It is never too late or too early to learn how to read guitar music. Many guitarist start off by teaching themselves guitar music after studying a piece of music on the radio or on a CD. This is a great starting point and will allow you to understand different notes and cords.

Basic Elements

On a guitar, the tab staff has 6 horizontal lines. Each one of these horizontal lines represents a string on the instrument. The line on the bottom of the staff is the lowest “E” string on the guitar. The next line up from the bottom line represents the “A” string and so on. These are the basic elements when you learn how to read guitar music.

Chords

When your guitar tab displays numbers stacked vertically in a series, this is an indication to play these notes at the same time. When the guitar tab displays numbers in a series gradually on an incline, this is indicating these notes should be played one at a time. These are the first things you should know when you learn how to read guitar music.

Rhythmic notation

Rhythmic notation is how the songs rhythm should be heard when played. When you first learn how to read guitar music you should try songs you can access on a CD or radio so you can hear the rhythm before you commence learning the chords. Hearing the rhythm will make learning much easier.

A Major chord

An A major chord is the first chord you will learn to play and the first chord you will see when you learn how to read guitar music. An A major chord contains only 3 different notes. No more then 3 notes are used in an A major chord and these can generally be repeated more then once.

Discipline

The key when you learn how to read guitar music is discipline. Learning good techniques and having an excellent teacher will ensure you get the most out of your lessons. Once you have learned the basics of guitar music, you will find it easier to progress onto advanced guitar music.

Writing guitar music

When you learn how to read guitar music it is important to watch how the music is written. Take notice of the use of the chords in different sections of the music and take note of how easy the chords flow. When you become more advanced and start to write your own guitar music, these techniques will help you.

One of the first things you will do when trying to learn the guitar is to try and learn the guitar chords and the way it all works.

I remember when I first started learning guitar the hardest thing was trying to learn the guitar chords. So what are the easy to learn guitar chords?

The easiest way to learn guitar chords is through progression and becoming familiar with the structure of the chords. It is easy to learn guitar chords this way and one of the best ways to do this is to start with the E D A D chord structure.

Most people start with those chords as they are a natural progression from one another and are the easiest of the guitar chords to learn.

One thing you need to be careful of as a beginner guitar player is what has been coined as “lockup” and it is very common when trying to learn guitar chords. “Lockup” is when your fingers and arms become tensed and no matter how hard you try to work through it, they just lockup.

This can be because you are trying to tackle complex guitar chords too early and are not used to the finger movements of the easy to learn guitar chords. So it is a very good idea to keep it basic to start with. Otherwise this will only lead to frustration of not being able to play anymore guitar.

What is the ii-V-I method?

Well this is certainly an easy to learn guitar chord and should probably be one of your first chord progressions you learn. When you start learning the ii-V-I chord you will know that you are starting to learn guitar as it actually sounds good and strings together well.

Instead of just plucking random sounds from your guitar.

The type of music most played through this easy to learn guitar chord is jazz or rock and what is called “happy” or “elated” music, this is because of the general melody and feeling that this chord gives.

The only thing I can recommend when learning an easy to learn guitar chord is to practice and when you are sick and tired, practice some more. Yes this may sound old school, that’s because it is, but it is one of the most effective ways to learn guitar chords easy, which will lead to you being able to play the guitar much quicker then expected.