Sungha Jung - Listen to this kid!

I had something else I wanted to write about today, but I will post it some time later. Somebody directed me to view Sungha Jung's videos, and I was hooked. Watch this, and the other videos of this kid.

Basics of Guitar Maintenance

1. Keep the guitar from falling: Don’t leave it leaning on the wall or the edge of a table or some other furniture. For a short while you can leave it lying down on a sofa, table or bed. For longer periods it is best to hang it on the wall.
   


2. It is best to keep the guitar in its case or gig bag. There it will be kept safer from dust or accidental scratches, and also have some protection from temperature and humidity. A hard case is a safer place, but is more expensive and heavier. It is an essential when traveling, but otherwise a gig bag will suffice.
   


3. Don’t expose your guitar to big temperature changes. Normal room temperature (25 °C) is best. Don’t leave you guitar outside in your car exposed to the sun, or near a hot radiator or oven.
   


4. Humidity is the biggest enemy of the guitar, especially guitar neck. A humidity range of 40-50% is best. If your house is constantly dry because of the air conditioning, use a humidifier.
   


5. Change the full set of strings once in two-three months. Don’t remove all strings at once: replace the strings one at a time.
   


6. When replacing the strings, it is a good idea to go over your guitar with a screwdriver and make sure everything is bolted in place. Don’t screw the screws to tight. Also use this time to check your pickups’ batteries if you have active pickups. Get a battery tester for this purpose.
   


7. Clean your guitar body with a soft cloth.
   


8. Clean the fretboard of the guitar from regularly, before dirt builds up. Clean especially the wood between the frets with a clean damp cloth. Make sure the neck does not remain wet after your cleaning.
   


9. Don’t spray any cleaning solution directly on your guitar: Apply it to a cloth and wipe the guitar with the cloth.
   


10. Wipe your guitar strings with a dry cloth after playing.
    


11. When storing the guitar for a long period, loosen the strings to reduce the tension on the guitar neck.
    

Left Handed Guitar Chords

Most guitar beginners’ guides will show you how to play the various guitar chords the way you would play them on a right handed guitar. After a while, you will learn how to translate them automatically in your head to their left handed form, but it would be easier if you had them shown to you ready-made for your left handed way of playing the guitar. I gathered here sources for the left handed beginner learning to play chords on his or her left handed guitar.

In the following link you can find a table of guitar chords for lefties (note you can navigate to more chords by clicking “Next” or “Prev” on the top-right part of this page, immediately on top of the “A Minor” scale).

Youtube also has a lot of short videos showing how to play left handed guitar chords. Especially helpful is a series by Stephen Haendiges teaching how to play a left handed guitar. Here are some of his videos

Playing a G7 Chord:



Playing the B Chord:



Playing a D Chord:



And one more advanced video, showing how play harmonized chords on a left handed guitar




I really recommend this series of teaching videos in youtube. Search in youtube for "stephen haendiges left handed guitar" and you will get the list.

Reading Guitar Tabs

Reading guitar tabs may seem hard for the beginner, but this is not the case at all. In fact, learning to read guitar tabs is quite easy. It is a worth while to invest the small effort that is needed: Once you overcome the first difficulty, a whole new horizon of playing songs with your guitar is opened.

Guitar tabs are composed of 6 lines, representing the guitar strings, and numbers on these lines, representing the frets on the strings. The string lines are ordered from the highest pitch string on the guitar – the “E”, which is actually found on the lower part of the guitar. The second line represents the second lowest string, which is the second highest pitched – the “B”. Line #3 is the “G, #4 is the “D”, line # 5 is the “A”, and line no. 6 represents the lowest pitched “E”, which is the string found on the top of the guitar.

You will sometimes find the numbers 1-6 written to the left of the lines to make it easier to navigate. Other times you will find the letters representing the guitar string notes – the “E” “B” “G” “D” “A” “E”.

The numbers found on each line represent what fret you should be pressing. “0” means the string should be free – you should be playing the string without touching any fret at all. “1” means you should be pressing with your finger the first fret, counting the frets from the headstock of the guitar. The headstock of the guitar is the part of the guitar that has the pieces used in tuning it. So, if the number “4” appears on the 3rd string, the “G”, it means you should be playing the guitar while you are pressing the 4th fret on the 3rd string.

When playing chords on the guitar, you press several strings at the same time. Here is an example of the guitar tab representing the Emajor chord:

E--------0-------
B--------0-------
G--------1-------
D--------2-------
A--------2-------
E--------0--------

When playing the Emajor guitar tab, you would be playing with the two lowest (two highest pitched) strings free, pressing the first fret on the third string, the second fret in the fourth and fifth string, and the sixth string – the one closer to your neck – is also free.

When playing notes, not chords, each note is played separately, so the tabs would look something like this:

E---1------5----------------------
B-----6-4----6------------------
G----------------9--------1-----
D-------------------1-----------
A----------------------8--------
E-----------------------------4-

Meaning: You should first play the lowest E string pressing your finger on the first fret. Than play the second string, while pressing the 6th fret. Than play again the second string pressing the 4th fret. And so on.

That's it! As you can see, reading guitar tabs is really not that difficult.