Beginner's Guitar Lesson
Introduction And Identification Of Guitar Parts
guitar
What is a guitar?
A guitar is a musical instrument with a long neck and strings.
When you play the guitar, you press the strings with one hand to make a note, and strum with the other hand (unless, of course, you are playing air guitar).
The section of a guitar where your fingers form a note is called the "fingerboard."
An acoustic guitar has a hollow body that vibrates with warm sound when you pluck or strum the strings, and an electric guitar is solid and plugs into an amplifier that projects the sound.
The word guitar comes from the Spanish guitarra, which has its roots in the Greek kithara, a lyre-like stringed instrument.
Types of guitarWe have the three major types of guitar which are:
•acoustic guitar
•semi-acoustic guitar
•electric guitar
Parts of guitar
Knowing the actual parts of the guitar and their definitions is essential to expanding your knowledge of this instrument.
The main parts include the Head, Tuning Peg, Nut, Neck, Fretboard, Frets, Fret Markers, Body, Pickups, Pickup Selector, Pick Guard, Tremelo, Bridge, Volume And Controls and Input Jack.
• Head – The Head or Headstock is the top part of the electric guitar that holds the Tuning Pegs. In addition, the size of the Head will affect vibration of the strings.
• Tuning Peg – Tuning Pegs also known as Machine Heads and Tuning Knobs are a vital part of the electric guitar that allow you to tighten and loosen the guitar strings.
• Nut – The Nut is a very important electric guitar part between the Neck and the Head where the strings rest. It is usually white and made of a very hard substance such as bone or plastic.
• Neck – The Neck is the long thin part of the electric guitar that connects to the Head and the Body. In addition, the neck is where you will find the Fretboard, Frets and Fret Markers.
• Fretboard – The Fretboard is the electric guitar part that goes over the Neck and is segmented to contain the Frets and Fret Markers.
• Frets – Frets are located on the Neck of the electric guitar and are segmented rectangles. The strings hover above the Frets and when you press down the string over a fret you can change the pitch of the sound you are playing.
• Fret Markers – Fret Markers or Position Markers are located on the Fretboard and are guides that can help you locate certain notes easily. They are usually designed as circles, but some guitars can have very elaborate Fret Markers.
• Body – The Body is the main part of an electric guitar that holds the pickups, volume and tone controls, bridge, pickup selector and the input jack. Different types of wood that create the Body will give different sounds.
• Sound box/hole - This is majorly found in the acoustic and semi-acoustic guitar. It's the region that stimulate and produce the sound when a string is being plucked on the guitar.
• Pickups – The Pickups are the part of the electric guitar that are located on the main body and underneath the strings. They work with magnets and when the strings are vibrated it will send the impulse frequency to an amplifier. This is how sound is created with the electric guitar.
• Pickup Selector – The Pickup Selector does exactly what its name says – It lets you toggle what pickups you want to use. With the selector, you can turn off certain pickups or combine them. Different guitars have different pickup settings to choose from.
• Pick Guard – The Pick Guard is usually a piece of flat plastic that is a protection piece to stop you from scratching the wood of the guitar when you strum it.
• Tremelo – The Tremelo also known as a “Whammy Bar” is a metal bar connected to the bridge of the guitar. While playing, you can move the bar up or down which will move the bridge and change the pitch. You can get some really unique sounds with a Tremelo Bar.
• Bridge – The Bridge is located on the Body of the guitar and it is a small piece of wood that holds the bottom parts of the strings in place.
• Volume And Controls – The Volume and Tone Controls are knobs that let you increase or decrease the volume and to change the tone to what you want.
• Input Jack – The Input Jack is the part of an electric guitar where you insert a guitar cord to connect to an amplifier.
Beginner's Guitar Lesson
Identification of keys on each strings
Before we proceed further, let's try identifying each strings, names and position on the guitar.
NB: On the guitar, we start our labelling/naming from the rear(I.e the thinnest to the thickest string) meaning from down-upwards(as if we are climbing up a ladder).
So we don't start naming from the the top. The strings are identify with figures/number(from the thinnest to the thickest string)
The sequence goes thus:•string 1 is the thinnest string on the guitar and it's named high E
•string 2 follows immediately after string 1 and it's named B
•string 3 is named G
•string 4 is named D
•string 5 is named A
•string 6 is named low E
Meanwhile for easy understanding and memorization, we have an acronym for that.
E- every
B- body
G- go
D- down
A- and
E- eat
Identifying the keys on the guitar fretboard
What is an ‘open’ string?This will lead us into identifying the keys properly.
An open string is a string which is played without placing your left hand on any the frets.
So for example, if you played the E string on its own without finger pressing any of the fret, you’d be playing the open E string which means same as you are on key E but we referred to any string plucked without fret as open string.
This works for the rest of the strings on the guitar!
By now, I hope yo understand what open and closed string means without further explanation.
I will be using open string high E as case study but before we move further;
What's an octave?
An interval of twelve semitones spanning eight degrees of the diatonic scale, representing a doubling or halving in pitch.
Intervals(Steps)It's the distance between one note and the other through a definite pattern or structure.(In simple terms).
The interval(steps) could either be a whole step(W) or an Half step(H)NB: Whole step is also be substituted for Tone(T) and half step as semitone(S) movements.
NB: on the fretboard, semitone(S) movement is when you move from one fret to the immediate/next fret(on your left finger when placed on the fretboard.
While a Tone(T) movement is when the immediate fret is omitted for the next(3rd) fret.
Our "diatonic" scale means our major or minor scale and both combined together simply called A Chromatic scale.
In running of our scale, we have 7major scales and 5minor scales.
Therefore, 7major+5minor = 12 scales all together which automatically forms our chromatic scale.
Music Alphabets
In music generally, we make use of the first seven alphabet letters which are letter A-G.
Now back to open string high E Remember, if you pluck the string without fretting, we have our open E which is same as key E.
By now, I'm sure we are all familiar with what our frets are?.
Now, the fret immediately after the open E is our F which is our key F.
I am going to make it to the 12th fret in a chromatic manner using an arrow to identify for you.
Open E->F->F#->G->Ab->A->Bb->B->C->C#->D->Eb
NB:
•the arrow is in ascending order and fret to fret without jumping any fret.
•# represent sharp keys
•b represent flat keys
•key F&C doesn't have flat.
Therefore, we only have two semi-tone B->C and E->F, 7major and 5minor.That's all about identification of key on string E.
Assignment
As I've explained and identified all the 12keys on string E, identify the 12keys on each of the string from string B to string low E.
Beginner's Guitar Lesson
Guitar Tunning Method
Welcome to Banafix music academy Beginner's Guitar Class.
In this lesson, I’m going to teach you how to tune the guitar.
Knowing how to tune your guitar is very important because no matter how great of a guitar player you are, if your guitar is out of tune, it’s not going to sound very good.
By the end of this lesson, you’ll know everything you need to tune your guitar and see a video provided to it.
We will split this lesson up into 3 sections:
Tuning Theory & Tips,
Tuning Your Guitar With An Electronic Tuner,
And Tuning Your Guitar By Ear.
Tuning Theory & TipsThe Musical Alphabet:
You’ve already learned the names of the open strings on the guitar, which were E-A-D-G-B-E.
The next thing you need to learn is the natural musical alphabet, which is simple but a must-know.
The natural musical alphabet is the first seven letters of the alphabet, so A-B-C-D-E-F-G.
Flats: The symbol that looks like a lowercase ‘b’ is the flat symbol, and when it’s next to a natural note, it means the note is flat.
NB: When we talk about being flat while tuning the guitar, this means the note needs to come up a bit.
Sharps: The symbol that looks like a tic-tac-toe grid is the sharp symbol.
NB: When we talk about being sharp while tuning, this means the note is a little too high and it needs to come down.
When you use an electronic tuner, there are a couple of ways it will tell you if a note is sharp or flat.
One way is using lights, which will be off to the left if your note is flat and needs to come up a little.
If the lights are off to the right, your note is sharp and needs to come down.
Instead of lights, an electronic tuner might use a needle, which works the same way the lights do.
Tuning Tip #1: Make sure you’re turning the right tuning key.
For example, if you want to tune your D string, follow the D string along the fretboard to the headstock where you can see the correct tuning key to use.
Otherwise, you might accidentally turn the A string tuning key, wonder why your D string isn’t changing, and end up breaking your A string.
NB: Always double-check that you are turning the right tuning key for the string you’re tuning.
Tuning Tip #2: If you think you’re tuning the string too high or too far, you probably are.
I suggest you stop, crank the string back down, and start again.
NB: One thing to practice before you get started is to go to any string and play with the tuning key, find out how much turning makes the note go up or down, and get familiar with the string.
Tuning Your Guitar With An Electronic Tuner
Today, there are lots different tuners you can choose from.
There are clip on tuners, pedal tuners, handheld tuners, and smartphone/tablet tuner apps.
It doesn’t matter what kind you use, and you can get a good tuner for $15-20.
Calibrating Your Tuner:
First off, if you have a calibration setting on your tuner, make sure it is set to A 440 Hz.
This is the standard tuning frequency, and if you’re not tuned to this, you’ll sound a little off from everyone else.
Step #1: The first step is to get each string to the proper note name, so if you were tuning your low E string, get the note to an E first.
After that, you’ll fine-tune the E note so that it is spot on.
Step #2: Once the tuner is displaying the correct note name for the string you’re on, you can fine-tune the note by slowly turning the tuning key until the tuning needle is in the middle.
Tuning Tip: One tip I have for you is to tune up to a note instead of down to it.
If your note is sharp, come back down and tune up to it, which helps your strings stay in tune longer.
Step #3: Once you’ve finished tuning the strings, go through them again.
Since acoustic guitars are made of wood, changing the tension on the strings can change the guitar.
Tuning Your Guitar By Ear
This can be intimidating, especially for those who don’t have a musical background, but I’ll give you some tips that will help you tune your guitar even when you don’t have a tuner with you.
As long as one of your strings is in tune, you can tune the guitar to itself by applying the 5th Fret Tuning Method.
The 5th Fret Tuning MethodThe Low E String:
For this tuning method, the E string must already be in tune. You can use a piano, another guitar, or an online tuner to find the reference pitch to tune to.
The A String: Start off by going to the fifth fret of the low E string, which is an A note.
Since your fifth string is an open A string, it should sound exactly like the note on the fifth fret of the E string.
The D String: Next we need to tune the D string, so we’ll go to the fifth fret of the A string which is a D note. Once again, the open D string should sound just like the D note on the A string.
The G String: To tune the G string, I follow the same method using the fifth fret of the D string.
The B String: Tuning the B string is a little different.
We need to use the fourth fret instead of the fifth fret because that’s where the B note is, so match the open B string to the fourth fret of the G string.
The High E String: Tuning the high E string gets back on track though, so you use the fifth fret of the B string to tune this last string.
Double Check Your Tuning: Once you have the guitar tuned by ear, go through the strings again to tune just like you would if you were using an electronic tuner.
This allows you to fine-tune and double-check that the strings are where they should be.