Musical Experience
Listening to music has always been the most enjoyable and uplifting experience for me since my youth. If you sing and accompany yourself with a musical instrument the musical experience reaches a higher level of enjoyment and spiritual uplift. The music I enjoy – rock and roll, pop, jazz and ballad – are mostly played with guitar music.
Play the Music
For me to sing and replicate the music I enjoy, I decided at an early age of about 7 years to learn to play the ukulele. Problem was that my fingers were too small at that age. The closest thing to a guitar that I could play with my small fingers was the ukulele. So, I started to learn to play the ukulele by imitating my friends and relatives who knew how to play it.
By the time I was 9 years old, my fingers were big enough to tackle the guitar.
Transition
Transitioning from ukulele to guitar is simple. The chord fingering for the four string ukulele is the same for the guitar except that you add more notes (or fingers) to utilize the 6 strings of the guitar.
Playing The Guitar
Just like in my ukulele days, I learned to play the guitar by imitating guitar-playing people, buying guitar music literature (only guitar chord diagrams where available at that time)and by experimenting by myself how to form chords or play melodies until I could produce the same musical sound as the music I heard from radio or records.
Playing by Ear
This exercise in experimenting with guitar chords and melodies until one gets the right sound is actually the basis for learning to play guitar by ear.
Once you memorize these sounds and become skillful at playing about 12 guitar chords, you could easily accompany yourself or play with your group in singing most of your favorite songs. Most rock and roll, pop music or ballads can be played with just three to four chords. These same chords can be moved down or up the neck of the guitar with the same fingering to match key changes in the song.
Basic Chords
There lies the beauty and popularity of the guitar. By just learning three to four chords (easily done in an hour), you could already play a good number of popular songs like Happy Birthday, Jingle Bells, Silent Night, La Bamba, Johnny B Goode, Jail House Rock, Blue Suede Shoes, Jail House Rock, Blowing in the Wind, Love Me Do, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Satisfaction, etc. Most rock and roll, blues, country and folk music can be played with just three to four guitar chords.
Imagine yourself being a rock star or country music star like Elvis Presley or John Denver by just playing songs with three to four guitar chords. I was playing guitar and singing like Elvis Presley when I got hooked on the guitar when I was about 9 years old.
Hooked on Guitar
Once you learn how to strum the chords of your favorite songs, you will be hooked with the guitar and be hooked for life.
(About the author: Frank plays pop, jazz and classical guitar. He is in demand for his guitar playing by music bands, friends, the church, for social functions in his community and other venues. A mechanical engineer by profession, he is an entrepreneur, owns his trading company supplying refrigeration equipment for the food and fishing industries. He owns a vast collection of electric and acoustic guitars gathered from his extensive travels in Europe, the USA and Asia.)