Stop 6 of 6
First notes and first fingers
Open strings, fretting a clean note, the chromatic spider and your first riff.
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Stop 6 of 6
Open strings, fretting a clean note, the chromatic spider and your first riff.
You know your guitar, you can sit with it, hold the pick, tune up and read tab. Now it's time to make music. At this stop you'll play the open strings with intent, fret clean notes, put all four fingers to work with the chromatic spider, move the pick down and up and, finally, play your first riff. It's the longest stop at the camp because it's the one with the most playing: take it slowly and come back to it over several days.
An is one that sounds without pressing anything. It looks like the easiest thing in the world, but playing it well takes some care: you have to hit the right string without brushing its neighbours, give every string a similar volume and land right on the beat. Listen to this little melody made only of open strings:
Pay attention to three things as you play it:
Now the fretting hand. Pressing a string shortens the vibrating part (it now runs from the fret to the saddle) and the note goes up. For it to ring clean, the string has to sit firmly on the fret, not on the wood. That's why where you put your finger matters so much:
The recipe for a clean note:
Try the 6th string at the 3rd fret with finger 3. Each note lasts one beat; listen for all four to ring equally clean:
The string vibrates between the fret holding it and the saddle; your finger only pushes it down. The closer to the fret you push, the shorter the stretch of string that has to bend to reach the metal, so you need less force and the string sits firmly. Press in the middle of the space and the string is left "loose" near the fret and vibrates against it: buzz. Press on top of the fret and your flesh damps the vibration: a dead note. For the same reason, pressing too hard pulls the note sharp: you stretch the string down against the wood.
On guitar you hardly ever use just one finger. The basic way to organise your hand is : you put your hand over a four-fret area and each finger looks after one fret. With your hand at the 5th fret:
String 6, Fret 5: A2 · 1 · Scale tone
That way you reach four consecutive notes without moving your hand. Hear them on the 1st string; the numbers below are fingers:
Two tips to keep your hand in place:
The chromatic spider is the most famous warm-up exercise on guitar. It's named that way because your four fingers "walk" along the neck like a spider's legs and because it moves one semitone at a time (that is, chromatically, from the Greek chroma, colour). Play frets 5-6-7-8 with fingers 1-2-3-4 on each string, from the 6th to the 1st:
And back again, from the 1st string to the 6th, with fingers 4-3-2-1:
So far you've played everything with the pick going down (↓). But when notes get faster, going down, coming back up without playing and going down again wastes half the motion. The fix is to use the return trip: down, up, down, up. That's .
The rule to start with is simple: when you count eighth notes (two notes per beat, "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and"), notes on the numbers go down and notes on the "and" go up:
Now combine it with the fretting hand. One note per finger, two strokes per note:
Strict alternation turns your picking hand into a clock: on eighth notes, the downstroke always lands on the beat and the upstroke always on the off-beat. The rhythm then rests on the motion itself and you don't have to "think" every note. Alternate picking gets its own stage later (The Lead Hills), where you'll learn to use it across strings and at higher speeds.
A is a short phrase that repeats and gives a song its personality. This one, written for the journey, is played on a single string, the 6th, with three positions: open, fret 2 (finger 2) and fret 3 (finger 3). Listen:
The notes are E, F♯ and G. Learn the riff in three levels:
First, the riff's "skeleton": one note per beat, all downstrokes. It lets your fretting hand learn the moves without worrying about rhythm.
Now with its real rhythm. Eighth notes are played down-up, quarter and half notes down. The arrows show you:
The same shape on the 5th string (A, B, C) and back home. Same frets, same fingers: only the string changes.
Once you've got it, play it over this Em backing. The backing lasts four bars: room for two loops of the riff, or one of level 3.
Press just behind the fret, with the fingertip and minimum pressure. If a note buzzes, stop, fix it and repeat that string.
Goal: Play fret 3 with finger 3 on all six strings, four times each, without a single buzz at 60 BPM.
Use the two tabs from The chromatic spider, one after the other, one note per click, all downstrokes. When you play it clean three times in a row, raise the metronome 5 BPM or try two notes per click with alternate picking.
Fingering & coordinationChromatic spiderOne finger per fret across all strings for independence, accuracy and hand synchronisation.Goal: Play the spider up and down (12 bars) without stopping and with no buzz at 60 BPM; then go up 5 BPM at a time.
Play the open 1st string in eighth notes: down on the number, up on the "and". Count out loud "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and". When it's working, switch to the 2nd and 3rd strings.
Goal: Play down-up eighth notes on an open string for one minute at 70 BPM, at the same volume in both directions.
Goal: Play level 2 of the riff eight times in a row over the backing at 80 BPM without losing the beat.
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