For newbies, a bit of an explanation:

What Chris says is, strictly speaking, true. Usually the lowest note in a chord is the note known variously as the root, bass or name note (so for a D chord the lowest note would usually be D). Sometimes, people prefer the sound of a chord with one of the other notes in that chord as the bass note.

D Maj has an A in it, so by playing the open 5th (or A) string we’re not adding a note, just duplicating one that occurs in the chord already. There’s not really a great difference, so for beginners we thought we’d keep it simple and get them to avoid just one string.

Either way you play it - missing the low E string, or missing both the low E and the A - are absolutely fine.

I’m currently working on a couple of articles which explain a bit more about how chords are put together. Hopefully those pieces will make this stuff a little clearer.

Thanks for raising the point, Chris.

Don’t piss off the sound engineer. They have the power in the relationship.

Don’t get too drunk.

Always use new picks, and have way more than you need. One of the commonest and most overlooked reasons for breaking strings are worn, jagged picks.

If you can’t afford a second guitar, then see if you can borrow a back-up. It’s also helpful if you can rope a mate into change broken strings for you so you always have a backup guitar ready to go.

The floor tuner can’t be recommended enough. Buy, beg, steal or borrow one today!

Practise and time your set just the way you are going to play it at the gig during rehersals. Keep going if you muck it up in practise so you know you can get yourselves out of trouble.

Listen to the soundman. He’s got way more experience than you, and he’s (usually!) right. And don’t mess with your settings after soundcheck unless the soundman tells you to. If you do it pretty much renders the soundcheck null and void.

Don’t use soundcheck as a mini-practise. And don’t play your instrument when someone else is soundchecking. Do as you are asked and it’ll go quicker, smoother and you’ll look more professional.

A small addition to point 2:
If you need mains power for effects pedals, keys etc, make sure you have your own extensions. The sound engineers responsibility stops at the mic/DI box so acoustic guitars/keyboards etc need to supply their own 1/4″ jacks (standard guitar sized jacks)

And a heap of other people replied saying buy a TU2

I’ve mentioned Yamahas in earlier articles and would have included them above, but having played recent Squiers and recent Yammies, the quality is so similar that I decided to focus on the classics (or something that is really close to one of the fundamental archtypes).

That slim D-shape Yamaha neck doesn’t prepare one for the feel of a real Strat neck, for a start.

For heavier sounds ESP’s LTD range includes entry level models and Ibanez have a decent range of sub £300 axes as well.