Guitar Tricks with Eddie

This week I decided to look more into the basics of guitar playing since I didn’t know much about individual notes and the guitar itself. Previously I had just been shown a few chords I was attempting to put together. When I looked for Guitar lesson websites and videos for beginners, I found a website called Guitar Tricks. This website had different chapters for learning guitar, and the first one was called “Getting Familiar with your instrument.”

This chapter had various parts that I watched through. I started by figuring out the names of each string on the guitar. The notes are E, A, D, G, B, and E from top to bottom. The thicker strings are at the top, while the thinner strings are at the bottom. Each string, as you move lower, has a higher pitch.

I remember from learning Piano as a child that when we were looking at notes, there would always be some saying. For example, in Piano, we would say Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, which is the notes on the lines in the treble clef and in the space that spells your FACE, which was for the spaces in the treble clef. This is the same for guitar, and in the videos from Guitar Tricks, I was introduced to Eddie. This saying was Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie. This saying is meant to help you remember the string names on the guitar.

The next thing the videos taught me was how to tune my guitar. Tuning the dials clockwise would make the guitar pitch go higher, and tuning them counterclockwise makes it go higher. While tuning, turning the dial slightly each time is essential to avoid going too sharp or flat. Also, it is better to tune one string at a time, so you don’t mess up. On the video, they recommend tuning to what they were playing, but I know from experience around guitars that there are many other ways to tune a guitar. You can tune to someone else, to a piano, or use an electric tuner. I have an electric tuner that my mom gave me with my guitar.

The last thing the videos taught me was about the guitar frets. The frets themselves go from left to right and are numbered. When playing a note you need to press your finger on the side of the fret right up against it. Pushing down in the middle of the fret is not correct.

One thing they did mention in the videos that I have already figured out pretty well is that your fingers will hurt. Pushing down on the strings will leave marks on your fingers; for me, they hurt for a day or two afterwards. But from the advice of these videos and the people I know who play guitar, you don’t push down as hard as you get better. More skilled guitar players know how badly they need to push down and develop calluses overtime on the tips of their fingers.