| A general tip is that, you should always start practicing | | | | first learn the musical theory and the standard musical |
| the songs slowly, especially if it is a fast song and then | | | | notations and then couple them with the tabs.. |
| gradually increase the speed and try to match up with | | | | Learning by hearing - You can also learn a song by |
| the song speed. This will not only improve the dexterity | | | | listening to it from a record or from your tutor or from |
| and strength of your left and right fingers but also will | | | | a concert video. Though learning by ear might sound |
| help you play any song with perfection. | | | | hard a bit hard, it is a lot easier to do it. But for making |
| If you are looking forward to learning a song from a | | | | things really easier it is very much recommended to |
| heavy metal or a hard core rock band with difficult | | | | know the scale and music theory in general i.e. musical |
| lead segments then I would suggest you to learn the | | | | notations and tabs, how to read them and most |
| shredding methods. Shredding consists of a set of | | | | importantly to build scales and chords. Since chords |
| playing styles that is used in different combination in a | | | | are built from various degrees or notes on a scale, you |
| song and in the lead segments played on the guitar. | | | | must know how to build scales first. If you know these |
| Usually you will find shredding widely being used in | | | | basic things, learning by ear is just a walk in the park. |
| Rock n' roll, Heavy Metal and blues and It includes | | | | Scale or Chord Theory - I will quickly introduce you to |
| different types of picking, tapping, arpeggios and scale | | | | one of the basic scales in music and will show you |
| usages. | | | | how chords are derived from it. |
| Now I will give you a brief understanding of different | | | | So let's take the most basic diatonic scale - C Major. |
| methods to learn to play songs on your guitar. They | | | | The notes in this scale are |
| are, | | | | C - 1st note - Tonic |
| * Tabs | | | | D - 2nd note - Supertonic |
| * Learning by hearing | | | | E - 3rd note - Mediant |
| Tabs - Tablature or Tab is the most popular method | | | | F - 4th note - Subdominant |
| used for learning songs. You can either buy them from | | | | G - 5th note - Dominant |
| a musical store or you can find thousands of them on | | | | A - 6th note - Relative minor |
| the internet. But the ones you get from an authentic | | | | B - 7th note - Leading note |
| guitar course or musical store will be more perfect | | | | C - 8th note - Octave |
| than the amateur ones that you find on the internet. | | | | The chord progressions of a typical song is usually built |
| Tabs usually provide you the notes and also show you | | | | from the Tonic, Sub-dominant and the Dominant notes |
| how to play them, by representing the fret and position | | | | of a scale. So if we apply the same chord progression |
| on your guitar. And It will contain both the rhythm part | | | | on the above scale we will have the chords C Major, |
| and lead segment, mostly printed on the same page. | | | | F Major and G major chords respectively. But there is |
| If you are completely new to tabs, then there is a | | | | no strict rule as such and you can surely use any |
| certain level of learning associated with it. In order to | | | | combination of degrees in that scale to build a chord |
| make things easier, I would highly recommend you to | | | | progression. |