Learning Guitar With A Fundamentals Approach
Lesson 1
First of all, you should familiar with fingering symbols.
| Right hand fingers : | p ( Pulgar ) - Thumb |
| i ( Indio ) - Index finger | |
| m ( Medio ) - Middle finger | |
| a ( Anular ) - Ring finger |
Words in brackets are Spanish words. Four fingers ( p i m a ) are used for plucking the guitar strings.
| Left hand fingers : | 1 - Index finger |
| 2 - Middle finger | |
| 3 - Ring finger | |
| 4 - Little finger |
Four fingers ( 1 2 3 4 ) are used for press the guitar strings.
Then, know the name of guitar strings.
Right hand plucking techniques
| (i) Free Stroke Pluck the string until the finger is brought up to reach the palm of the hand. Do not touch any adjacent string. Used for chord playing. |
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| (ii) Rest Stroke Pluck the string and rest on the adjacent string. Used for melody playing. |
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A chord consists of 3 or more music notes. When playing with free stroke, you may pluck more than one strings together at a time ( chord playing ), but rest stroke only allows you to pluck one single string at a time ( melody playing ). Try some exercises below :
Exercises
Use the right hand fingers p i m a without any need for the left hand to press any strings. Play each pattern many times continuously using free stroke. It is recommended to grow some nails on your right hand fingers.
Pattern no.1
| p i m a - Symbol for right hand fingers. |
| (6) (3) (2) (1) - Guitar string number. |
Pattern no.2
| p i m a m i |
| (6) (3) (2) (1) (2) (3) |
Pattern no.3
| p i m i a i m i |
| (6) (3) (2) (3) (1) (3) (2) (3) |
Pattern no.4
| p i a i | * a, m - play 2 strings |
| m | together |
| (6) (3) (1) (3) | |
| (2) |
Pattern no.5
| a a a |
| p m m m |
| i i i |
| (1) | (1) | (1) | |
| (6) | (2) | (2) | (2) |
| (3) | (3) | (3) |
Pattern no.6
| a m i p (1) (2) (3) (6) | a m i p (1) (2) (3) (6) | a m i p (1) (2) (3) (6) | a m i p (1) (2) (3) (6) |
