This is a pattern my friend Nome taught me, it is a very good start for
beginners, a simple guide to get anyone started with playing guitar. Only
play on these strings for now and the rest you can practice once you get a
hang of this. Only play with the notes shown.

E|--2-3---5---
A|--2---4-5---
D|--2---4-5---
G|--2---4---6-

Alright so this is really hard to get down but now there is more to learn,
a lot more. Sure everything you play on this sounds good but that's just
the basic format for anything really. There are a lot more complexities
that I will describe now and later on in this text. Like this figure.

E|2-3-5-7-8

So you should see how you may progress with knowing this but now it gets
even weirder in this figure.

E|2-3-5-7-8

Try going from 8 to 4 in this pattern. 2-3-5-7-8-4. Now you should see how
you can continue with this. After 4 you can go to 2 or 5, and now you're
back where you left off, now we must deal with other strings.

Okay so 7 on E is the same note as 2 on A, to further continue I will now
refer to notes as A3, D5, E2, etc...

E3 is equivalent to A10
A3 is equivalent to D10
D3 is equivalent to G10

Don't follow this though, you should always stay in an area which consist
of 4-5 frets when composing a riff. This is just a way of showing you
where your notes are on any other string.

Try hitting E3, D5, A3, G5. This is the same as the example above just you
skip a string. You'll notice you're hitting the same two notes, just on
different strings, this should help you progress using several strings. A
good example would be E3, A6, D3, G4 or G4, D3, A6, E3. These are just
examples, don't base any examples on your playing. Experimenting (trial
and error) is the best way to learn, this is only a simple guide.

This is too obvious but must be said to stop any confusion. The twelfth
fret on any string is the same as when it is played open, just on a higher
octave.

Tuning Your Strings

The best way to tune a guitar is with a tuner, preferably a good one, but
when one is not around you must know to tune by ear. I myself do not know
exactly how a E string should sound like open but if you feel you can
learn that immediately do so A.S.A.P. Anyhow, first you must make sure
your E string is tuned. After that hold down the E5 and play A open. E5 is
A, A5 is D, D5 is G, G5 is b, b5 is e. Get the picture? keep holding the
fifth fret above the string you are tuning and make sure it sounds exactly
the same on both strings when you are holding #5 on the string above that
you are tuning. But you probably already knew this.

This guide was made for bass because I myself am a beginning bass player.
I wrote this for a friend of mine because he wanted to know how to play
guitar. This is just a basic guide. You can use this guide for which ever
instrument you'd like, bass guitar or a normal guitar. I do not know how
to play guitar but I do know what a person must learn when playing guitar.
The basic chords. A chord is when two notes on a guitar are played
together such as E5 and A3 or A3 and E5. I believe a chord consist of two
to three notes being held at once but I may be wrong on some occasions. As
for my friend Nome, he has found his own chords by himself without any
prior knowledge of chords. He knows scales though so I guess that is why
he has become a good guitarist. The main scale any person should learn
before any others is the C Major Scale. It is used in most music of today,
and yesterday, it is essential if attempting to learn guitar. Go to
http://www.visualguitar.com/cmaj.html and look at the several differnt
ways of playing the C Major Scale. The main one you should be considering
is the second diagram.

On bass guitar it would be.

E|--2-3---5---
A|--2-3---5---
D|--2---4-5---
G|------------

A good practice technique is:	E|--2-3---5---
				A|--2---4-5---

You may want to do this several times before attempting to learn more
scales.

This is all I can actually think of when teaching someone guitar. I hope
you can learn from this guide and if not e-mail me at
beigebox@bellsouth.net. I have only been playing for five months and these
are the basic guide lines I use to create music. Also remember I do not
play normal guitar, I play bass guitar so if you feel as a guitarist that
this is not a good guide I am sorry.