Greenish Onions

The bass riff (arranged for guitar) is fairly easy.

The lead part is mostly based around the 2nd shape of A minor pentatonic. It’s mostly sparse, so it’s easy to play if you can do it by ear. If you have trouble with the faster parts — slow it down!

Note that the lead score is on the bass tab. (Yes, I should have done it the other way round!).

Here’s the powertab file for Greenish Onions.

Nursery Rhymes

I forget which ones now, but here’s a powertab file of nursery rhymes for beginning guitarists.

Single string study in Am

Here’s another single string study. There are some heavy metal riffs based on this kind of idea (eg: Yngwie Malmsteen), but they require higher tempos. The MIDI files here are all at 85bpm, but you can change that with Anvil. (See blogroll). Start slow and work your way up to as fast as you can go! Malmsteen would manage 140-150 no problem.

MIDI for first variation — playing triplets. This will teach you the position changes. Those changes are the same in all three variations.
Second Variation — 16th notes. At the same tempo, so harder to play because there are four notes per beat rather than three.
Final Variation — a 2 bar phrase is used through the chords. Only a little harder than the second variaiton, but only until you get the phrase under your fingers.

ABC exercise

The fretboard isn’t set out as obviously as the piano keyboard. It takes a little more effort to learn the names of all the notes. And you should start as early as possible.

The open strings are (low to high) EADGBE

The note A can be played on each string. This ABC Exercise plays the phrase ABC on each string. You could play a longer phrase, building up to the whole A minor scale.

Notice where the octave is (second example on the TAB file). On the lower strings, the octave is two strings and two frets across. On the D and G strings, the shape is a fret longer. This is a very important shape, and knowing it will help you learn where all the notes are.

Obviously, this exercise can be adapted to different phrases. ABC is a very easy phrase, since the left hand does the same in each position.

Tuning notes

Starting with the top E-string — (ie: the thinnest, hightest in pitch). These are all MIDI files, btw.

1st string E
2nd string B
3rd string G
4th string D
5th string E
6th string E

I’ve tried to find a software tuner that would work via microphone/line-in. But no luck so far.

Nursery Rhymes

These are arranged to be played on a single string. The advantage there is that the guitar doesn’t need to be tuned! So it’s very good for beginners.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Old McDonalds
London’s Burning

Off Beat Study

The rhythm guitar part has been kept very simple here. The aim is to practice playing off the beat. There is only one strum per chord and, except for the first, all strums are on an off-beat. If you keep your hand swinging up and down, those off-beats would be strummed on an up-stroke. However, the style requires down-strokes for all chords. So aim for that after you have the timing clear in your head.

The chords are easy too. There are no string changes and the same shape is played throughout, so just concentrate on where your first finger lands.

Basically,
D5 and Bflat5 for 2 bars each with C5 played between.
The phrasing (and drum track) is taken from Bruce Dickinson’s “Cyclops”, while the chords are the “All along the watchtower” chords in the key of Dm.

The lead guitar is played muted.
The riff idea was originally based on the final part of Iron Maiden’s “Genghis Khan”. But I didn’t want to post an out-right copy in the MIDI file. So I’ve changed it, playing the riff kind of back to front and added an extra bit at the end. But the original works too. (If you change the key to Dm)

In either case, it does go at a moderate tempo which I wouldn’t expect a beginner to be able to manage.

Here’s the TAB file and the MIDI file for Off Beat Study.

Famous First Chords

The rhythm guitar part has been kept very simple here. The aim is to practice playing off the beat. There is only one strum per chord and all strums are on the last 8th note of the bar. If you keep your hand swinging up and down, those off-beats would be strummed on an up-stroke. However, the style requires down-strokes for all chords. So aim for that after you have the timing clear in your head. The lead guitar riff should help to get the timing right.

The chords are taken from My Chemical Romance’s “Famous Last Words”. They’re just played differently. But in the same order.

D5, C5, Bflat5, A5
G5, A5, Bflat5, C5

The lead guitar part isn’t too difficult. I’d classify it as intermediate.

The riff began as one of those from Iron Maiden’s “Fear of the Dark”. The changes are to play the A-note an extra time (makes the riff a little harder to recognise) and a different ending. Also, the bass note at the beginning of the riff changes to match the chords.

Here’s the MIDI file for Famous First Chords. And the TAB file, which gives chords and the lead riff.

Auld Lang Syne

TAB for the melody of Auld Lang Syne. It’s arranged so that it includes plenty of open strings — great for beginners.