Ultimate Kids Guitar Lessons

Ultimate Kids Chords A Major F# Minor

David — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:53:44 +0000

Ultimate Kids Chords A Major F# Minor

The Key of A Major and the relative key of F# minor contain (3) sharps, which is an F#, a C#, a G# and no flats. This means we have to adjust every F note, C note and G note, by making it sharp or raising is 1/2 step or just one fret.

This means the F on the 1st fret of the 1st string would be played on the 2nd fret. The F on the 3rd fret of the 4th fret would be played sharp or on the 4th fret. Also the F on the 1st fret of the 6th string would be played on the 2nd fret or an F#.

Also the G note played on the 3rd fret of the 1st string would be played on the 4th fret, the G note played open on the 3rd string would be played on the 1st fret and the G played on the 3rd fret, 6th string would be played on the 4th fret, 6th string.

The Key of A Major has 3 chords they are A Major D Major and B Seventh – For short we just call them A D and B7. The relative key is F# minor. F# minor also has 3 chords they are F# Minor, B Minor and C# Seventh – For short we just call them F#m Bm and C#7.

A Major Chords – C# Minor Chords:

Notice that each of the chords is a 4 note chord. Each one includes the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings. We need not play the notes on the 5th and 6th strings until you have memorized these chords and can play them clearly and quickly change between chords. Only then can you play the full-blown 5 or 6 string chords.

Pay special attention to the finger numbers of the left hand in the black dots on the chord diagrams. Also look at the note names below each string and you can see what notes the chords are constructed from – more on that later.

Be sure to place your left hand fingers directly behind the fret in front of your finger. This is the easiest place to press down the string. Also say each chord as you strum it.

The Hardest Chords:

Which chord looks like it may be the hardest to play in this group? Can you guess? Well this group doesn’t have a really hard chord like the F chord of the C Major scale. The Bm and F#7 will probably give you the most trouble with this set of chords.

Try to change between chords smoothly and quickly. Remember when you play rhythm guitar you will have to change between chords in the space of one beat or one quarter note. You cannot pause and make everyone in the band stop while you find your chord.

Therefore memorize these chords very thoroughly and know how to switch between them very quickly. Always try to minimize your left hand finger movement and be as efficient as possible and move as few fingers as possible.

Ultimate Kids Chords D Major B Minor

David — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:12:53 +0000

Ultimate Kids Chords D Major B Minor

The Key of B Major and the relative key of B minor contain (2) sharps, which is an F#, a C# and no flats. This means we have to adjust every F note and C note, by making it sharp or raising is 1/2 step or just one fret. This means the F on the 1st fret of the 1st string would be played on the 2nd fret. The F on the 3rd fret of the 4th fret would be played sharp or on the 4th fret. Also the F on the 1st fret of the 6th string would be played on the 2nd fret or an F#.

Also, the C on the 1st fret of the 2nd string would be played up 1/2 step, or one fret on the 2nd fret. The C on the 3rd fret of the 5th string would be played up 1/2 fret on the 4th fret of the 5th string.

The Key of D Major has 3 chords they are D Major G Major and E Seventh – For short we just call them D G and E7. The relative key is B minor. B minor also has 3 chords they are B Minor, E Minor and F# Seventh – For short we just call them Bm Em and F#7.

D Major Chords – F# Minor Chords:

Be sure to place your left hand fingers directly behind the fret in front of your finger. This is the easiest place to press down the string. Also say each chord as you strum it.

The Hardest Chords:

Month 7, Lesson 2 Text

David — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 13:38:31 +0000

Month 7, Lesson 2: London Bridge – Lead
Source: Guitar Lessons

London Bridge – Lead

“London Bridge” This old fashioned nursery rhyme is still popular with kids and they should be able to play it very easily.

About This Lesson:

The most important point of this lessen is the changing of the keys to play the song through the second time. We start out simply in the key of C major and then shift to the key of D major. This is just called a key change. We do this to create interest and surprise in a song. It keeps your audience interested in your playing. You can do this with any song.

Learning Points:

Play In The Key of D Major:
D Major is one of the most recent keys we have learned. You should review the notes for the scale. The key of D Major has 2 sharps. All F notes are sharp and all F notes are sharp.

Chords in the Key of C Major:
In this lesson, the rhythm chords are located above the notation staff or the top staff. You can pick and strum them. This song is 4 beats per measure.

The key of C Major has 3 chords. The chords are D Major, G Major and A Seventh. For short we call them D, G and A7.

Chords in the Key of D Major:
The key of A Major has 3 chords, just like other keys. The 3 chords are A Major, D Major and E Seventh. For short we call them A, D, E7. These chords will be covered in a future lesson or you can get them from the Kids Chords section.

Change Keys From C to D Major:
Play the first half of the song in C Major and then play the second half in D Major. This is call a key change. You could do the same key change my putting a Capo on the 2nd fret and play in C major again.

About the Tab Notes:

Half way through the song we change from the key of C Major to the Key of D Major. The first part, in C Major, if you remember is a natural key, in that there are no sharps or flats in the key signature.

You can tell that you change to the key of D Major because this key has 2 sharps in it’s key signature. (The key signature is located in the staff

Articles You Should Read:

Dotted Notes
Chords in the Key of D Major
Chords in the Key of C Major
Notes in the D Major Scale
Notes in the C Major Scale

Music Theory You Should Know:

Go to Music Terms for these definitions
Time Signature
Notation Staff
TAB
TAB Staff

Goal #1:
Learn the first half of the song in the key of C major. Memorize it and play it smoothly. Play the rhythm chords too. Make the changes as you follow the chords above the notation. Count with your foot and out loud at first to keep the correct timing.

Goal #2:
Learn the second half of the song in the key of D major. Memorize it and play it smoothly. Play the rhythm chords too. Make the changes as you follow the chords above the notation. Count with your foot and out loud at first to keep the correct timing.

Goal #3:
Understand that the key of C Major has not sharps or flats, unless they are marked on each not.

Also understand that the key of D Major has 2 sharps, as indicated in the key signature. Every C and F is played sharp unless you are shown otherwise.

What You Should Practice This Week:

Play this song very slowly and try to get the timing exactly right, while playing the chords with their correct time value. This wll take you a bit of time and effort, but you will find that it will be worth it. This song sound beautiful when played with the triads and melody note combination.

Help Us Out:

Lastly and most importantly, give us feedback, either good or bad. We want to improve this site and we want kids to learn how to play the guitar. If you have suggestions for us, leave a comment. If you appreciate these lessons, leave a comment on that too.

Songs in Downloadable Format:

If you have difficulty reading this score information, we have this score information available free of charge for you with an instant electronic download. Just click on the song title below and you will be taken to our secure server site. You will get a PDF file of the above score complete with the Tab Notes. Be sure to download Adobe Acrobat Reader v6.0 or above. This version will allow you to turn the Tab Layer on or off.

Also you will get the Guitar Pro file. You can download Guitar Pro and get a free trial so you can play along with this song in real time on your computer. If you upgrade to the full version of the song you will have a lot more features available to you, such as the RSE modules which give you realistic guitar files – they sound just like an Acoustic Guitar.

Guitar Pro File – London Bridge – Lead
Download

PDF File – London Bridge – Lead
Download

Go to London Bridge – Lead, Lesson 7.2 Score

Month 7, Lesson 2 Score

David — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 13:38:08 +0000

Songs in Downloadable Format:
If you have difficulty reading this score information, we have this score information available free of charge for you with an instant electronic download. Just click on the song title below and you will be taken to our secure server site. You will get a PDF file of the above score complete with the Tab Notes. Be sure to download Adobe Acrobat Reader v6.0 or above. This version will allow you to turn the Tab Layer on or off.

Guitar Pro File – London Bridge – Lead
Download

PDF File – London Bridge – Lead
Download

Go to London Bridge – Lead, Lesson 7.2 Text

Month 7, Lesson 1 Score

David — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:05:42 +0000

Guitar Pro File – This Land is Your Land – Lead
Download

PDF File – This Land is Your Land – Lead
Download

Go to This Land is Your Land – Lead, Lesson 7.1 Text

Month 7, Lesson 1 Text

David — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 17:50:16 +0000

Month 7, Lesson 1: This Land is Your Land – Lead
Source: Guitar Lessons

This Land is Your Land – Lead

“This Land Is Your Land” is one of the United States’ most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 based on an existing melody, in response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”, which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent.

Tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on the radio, he wrote a response originally called “God Blessed America for Me”. Guthrie varied the lyrics over time, sometimes including more overtly political verses than appear in recordings or publications.

About This Lesson:

With this lesson, you are going to be introduced to the key of A Major. If you remember, the last key we studied was the key of D Major, which has 2 sharps. Now with the key of A Major there is one more sharp added for a total of 3. The sharp that is added is G#. So A Major has F#, C# and G#.

Learning Points:

Play All The Sharps Properly:
As I mentioned above we are going to play this song in the key of A Major. If you look at the key signature, you will see 3 sharps shown. They are shown as a F#, C# and G# note in the staff. So every time you see one of these three notes in the music, you will have to play it sharp even though the music will not show it. (The key signature tells you to do this).

Tied Notes:
If you look carefully at the music for this song you will see quite a few notes that are ‘tied’ together with curved or arched lines. These are called ‘tied’ notes. They are tied together. When the timing for a note goes beyond the time length of the measure, the note is carried into the next measure and is tied to the note in the previous measure.

Lets say we want to give a certain note 6 beats and we have 4 beats per measure. The only way to do this is to have a whole note in the first measure, which has 4 beats. We then ‘tie’ it to a half note in the next measure, which has 2 additional beats, making a total of 6 beats.

You only play the first whole note too and let it (or them) ring for a total of 6 beats.

Chords in the Key of A Major:
The key of A Major has 3 chords, just like other keys. The 3 chords are A Major, D Major and E Seventh. For short we call them A, D, E7. These chords will be covered in a future lesson or you can get them from the Kids Chords section.

Relative Key of F# Minor:
The minor key that relates to A Major is the key of F#minor. The 3 chords in the key of F#Minor are F# minor, B minor and C# Seventh. For short we call them F#m, Bm and C#7.

About the Tab Notes:

Pay attention to the highlighted chords. I have indicated how long each of your fingers are to remain on the chord forms for each chord. Do not move your Left Hand Fingers, (if you can), before the end of these dotted lines.

Articles You Should Read:

Tied Notes
Notes in the A Major Scale
Moving Your Left Hand Efficiently:

Music Theory You Should Know:

Time Signature
Rest
TAB
TAB Staff
Tied Notes

Goals:

Goal #1:
Understand how tied notes relate to timing. Thoroughly understand the total timing given to tied notes and how they span between measures.

Goal #2:
This song is played in the key of A Major. Know and be able to play the A Major scale and be able to play the chords in the key of A major – They are A, D and E7. Understand which notes are played sharp and why. The notes are all F’s, C’s and G’s. All of these are played as sharp unless the music tells you otherwise (the music could change the sharp to a natural symbol and then the note is played as though it is not sharp).

Goal #3:
Hold the chords played in the lead notation as long as you can. These chord forms should be fingered as soon as the chord designation above the notation indicates.

Also I have added the heavy dotted lines to show you how long your fingers should be held on these chords before removing them for the next chords/notes.

What You Should Practice This Week:

Help Us Out:

Songs in Downloadable Format:

Guitar Pro File – This Land is Your Land – Lead
Download

PDF File – This Land is Your Land – Lead
Download

Go to This Land is Your Land – Lead, Lesson 7.1 Score

Tied Notes

David — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:11:33 +0000

Tied Notes:

When playing from music (notation) you will come across a problem where you need to give a note more time or beats than the measure will allow.

In the example below, you see that we have a whole note. A whole note receives 4 beats. What happens if we want to give that note 6 beats? The tied note comes to the rescue. You will recognize a tied note by a curved line that connects the first note to the second note.

For a tie to work there are some rules that we have to follow.

First – to extend the time value of a note you have to give the first note its’ full time value.

Second – The second note has to be exactly the same pitch as the first. What I mean by this is lets say you want to play a B note that is the open 2nd string. The 2nd note also has to be a B note of the same pitch – or the open 2nd string. This rule is never broken – never.

Third - While not a rule this is a fact. You only play the first note of a tied note. The second notes are never played.

Fourth – You can have more than 2 notes tied together. Really you are not limited by the number of notes. Your are just limited that you only play the first note. Check out the example below to see more than 2 notes tied together.

Fifth – Notes of any time value can be tied together and you are not limited by note value. Check out the example below and you will see many different types of notes tied together. The only thing the tied note does is extend the beats given to a note beyond the limits of the measure that the first note occupies.

Sixth – Notes can be tied together that span between staffs. In the example you will see a the last note in the upper staff has a tie line. That curved line goes to nowhere. But it does go somewhere – this means it is extended to the next staff. Just look at first note of the bottom staff and you will see the second note that the first one is tied to.

Ornamental Notes Are Not Tied Notes:

You will see notes that are tied together that are different pitch, but these notes are played very differently. If you do see notes of different pitch tied together this means that this is an ornamental or otherwise these are called pull-offs, hammer-ons and slides. You can read more about these types of notes in the article,

Ultimate Kids Chords G Major E Minor

David — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:07:40 +0000

Ultimate Kids Chords G Major E Minor

The Key of G Major and the relative key of E minor contain (1) sharps, which is an F# and no flats. This means we have to adjust every F note by making it sharp or raising is 1/2 step or just one fret. This means the F on the 1st fret of the 1st string would be played on the 2nd fret. The F on the 3rd fret of the 4th fret would be played sharp or on the 4th fret. Also the F on the 1st fret of the 6th string would be played on the 2nd fret or an F#.

The Key of G Major has 3 chords they are G Major C Major and D Seventh – For short we just call them G C and D7. The relative key is E minor. E minor also has 3 chords they are E Minor, A Minor and B Seventh – For short we just call them Em Am and B7.

G Major Chords – E Minor Chords:

Be sure to place your left hand fingers directly behind the fret in front of your finger. This is the easiest place to press down the string. Also say each chord as you strum it.

The Hardest Chord:

Which chord looks like it may be the hardest to play in this group? Can you guess? Well this group doesn’t have a really hard chord like the F chord of the C Major scale. The B7 will probably give you the most trouble with this set of chords.

Ultimate Kids Chords C Major A Minor

David — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:54:52 +0000

Ultimate Kids Chords C Major A Minor

The Key of C Major and the relative key of A minor contain no sharps or flats and thus they are considered keys that are all naturals. This means we don’t have to adjust notes with either a flat or a sharp to play the correct note unless it is shown on each individual note in the notation.

The Key of C Major has 3 chords they are C Major F Major and G Seventh – For short we just call them C F and G7. The relative key is A minor. A minor also has 3 chords they are A Minor, D Minor and E Seventh – For short we just call them Am Dm and E7.

C Major Chords – A Minor Chords:

Be sure to place your left hand fingers directly behind the fret in front of your finger. This is the easiest place to press down the string. Also say each chord as you strum it.

The Hardest Chord:

Which chord looks like it may be the hardest to play? Can you guess? Yep it is the F chord. There is a finger placed on each of the 4 strings. Yes the good ‘ol F chord seems like it is always the hardest chord you will play now and for some time to come.

One thing you should be aware of with the F chord is that the first finger pressed down both the first and second string together. This is called a bar chord. Now since it is only pressing down 2 strings instead of 6 strings, it is called a ‘mini-bar’ chord. This may be hard for you to do, but just keep working on it and your fingers will get stronger and you will be able to play it.

The best way to play the mini-bar, is to lay your first finger down flat to cover both strings and press hard. Check to see that you have your finger close to the fret in front of it. Also make sure your right hand thumb in behind the neck and you are not grasping the neck in a death grip.

The A Scale Notes

David — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:18:41 +0000

Key Signature – Key of A Major
Source: Kids Guitar Theory

Notes in the A scale:

We have worked with songs in the C Scale, which has no sharps or flats in the Key Signature and the G Scale, which has 1 F# in the Key Signature and finally we worked in the key of D major which has two sharps – 1 F# and 2 C#. Now we are going to move on to the A Scale which adds one additional sharp to the D Scale, which is the G#. So the Key of A Major has all F’s, C’s and G’s played sharp, unless the music tells us otherwise. We will go over the A Scale notes and have you memorize just where they are and teach you how to play them. Ready? Here they are!

There are 7 notes in the musical alphabet. In the A scale they are A B C# D E F# G# A. When we reach the A note the notes start over again. When we play A through the Second A, it is called one Octave. If we were to play 2 Octaves we would play A B C# D E F# G# A B C# D E F# G# A. So that shows 2 complete octaves from A to A to A:

Look at the diagram above and you will start to understand just where these notes are on the guitar.

So the lower octave of the A scale starts on the 5th string Open and it is played like this;
A 5th String; Open
B 5th String; 2nd Fret
C# 5th String; 4th Fret
D 4th String; Open
E 4th String; 2nd Fret
F# 4th String; 4rd Fret
G# 3rd String; 1st Fret

Then moving on to the next higher octave, you would play the A scale like this:
A 3rd String; 2nd Fret
B 2nd String; Open
C# 2nd String; 2nd Fret
D 2nd String; 3rd Fret
E 1st String; Open
F# 1st String; 2nd Fret
G# 1st String; 4th Fret
A 1st String; 5th Fret

Memorize this scale and be able to play it smoothly and s-l-o-w-l-y. Another good tip is to say each note as you play it to begin memorizing the notes.

Note in this above diagram, we have 2 octaves in the key of A Major. This corresponds to the actual notes shown in the fingerboard diagram above.

Maintaining Your Half Whole Step Patterns:
Are you wondering what the F#s , C#s and G#s are doing in the scale? In music we have certain rules that have to be kept. One of these is that there is a set pattern of half and whole steps between notes and that pattern has to be kept no matter what.

In order to keep the pattern we need to add sharp and flat notes to make the pattern. We won’t go into detail on how to do that here as that is getting into more advanced theory. For right now just know that in the A scale, you will be dealing with three sharps – that is the F# , C# and the G#. Unless told in the music otherwise, you will play every F, C and G as a sharp.

While you are studying this study the TAB staff also, which is the lower staff. Remember that each of these lines represent a string. The top line is the First String and the bottom line is the 6th String. The numbers stand for the fret number that you play for each string. Try to relate each TAB note to the actual notes on the staff and also on the fretboard diagram at the top of the page.