Notes, Strings and Tuning

Ok, before we can start learning how to play the guitar, we need to make sure our guitars are in tune. That means that each string is individually set to a defined tone or pitch. Now, before we get into that let’s just make sure you are up to speed with basic music theory.

As you know, music has different notes, those different notes each have a different pitch, that’s what gives the music it’s melody or tune so it doesn’t sound like one sound. Music uses the alphabetic letters A, B, C, D E, F and G. There are also a few notes in between them but for now, each note on a guitar, piano, trumpet, violin etc is either an A, B, C, D, E, F or G. For fun, find a piano or keyboard a press any white note. That note will be one of the above notes.

Therefore, it would make sense that the 6 strings on our guitar are each individually set to one of these notes. There is a standard way of setting the strings, ie tuning the strings. There are other ways which you can investigate yourself once you have been playing for a while.

The standard tuning on a guitar working from the top, thickest string is E, the next one is A, then D, then G, then B then E again. Yes, the thinnest string on your guitar is also an E string.

I’d definitely recommend buying a good quality guitar tuner. The reason for this that there is nothing worse than trying to learn the guitar on a guitar that is out of tune. Everything you try will sound wrong or awful and thus putting you off. So it’s imperative that you invest in this little gadget. As all tuners work a bit differently we won’t go into tuning the guitar with a tuner here. The best is to ask the sales person how to tune the guitar using that tuner and choose one that you’re comfortable with and is easy to use. On your AUDIO is the “tuning notes” where each string is played separately from each other (starting with the thickest string and each string is played twice for you). Experienced guitarists can use notes to tune their guitar, however a guitar tuner is still needed to get an exact pitch.

The names of each string is therefore easy to remember, the thickest string is called your E string as it sounds an E when played in open position (no left hand fingers on fretboard); next is the A string, next D string etc. So now if somebody says to you play the B string you know which string to play.

Right - back to the notes of music. Just as each note on a piano represents a different note, each string and fret represents a note on the guitar. Let’s start with your thickest string. Pick up your guitar and pluck on the thickest string without putting any fingers of your left hand on the fretboard. If the guitar is tuned correctly, the sound coming out of your guitar will be the E note. Then if you plucked at the second thickest string, it would sound the note A. Continue through the rest of the strings D, G, B and the high E.

You might notice that the E on the thinnest string sounds much higher than the E on the thickest string. Don’t worry too much about that now, that’s because the thinnest string’s E is a couple of octaves higher, but we will get to that.

Anatomy of the Guitar

Below we have a picture of two types of guitars, the electric guitar and the acoustic guitar.  I want you to memorise the different parts of the electric and the acoustic guitars and also learn which parts are common in both guitars.

EXPLANATION OF GUITAR PARTS:

Tuning Keys
When turned (either clockwise or anti-clockwise), this either raises or lowers the sound of the string.  We use these tuning keys to make sure the guitar is in tune before we start to play.

Head
As the name suggests, this is the head of your guitar.  Usually where you find your tuning keys, where the end of the strings are wrapped around and where you also find the name of the manufacturer of the guitar.  You will soon find out that when you become a bit more serious/experienced about your guitar playing, the manufacturers brand name will be important!!

Nut
This is usually white or black and made of plastic. It has little grooves in it to guide the strings at the end of the neck.  It also keeps the strings in line so they don’t go all over the place.

Neck
The long narrow piece of wood is known as the neck of the guitar.  This is where your left hand will spend all its time.

Fretboard
This is the front of wood on the neck where your left hands fingers will be pressing down the strings on the guitar.

Fret
As you’ll see the neck is divided up by pieces of metal on the neck.  Each block on the neck is a fret.  ie:  Fret 1 is the first fret after the nut, see below.

Electric guitars usually have around 21/22 frets and acoustic guitars have about 12 to 15 frets on them.  We’ll explain more on frets when we get into playing notes.

Fret Marker
These, usually dots but can be other shapes, are there for you to keep track on which fret you are playing.  The markers are usually in the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 12th. 12th usually being a double dot.  Then extending onto the 15th, 17th, 19th.

Body
The whole big piece of wood at the bottom is known as the body of the guitar (as you can see now Head – Neck- Body).

Pick-Up
As touched on above, these are your magnetic sound devices that generate the sound for an electric guitar.  Most electric guitars have 3 pickups but there can be more or less.  Changing between picksups changes the sound of the guitar which we’ll get into later.

Bridge 
This is where your strings begin and you’ll notice that it also has grooves where the strings fit in to start guiding the strings down the neck (or fretboard).

Pickup Selector
This switch helps you switch between your guitar’s pickups. If you are selecting the pick-up closest to the bridge (usually by placing your pick up selector furthest to the left, see below) you’ll get a very trebly, light and tinny sound. This is good for screaming solos and sometimes rhythm or picking.  The pickup will really depend on the sound and type of the music you are playing and trying to make the guitar fit in to the rest of the music.
When you choose the pick-up closest to the neck, you’ll get a very round base, full sound. And selection anything in between will give you a sound with a mix of the above qualities.  You’ll notice that you might have 3 pick ups on your guitar, yet your pickup selector has 4, 5 or more settings.  That’s because you can use more than one pick up at a time. So, second from the left, would most probably use the pickup closest to bridge and the one next to it as well.

Tone Controls
These are where you can adjust the tone of your guitar giving your guitar a greater variety of sound.  The volume control is usually situated with the tone controls.  We don’t need to explain that do we?

Output Jack
This is where you plug your guitar in to your amplifier using a guitar cable.

That’s your basic guitar anatomy.  You should get to know these as soon as possible.  It’s funny when you see a guitarist who doesn’t know all the parts to their guitar. It’s like a surgeon who doesn’t know what his instruments are called, “Nurse, can you pass that thingy-majiggy”, not good.

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Here we go...Guitar HomeStudy's new blog on how to play guitar.  We are going to loading articles, videos, links, exercises for the absolute beginning guitar player.  We are going to start with the simplist of topics and move our way through to actually playing and learning songs.

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