This Learning Guitar lesson will cover the basics: parts of the guitar, how to read a staff and musical symbols. Now, if you’re thinking to yourself… “I know how to do this already, fool!” then please feel free to skip a couple of lessons.
Parts of the Guitar
Before we play I’d like to explain the parts of the guitar. First we’ll look at an acoustic guitar. At the very top is the headstock. And on the headstock you find the six tuning pegs which hold the six strings. The strings pass over the nut. The strings are numbered 1-2-3-4-5-6 starting from the one that is closest to the floor. The neck of the guitar is next and has the fret board or finger board. The wires on the neck are called frets. The frets are also numbered 1-2-3-4… starting at the top of the neck. The dots on the neck are called position markers and they are simply visual aids to help you around the fret board. The neck meets the body of this guitar at the fourteenth fret. The cut-away allows free access to the higher frets. The hole in the middle is called the sound hole. The bridge of the guitar is where the strings meet the body. The strings are held in the bridge by pegs.
Next we’ll look at an electric guitar, a Fender Stratocaster. What I’m going to be covering in these Learning Guitar lessons can be played on either an acoustic or an electric guitar. Acoustic and electrics are very similar. For instance they both have necks, frets, six strings, although the headstocks are usually shaped differently. This one has all the tuning pegs on one side. The body of the guitar is a different matter. The acoustic guitar gets its sound through the sound hole, from the vibrations in the body. But the electric gets its volume from the pickups. An electric guitar is going to have one, two or more pickups. This one has three (they are placed in rows under the strings on the body of the guitar). The volume control is the knob under the last pickup. There are also knobs for tone control below the volume knob. The selector switch is used to select which pickup to use at any given time. The whammy bar raises or lowers the pitch of the strings, for subtle or wild effects. The jack is where you plug in the guitar cord that leads to the amplifier. The strap buttons are used to attach a strap for when you want to play and stand up.
Playing Position
While in a seated position most guitarists rest their instrument on their right leg, and keep the neck horizontal to the floor, not up or down. Sit up straight, yet relaxed, and don’t be afraid to have your right arm resting on the top of the instrument.
The Pick
A guitar can be plucked with either your fingers or a pick. For the Learning Guitar lessons I’m going to be using a pick. To hold the pick, get your hand in a position like you’re going to turn a key in a doorknob. Place the pick between the thumb and index fingers so the point sticks out. Bring it into the instrument and make fine adjustments until you’re comfortable.
Tuning The Guitar
To tune your strings, you need to adjust the tuning pegs to raise and lower the pitch until they’re in tune. For instance, turn one way for a lower pitch and the opposite way for a higher pitch. Starting with the lowest string, string #6, is called low E. The 5th string is the A string. Next is the 4th string, or D string. The 3rd string is called G. The 2nd string is B. The 1st string is high E.
Musical Symbols
Before going any further with Learning Guitar it’s important to understand a few musical terms. Music is written in notes on a staff. The staff has 5 lines and 4 spaces between the lines. A note’s position on the staff decides the pitch (lowness or highness). At the very beginning of the staff is a clef sign. Guitar music notes are written in the treble clef.
A letter is associated with each line and each space on the staff. Starting from the bottom the lines are named E, G, B, D, and F. Which you can remember as Every Guitarist Begins Doing Fine. The spaces are F, A, C, E from the bottom and that spells “face”.
The staff is divided into several parts by bar lines. The space between two bar lines is called a measure. To end a piece of music a double bar is placed on the end of the staff. Each measure contains a group of beats. And beats are the steady pulse of music.
The two numbers placed next to the clef sign are the time signature. The top number tells you how many beats are in one measure. The number at the bottom of the time signature shows you what kind of note will receive on beat. It is a quarter note for this example.
Notes tell us the length, or number of counts, of musical sound. There are whole notes, which receive 4 beats. The half note receives 2 beats. The quarter note gets one beat. When different notes are placed on different lines or spaces of the staff, you will know the pitch of each note and how long to play it.
That’s it for the first Learning Guitar lesson. Be sure to review and memorise all the information we have learnt so far.
Up next in Learning Guitar lesson two: learning more about the staff, where notes are placed and we’ll start on some songs.