Guitar Tabs and Guitar Chords – Build Your Knowledge Base and Become a Better Guitarist

As an aspiring guitarist, the road to accomplishment may seem tough to travel as you begin your journey. Knowing where to start can be a large part of the battle when you are new to guitar. Many new students dream of a moment in the spotlight when they will be able to showcase their talent and skill while playing onstage. Some students dream of their first great guitar solo and the accolades it will bring. Soon they realize that dreams of becoming an accomplished guitarist are great but the problem becomes, how does one get there.

It goes without saying that a certain amount of natural skill and talent, which comes from God, is part of the equation. Having conceded this point, it is also very obvious that no matter how talented you are, a certain amount of work and preparation is also a factor. Proper planning, study, practice and execution will make all the difference in success or failure for the aspiring guitar player.

It is important for the new student to study and gain knowledge regarding music theory and how it applies to the guitar. Many resources and publications exist that will provide useful tools for guitarists. Music courses and online resources are a great place to begin.

Two very important tools for the beginner guitarist are guitar tabs and chords charts. Using these tools in tandem can help a new guitar player gain insight into musical structure and theory. More importantly, using both tabs and chords together will help the musician understand the association between music theory concepts and the guitar. Developing skills which revolve around guitar tabs and chords will familiarize the student with the fretboard and teach additional fretboard concepts. Combining guitar tabs and chord studies will help the musician understand key structures, scale structures and also relative key and scale mode variations. Mastering the use of chords and tabs and understanding their relation to the guitar fretboard will prepare the student for solo work as well as playing with other musicians.

Using guitar tabs to map various scale modes on the fretboard will be very beneficial in regard to understanding your lead and melody work on the guitar. Using guitar chords ( i.e. movable chord types, open chords and chord variations ) will be very beneficial for learning the keys of music and their relative keys. Combining the two will give a guitarist the versatility they need to to be a very important part of any musical group or solo effort.

The process of using guitar tabs and guitar chord studies to further your knowledge as a guitarist will take commitment and dedication. Becoming an accomplished guitarist is not something one can do overnight. Taking the time to learn basic music theory will help you lay a foundation which will guide you as a guitar player for the remainder of your life. When the proper foundation is laid in the beginning, the process of becoming an accomplished guitarist will be naturally accelerated.

Free Lesson On Basic Guitar Chords

Understanding Guitar Chords, the Key Element to Mastering the Guitar

Dont get discouraged if youre trying to learn the guitar. Follow the steps below and soon youll be playing your favorite songs by learning basic guitar chords. Once you get a feel for the basic chords, you can go deeper and learn how chords are made of major and minor guitar scales.

Popular Songs Sometimes Only Have Three Chords

Have you ever heard “Wild Thing” or “Louie Louie” and wondered what chords make up these songs? Maybe you havent, but at any rate you might be interested to know that these songs along with “Twist and Shout” and “Hang on Snoopy” are all built from three major chords. They are the A, D, and E chords.

What Exactly is a Chord?

What is a chord? A chord is two or more notes played together. A common type of chord is called a triad, which is three notes played at the same time. With the guitar, you can make chords by strumming, as a minimum, three strings simultaneously to send out three notes or more. Its simple to see that with the guitar having only six strings that the max number of notes in a guitar chord is going to be six.

Basic Chord Types

Now it is important to understand that there are many different variations of chords. Three of the most common types of chords are major, minor, and sevenths. The way in which you use these chords will determine the type of music or mood that you will make. For example, if you need some solemn and meditative chords, use minor chords. If you want a really solid and stable sound, then you will want to be using major chords. If you want a jazzier yet somewhat incomplete sounding chord, you would want to go with seventh chords.

Commonly Used Chords

Just as you would need to know several basic phrases in the case of learning another language, so you will need to learn around 6-16 chords fluently in order to really have a grip on playing the guitar. Some of the most common chords are listed below.

A, G, C, D, E, F, Am, Em, and Dm chords (note: the lowercase “m” next to the letter means that it is a minor chord.)

Get Out your Guitar and Strum Some Chords

Now that we understand the need to learn chords, lets look at what steps there are to help you learn chords.

1. Get a chart of guitar chords and look at where the fingering is for each chord.

2. Start by simply choosing at least two of the basic chords and work on the transition between the two.

3. Make sure that it sounds good. The fact is that if it sounds good you are probably doing it right. (HINT: If it doesnt sound good to you, press down on the strings firmer with your fingers.)

4. Now learn to enjoy playing guitar chords by choosing a few of your favorite songs that have these basic guitar chords and play them until you can sing along. (FYI: Beatles have a great selection of well known songs that use basic guitar chords as the foundation.)

5. Play daily! You must remember that although its hard at first, you are going to make progress and it will become easier to play the guitar by consistently playing it.

6. Practice! Remember guitar practice makes perfect guitar music!

So youve made it this far and youre hungry for more guitar lessons, why dont you check out guitar tabs for beginners Now its Your Turn to Learn the Guitar At any rate, the only way to know that the guitar is for you and your friends is to give it a try. Good luck and maybe this can be one of those things that you can look back on and say, “I am sure glad I learned to play the guitar”

Guitar Lessons

Free Guitar Lessons

Trying to find the right guitar lesson experience? In this world with all kinds of styles of music and bands, finding someone to teach you what you really dream of playing is kind of tough. One person may be more into jazz, one more into rock, one more into blues. It all depends on the individual.

Have you ever had a guitar lesson that just seemed to never end. Your teacher kept going on and on about stuff you never really wanted to learn anyways? A good guitar lesson should be about teaching you to develop what you are passionate about. If youre not passionate about classical guitar styles, then why learn them?

Dont get me wrong a good guitarist is well-versed. This means they can play a variety of styles. But lets be real. The majority of us just want to just pick up a guitar and PLAY! We dont want guitar lesson after guitar lesson of boring theory and stuff that doesnt really help us PLAY!

Anyways, finding the right guitar lesson should be more about finding what YOU like. If you want to play rock music, find a rock guitarist to teach you. If you want to play jazz, find a jazz guitarist. If you want to play classical guitar, then get you some classical lessons.

Guitar is one of the easiest and best instruments to get started on. Its a matter of learning a few chords and going from there. The problem is finding a teacher wholl give you a good guitar lesson that doesnt include all the stuff that really doesnt matter when it comes down to just playing a song.

It may be hard to find free guitar lessons. Most teachers wont offer free guitar lessons. If you can find one thats great. I recommend finding an online alternative if youre just itching to get started.

Ive seen some good online sites come and go. If you can find a good online guitar lesson site that is inexpensive youre doing well! Why? Because you can learn at your own pace and learn what you want to learn.

Information about these sites can be found at any search engine and most offer nice programs. Some are even membership based. My suggestion is to decide what it is exactly that you want to accomplish with your playing and then choose the program thats good for you.

Many of these sites offer comprehensive chord lessons and finger-picking technique courses that will enhance your skills as you progress. They also offer chord sheets and finger placement charts as well. You should be able to download a small application or set of pdfs/docs that include all this info, if the site is set up well.

Learn Guitar Fast Online – The Good and The Bad

There are several websites that provide guitar lessons, some even for free. The modules are usually designed by guitarists that have already found success in music and are now trying to provide some useful tips to beginner guitar players. There are both advantages and disadvantages if you want to learn guitar fast online. The Good

Many of us dont necessarily want to learn to play the guitar like pros. They just want to learn a few chords to play at campfires and impress their friends or family with their music playing skills. These people are not interested in investing time and money into a more complete learning program, such as private guitar lessons. For them, being able to learn guitar fast online is a great thing.

Even if you would like to learn how to play the guitar well, you might not have the time and resources to do it. If you have a job, a family and various errands to run every day, traveling back and forth to guitar classes might not be for you. Being able to learn guitar fast by practicing whenever you find some free time without having to leave the house is a good thing.

Online lessons are often more dynamic and successful in keeping you focused than a theory book. They usually include graphics, animated images and demo sounds to make it easier for you to learn. If you get stuck, you usually can ask the guitarist providing those lessons for help.

And last, but not least, online guitar lessons are very inexpensive, sometimes even free. In contrast, private lessons are often expensive and you have to pay per hour. Not everyone wants to invest so much money into learning to play the guitar.

The Bad

As tempted as you might be to learn guitar fast online, you have to consider the drawbacks as well. If you are serious about playing the guitar, nothing compares to a good teacher. Online lessons can only provide a standard teaching program, while a teacher can tailor his/her method on your learning style. Online lessons can not actually focus on your particular learning needs. You might want to focus more on certain aspects, but a teaching program is standard and tries to respond to the needs of average guitar players. In contrast, a private teacher will give you personal attention and respond to your specific needs.

With online lessons, no one will applaud you when youre progressing and get you motivated. A private teacher can provide you with positive feedback and knows how to increase your motivation when necessary.

Finally, you might be making some mistakes you wont even notice and end up playing badly. With online lessons, no one will be there to correct them. A private teacher will spot your mistakes fast and correct them in time before they turn into long-term habits.

If you want to truly learn to play the guitar well, it might be better to dedicate a little more time and work to the learning process. However, for many people who dont want to become superstars or dont have the time to do it, the opportunity to learn guitar fast online is actually great.

The First Step and Most Important Thing in Learning Guitar

Most of the guitar lovers playing guitar for few years but still unsatisfied with their progress.They feel like still stand at the starting point and cant enjoy their playing.This mainly caused by most of them dont build up a strong foundation at the begining.I found that some of the guitar learners even just playing guitar for one to two years but are more better than so many that playing for over five years.This is the foundation problems.Me myself as an example when I started playing guitar long time ago.

The secrets of learning guitar are mostly based on the foundation.To have a good foundation for future success,we need to consider three important factors :-

1.Listening :

Ear training is a MUST basic training that every guitar learner should have.But most of them avoid this as quite a boring and time-consuming job.Without a good listening,we are unable to move to higher level. To overcome this problem,I suggest that guitar learner may choose one of the well-known Ear-Training software on Internet.I found that there are few really good software that train your listening step by step and really FUN.You feel like playing game when you learn.

2.Daily Practice : (Both fingers and ears)

Daily practice is another thing we should do.(Ex.Fingers exercises,practice for the basic scales) I suggest that beginners practice PENTATONIC SCALE at the starting point because this scale is the most simple scale that only have five tones.Try to practice 20 to 30 minutes daily.Remember that even 20 minutes daily practice is more effective than few hours of unconstant practice.Relax and concerntration are important.

3.Look for a teacher :

You may find either private guitar teacher or guitar lessons on internet.For my opinions,learn guitar from internet may be better because of the convenience of time and much cheaper.There is just one question of learning from internet that what lessons to choose,what lessons are really work.Myself as a guitar lover have been playing guitar for 15 years.I do the research on guitar lessons from internet over 5 years for myself and my groups and Ive spent a lot of money for it. Recently I just built up my own little web page telling guitar lovers a few guitar lessons that really work and would like to share with all of you.

Learning to Play Guitar With the Help of a Guitar Chord Dictionary

In the world of learning to play music it always help first to know some facts about music. These facts can be found in various places but it always helps if you can find them in one place. For people interested in playing guitar looking through a guitar chord dictionary is a great help and will also be an asset later on.

Besides helping you to know what the various chords are, a guitar chord dictionary can show you how each finger needs to be placed for the different chords. This placement instruction can be in the form of a picture with a brief instructional description, or it can be in the form of step-by-step images of finger placement without any description.

Other than telling you how to place your fingers on the guitar to achieve this chording, the guitar chord dictionary will show you the different musical forms that you will be able to use this chord in. You will also be informed about the other chords which complement the chord that you are learning about.

While this is an important part of the guitar chord dictionary it is not the only aspect of this dictionary. As with most other dictionaries this dictionary too will give you definitions. In this case however the definitions are not about words but about guitar chords.

The guitar chord dictionary is a very useful item to have in your possession and there are different ways you can get your hands on this book. One such way will be in the various bookstores that are in your neighborhood. The library is also a another great place to look for this type of dictionary.

You can also use the internet to find different forms of this guitar chord dictionary. From the internet you will also be able to access an online guitar chord dictionary to find the various chord information that you want.

Additionally, all of these different dictionaries will have a vast number of chords and their musical notations placed in a format which will make it easy for you to find the chord you want.

The information which is provided in the various guitar chord dictionary forms are all designed for guitar players of all levels to be able to access. With the help of a guitar chord dictionary you will soon be able to recognize the different forms of chording that are used in the various styles of guitar music.

When you are fully conversant with this knowledge your playing ability will be able to increase. To have this benefit opened up to you the best thing that you can do is to see the information you require from a guitar chord dictionary.

The Easy to Understand Instructions in the Guitar for Dummies Manual

As people like to learn various new subjects there are many different instructional methods that can be found on the market. For the various people who have either no time to take lessons or for those who want an easy way to play guitar there are books and CDs for them to learn from. And one of the better sources for learning guitar is called Guitar for Dummies.

Guitar for Dummies comprises of easy to understand instructions that will provide you with the base on which you can build your guitar playing skills. When you look at one of these books you may want to see if you can understand the different lessons which are given.

Since these lessons will progress from the easy to medium level player ability it is best if you can go through each lesson and practice what you have been shown. This reading of the material and the practice runs will help you to understand the various terms and notations that are used not only with your Guitar for Dummies edition but with the other guitar music and products that you may buy.

Before you do go ahead and buy one a Guitar for Dummies book, you may need to see the price of the various guitars as well, as you will need to buy a guitar to learn to play.

You will find that there is a relatively inexpensive choice of guitars from which you can choose your first guitar, and which can help you to play the various lessons that are given in your Guitar for Dummies book without having to worry about the price of the guitar or what to do with it if your interest wanes.

Since this is a distant possibility you may want to buy a good quality yet inexpensive guitar for you to practice your playing skills. You can then go through the many different lessons in your Guitar for Dummies book at your own pace. And if youre feeling adventurous, you can also experiment with the many different lessons in the book.

Once you have gone through these various lessons from your Guitar for Dummies book and you are comfortable playing your guitar to a very great extent, you can then begin to look for other courses or books that will help you learn the basics of advanced guitar playing.

This can in turn lead you to greater things and in time you might find that you have outgrown your Guitar for Dummies book. This doesnt mean however that you should discard it, as it might still come in handy in ways that you never imagined, later on.

The Art Of Practicing The Guitar

I have always believed that success, in practically any subject you can think of, is a direct result of “clear thinking”. That is, the ability to understand very clearly what needs to be achieved and the action to set about surmounting very necessary hurdles in order to reach those goals. Less than successful people are either not clear in their goals or for one reason or another give up along the way. Its leveling that rough terrain, along with a clearly defined end result in mind that will get you there in the end. The success roadmap might go something like this:

Visualize goal => Surmount problems => Score

Sounds simple doesnt it? However, this clear thinking is all very well but its usually the thought required before step 1 (visualization) that causes problems. Very often the goal does not manifest in mind because the process is so overwhelming.

And so it is with practicing the guitar, or any instrument for that matter. In more laymens terms its more like “What the hell should I be practicing?”.

Practice is a constant struggle for many people. There is so much to learn and often so little time to allocate to it. For the jazz musician, clear thinking can be as simple as “I really like that Charlie Parker 2, 5 – how does he do that?”. Then transcribing the line, practicing it in all keys and working the phrase into your own vocabulary. The score as I like to call it is the ability to work it in to your own playing. I want to talk a little about that in a minute.

First, I think the most important thing to talk about is how to make best use of your practice time. There was a time when I started playing where I used to sit in my room and allocate 15 minutes to practicing scales and arpeggios, 10 minutes on technique exercises, 20 minutes on sight reading and 1/2 an hour on practicing my classical guitar repertoire. Why? because my teacher told me I had to. Years later once I started to study jazz guitar on my own I didnt feel the need to be practicing this way. It wasnt really benefiting me fully. I started to have my own goals in mind that I wanted to reach. I wanted to learn to play like one or two of my heroes, but more importantly because I liked what they played. Even more under the microscope were certain melodic lines and licks that tweaked my ear and fueled me to transcribe or simply copy the way they phrased or felt a phrase. Once I clearly had in mind what I wanted to achieve I could go about achieving it – I knew what I had to do.

Its important to sit down to practice and be really clear about what you are going to do during that practice time. Now, one thing that helped me tremendously was when I made a huge commitment to scheduled practicing. In other words, deciding that every single day, no matter what, I would sit down and dedicate exactly one hour to working at this instrument. The amazing thing I found is that my regularly scheduled practice literally fueled my regularly scheduled practice! Does this make sense? What this means is that, the more I practiced, the more I wanted to practice. What started out as a committed hour turned into committed six hour sessions. Once I got into music college in London I remember waking up in the morning and practicing until I went to bed at night, remembering to eat on occasion. I was so fueled by the commitment to practice that the drive to play took over completely.

Regular practice clearly keeps your guitar technique on tip top form. Theres nothing like picking up the guitar and playing a few short runs and being on top of your game, simply because you are playing regularly.

The other wonderful thing about committing to regular practice is that it actually helps you to think much more clearly, because you start to see results. Once you start to see results the concept of learning is much less overwhelming and you are able to make decisions about what you want to work on much more easily.

So do yourself a huge favor, first, make the decision to want to get much better at your guitar playing. Then once you have decided that, make a clear commitment right now and allocate a certain time of day to your guitar practice. If you only have limited time then give yourself what you know you can afford. Once you get your teeth into this system, if you dont have more time, trust me you will want to find more time. You might just want to wake up earlier. The drive to learn will take over.

Quality practice is key. I find now I am older that, if I let myself, I can get more and more distracted because there are so many other facets to my life. When I make the decision to focus 100% on my guitar problems and how I can surmount them, I find I can get completely absorbed for hours once I get going. Sometimes it helps to avoid those distractions from the outset. Maybe turn the phone off!

There is a huge difference between playing the guitar and practicing the guitar. I can play for days quite happily but am I learning anything new? Not unless I stop myself and work on my weaknesses. And there are plenty of those trust me! Many years ago I wanted to learn licks from my favorite players. I would hear a line and transcribe it. Many times I found that those musical phrases would not come out in my playing and I asked myself why. It dawned on me that there were three possible reasons:

1) I found the phrase too technically difficult to pull off. 2) It just didnt feel like it belonged in my vocabulary. 3) I hadnt fully explored the idea enough – perhaps I didnt fully understand how to use it in a practical sense.

Lets talk about these briefly.

Sometimes a horn line does not necessarily fit under the fingers on the guitar. The line might sound just terrific on a sax but if I cant play it on my guitar its not going to have the same effect. In fact quite the opposite! Everyone is somewhat limited technically (although there are a few players that keep my head scratching I must admit!), every player has a ceiling in their own mind and I think its perfectly OK to let some things go because they are just two gymnastic on the guitar. Its of course relative to each players ability and comfort zone.

Occasionally Ill try and work something into my music vocabulary and it just doesnt feel like me. Some players sound great playing certain things and when I play them them they either sound too much like that other great player or I just dont feel it. Music has to be personal, its OK to weed out stuff that you dont want to use, even when those weeds are a rose garden to others.

The last idea is something very important I think. That is the idea that when you work on some new vocabulary or a new harmonic idea, that you fully understand how to use it and just as importantly, how to work it into your playing so it comes out naturally. Lets assume you are transcribing a lick on a CD you like. The first thing to do is to make sure you get the notes right. You might slow it down (there is plenty of software on the market that enables you to do this now). Whatever it takes, make sure the notes you are transcribing are correct. Then it is a matter of practicing that phrase so it feels good when you play it.

Now most folks stop right there and wonder why the phrase never shows up in their playing. The secret is to figure out exactly what chord (or group of chords) is being played underneath that line. After that, figure out what other chords could also be played underneath that phrase. Next, learn how to play that phrase everywhere on the fretboard, in different positions and keys. Finally and the most important, work the phrase into your own playing. To do this, start by improvising in any way that you normally might and focus on ways to connect that new phrase you want to play. The new phrase starts on a certain note and you will need to focus on that starting note in order to make a connection to it. Practice improvising freely and connecting to that new phrase, focusing on its starting note. Do this in all keys. Pretty soon you will know if the phrase is going to come out into your playing or not.

The art of practice is a huge subject and musicians have written complete books on it. But I do believe the real success starts with clear thinking. Make a decision to focus on something specific. Here is a more detailed roadmap to take on board:

1) Visualize. What do you want to work on – what do you want to achieve? 2) Plan. What exactly do you have to do in order to achieve that goal? 3) Action. Explore the subject in enough detail. 4) Surmount. Expect problems along the way – this is normal – dont give up! Just level the terrain. 5) Score – making sure that the subject is fully absorbed and part of your new musical make up, unless you decide otherwise.

Great players really got to grips with practicing in the early stages. It became fascinating to them and the results they saw fueled more practice. Its a self perpetuating phenomenon. By simply not practicing, the incentive to pick up your instrument diminishes over time. Then the excuses start to pour out in torrents. Then regrets. Then a very dusty guitar possibly in a dark attic somewhere.

Get practicing. Quality practice. Ask yourself questions. Look for the answers. Insist on results. This is the key to improving.

Basic Guitar Chords: How to Easily Master the Guitar Chords You Must Know

One of the first challenges faced by the advancing guitar player is learning a core group of basic guitar chords. Why is it so important to learn these basic chords? Chords form the backbone of most rock and pop songs, and provide the harmonic accompaniment to the melody and instrumental solos.
Rhythm guitar based on basic chords provides many of the most memorable rock riffs… think AC/DC’s “Back in Black” or The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. What’s really amazing is that by learning no more than 10 to 15 basic guitar chords, you will be equipped to play thousands of rock and pop songs!

First let’s establish the definition of a chord. A chord is three or more different musical notes played together. In the case of the guitar, this means that at least three strings are strummed or plucked simultaneously to sound three or more notes. Since the guitar has six strings, the maximum numbers of notes in a guitar chord is six. All chords can be placed in one of three groups based on the musical structure of the chord: Major, Minor, or Seventh. Each of these chord groups has its own “sound” or “feel”. Major chords sound stable and complete. Minor chords can evoke a more somber or pensive mood, and Seventh chords are jazzy and somewhat incomplete sounding.

There is no standard list of “basic guitar chords” that every one agrees to. However, there is general agreement that there is a list of somewhere between 8 and 18 basic guitar chords (open string) that every guitarist must know cold. These chords are used in all musical styles from rock and pop to country, jazz, and classical. No matter where you are on your guitar-playing path, you should take the time to learn and master the basic chords. Getting these right will ensure you have the basic tools and skills to learn many songs and increase your playing enjoyment.

So what are the basic guitar chords? Our basic stable includes the major and minor chords from four common musical keys, A,G,C, and D. They are played as “open chords”, that is at least one string in the chord is not fretted (pressed down with a finger). Open chords are easier to learn and play than more advanced chords such as Barre chords, or complex chords further up the guitar neck. Our list of basic major and minor chords is:

A Major (or A), A Minor (or Am), C, D, Dm, E, Em, F, G

These chords can be best learned as chord “families” (by key) that can be combined into great-sounding chord sequences that make up lots of popular songs. Using this chord family approach is much more interesting and useful than just memorizing a bunch of chords in random order!

These chords grouped by chord family (key) are as follows:

A Family (Key of A): A, D, E
D Family (Key of D): D, Em, G, A
G Family (Key of G): G, Am, C, D, Em
C Family (Key of C): C, Dm, Em, F, G

Tips for Learning the Basic Chords:

1. Pick a Chord Family and master it. This will give you quick success and let you play great sounding progressions right away.

2. Use a Guitar Chord Chart as a reference tool. A chord chart shows each chord as an easy to read “chord diagram” with exact finger positions. See this example of a chart of basic guitar chords.

3. Find the chords and lyrics for an easy song that is based on the chord family so you can apply your skills. Many great songs are based on only three chords!

4. Ensure each string sounds right. Take care to make sure that each string is sounding clearly, and that only the strings that should be played are played.

5. Practice, practice, practice! Every day, practice continually change from one chord to another until you can do it rapidly. Learn the chord families one at a time.

6. Master all the basic chords first. Only then move on to Barre chords and other more complex chords. First things first!

7. Expand with 7th chords. As a next step you can easily expand on your basic chord knowledge by adding 7th and minor 7th chords based on the nine basic major and minor chords.

8. Have fun using your new skills! Enjoy your musical ability by applying it to learning a small set of 5-10 songs you know really well and can confidently play at any time.

Guitar Tablature: Learn To Play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star With Guitar Tab

Even if you haven’t played guitar tablature before you can impress or maybe shock your friends by playing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Let’s start playing guitar tab!

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is a popular English nursery rhyme with the French melody Ah! Vous dirais-je, Maman. You can play this song on the first three strings on the guitar.

The text is from a poem, “The Star”, by Jane Taylor. It was first published in 1806. Here you have the English lyrics:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!

We will use guitar tablature so you will not need to read sheet music. You will only use the thinnest strings on the guitar. The string with the highest pitch is called the first string or E-string. Look at the following guitar tab:

1. 0-0-0-0—————–
2. ——–1-1-1-1———
3. —————-2-2-2-2-

This is a tablature staff and the four number 0 indicate that you play the first string four times without pressing down any finger on your right hand. This is called to play on an open string.

The four number 1 coming after is played on the second string pressing down your first finger on the first fret. Then you will play the third string four times pressing down the string on the second fret. This is what the previous guitar tablature notation is telling you.

Let’s play the first notes of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star with guitar tablature:

1. ————0–0————————–
2. ——3–3——-3—-1–1–0–0———-
3. 0–0—————————–2–2–0–

If you want to use your left hand in a professional way you can play the guitar tab notes on the first fret with your first finger, notes on the second fret with your middle finger and the notes on the third fret with your ring finger.

Now it’s only one guitar tablature part left:

1. 3–3–1–1–0–0—–
2. ——————3–
3. ———————

After having played this part twice, go back and play the first guitar tablature part and the melody is complete.

Now when you understand guitar tablature notation you can find many songs written this way on the internet. Search for guitar tab or guitar tablature. A complete guitar tablature staff has six lines representing the six strings.

If you have an ukulele hanging somewhere you can use the previous tablature too. The first three strings on an ukulele is tuned the same way as on the guitar.

Just one more thing for you to do. Play the song for your friends! Good luck!