Learn to Accompany Yourself

on The Guitar

With Special Emphasis Put on Playing

Jewish Music.

A Project of

Camp S’dei Chemed International

By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum and Rabbi Aryeh Schechter

Note: Camp S’dei Chemed International has always been synonymous with Jewish Music and over the years has been fortunate to have had some of the most talented arrangers, composers and musicians such as Yisroel Lamm, Shia Mendlowitz, Abe Rotenderg, Boruch Chait Yigal Calek, Avrohom Fried, Moshe Laufer, Yerachmiel Begun and many others as part of its staff. Our Camp Choir has entertained thousands the world over and has produced many recordings such as Around the Sabbos Table, Camp S’dei Chemed Sings Volume 1-4, Jewish Music to Relax to Volume 1-4, The Pieamentas, as well as many others productions. Music is an integral part of a Camp S’dei Chemed summer program in Israel. No camper will ever forget the inspiring and lively Shabbos zemiros, or the joyous singing and dancing late into the night at the Kotel, at a camp malave malkah, kumzitz, or the sellout concerts in Yerushalayim and Tel Aviv. The Camp S’dei Chemed International Choir is representative of the flavor of the camp itself. It is an international blend of voices; the voices of young yeshiva boys blending together in unique yet diversified harmony. It represents a kaleidoscope of the finest musical talents in Jewish circles. Their melodies awaken and inspire our hearts toward a greater love for Torah and attachment to Hashem. We invite you to join.

Note: We are also planning to make a video to accompany this instruction book.

Table of Contents.

Lesson 1: An Introduction to Music:

Lesson 2: A look at the Guitar:

Lesson 3: Tuning the guitar:

Lesson 4: Frets:

Lesson 5: Strumming or Plucking the Guitar Strings:

Lesson 6: Learning Our First Cord of A minor:

Lesson 7: Learning the cord of E minor and E 7^th.

Lesson 8: Learning to Strum the Guitar:

Lesson 9: Learning a new strum pattern:

Lesson 10: Changing Cords:

Lesson 11: Cord of D Minor:

Lesson 12: Accompanying Ourselves:

Lesson 13: Learning the cord of G Major:

Lesson 14: Cord of E Major or just plain E.

Lesson 15: Completing the Songs We’ve Begun to Learn:

Lesson 16: Learning More Strum Patterns:

Lesson 17: Let’s learn some more songs:

Lesson 18: Understanding a Major Scale:

Lesson 19: The use of a Capo:

Lesson 20: Learning some new Major cords:

Lesson 21: Songs Using the Major Cords:

Lesson 22: Finger picking:

Lesson 1: An Introduction to Music:

Note: You can skip this part if you wish and go directly to lesson 2.

Before we introduce you to the Guitar, we’ll first give you a very short introduction to music. Altogether there are only seven different notes.

We will call them by the first seven letters of the Alphabet. A-B-C-D-E-F-G. Think of it like the seven days in a week. After the seventh note we begin again with the A note.

Being that this A note is the eight note, we therefore call it the octave which stands for 8. It sounds about the same as the first A note but is one octave higher. Let’s look at a piano keyboard and show you these notes so that you can understand what we’ve just explained

If you look at the keyboard you will see that there are white keys and groups of black keys. Notice that the black keys are divided into groups of twos and threes. The one between the three black notes is marked A.

There are many A notes on the keyboard and they all sound the same except that each is one octave higher.

The black notes represent the half notes which lie in between the whole notes. Notice that there are no black notes between B and C and between E and F. That’s because these notes are actually only a half step apart. Think of notes as a staircase with different size steps going up. Sometimes there are full sized steps and sometimes there are short half steps to make the walking easier. The musical staircase looks like this.

						7
					6
				5
			4
		3
	2
1

When we play the notes starting with A and continuing on with B-C-D-E-F-G- and up to the next A without using any of the black notes we have played the key called A Minor also written as Am for short. Notice that the half steps are between step 2 and 3 (B and C) and between step 5 and 6 (E and F).

Any time we follow this pattern it is called a minor scale. It has sort of a sad sound.

Most Jewish songs, but not all, follow this pattern and therefore we will begin teaching minor cords before teaching you Major cords. Later on we will explain what a Major scale is.

Cords: Cords are a group of notes that when played together make a pleasant sound. There are many different cords but you will only have to learn a few different cords to play lots of songs.

Lesson 2: A look at the Guitar:

As you notice, a Guitar has six strings. The first string which is the bottom string is the very thinnest of them all, while the top string which we will refer to as the sixth string is the fattest of them.

Each string of the guitar is tuned to a different note.

The first string is tuned to the note E.

The second string is tuned to B.

The third string is tuned to G.

The forth string is tuned to D.

The fifth string is tuned to A.

The sixth string is once again tuned to E.

Note: This means that the sixth string has the very same sound as the first string but is a few octaves apart.

.

Top String 6 E

String 5 A

String 4 D

String 3 G

String 2 B

Bottom String 1 E

1

6

Lesson 3: Tuning the guitar:

You tune a Guitar by tightening or loosening the strings. When you tighten a string, the pitch goes up meaning it goes higher, and when you loosen a string the pitch goes lower.

In order to tune the strings properly we strongly recommend that you use an electronic tuning devise. After you get good at Guitar you can learn how to do it by ear.

At the end of the Guitar there are 6 tuning keys which you turn in order to tighten or loosen the strings. You begin by setting the button of the tuner to correspond to the name of the string you are tuning. When the needle of the tuner is in the middle, then it means that the string is properly tuned.

If you are viewing this on the Internet then you can click on the letters below and hear the sound of the strings.

E string 1 – bottom string.

B string 2.

G string 3

D string 4

A string 5

E string 6

Lesson 4: Frets:

The neck of a guitar showing the first four frets.

As you can see, there are metal pieces on the guitar neck which we call frets. Place any finger of your left hand just before the first fret of string 1 (the E string) and pluck the string with the thumb of your right hand. You have now played the note F which is a half note higher than E. Now move your finger to the next fret. Each fret makes the note go up another half note. ( A half note is called sharp and is written #. The F note which is one half note above E can also be called E# but we refer to it as F.).

Let’s now give each finger a number so that you will know which finger to place where.

The index finger is #1,

The next finger is #2,

The next finger is #3,

The pinky finger is #4.

The thumb is not used since it presses on the back of the Guitar.

Lesson 5: Strumming or Plucking the Guitar Strings:

Some Guitar players use a pick to pluck the strings while others use their fingers. The choice is up to you.

There are many different ways to strum a Guitar and we’ll get to that later. For the moment, just use your pick, thumb or fingers of your right hand to pluck the strings in a down or up motion.

Notice that the sound doesn’t sound very pleasant. In order to make a pleasing sound we will now learn about cords and then we will get back to strumming in lesson 7.

Lesson 6: Learning Our First Cord of A minor:

As we’ve already explained, a cord is a group of notes that sound pleasant to the ear when played together. We’ll begin with the cord called A minor which are the notes A C E.

A look at the diagram will show you exactly where to place your fingertips. Remember that only your fingertips should be touching the strings. Don’t touch any other strings with your fingers. Finger 2 goes on string 4 second fret. Finger 3 goes on the 3^rd string second fret and finger 1 goes on string 2 1^st fret. For this cord do not pluck the top 6th string.

Remember: Whenever you press a finger down on a string you must make sure to press it down firmly and also to put it down as close to the fret as possible without actually touching the fret. If you don’t push the string down hard enough, the note will not sound properly. This takes a little time to learn to do. After a few weeks of playing your fingers will get what is called a callous and it then becomes easier. Note: Pluck string 4, then string 3, then string 2, then string 1 in that order. These are the first 4 notes of the song Hevainu Shalom Aleichem. If it doesn’t sound like it, than you know that one of the strings is out of tune and you’d better retune your Guitar.

Cord of A Minor

Lesson 7: Learning the cord of E minor and E 7^th.

Now let’s learn our second cord of E minor which is a very easy cord to learn and only uses two fingers as you can see on the chart.

Cord of E Minor

Note: If you lift up finger 3, and put finger 1 on string 3 fret 1 then you will have the cord called E 7^th

Cord of E 7th

Lesson 8: Learning to Strum the Guitar:

Now that we have learned the cord of A minor, E minor, and E7th, lets learn how we play or strum it. As we have said, there are many different ways to strum a Guitar and we will begin with a simple way and teach you more ways later on.

We strum the Guitar with our right hand using the motion of a windshield wiper. You can use a pick or your thumb or fingers. Sometimes we use a downward motion and sometimes we use an upward motion.

How to hold a pick

Strum Patterns

Let’s begin by teaching you strum pattern #1 which is simply going up and down.

We will represent a down stroke with a down arrow

and an up stroke with an up arrow.

Strum Pattern #1: Let’s just go down up down - up down - up.

down up down up down up

You may use a pick or the thumb of your right hand or your four fingers. Do the same thing going down with your four fingers and going up with your thumb or the other way around.) Continue going up and down. Try to do it slowly at first and keep in rhythm. While strumming up and down count one, two, one two, etc. Then do the very same thing counting one, two, three, four.

Strum Pattern #2: Let’s now try pattern #2: which goes down, down, up, up down, up. Keep practicing it over and over again till it becomes automatic.

Pattern #3: Now let’s try one more pattern before learning the next cord: Now we will go down, up, down, up, up, down, up. Keep practicing it until it becomes natural.

Lesson 9: Learning a new strum pattern:

Pattern #4: There are many songs such as a waltz that go to a count of three rather than four. So let’s now strum the Guitar to a count of three. We’ll go down, down, down, while counting one, two, three, one, two, three. You can try doing it with your pick or with all your fingers, or just with your thumb.

Pattern #5: Let’s now go down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, down. Count 1,2,3, as you do it. Try changing the cords you have learned while continuing to strum the Guitar. It’s very important that you practice it before going on to the next cord.

Lesson 10: Changing Cords:

Changing cords without loosing the rhythm takes lots of practice. You will have to do it very slowly at first. Practice makes perfect. There are no shortcuts to lots of practice. Keep changing from the A minor cord to the E minor cord while continuing to strum in rhythm using any of the above strum patterns. Then go from Em to Am and back to Em. Keep practicing to change cords while strumming the Guitar.

Lesson 11: Cord of D Minor:

We’ll just learn one more cord and then get down to some playing. For this cord we put finger 1 on string 1 fret 1. Then we put finger 2 on string 3 fret 2. Then we put finger 3 on string 2 fret 3. Now do some strumming using this cord and try changing it to the cords you already know.

Cord of D Minor

Lesson 12: Accompanying Ourselves:

Now that we have learned three cords and know how to change from one cord to the next, and how to strum, let’s start learning how to accompany some popular Jewish songs that use these three cords. We’ll start with a song that I’m sure most of you know and for the moment we’ll only play parts of songs since we still haven’t learned all the cords we need to play the entire song.

Song 1: Shiru L’melech: Yeedle Werdiger

The cords change from Am to Dm, and back to Am,

Here is how it goes. Start with Am.

(Am) Ve’ata banim (Dm) shiru shi (Am ) ru

Ve’ata banim (Dm) shiru la’me (Am ) lech.

Just go over this first part until it goes automatically.

For the next line we will need a G Major Cord which we still haven’t learned so we will continue with this song later on.

Song 2: Leman Achai Verei: Calebach 
 
Start with Am. 
 

(Am) Lemaan achai vereei (Dm)ai

Leman Achai verei (Am) ai

adabra nah a(Dm)dabrah nah

(E7) shalom (Am) bach

Repeat the above until you can do it easily

Song 3: U’vau ho’ovdim: Calebach
 
 

(Am) U’vau ho’ov (Dm)dim

(Am) B’eretz A(Dm)shur

(Am) v’hanidachim b’eretz Mitzrayim (repeat)

Song 4: Kol haolam kulo Boruch Chait:

(Am) Kol haolam kulo,

gesher tzar me(Dm)od,

gesher tzar me(Am)od,

gesher tzar me (E)od.

(Am) Kol haolam kulo,

gesher tzar me(Dm)od,

gesher (E) tzar me (Am)od,

 
Song 5:  Rachem Shweky:
 

(Am) Rachem,: (Dm) rachem na Hashem elokeinu,

(Am) rachem,

(Dm) al Yisroel amecha, rachem,

v’al Yerushalayim irecha,

(Am)rachem, rachem, rachem.

Lesson 13: Learning the cord of G Major:

Now if we only learn two additional cords we’ll be able to complete learning the above songs as well as hundreds of others. The cord we will fist learn is called G Major and is written with a capital M.

A minor cord is always written with a small m. However instead of putting a large M after a Major cord we will simply leave it out altogether. So if you see a letter such as a G, or E, or A, without any letter after it, then you will know that it is a Major cord and not a minor cord. A minor cord will always have a small m after it. Latter on, we’ll explain why certain cords are called Major cords.

The cord of G Major is a little bit more difficult to finger but practice makes perfect. Put finger 2 on string 6 3^rd fret. Put finger 1 on string 5 second fret. Put finger 3 on string 1 third fret. (Note: Some people with short fingers put their 4^th finger on string 1 fret 3.)

Cord of G Major

Now spend some time learning how to change cords and go back and forth to the cords you already know.

Lesson 14: Cord of E Major or just plain E.

We’ll teach you one more Major cord which is very easy to learn and then go back to the songs we’ve begun to learn and try to complete some of them. It’s the exact same as E minor except that we put finger 1 on string 3 fret 1.

Cord of E Major

Lesson 15: Completing the Songs We’ve Begun to Learn:

1: Ve’ata Bonim Shiru l’melech:

2: Leman Achai Verei:

3: Uvau ho’ovdim:

4: Kol Haolam Kulo:

5: Rachem:

6: Am Yisroel Chai:

7: Esa Einai

8: K’chu Imochem Devorim

9: Ki Va Moed:

10: Yachad:

Song 1: Ve’ata Bonim Shiru l’melech:

Part 1: (Am) Ve’ata banim (Dm) shiru shi (Am ) ru

Ve’ata banim (Dm) shiru la’me (Am ) lech.

(G) ve’ata bonim (Dm) shiru shiru (Am) shiru lame (Dm) lech (Am betiferes (G) mefo (A)ar.

(2x means do the above twice.

Part 2: (Am)ve ‘ashrei avadav (G)oy ava(Am) dav

hamashmi’im (G) bekol shivca(E)ha

(Dm) ve’ata banim (Am) shiru shiru (G) shiru lamee (Am) lech

shiru (Dm)shi(G)ru lame(Am)lech (2x)

Song 2: Leman Achai Verei: Calebach:

Part 1: (Am) Lemaan achai veray (Dm) ai

leman achai veray (Am) ai

adab’ra nah, a (Da) dab’rah nah

(E) shalam (Am) bach (2x)

Part 2: (Am) Leman bais Hashem Elokeinu

a(Dm)vaksha (G)tov (C)lach

(Em)Le (Am) ma’an bais Hashem Elokeinu

a (G) vaksha (E7th) tov (Am) lach. (2x)

Repeat the above until you can do it easily

Song 3: Uvau ho’ovdim: Calebach

Part 1: (Am) Uvau ho’ov (Dm)dim (Am) b’eretz a(Dm)shur (Am) v’hanidachim (Am)b’eretz mitzrayim (2x )

Note: We will have to get back to this song later since we will have to teach you a C cord to do part two of the song.

Song 4: Kol Haolam Kulo: Boruch Chait:

Part1:(Am) Kol haolam kulo, gesher tzar me(Dm)od,

gesher tzar me (Am)od,

gesher tzar me (E)od.

(Am) Kol haolam kulo,

gesher tzar me(Dm)od,

gesher (E) tzar me (Am)od, (2x)

Part2 (Am) vehaikar vehhaika

(G) lo lefached, lo lefached klall

(Am) vehaikar vehaika

(G) lo lefached, (Am) klall (2x)

Song 5: Rachem: Shweky

Intro: Am, Dm, G, Em, Dm, Am, (F,) Gm, Am.

(Am) Rachem, (Dm) rachem na Hashem Elokeinu, (Am) rachem,

(Dm) al Yisroel amecha, rachem,

v’al Yerushalayim irecha, (Am)rachem, ra(G)chem, r(Am)achem.

V’al tzion mishkan kevodecha, v’al mal(Dm)chus beis Dovid meshicchecha,

(Am) v’al habayis hagadol v’hakadosh, rachem, (G) rachem, (Am) rachem (E)

(Am) V’al tzion mishkan kevodecha, (Dm) v’al malchus beis Dovid meshicchecha,

(Am) v’al habayis hagadol v’haka(Dm)dosh, (Am) rachem, (G) rachem, (Am) rachem

Song 6: Am Yisroel Chai: Calebach:

Part 1: (Am) Am Yisroel, am Yisroel, am Yisroel (G) chai

am Yisroel, am Yisroel, am Yisroel (Am) chai. (2x)

Part 2: Od avi(Em)nu (Am)chai

Od avi(Em)nu (Am)chai

Od avinu, od avinu, (G) od avinu (Am) chai. (2x)

Lesson 16: Learning More Strum Patterns:

Pattern 5: Here’s a nice simple strum pattern to learn. It goes down, down, up, up, down, up. (Repeat) Count 1,2,3, 1,23. etc.

Try using it to some of the songs you’ve learned.

Pattern 6: Now try this pattern. Down, up, down, up, up, down, up. This is a nice swinging type pattern. Practice it over and over again until it comes automatic.

Lesson 17: Let’s learn some more songs:

Song 7; Esa Einai: Calebach:

Part 1: (Am) Eso (Dm) ei (Am) nai el he (Dm)har(Am)im (Dm) may’ayin may (G) ayin (E) yavo ez (Am) ri, (2x)

Part 2: (Am)Eez (Dm)ri mayim (Am) Hashem, (Dm) oshe sha(G)mayim (E)va (Am)aretz. (2x)

Song 8 K’chu Imochem Devorim: Schmuel Brazil

(Am) k’chu imochem devorim

v’shu(C)vu v’shu(G)vu el (C) Hashem.

(Am) k’chu imochem devorim

v’shuvu (Em) v’shuvu el (Am) Hashem.

Part 2: (Am)V’shu (Dm)vu

(G) el Ha (C)shem, v’shu(G)vu,(G) v’shuvu, el (C) Hashem.

(Am)V’shu(Dm)vu el Hashem, (Am) v’shuvu, v’shu (Em)vu, el (Am)Hashem.

Lesson 18: Understanding a Major Scale:

You can skip this lesson if you wish. It’s made for those who would like to understand musical theory and understand the difference between a Major scale and a minor scale. If you play the notes of a keyboard starting from the note C to the next C which is an octave higher without using any of the black keys you would be playing the notes CDEFGABC. This is called the scale of C Major. Notice that this time the half steps come between the 3rd and 4^th step and between the 7^th and 8^th step. All the rest of the steps are full steps.

Major Scale

Anytime the scale follows such a pattern we call it a Major scale. It doesn’t sound as sad as a minor scale. ( Go back to lesson one to understand the pattern of a minor scale.) Most English music follows this pattern. The notes CEG would be called a C Major cord while a C minor cord would be the notes C FG. Notice that it’s only the middle note that’s different. Try listening to see if you can tell the difference.

Lesson 19: The use of a Capo:

A capo is a devise put on the Guitar and is used to make it easy to change the key of the song being played. There are 2 different types of capos that are sold and you can use the one you prefer.

One can start singing or playing a song from any note we choose. However, some songs have a long range meaning that some notes may be very high and you may not be able to sing such high notes. If you start singing a song on a very high note then you will not be able to reach the high notes of the song. That’s why you may want to start singing the song on a lower note which means you will be singing it in a different key. While most of the songs we’ve learned so far we started playing in the key of A minor we can use the Capo to change the key while the cord fingering stays the same.

Different Capos

People’s voices are different. Some voices are lower or higher than others. Move the capo around to different frets and try singing the songs you already know. You don’t have to learn any new cord fingering since the fingering stays the same. This is the advantage of using a capo. Find the scale in which your own voice sounds best for the particular song you are singing.

Those who don’t use a capo will have to learn something called Barre cords which we may learn in some later lesson.

Lesson 20: Learning some new Major cords:

There are many Jewish songs that are written in Major scales and therefore we must learn some more Major cords as well. So far we have only learned the cord of E Major and G Major. Now let’s learn the cords of A Major C Major and D Major.

Don’t strum this string

A Major

C Major

D Major

Lesson 21: Songs Using the Major Cords.

Song #9: Ki Va Moed: Calebach:

Part 1: (D) Ata takum terachem tzion ki ayt l’chen’na

(A) ki va moed.

(D) Ata takum terachem tzion ki ayt l’chen’na

(A) ki va moed

(A) Ata takum terachem tzion

(D) ki ayt l’chen’na ki va moed

Part 2: (D) ki va mo(A)ed,

(G) ki va mo(D)ed,

Ki va mo(A)ed,

(G) ki va mo(D)ed

Song # 10 Yachad: Calebach:

(C) yachad (G)ya (C)chad, yachad (G)ya (C)chad.

(Am) Kulam ke(Dm)dusha,

Le(G)cha yishaleie (C)shu. 2x

Lesson 22: Finger picking:

We can lean how to produce a beautiful sound on the Guitar by learning how to pluck the Guitar with our fingers. It only takes a little practice.

Finger Pattern #1: Pluck the top few strings of the Guitar in a downward motion with your thumb. Then pluck the bottom string in an upward motion using finger 2. Then pluck those same strings in an upward motion using finger 1. Next, pluck them again using finger 2. The order now is T 2 1, T21, T21, T21, etc. Count to three while you do it. You can try practicing this pattern on the table even without using the Guitar. (The thumb goes down while the finger pluck upward. )

Finger Pattern #2: Now try doing the pattern T212, T212, T212, T212, T212, T212, etc. This time count until 4, going 1,2,3,4. as you pluck the strings. It doesn’t really matter which strings you pluck. Just learn to do it in perfect rhythm and it will sound great.

To be continued. We do hope to continue these lessons and teach you additional cords and songs as well as strumming patterns so stay tuned. We also intend to add video to the above instructions in order to make the learning easier. You can also go to http://yutopia.yucs.org to get the cords to many other Jewish songs. Please let us know if these lessons have helped you by e-mailing us at Campeli1@yahoo.com. You can also listen to some Guitar music recorded by Camp S’dei Chemed and posted on our web site.

The Dancing Guitars played by Simcha Bill. Let’s Dance with the Piamentas volume 1 and 2. Other Cassettes and Cd’s produced by Camp S’dei Chemed International are available from our distributor Aderet Music or your local Jewish music dealer. Around the Shabbos Table Volume 1 and 2. Let’s Dance with the Piamentas Vol.1 and 2. Music to Relax by Volumes 1-4 Let’s Dance a Horah Vol.1 Music to Dance to Volume 1.