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SMG Guitar Lesson #2: The Five Octave Positions

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The following is an excerpt from my “Hello Guitar” Guide to Getting Started

* Note: occasionally in this post, you will see a lower case “b” next to a note name. This means that the note is “flat.”

Given any note or chord, there are only five positions on the guitar neck from which it can be played. This is an incredibly useful tool considering that there are over 3,500 chords and over 550 different scales that can be played on the guitar. Yet, everything you will ever do on the guitar boils down to understanding these five simple positions. These are the five positions from which a given root note is played with at least one other octave. (Root notes are the notes that define a chord or scale at its foundation. For example, in the C Major chord, the root note is the note C, from which, the rest of the chord gets its name.) In this book, I have labelled these as positions one through five. Add them to your warm-up routine and spend as much time as needed to get familiar with them. We’ll be using these positions quite a bit throughout this book as we learn how to construct numerous scales and chords. Position 1 occurs when the root note is located on the top, bottom, and fourth string. 

octave position 1 for guitar

Helpful Tips for position 1:

  • There is one fret in between the root notes on the first and sixth strings and the root note on the fourth string.
  • There is one string in between the root note found on the 6th string and the root note found on the 4th string
  • There are two strings in between the root note found on the 4th string and the root note found on the 1st string.
  • The notes on the top and bottom string of a fret are always the same root note.
  • In the open position, the notes E, F, and F# occur in position 1

Guitar Zen: Good Times with Odd Times!

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As guitarists we are usually up for a challenge, one of the ways I really like to challenge myself is to wrap my head around odd times.

GET INTO THE GROOVE

There are many ways to take a simple riff and syncopate it in order to make it take on a whole new twist. Odd time signatures are not something that should scare off the average musician, after all we are just adding or subtracting beats to make the rhythm shift. The key is to feel the groove of the riff. Whether you are playing in 4, 5 or 7…. what’s going to give presence and power to the riff is getting in the groove. Any riff can be groovy no matter how technically involved it is, but to give it THAT groove, you have to really feel the pulse of the phrase and then give precedence to the 1 or the first note of the beat so that the vibe of the riff is distinguishable.

COUNT ON IT!

As guitarists we tend to count differently than drummers or even bassists because we do things like play a pick-up note, or come in half a bar later when dealing with odd times. Remember that music is a language all it’s own. As long as you emphasize the right notes in the segment, you will achieve the goal you are seeking and then afterward, everything will sync up.

THINKING DIFFERENTLY

Take for instance a simple 4/4 phrase and just chug any chord using quarter notes (CHUG chug chug chug, CHUG chug chug chug). Now lets put a twist on it and add a fifth quarter note then follow it with three quarter notes (so CHUG chug chug chug chug CHUG chug chug). We’ve now effectively played the same number of notes yet we have changed the emphasis of the starting beat. So you can see how (as Mike Myers so non- eloquently put it in the movie A View From The Top) It’s all about putting the right emPHASSIS on the right syLLABLE!

As you can see, shifting the tempo is really a matter of shifting your thinking to accentuate different notes. With this simple concept in mind, anyone can turn Metallica into Meshuggah. So bust a beat and shuffle your feet and once you do you’ll be having GOOD TIMES with ODD TIMES!!!

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SMG Guitar Lesson: Tips On Rhythm

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I have students all the time that ask me things like “How do you know when to strum up or down?” and “How do you develop good timing?”

Even for an experienced musician and guitar teacher, rhythm is still one of the most challenging things to teach. That’s because, while it may take just a few minutes to explain the basics concepts of rhythm, it can take years to really develop your sense of rhythm to the point where it becomes second nature.

Here are a few tips on how to develop a good sense of rhythm

  • Learn the note values of standard notation and learn how to pick apart and analyze rhythms. Learning even a little bit of the basics will get you pretty far.
  • Tap your foot while you play. Get to the point where you can feel the rhythm moving through your whole body. It really works!
  • Try alternating your picking up and down steadily like clockwork. If there is already a part of your body that is working like a metronome, then it’ll be much easier for you to keep up with the beat. If it worked for Stevie Ray Vaughan, it’ll work for you!
  • Take it slow at first. Playing a song very slowly at first when you’re first learning it helps to train your motor memory for when you’re ready to attempt playing it up to speed. Don’t sweat it, even the pros do this. Regardless of how long you’ve been playing or what level you’re at, every time you learn a new song it’s something that you’re completely unfamiliar with, so it’s ok to stumble through it a few times and take it piecemeal at first.
  • If there is a particular song you’re trying to learn, practice along with the recording of it. This will allow you to hear things you could improve on that you may not have otherwise noticed. You’ll also feel more inclined to learn the song from start to finish. (There are way too many people who can only play the intros to a handful of songs and nothing more. Don’t be “that guy”!)
  • Practice improvising along with jam-along backing tracks or “guitaraoke” tracks of your favourite songs. You can even jam along to random songs on the radio, creating your own guitar parts as you go. It doesn’t always have to sound great for you to learn something, so don’t sweat it – just do it! Improvising is a great way to improve your phrasing, timing, and delivery.
  • Practice playing along with a metronome. When we play music, we instinctively tend to get excited and want to speed up, getting faster as we go. While we may be having fun at the time, it tends to sound kind of amateurish. The metronome trains us to play with a steady beat. – This is especially important if you want get to the point where you can perform your music live.
  • Find a group of other musicians to get together and jam with. Make sure they are at your same level or, if you’re lucky, slightly more experienced but still in your league. There is no greater way to improve your musicianship than hanging around and playing with other musicians. You’ll also be held more accountable for your progress. It’s a lot harder to shrug off practicing when you know your buddies are counting on you to play what you agreed to learn for the next jam session.

For those of you who are into writing your own music – here is a cool technique that I use to come up with funky new rhythms

Remember…. there is absolutely NO quick fix, NO silver bullet, and NO substitute for practicing your guitar for hours on end. The more you put in, the more you’ll get out!

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Guitar Zen: Breaking Up is Hard to Do!

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David Gilmour and Roger Waters buried the hatchet and performed together in 2010!

ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE

Starting a band is something that I believe EVERY guitarist dreams of achieving. The excitement and energy of 4 or 5 individual musical craftsman, or craftswomen, coming together in a balance of rhythm and harmony are essential in making music an art-form. This creative mixture from coming together also begins the process where each of the individual voices join together and becomes one sonic stream or single unified voice.

On the flip side, sometimes the voices no longer align. When the magic is missing, things start to fall apart. Band break ups can be some of the most traumatic emotional experiences that a musician will go through, often filled with drama and aggravation that can turn lifelong friends into enemies. When you look at some of the greatest bands, like Pink Floyd for example, and then think about the depth of artistry they created together yet for reasons we will never truly know, it just didn’t work out for them at some point.

KEEP A POSITIVE ATTITUDE – DON’T BURN BRIDGES!

If the band should break up, it doesn’t have to mean the end of your musical career. Bouncing back into a stable creative mindset, you can really shape your own vision and go for it. But there are a few things to remember when breaking ties with your bros in the band. Here are a few tips to help you have a smooth break up:

  • Be upfront and be honest – There’s no reason to dance around the truth when it comes to a split. Just be upfront and let each member have their own opinions about how it all went down.
  • Don’t bad mouth anyone – No matter how mad that drummer made you or how many times the keyboardist told you your not in tune, you don’t want to burn bridges by talkin’ trash. Just let it go and get creative. The music community is smaller than you think and you don’t want to be know for being difficult or talking bad about others.
  • Take the power back – No matter what happened, it happened. Now it’s your time to dive back into your creative side and play your fingers off! The surge you’ll get from being expressive will amp you up and give you more confidence to do it on your own.

IN CONCLUSION…

Remember to stand up, dust yourself off and get ROCKIN’!

* * * * *

Scott “SVH” Von Heldt is a staff writer for SMG. Scott has worked with members of White Zombie, Cirque Du Soliel and many others. In late 2008 he released the first book of his Mystic Art of Self-Discovery series entitled Mind Over Metal: The Musician’s Guide to Mental Mastery. Email: SVH@sharemyguitar.com

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