How to play hot cross buns on guitar

Welcome to the legendary book in which I can guarantee you’ll be able to play “Hot Cross Buns” on guitar by the end of this book. This super easy step by step tutorial will teach you everything you’ll need to know for even the most novice guitar players. So strap in, and lets get started!

Your first step in learning how to play Hot Cross Buns is actually knowing how to utilize the guitar correctly. If you don’t know how to sit or hold the guitar, then you’ll be unable to play this legendary song! First, you want to make sure you are sitting down correctly! You’ll want to sit either in your chair or on your stool, but ensure your back is not touching the back of the chair. You’ll want your body to hover over the guitar when you hold it, which we’ll get to shortly. So stop sitting back, and actually sit up!

Next, actually holding the guitar. If you don’t have your acoustic or electric guitar out yet, then I would do that now. I will be explaining acoustic specifically, but if you have an electric then you may follow along these steps as well. You’ll notice on an acoustic, it has a little bend in its base below the hole in the middle. Once you’ve identified what I’m talking about, that is called the “waist” of the guitar. Rest the waist on your right leg, with the long part of the guitar (also known as the neck) sticking out toward your left. Follow the image! its mirrored for your purposes.

Next, in order to play Hot Cross Buns, you’ll need to first know how to strum the guitar and read tabs. But we’ll take it one step at a time. If you have a pick, go ahead and give it a shot. Choose any single string you’d like, and strum the pick against it over that large hole in the base. If you’ve done it correctly, it should have made a noise.

Next, choose that exact same string again. This time, put your left hand all the way down the neck of the guitar. Use your pointer finger, and on that very string you chose, put it in between two of the silver lines (also known as “frets”), but not on top of them! When you’ve put your finger on it, make sure to really push down on the neck. Then, strum the very string that your finger has pushed down on over the hole. This should make a slightly higher pitched noise.

Now that you know how to make different noises on guitar, I’d practice on different strings and frets for a little bit just to get a little more comfortable. But moving forward, the fret closest to the end of the guitar where all those pegs are? That is fret “1”. then a little closer to the base, thats fret “2”, so on. The higher the fret, the higher pitched sound it makes. This is vital for knowing how to play songs, and most importantly, Hot cross Buns.

Next, you’ll notice not only does your guitar have a lot of frets, but 6 strings as well. While holding the guitar, the closest string to your face, we’ll be calling it the “low string” or the “first string”. This string has the deepest pitched noise, while the sixth string has the highest pitched noise. All the strings go from lower to higher nice and easy from your face to the floor. This is also vital for playing lots of songs, as different songs use different strings, so be prepared!

You’re getting so close! Now, you need to know how to read tab in order to play Hot Cross Buns. On the tab sheet displayed to the right, you’ll see 6 horizontal lines. Each line represents a string. The top line represents the sixth string on your guitar, the one closest to the floor. The bottom line represents the first string, the one closest to your face. Etc for all of the middle strings.

Last, you’re almost there! Those strings in tab will generally have little numbers on them. Those numbers determine what fret you play. If you see two “1”s next to each other on the top string, that means play the first string twice on fret “1”. If you see a “0”, that means you dont play any fret, and you simply strum the string without playing a fret. Another example, if you see a “4” on the 2nd string, then a “5” on the 3rd string to the right of the 4, then play the fourth fret on the 2nd string, then the fifth fret on the third string. Its as easy as 1,2,3! Now, with that knowledge in mind, the image to the right is the tab for Hot Cross Buns. Remember to play the correct frets on the correct strings, then you’ll be in the clear! Congratulations! I’m proud of you!