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How To Play THE GUITAR

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printed directly above the note. Play "Oh, Susannah," "Old
Black Joe," "My Old Kentucky Home/ and other similar melo- '
dies, one note at a time, until you are able to pick out the most-
used notes quickly and instinctively—without having to stop
to figure out their location each time.;

Guitar Chords

The guitar is most often used to accompany someone who is
singing or to provide a resonant background for other instru-
ments, as in a dance band. In both cases, the guitar does not
play the melody on single notes, but most often plays a single
note, then a chord, another single note, another chord and so
on.

The greatest fascination of the guitar is learning how to play
as many chords as you can—but take your time about it. First
learn the chords needed to play in the key of C, G (1 sharp),
D (2 sharps), F (1 flat), and B flat (2 flats). These will enable
you to play a very great number of pieces. Later on, you can
add little by little to your collection of chords.

The chords most frequently used for playing melodies in the
key of C and the bass notes with which they are commonly
played are shown in Fig. 36. The names of the chords are
shown by the letters above the staff.

There are three principal chords in each key. The tonic
chord is the ordinary or major chord based on the first note
of the scale. For C chords, this chord is based on the note C.
Major chords are made up of the first, third and fifth notes of
any scale. Thus, G—E—G is a major chord.

The subdominant chord is a major chord based on the fourth
note in the scale. In the key of C, the fourth note is F, so
this chord features the note F.

The third principal chord in each key is the dominant sev-
enth chord. It is based on the fifth note of the scale. In the key
of C, the fifth note is G, and the bottom note of the dominant
seventh chord is G.

In Fig. 36 and those for the other keys, the chords are given
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