The Guitar Players Club

You can learn to play melodies on your guitar even if you do not know sheet music notation. We will instead use easy to learn guitar tab or guitar tablature. Let's learn Yankee Doodle!

Yankee Doodle "Yankee Doodle" is a well-known American song, today sung patriotically. Originally it was a satirical song.

The first verse and refrain goes like this:

Yankee Doodle went to town

A-Riding on a pony

He stuck a feather in his hat

And called it macaroni

Yankee Doodle, keep it up

Yankee Doodle dandy

Mind the music and the step

And with the girls be handy

What is guitar tab?

We will use guitar tablature so you will not need to read sheet music notation. You will only use the four thinnest strings on the guitar. The string with the highest pitch is called the first string or E-string.

Tablature is a form of musical notation, often with numbers and letters, which tells the player where to place their fingers on the guitar fretboard rather than which pitches to play.

I will use my own type of guitar tab notation today to make sure that the guitar tab is correctly displayed on article sites. On my site you will find many popular melodies with the more common guitar tab staff notation.

The six strings on your guitar is numbered from the one with the highest pitch. This string is called the first string.

Look at this guitar tab notation:

11 12 03

As you can see the numbers are organized in pairs.

The first number in the pair tells you what fret to press down and the second number what string to play.

11 means that you press down the first fret on the first string. 12 that you press down the first fret on the second string. 03 that you play the third open string which means that you pluck the string without pressing down a fret.

Let's start with the first part of the melody with guitar tab:

Yankee Doodle went to town

12 12 32 01 12 01 32

12 tells you to play the first fret on the second string. 01 means that you play the open first string.

This type of guitar tab doesn't indicate the length of the notes. If you sing the lyrics you will better feel how to play the notes.

The names of the four notes you have played are C C D E C E D

How do you play guitar tablature with your left hand?

If you want to use your left hand in a professional way I suggest that you play the guitar tab notes on the first fret with your first finger, the notes on the second fret with your middle finger and the notes on the third fret with your ring finger.

Let's proceed with the next words:

A-Riding on a pony

03 12 12 32 01 12 02

The names of the seven notes are G C C D E C B

How do you play guitar tab with your right hand?

Well, there are many ways to pluck or play the strings with your right hand. The easiest way is to use your right hand thumb. I suggest that you use your right hand thumb and concentrate on your left hand fingerings.

Here is the next lyrics and guitar tablature:

He stuck a feather in his hat

03 12 12 32 01 11 01 32

The names of the tablature notes are G C C D E F E D

And called it macaroni

12 02 03 23 02 12 12

The names of the guitar tab notes: C B G A B C C

Learn to play guitar tablature part 2

Here comes the lyrics and the guitar tab for the refrain:

Yankee Doodle, keep it up

23 02 23 03 23 02 12

Guitar tablature notes: A B A G A B C

Yankee Doodle dandy

03 23 03 34 24 03

Guitar tab notes: G A G F E G

Mind the music and the step

23 02 23 03 23 02 12

Guitar tablature notes: A B A G A B C

And with the girls be handy

23 03 12 02 32 12 12

Guitar tab notes: A G C B D C C

Where can you find more guitar tab?

Now when you understand guitar tablature notation you can find many songs written this way on the internet. Search for guitar tab or guitar tablature. A complete guitar tab staff has six lines representing the six strings.

There are a few different types of guitar amplifiers that are available for you to choose from. If you're looking for a new amp, you need to first decide what role the amp will need to fill.

The first type of amps that came along were vacuum tube amplifiers. Although the technology of tube amps is fairly old, this style of amp is still very popular with most players. The reason for their popularity is that the tone of these amps is usually very warm and natural compared to the other types or more modern amplifiers. Not only do they sound better, they are usually louder than amps of other types at the same power level. Also, most newer, solid-state amps normally don't require regular maintenance, but tube amps do require new vacuum tubes occasionally. Also, it's beneficial to have a matched set of tubes in the amplifier.

Usually there are two types of tubes in an amp - the preamp section and the power section. Some of the common tubes used in vacuum tube amplifiers are the 12AX7, 6L6, EL34, and several others.

There are many different brands of guitar amps that use tubes -- Fender, Marshall, Soldano, Peavey, Genz-Benz, Mesa Boogie and many others -- especially older and vintage guitar amps. Many of the Fender amps, especially the original amps from the 1960s are in high demand by many players. The amps are still so popular that Fender offers new, reissue amps that closely copy the original amps in style and sound.

Solid state amps were invented to replace tube amps, unfortunatley the warm tones and great sustain of the original tube amps were nearly impossible to duplicate in the newer amplifiers. This is not to say that solid state amps are not as good as tube amps, it just all depends on the application and type of music you are going to be playing. Solid state technology is extremely reliable, but many players have to have at least one tube amp in his/her arsenal. Even with all the effects, synths and modelers, the smooth, warm tone of a tube amp is hard to duplicate.

Some guitarists combine the two types of amps, and use what is called a hybrid amp. This type of amps marries both tube and transistor (solid state) amps into one. Usually there are tubes at one stage of amplification and transistors at the other stage (preamp and power amp). These amps usually offer a vast improvement over a straight solid state amp if you're looking for the warm tones of a tube amp.

Digital amps were introduced in the chain of solid state amps, and offer the guitarist an expanded library of possible sounds that can be had from a single amp. These amps use computers and integrated circuits to create the various tones in the amps. Usually, there are many different types of effects and tones available to the player, with the added versatility of  attempting to duplicate different amps and speaker cabinets combinations. These amps are very versatile.

Examples of some digital amps are Vox Valvetronix, Line6, and a few more. These amps are great if you want to play all different types of music with different types of guitars.

It should also be noted that Vox manufactures a device (amp/cabinet modeler) that offers many different combinations of amplifier and cabinet settings. Although it's considered a modeler and needs to be routed through a speaker cabinet and usually a higher powered amp, the Vox ToneLab offers the guitarist a wide variety of vintage amplifier and speaker cabinet settings. Having a vacuum tube in the device helps it to achieve some awesome tube-like sounds. It even duplicates the sound of a Leslie rotating speaker errily well.

John Mayer and Eric Clapton, two great musicians perform a classic song.

Clapton does jazz.

cheeeee!