regarding the string crossing, which we've now brought in because of the four chords, again just use the exercises, or even before you use the exercises, just practice moving D to A, D to A, D to A, or C to G
N: Mmmhmm
D: Or any combination which uses different rooted, string roots, so D to G maybe, or C to A…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …that type of thing, very good to practise. Then obviously play the exercises
N: Yeah
D: Final thing I'd just like to mention is the thumb
N: Oooh we haven't talked about the thumb
D: We haven't spoken about that before really. The main thing just to bear in mind about your thumb is that the lower you drop your thumb down the neck, the further you can stretch…
N: Really?
D: …and the higher…yeah, and the higher you put your thumb, the less distance you can stretch. So even if you just do that with your hand, if I bring my thumb up…
N: Of course, yes
D: …your fingers close up. If you drop them down they can, if you had to spread your fingers out your thumb would be really low down
N: Yeah
D: So some people may find that their, third finger for example, can't quite reach high enough up the guitar neck to the appropriate fret. Just try dropping your thumb down a little bit, and obviously keep it vertical, no line on the top sideways pointing at the machine head or anything. Pointing up to the ceiling, you know, find a halfway house that's comfortable, comfort's the main thing…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …but not too high so your fingers get compressed. That's the main thing about the left hand
N: Good stuff. Good tips…
D: Okay?
N: …actually. Let's move on
D: Okay, if we move on now to, say, exercise ten
N: Mmmhmm
D: We've got a couple of exercises, nine and ten, which utilise the full chords and all the various subdivisions of the rhythms that we've learnt so far. I'd like to look at number ten in particular, because it uses all the four note types we've learnt, whole notes, half notes, quarter notes and eighth notes…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …okay?
N: And also the chords that we've learnt
D: But it uses all four chords, and there's a different chord in each bar. So this is, you know, getting quite nifty now
N: Yeah
D: Have to have your stuff together, you know
N: Yeah I like what we're doing, sort of taking all the notes that we've learnt, and all the chords and not forgetting any of them…
D: Exactly…
N: …just bringing them all together
D: …bringing them all together whilst you're reading the rhythm. Cos obviously you, you would be paying, or maybe it's not obvious, but you'd be paying most of the attention to the rhythm, as you're reading a new piece of music. Certainly in the courses we work through the rhythms are different. You need to know what the chords are
N: Yes
D: You can't be thinking, 'oh C5 which one is that again?', you've got to know them instantaneously. So make sure you know the four shapes, you know where you are, then read the exercises. So I think the one I'd like to look at now is exercise ten
N: Mmmhmm
D: And we'll hear all the different permutations of the rhythms, and the four chords
N: Okay
D: Okay?
N: I'll load the Xtractor up for you
D: Okay, starting off with a D5 and then going to an A5
N: Alright, I'm just gonna take it down again to, maybe, seventy bpm
D: Sure, always slow them down to the pace that's comfortable for anybody who's playing this
N: Alright so this is D, A, C and G…
D: Yes
N: …five
D: Okay
N: So first on D
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: So this is exercise ten, starting with a D5 with our quarters and eighths. Down to A5 with the two half notes, up to C5 quarters and eighths again, the whole note on G there. Eighth and quarters on D, down to the A5 half notes. Eighth notes and quarter notes there on C, and then the G whole note
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: Lovely
D: That's it
N: David, it's the end of the lesson
D: Oh dear
N: Yes indeed. Guys join us next time, where we'll be developing a technique called palm muting, and keep listening to hear how you can get hold of your Gigajam course notes