How to play Guitar

This article will cover the basics that most all guitar teachers will teach in their first few lessons. If you are already taking lessons this will make a great review and if you have never played before this is the place to start.

A quick overview on the parts of a guitar:

                                              

Head: The end of the neck where guitar strings attach to the tuning keys.


Tuning Keys: Strings wrap around the top of the tuning key, allowing the tension of the strings to be adjusted by the flat middle part of the tuning key sticking out the side of the guitar. Adjusting the tension of the string changes the pitch.


Nut: Keeps the strings in place as they follow down the neck.


Neck: Flat on the top and curved on the back, the neck is the part of the guitar where your left hand (for right handed people) slides back and forth pushing down different notes.


Frets: The metal bars running across the neck. When you push down right behind a fret the string stops vibrating there, allowing you to change the note of a string by pushing down different frets.


Body: The part of the guitar that sits on your leg and helps decide the tone of the guitar.


Pick Guard: A plastic piece that protects the body of your guitar from scrapes that can occur from strumming.


Bridge: The piece where strings are held down at the end of the guitar.


Sound Hole (Acoustic Only): Acoustic guitar bodies are hollow. Sound resonates inside the body and then come out of the sound hole.


Pick Ups (Electric Only): The electronic part of an electric guitar that turning the vibrating strings into an electric signal.


Whammy Bar (Electric Only): A metal bar attached to the bridge that allows the pitch of the guitar to be bent up or down.


Pick Up Selector (Electric Only): This switch decided which pickup(s) is being used by the guitar.


Volume and Tone (Electric Only): Knobs that control how loud and bright the guitar sounds.


Output Jack (Electric Only): Where you plug a guitar cable in which then goes to a amplifier.

How to hold the guitar:

Source: Ultimate Guitar Tab

When holding the guitar, the dip in the guitar should rest comfortably on your leg. Having the leg your guitar rests on slightly elevated can help keep the guitar in place. 

The next thing to discuss is the name of each string on the guitar. When you are learning to play guitar you will have to play a specific note on one or more than one string. The biggest string is called the E string (also called the Big E string) Then the strings continue down A, D,G,B, and the last string is also an E, (also called the Little E string).

The next really important thing to understand is between each metal bar running across the neck is a fret. Each fret is a different note. It should also be mentioned that the dotes on the neck are designed to help you identify where you are. Each dot is on an odd numbered fret (with the exception of the 12th fret which as two dots). So a few examples... You might be asked to play the third fret on the "A" string. First you would say "the A string is the second biggest string, and then 1, 2, 3, there is the third fret, its the first dot, then you play that note.

The next thing we need to cover before we get to actually playing some music is how to read Guitar Tablature (Tab). Most modern music written for guitar is written as Tablature. Guitar Tab shows six lines, each one representing one of the strings on the guitar. Numbers are then placed on the lines to show what notes to play. 

 The bottom line is the largest string on the guitar, and then moving up is each following string until you get to the top line which is the smallest string.

The numbers tell you what fret to push down on the string which the numbers are written on. The above example would be all on the "A" string, 2nd fret, 5th fret, 5th fret again, 7th fret, 7th fret again. It is important to mention that Tap does not have any formal system of showing the rhythm of a song. Some times you will see notes closer together if they are meant to be played closer together (which I have done in the above example) but this is not always done nor is it a very accurate way of showing the rhythm of a song. 

The drawing above shows the notes that would be played from the Tab example. The dots are in order from lightest to darkest in the order that you would play them. 

So to close, here is the tab for Iron Man (awesome song), a song by Black Sabbath. This is the main lick that opens the song. Listen to it on youtube here. Follow along and see if you can play the lick, learning the rhythm from listening to the recording. 

Enjoy, lots more to come!