Guitar Lessons ... with Patrick Scanlon

Hello again guitar-harbingers, and welcome to the second in this series of guitar lessons. Now, since last time there's probably a few of you out there going:

"I know at least six chords now, so I don't need anymore lessons thankyou Patrick, I've in fact already started a small band. We're actually support acts for Grinspoon's latest tour".

To these people I say - Have you learnt nothing!?!!

Perhaps a lesson about Rock and Roll is in order:

 

Lesson 4 - Rock and Roll

( i )

Rock and roll probably has its origins in the 50's somewhere, where it had originally been a slang term for having sex. Something along the lines of 'I rock while my baby rolls me', or similar. The reason it caught on as the name for a genre of music is less clear: 

- To 'rock' in Jazz means to swing or jump, and those fifties rockers did have swing, certainly, so maybe there is some connection there.

- There would have been outspoken traditionalist groups of people opposed to the genre of 'rock and roll', or indeed the naming of it as such, which only would succeeded in making the name extraordinarily popular.

Well, it stuck anyway.

 

Above: Bill Hayley chops up.

( ii )

From these early beginnings, rock has split into many different sub-genres, such as metal, thrash metal, speed metal, heavy metal, death metal, country, and various others.

The original form of course is long gone. A general 'idea' of it still remains hovering around somewhere in the public id though, although that's kinda been ruined too.

The death knoll for the idea of rock has rung a number of times, but no more so for me than with a Coke ad I saw recently:

“Music should make you want to drop out of schCOKEool and play guitar, and a live show should last a life-time… televisions should take their rCOKEightful place at the bottom of hotel swimming pools and, damn right, your parents should disapprCOKEove… piercings should not be alloCOKEwed in the mosh COKEpit… and your favourite song should be played so loud that neighbours you didn’t even COKE you had ask you to turn it down… that’s music, as it should be”. oh, and BUY COKE KIDS.

I dug that quote off the internet, and it's a little different to the one I've seen on TV, but it's close enough to get the general idea.

People used to use rock to rebel against society, but what is to be done when an ad takes it, ruins it, and then tries sell it back to you with a coke using a generalised version of your ideologies? Doesn't sound very rock and roll to me.

At least there is one band that's holding its end up, and that is The D:

Above: Tenacious D create an evil pentagram with David Grohl's assistance.

Well, that pretty much brings you up to the present day.

( iii )

I want rock and roll to mean 'have sex' again. At least that would make it kinda funny: "hey man, you really rock!" translates roughly to, "hey man, you appear to be really enjoying having sex!"

So instead of rocking, I've decided to take my musicianship in a different direction, and start my own genre.

Details pending, once I can come up with a cool name for it.

This ends the lesson on rock and roll.

 

Lesson 5 - Bar Chords

Well, after the abridged history of rock, let's move onto the easiest way to become an average guitar player:

Bar Chords

I hesitate to teach bar chords, because if you've ever heard a musician whinging about someone elses music sucking, it's usually because they aren't as talented and like to complain, but additionally, it's because the guitarists in question are just playing bar chords.

That's because they're so easy! Yes!

The bar chord gets its name because they are usually played in licenced bars by guitarists in pub bands:

Nothing wrong with that though, as you will learn. Here is some major bar chords:

EADGBe      EADGBe      EADGBe

133211       244322        355433 ~only over-serious guitarists get a major bar

Notice a pattern? That's right- it's the same hand position every time, just moved up the fret-board. The first one is Fmajor, the second F#major, the third is Gmajor. And so on. Play it by pressing your index finger flat over all the 1's you see, then arranging the rest of the fingers as you would play an E chord. Practice that for a while, and you now know every simple major chord for every note there is! But it gets better-

EADGBe      EADGBe      EADGBe

X13331       X24442        X35553 ~move the lowest note to one string higher!

All that's changed is that the two has moved up a step so it's all threes. This is because the fifth string is different from the rest. Why is it different? Because this tuning arrangement gives you the most playable open chords. But for now, just change that 2 to a 3. Now you can do bar chords for any notes that are on the two lowest strings.

You want the third string now huh? You don't want it really, do you?

EADGBe      EADGBe      EADGBe

XX1343       XX2454        XX3565 ~that looks strangely like that D chord I learnt...

There you go.

Anyway, that's about all for this week. Stay tuned for next time when we cover your first foray into a different mode- MINOR CHORDS!

It will culminate with you learning your (possibly) second song: Creep by Radiohead. You really need your minor chords with those lads.

 

There is no more lesson below this line:

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