A blog to help with learning and teaching Guitar, Ukulele, Bass Guitar and Piano. Written by Theo Lawrence / TL Music Books.
This sheet is for beginners and Grade 1 level guitarists. The blues pattern follows the basic 12 bar blues. The riffs used here are popular for the blues style and can also be found in rock and roll.
You could play this exercise with either straigh 8th notes or swung 8th notes.
Free PDF: Beginners Blues Exercises Sheet 3 copy
This sheet is from my Beginners Guitar ebook, in the Blues Riffs chapter.
On this sheet we are going to use the beginners guitar chords A, D and E.
We are in the key of A and the chords are using the I IV and V (A = 1st, D = 4th, E = 5th) chord positions. The 1 4 5 pattern is very popular and playing them in order like that will sound very familiar.
In the chord exercise, you will need to look underneath the chord diagram to see the strumming pattern, and then play that for the chord. So, you will start with A, strumming 5 strings only (not the top string), and strum Down, Down, Down, Up Down, with the rhythm 1, 2, 3 + 4. Then moving onto the D chord with no gap if you can, or as quickly as you can make it, play the same rhythm for D. Then another quick change to E and this time it’s all 6 strings being played. As there are two E’s in a row, you will be able to easily go from one to the next without stopping because there is no chord change. The rhythm should be continuous, like this: 1, 2, 3 + 4, 1, 2, 3 + 4. Or like this: Down, Down, Down, Up Down, Down, Down, Down, Up Down.
When you have completed the two E chords, you then need to repeat the whole sheet a further 3 times to make 4 times around in total. Again, do a quick change from E back to A with as small of a gap as you can (but don’t go faster – there should still be 1 beat between the last E strum and the first A strum.
This sheet is from an ebook called: Beginners Guitar Chords – Easy Reading PDF Ebook (Premium).
This ‘Beginners Guitar Chords’ easy reading book has been written following a year of testing and planning and with the knowledge and experience of over 10 years of guitar teaching.
The book is designed in a large ‘easy reading’ format, to be accessible for primary school age, whilst also being suitable for older children and adults.
The book contains 15 exercise sheets. On each sheet, you read the chords in the same order you would read a book; top left to top right, then bottom left to bottom right. The goal for each sheet is not to leave a gap in between chords, and to play each sheet continuously 4 times in a row. The numbers in the black circles are the finger numbers. These are suggestions as a guide, so other fingers can be used if preferred or more comfortable.
By the end of the book, the beginner guitar player should be ready to start playing songs that have beginners chords in. The student will have build up a good basic understanding of strumming, counting and chord changes.
The book covers most of the beginners chords you need for starting to play songs. It also covers techniques and fundamentals such as strumming, strumming rhythms, rests, repeats, and counting.
Make sure to spend plenty of time on each sheet and try not to work on too many sheets at once if you are new to guitar chords. Get comfortable and confident on each one before moving on and try to limit yourself to no more than 3 sheets per session or lesson. You could tick each sheet as you go along and make notes on the sides where needed. Once you have done more work and practice on the book, you might be able to do more sheets in one lesson or practice session.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy the book!
Theo Lawrence / TL Music Lessons
This book is listed on my blog learnguitarforfree.com and sold via payhip.com/tlmusiclessons
1st Edition ebook self published in 2019 by Theo Lawrence / TL Music Lessons.
I’ve finally got another bass guitar student! I teach so many weekly guitar drums and ukulele lessons but I haven’t had a bassist to teach in 2 years. This is an example of why bands find it so hard to find a bass player.
This new student is a complete beginner on bass so I’m rebooting some of my old bass guitar lesson prep ideas and applying it to the new ‘Easy Reading’ designs I have been making for guitar and ukulele, which have really helped with teaching beginners.
Here is a sheet with 4 rock riffs for bass guitar. It uses notes from the E minor pentatonic scale. It’s all fairly easy and ideal for beginners. Keep repeating each exercise for a while and get into a groove before moving on. If you are really keen, try playing in time with a metronome. For many complete beginners though, it will be a matter of playing through each riff slowly.
For the complete beginners, read from left to right and play each number as it comes up. So on Riff 3, the sequence would be 0 0 3 3 0… 2 0 2 0 2 0. The top line is the 1st string, and that’s the thinnest string on the bass. The strings are numbered 1-4 on the left hand side.
Update, Jan 2019: I now have 3 bass students, which I’m really pleased about, so I hope to post more bass exercises soon on the website.
A Ukulele Version is also available.
This easy reading ebook is a compilation of 9 years teaching guitar and preparing lesson sheets for my students. I developed the easy reading design for complete beginners. It is based on normal guitar tab, but simplifies it so that there are no distractions, and it’s huge and easy to look at rather than the numbers being small.
I tested some of these sheets over the last 6 months until I was ready to create the rest of the book. I have found that the format that I have created takes away any unnecessary distractions in order to teach the basics without distractions and confusion. I believe it solves problems with reading the music for beginners of any age, but particularly for young beginners.
I decided to create this range of sheets like this one to make both my life easier and to help my students get to grips with reading tab quicker for playing scales, melodies, public domain songs, traditional songs and riffs. I have created the sheets using Adobe Illustrator.
There are different ways of playing the scales so it’s ok to do what works for you but don’t just use 1 finger for all of it! Younger players think it’s faster at first, but it’s really not in the long run. If you have frets 1 2 3 and 4 to play in an exercise, you could use all 4 fingers to play it (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th finger). Use this technique of ‘one finger per fret’ where it seems comfortable to do so. If a scale only has 0, 2 and 3 in it, then you could use just your strongest 2 fingers to play it (1st finger for the fret 2’s and 2nd finger for the fret 3’s).
Guitar teachers can use this ebook in their own teaching and they are welcome to print physical copies for their students.
A Guitar Version is also available.
This easy reading Ukulele book has been created using Adobe Illustrator so that the basics of song melodies, scales, arpeggios and warm up exercises can be taught, learned and read in the easiest and clearest way possible for beginners of all ages.
4. How To Read The Music
5. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (FREE)
6. Happy Birthday
7. Ukulele Warm Up 1
8. London Bridge
9. Sheet 1 – Scales (FREE)
10. Morning Has Broken
11. Ukulele Warm Up 2
12. Amazing Grace
13. Arpeggios & Chords
14. Can Can
15. Camptown Races
16. Frère Jacques
17. Sheet 2 – Scales
18. Sheet 3 – Scales
19. Sheet 5 – Scales
20. Sheet 6 – Scales
This easy reading ebook is a compilation of 3 and a half years of preparation work teaching ukulele to a wide range of abilities and also from 9 years of teaching guitar, which has influenced and helped my teaching and playing of the ukulele.
I tested some of these sheets over the last 6 months until I was ready to create the rest of the book. I have found that the format that I have created takes away any unnecessary distractions in order to teach the basics without distractions and confusion. I believe it solves problems with reading the music for beginners of any age, but particularly for young beginners.
I decided to create this range of sheets like this one to make both my life easier and to help my students get to grips with reading tab quicker for playing scales, public domain songs, traditional songs, arpeggios and warm up exercises. I have created the sheets using Adobe Illustrator.
The finger suggestions are a guide to what I recommend to my students. There are different ways of playing the scales so it’s ok to do what works for you. Just don’t use 1 finger for all of it! Younger players think it’s faster at first, but it’s really not in the long run.
Ukulele teachers can use this ebook in their own teaching and they are welcome to print physical copies for their students.
Here is an easy to read and easy to play guitar sheet of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in guitar tab. It’s been designed in Adobe Illustrator for a custom look and easy to read for young beginners. Ideal to use as teaching material.
Related: This sheet is included in this premium PDF ebook: First Guitar Book – Easy Reading (Scales and Melodies) →
Related: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – Ukulele Easy Reading Tab
Here is an easy to read and play sheet of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in ukulele tab. It’s been designed in Adobe Illustrator for a custom look and easy to read for young beginners. The sheet is ideal to use as teaching material for young ukulele students.
Related: This sheet is included in this premium PDF ebook: First Ukulele Book – Easy Reading (Scales and Melodies) →
Related: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – Guitar Easy Reading Tab
Over the last few years of teaching ukulele (and 9 years of teaching guitar) I have noticed young beginners in particular struggle to get to grips with reading tab, but it’s sometimes any age. They get confused over which string the top line of the tab is. Usually they think it’s the 4th string at the top of the tab because it’s at the top of their ukulele when they look at it, and they find it hard to get over this being the other way around at first!
Also, students often get distracted by other things on the sheet music and often ask questions like; “what does TAB mean”, “do we play 4 4 at the start?”, “what do these notes mean? (pointing to the notes above the tab), or say things like “the numbers are too small”, “I keep getting lost” (again with regards to the numbers being small and getting lost because they have taken a while looking down at their instrument trying to find fret 2 on the 3rd string, for example).
So as a teacher I decided to create a range of sheets like this one to make both my life easier and to help my students get to grips with reading tab quicker for playing scales, melodies and exercises. I have created the sheet using Adobe Illustrator. I intend to post more of these sheets and similar ones for playing chord progressions, and I will release one or two ebooks based on these. There are also be guitar ones.
Related: This sheet is featured in the premium ebook First Ukulele Book – Easy Reading.
Related: Sheet 1 – Easy Reading Guitar Scale Exercises.
Over the last 9 years of teaching guitar I have noticed young beginners in particular struggle to get to grips with reading guitar tab, but it’s sometimes any age. They get confused over which string the top line of the tab is. Usually they think it’s the 6th string at the top because it’s at the top of their guitar when they look at it, and they find it hard to get over this being the other way around at first!
Also, students often get distracted by other things on the sheet music and often ask questions like; “what does TAB mean”, “do we play 4/4 at the start?”, “what do these notes mean? (pointing to the notes above the tab), or say things like “the numbers are too small”, “I keep getting lost” (again with regards to the numbers being small and getting lost because they have taken a while looking down at their instrument trying to find fret 3 on the 4th string, for example).
So as a teacher I decided to create a range of sheets like this one to make both my life easier and to help my students get to grips with reading tab quicker for playing scales, melodies and exercises. I have created the sheet using Adobe Illustrator. I intend to post more of these sheets and similar ones for playing chord progressions, and I will release one or two ebooks based on these. There will also be ukulele ones.
Related: This sheet is featured in the premium ebook First Guitar Book – Easy Reading.
Related: Sheet 1 – Easy Reading Ukulele Scale Exercises.
