The picture above shows the parts of the electric guitar.

This explanation of the parts of the electric guitar gives you the basic knowledge you need before you start playing. The production, amplification and distortion of the sound made by the electric guitar is an art in itself, but the basic principles are easy to understand.

The guitar in the picture is a solid body electric called a Stratocaster. The guitarist picks or strums the strings, and the pickups – microphones situated near the bridge – transfer the sound to an amplifier.

The BODY of the guitar is made of wood, and is much heavier than an acoustic guitar. There are electric guitars with hollow chambers which makes the instruments much lighter. In the early stages of development of the electric guitar, feedback was a problem when pickups were fitted to hollow body guitars. The solid body eliminated this problem.

The guitar PICKUPS are situated just above the bridge. There are usually three pickups which can be used together or independently. When the strings vibrate, a current is created in the pickup which creates the sound in the amplifier.

The guitar is connected to the amplifier by a cable plugged into the JACK.

The PICKGUARD is a piece of plastic which covers part of the top of the guitar body to protect it from wear and tear during playing.

The BRIDGE is located towards the lower end of the body. The original purpose of the bridge was to anchor the strings to the body. On electric guitars, some bridges allow the individual strings to be raised or lowered to suit the preferences of the guitarist.

The TREMOLO ARM – or “whammy bar” – is screwed into the bridge of some electric guitars. Manipulating the tremolo arm can prolong a note by giving it vibrato. The pitch of the strings can also be changed up and down quite drastically if the player so desires.

The NECK can be attached to the body in one of two ways. The neck can be glued to the body or secured by bolts. Many solid body electrics have the headstock, neck and middle of the body made from a single piece of wood.

At the top of the neck is the HEADSTOCK which holds the MACHINE HEADS which hold the ends of the strings. The machine heads are metal pegs that can be turned to change the tension of the strings to alter the pitch.

At the top of the neck, below the headstock, is the NUT. The nut is a metal, plastic or bone strip that has grooves cut into it to hold the strings.

The neck also holds the FRETBOARD which is a piece of wood – mostly ebony, maple or rosewood – that holds the frets.

The FRETS are strips of metal that are embedded in the fretboard. The frets are positioned at particular points along the fretboard to produce the musical notes.

At the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 12th and 24th frets are POSITION MARKERS which are supposed to make it easier to navigate the fretboard. The position markers are usually dots inlaid in the fretboard.

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A Diagram of the Parts of the Electric Guitar

This is a picture of the parts of an acoustic guitar.

The BODY of the acoustic guitar is the large part to which the bridge and neck are attached. An acoustic guitar body is hollow, and made from cedar or spruce – both of which possess the necessary acoustic and aesthetic qualities for guitar making.

The HEADSTOCK at the top of the neck, holds the MACHINE HEADS which change the tension of the strings to get them in tune.

The strings are anchored at the BRIDGE (which also transmits the sound to the body of the guitar) and are held at the required tension by the machine heads.

The part of the bridge that actually holds the strings is called the SADDLE. The saddle is made of bone or plastic and is the point where the sound is transferred from the strings to the body.

The SOUNDHOLE plays a role in producing of the sound of the acoustic guitar. Not a lot of sound actually comes out of the sound hole but the presence of the opening allows the wood in the body to vibrate without restriction.

The NECK – which is flat at the top and curved at the back – contains the machine heads, headstock, nut, fretboard and frets. The FRETBOARD is made of wood, and the FRETS are strips of metal set along the fretboard to divide it into the necessary lengths for the guitarist to produce musical notes. When a string is held by the fingers against a fret, the string’s vibrating length is made shorter to produce a higher sound. The NUT is a small strip of hard plastic, bone or metal with grooves cut into it to hold the strings in place on the fret board.

The guitarist has a choice between playing an acoustic guitar with a plectrum, fingernails or the flesh of the fingertips. Classical and flamenco guitars are always fitted with nylon strings, and played without a plectrum.

In an acoustic guitar, the sound is made by the strings triggering vibrations in the back, sides and front of the body, through the bridge. Many acoustic guitars can be heard clearly in a large concert hall without amplification. The quality of the sound depends on the quality of the instrument and the acoustics of the hall.

A microphone can be used to amplify an acoustic guitar, and this is the usual way to amplify an expensive classical or flamenco guitar. Many acoustic guitars are fitted with pickups when they are made, but pickups can be bought from a music store and installed on the guitar.

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A Diagram of the Parts of the Acoustic Guitar

For $19.95, at gootar.com, you can buy a six-pack of music notation tools consisting of a tab generator with sound, a guitar chord generator, a tab splicer for joining tabs, a program that makes a list of chords from any scale, a blank chord chart generator, and a piano chord finder with sound.

If you don’t need to hear the tab played back, go to the tab generator at The Guitar Files for a simple and quick tab writer.

I should also mention Easy Tab Maker Pro 4.31 which writes guitar tab as you play. You plug your guitar into your computer and play. While you are playing, the program analyzes the sound to convert into tab form the notes you were playing and where your fingers were placed. This is the kind of program that takes some of the grunt work out of learning to play guitar.

For those who can read standard music notation, Noteflight is dedicated to reinventing the way that people create, share and use written music. It edits, displays and plays back music notation in your browser, integrated in an online library of musical scores that anyone can publish, link to, or embed.

The aims of Noteflight are to make it easy to create and share written music online. The interface is very user-friendly, allowing musical scores to be linked to and bookmarked just like any other web pages. Musical scores can be embedded in web documents, like any image or video.

You can check out the site at noteflight.com or watch the video:

This video shows you some websites that will help you with tuning your guitar:

Spilwerk.com is a another guitar lessons site with a lot going on. There are lessons on guitar tab, intervals, chords, scales and modes plus an article on building left hand power. This site also has a range of guitar learning tools.

At guitarscholar.co.uk is a tutorial on the major triad, an essential part of your education about guitar chords.

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Learn to play guitar online with guitar tab and music tools

There are many ways to approach blues guitar soloing, and one alternative to the minor pentatonic is the Mixolydian scale, which is almost the same as the major scale. One difference is that the root note of the Mixolydian is the fifth of the key you are working with, so in the key of E the scale starts at B. The other difference is the Myxolidian has a flattened seventh.

Here’s a video showing how to use the Mixolydian scale:

One of the problems with discussing blues guitar playing is that we start explaining things using theoretical terms, and this makes translating theory to playing music a little difficult. If getting your head around scales and modes does not seem like playing blues to you, then you should just learn some riffs and turnarounds, and the twelve bar blues progression. After a little while you will see where to use seventh chords, and where to flatten notes.

Here is a video lesson on turnarounds in the key of E:

This lesson should give you what you need to start imitating the playing you hear on blues guitar records. But do not try to be too exact, note-for-note renderings of other people’s solos will sharpen your ear, but they will not help you with improvising. The essence of learning to make up your own music is to start fooling around with what you are listening to, and adding your own variations.

Here is Justin Sandercoe on improvisation:

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Blues Guitar – The Basics

“If you’re just starting out on the guitar, it’s important to find one that’s either really cheap or really flashy.”

“Cultivate poor posture techniques early on, so that they become a learned behavior.”

“Practice irregularly.”

“Start playing the guitar really fast before you’ve learned how to fret and change chords properly.”

“Give up when your fingers start to hurt.”

“Assume that you can learn how to play the guitar without anybody’s help.”

“When you discover that changing chords is too hard and that a couple of week’s worth of time investment hasn’t made you sound like Clapton, make sure to give up immediately and never touch the guitar again.”
Assuming you can learn how to play the guitar without help should be close to the heart of anyone who wants to learn to play for free, but the author of this article, Jonathan Dewbre, who does not appear to be a guitar teacher has hit the nail on the head on many points.

Increasing the speed and accuracy of your guitar playing is not possible if your body is tense. Learning to play guitar is not just a matter of spending time hunched over an instrument. You will need to pay attention to HOW you play.

If you are not used to working with the tensions in your body, a good start would be to simply stop what you are doing and check for any tension anywhere. You could use the timer on your phone or computer to remind you, say, at fifteen minute intervals, just to ask yourself where you are feeling tension.

If you feel that there is a buildup of tension in any area of your body, simply try to adjust your posture, rather than trying to eliminate the tension by letting your arms go limp, or some similar technique. If you like, you could try shaking and stretching to get the tension out.

By adjusting your posture I mean making sure your body is not twisted, your back is straight. Keeping your back straight is a matter of pivoting your upper body on the bones of your butt until you feel your back is straight without being tense. If you find you are continually assuming a slumped posture, try using cushions to make your pelvis lean forward slightly so your back is straight.

Here is a video detailing the advantages of maintaining good posture:

Of course, you will need to work on your posture in conjunction with your guitar. There are a lot of factors at work here: how you hold the instrument when you are sitting; do you need to adjust your position so you don’t crouch or slump; if you play standing up, is your strap so low that the guitar is difficult to reach.

You could stretch your neck, shoulders and back before you begin your guitar practice and again when your time is up.

Adjusting the posture of the whole body is not always necessary. Here is a video by bassist Gary Willis on paying attention to finger pressure as you practice.

If you are having difficulties with pain or tension due to guitar playing, keep a limit on your practice time. Many guitar players would love to organize their lives so they could practice for three, four or six hours a day, but if your body doesn’t like the idea, then stick to one or two hours.

Here is a link to a couple of videos by guitarist and teacher, Justin Rothberg showing how to use both left and right hand for guitar playing.

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The bass guitar was first used in the nineteen thirties but did not become popular until the nineteen fifties. This was when the familiar format of rock groups emerged, with a lead singer backed by lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums.

Over the years, the bass has occasionally been featured as a solo instrument. In 1938, two members of the Bobcats jazz group recorded “Big Noise from Winnetka” which featured double bass player Bob Haggart whistling the tune accompanying himself on bass, while drummer, Ray Bauduc hit the bass strings with drumsticks. Since the emergence of the bass guitar, a few interesting bass solos have hit the charts.

American record producer, Jack Nitzsche composed an instrumental called “The Lonely Surfer” which featured a bass guitar playing the melody, backed by an orchestra. In the early sixties, British bass player, Jet Harris had several instrumental hits with the bass taking the role of the lead guitar. The Shadows – Harris’ old band – had a hit in 1964 with a six-string bass solo called “Stingray”, and in 1965, The Who’s first hit, “My Generation” featured a bass solo.

This video features 9 string extended range bassist Gregory Greg Bruce Campbell.

Most bass players seem to have learnt to play the guitar first, but it is not absolutely necessary. You will probably want to experiment a little before you decide on whether to play bass with a plectrum or your fingers. You can find bass tabs on the internet, and free video lessons on YouTube.

Here is a link to some free bass lessons

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e—————————–0–3–0——————————-|

B——————–0–3——————-3–0——————–|

G—————0–2—————————–2–0—————|

D———–0–2————————————-2–0———–|

A——0–2———————————————–2–0——|

E-0–3———————————————————3–0-|

Here is a diagram of the A minor pentatonic scale, and here is a similar diagram with a tutorial on improvising with the pentatonic scale.

You could start the ball rolling by trying to copy riffs by your favorite players, but the sooner you start moving away from what is known, the sooner you begin to put your own stamp on your playing. Take a look at where the notes are on the neck. You can play in straight lines or you can cross from one string to another or move from down low on the neck to up high. Try some variations and see what you like.

As you work your way up and down, and in and out of the minor pentatonic scale, you will get an understanding of the way the notes fit together. This will help you to recognize what the guitar players on your CDs are doing.

You can also mix the minor pentatonic scale with the major pentatonic. The notes you have to play with will now be: E F# G G# A B C# D. You can also add a flatted fifth – called a “blue” note. In the key of E, this will be Bb. Your notes will now be E F# G G# A Bb B C# D.

This video shows a fine example of a simple blues guitar solo:

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If you would like to learn to write your own songs and to improvise guitar solos, an understanding of scales in guitar music will be crucial.

Practising scales will change the way you hear music. If you practise every day, you will involuntarily begin to recognize how note patterns sound, and eventually you will be able to tell which scale these patterns belong to.

A very important aspect of learning guitar scales is how it helps you physical relationship with your instrument. Your hands will be able to move faster and with more precision after some time of regular scale practice.

This video will take you through some scales without giving you note names so that you can begin playing right away. The teacher, Peter Vogel, does tell you the names of the scales and the close up shots of his hands will be a help in learning HOW to play, that is, the way to hold the pick and how to strike the strings at the correct angle.

You could start your daily guitar practice with some scales to warm up your hands. Remember to use your metronome. Start slow and don’t increase the speed of the metronome until your hand feels at ease with the slow speed.

Carlos at learnguitar2.com has published a book featuring seventy guitar scales. The idea behind the book is to help overcome the resistance that some students show that some students show to the task of learning scales. Carlos’ book is available free to subscribers to his newsletter. You can get it here: http://learnguitar2.com/guitar-scales-chart-and-blues-guitar-scales/

Anyone who wishes to get their own copy should subscribe here: http://learnguitar2.com/guitar-scales-chart-and-blues-guitar-scales/

So if you are a beginner, guitar scales will not discourage you if you take advantage of the free lessons on sites such as learnguitar2.com

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There are acoustic guitars that use nylon strings and there are those that use steel strings. Nylon string acoustic guitars, which are called classical guitars or folk guitars, have a very mellow sound. Steel string acoustic guitars have a much louder and crisper sound. The first and second strings are made from steel wire, but the low E, the A the D and G strings are wire with more wire wound around them. The windings could be made from nickel, stainless steel, brass or bronze. When you look at a steel string acoustic guitar you can see that the high E and the B strings are silver and the rest of the strings have more of a golden or bronze colour.

There is also a difference between the high strings and the low strings on classical guitar strings. The first second and third nylon guitar strings – the G, B and E strings – are plain nylon, but the lower E, A and D are nylon wound with copper. If you prefer a warmer, more mellow sound, then the nylon string acoustic is for you. They are also much kinder to the fingers of beginning guitar players.

Here is a video tutorial on how to change guitar strings on a classical guitar:

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The Best Guitar Strings For Acoustic Guitar

Here’s a video that discusses the question of how long it takes to get good on the guitar:

Kaizen is a practice that originated in Japan and involves going about our daily lives in a way that produces continuous improvement. You make your work more enjoyable and find ways to eliminate waste.
This practice, or group of activities can be applied to our guitar practice. If you think about it now, you can probably see lots of ways you goof off during your guitar practice time. We all tend to daydream to some extent, or doodle around with old, familiar material when we should be working on new stuff. Or, sometimes we find excuses to cut the practice time short.
We can implement Kaizen in our guitar practice by looking for small ways we can improve. Maybe you could take a few bars of a new piece and see what is necessary to get those right instead of playing through the whole piece endlessly in the hope that quantity of practice will produce quality playing.
One of the common mistakes guitar students make is to try to play too fast. You will often see someone who has learnt a scale to a certain degree who will grit his teeth and try to fit all the notes into the required amount of time. This wastes a lot of energy and stops improvement in playing. The first big idea you will need to put into practice in order to improve is to work WITH your body. Your body has its own way of learning new movements and once you learn to cooperate with your body you will find that the speed and smoothness of your chord playing and picking will increase quickly.

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Kaizen And Guitar Playing