Background

Every so often your guitar needs a tune-up. It can be as simple as buffing your frets or a wax job
while changing your strings. Reminds me of that Mott the Hopple song, “Man, that’s your instrument! I felt
so ashamed!”

Anyway, we all have different skill levels when it comes to working on our guitars. The more complicated work should be left to
qualified luthiers .
Not all luthiers are qualified. Me? I’m not a luthier. I’m crazy!

I bought my Ovation in 1974. It’s a Custom Balladeer model 1112 and I’m the original owner. In those days they came with a lifetime
guarantee as Ovation guitars were relatively new to the market and they needed help from people like
Glen Campbell

and others to promote them. I remember people saying Ovation guitars were “toys” and “real” guitars are made of wood.

Let’s face it. All guitars have their own sound and personality. You can hear it and you can feel it. That’s why
God made so many different guitars in so many different styles for so many different players. I think I read that in the Old Testament.
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Now if only he can play it...

Check out this cool guitar boat, navigated by Josh Pyke in Sydney Harbour.

“Tourists stared in amazement as Josh steered the large guitar, complete with outboard motor, around the harbour, creating one of the strangest sights since the arrival of the First Fleet from England back in 1788.”

via an Australian Paper.
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Chords are great.

Lets learn a few chords! Whats amazing is that once you know just a few, you can play thousands of songs, or write one yourself.

Place your fingers where the dots are. It’s going to be painful at first! You need to develop callouses on your fingers that will shield the tips of them from unconventionally “sharp” strings. Try to memorize these chords, practice them daily - especially switching between them.

One way to practice is to start with one chord and switch to a different one, then back to the original and onto another.

The following chords are major chords, which is terminology that  comes from music theory.

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Chord Diagrams are a way of illustrating where to put your fingers (and where not to) to play a chord. Before you read these directions, why not see what one loos like for yourself and see if you can figure it out without going further. Don’t try and play it though, we aren’t that far yet!

Hopefully you were able to make some sense of the diagram to the right.

Lets see what each part means.

• G/D - This is the Chord Name.
• 4 - Represents the fret where the chord begins on the fretboard or the “fret-frame”.
• - Horizontal Lines represent the metal “outdents” or lines on the fretboard. The spaces in between them are the frets.
• | Vertical Lines represent the strings. The leftmost string is the thickest (6), and the rightmost string is thinnest (1).
• X - Represent strings you do not want to play because they aren’t part of the chord!
• O - Represents Open strings that you play without placing a finger down.
• - These are the spots where you put your finger down. The chord indicates that it begins on the fourth fret, and your to place 2 fingers on the 5th and 4th strings of the 5th fret, and one finger on the 3rd string of the fourth fret. Did you get all that?

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What is Tab?

Guitar tablature is a method used to illustrate how to play a solo, riff, or scale.

Put your guitar in your lap, as if you were about to play it. Then rotate it so that it lies flat on your lap, so that you’re looking at the strings and the top of the guitar from above.

The placement of the strings that you’re seeing is the placement that guitar tablature represents; the thinnest, highest pitched string on the top, with each successive string getting thicker and lower pitched as you go downwards.

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This is a fun song for beginners, but most of the melody comes from your voice - so you’ll have to sing along.

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Did you know you can make your own guitar picks from old:

• expired license
• Grocery Store discount card
• Identification card
• Unused or expired credit card

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A first guitar ought to be romantic. Unfortunately, for some, a first guitar becomes a mistake, ash tray, conversation object, or wasted space (since they buy it but “never have time to learn”).

To prevent this, some people will say, you should try learning something on the guitar before investing in one. I myself didn’t buy a guitar until I knew two chords (yeah its not much)- but it was enough to tell me I wanted to buy one.

There are several criteria on which to base your purchase.
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