Guitar Frequency

The guitar is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Its a key component in most modern music and all the different types of guitars have their place in many genres.

In this article we will cover all the different types of guitars.

How Many Types of Guitars Are There?

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When we talk about the modern guitar we can safely say there are three distinct types. Acoustic guitars, electric guitars and bass guitars.

However, there are many different categories/varieties within each type. We will cover these different category types below.

Types of Acoustic Guitars

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Although guitar-like instruments have been around for millennia, the first modern acoustic guitars were created in about 1850, based on designs from European luthiers a century earlier.

Acoustic guitars have steel or nylon strings; they can be full-bodied or include a cutaway and have either an arch-top or flat top. Some acoustic guitars are equipped with a pickup so that they can be plugged into an amp or a PA via a direct box. 

Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar

The Martin Company first created the Dreadnought body style in the early 20th century. It is the most popular body style of acoustic guitar and has a larger body with a wider soundboard than its predecessors. When you think of an acoustic guitar, this is the body style you imagine.

Jumbo Acoustic Guitar

First introduced by the Gibson guitar company in 1937. As their name implies, Jumbo guitars are larger than their dreadnought brothers and produce a loud, booming sound. They have a strong bass response and substantial projection. They quickly became popular due to their fantastic projection and complimentary sound.

Parlor Acoustic Guitar

Parlor guitars are smaller in size than the Jumbo and dreadnought varieties. They tend to have a lighter, more airy sound and a quieter acoustic projection. It’s the ideal guitar for a small-room or at-home concerts, recording, and intimate settings. Smaller people will feel more comfortable using this instrument.

Concert and Grand Concert Acoustic Guitar

Like the parlor guitar, the concert guitar is smaller in size than a dreadnought or jumbo guitar. It also has a narrower waist than a dreadnought or parlor guitar. This makes for a quieter, more mellow guitar tone.

It is also a comfortable body shape for smaller people and those who play with the guitar on their lap, as the narrow waist gives a good notch to fit in your lap. The grand concert is slightly larger than the concert, with a somewhat louder projection.

Auditorium and Grand Auditorium Acoustic Guitar

In recent years, the grand auditorium body style has become more and more popular. Coming in between the concert and the dreadnought in terms of size, auditorium guitars have a narrow waist and a very even voicing, making them quite versatile for a number of styles. 

The grand auditorium is a slightly larger body than the standard but still smaller than a dreadnought.

Classical Acoustic Guitar

Classical-style guitars have several differences from other types. For one, they use nylon strings instead of steel strings. They have a wider fretboard, and the headstock is open slotted, which is different from most other types.

Classical guitars tend to be smaller bodied than most other acoustics. The nylon strings produce a very warm and rich tone. They are less bright and more muted than steel strings and are generally not played with a pick.

Although used primarily for classical music, you can also find classical guitars in jazz, country, and even in some pop and rock settings. Willie Nelson is a famous example of someone who uses a classical guitar outside of the classical genre.

Renaissance and baroque guitars are examples of older designs of the modern classical guitar.

Twelve-String Acoustic Guitar

Twelve-string acoustics usually use a dreadnought or jumbo-style body. Instead of 6 strings, a 12 string guitar has two strings for each note. The lower four sets of strings’ (E, A, D, G) each have one string in the lower octave and one string in the higher octave. The two sets of high strings (B, E) are the same octaves in relation to each note. 

This type of guitar has an unmistakable thickness and chime to it. Think of the beginning of the Eagles’ Hotel California or Tangerine by Led Zeppelin. Twelve strings can also have a washy, chorus-like sound as the minute pitch differences between the matched strings play against one another.

Archtop Acoustic Guitar

Most modern acoustic guitars have a flat soundboard or top. However, some acoustics feature an arched-top that utilize f-hole openings on the outer flanges of the soundboard.

They are generally larger-sized guitars and feature a floating bridge rather than a bridge fixed to the guitar’s top.

Jazz musicians often favor archtop acoustic guitars for their smooth and warm tones. They are quieter than their round hole counterparts and tend to blend in the mix rather than stand out. 

Resonator Acoustic Guitar

Resonators are strikingly different in both sound and appearance from other acoustic guitars. They feature a metal soundboard, and some resonator’s bodies are made entirely of metal.

Another big difference in the construction is that some resonators have square necks as opposed to the traditional rounded necks.

The sound of a resonator is also distinct. They are very bright with a lot of pick articulation. They have a shimmery quality with a lot of top-end frequencies and a cut bass response. Resonators are often used as slide guitars and played on the lap, and they are also used in fingerpicking with bluegrass and blues.

Types of Electric Guitars

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While people had been tinkering with the idea of electric guitars since the late 1930s, Leo Fender is the one credited with producing the first line of commercially available electric guitars in 1949.

Leo’s Esquire guitar was the first in what would become a musical revolution. Today, electric guitars are as varied as the people who play them. However, one thing in common is that they all use pickups to transfer the sound of a ringing string through to an amplifier. 

A Note About Pickups

It is worthwhile to note the different types of pickups. The most common types of pickups for electric guitar are single coil. humbucker and P90 pickups. The vast majority of electric guitars have one of these types of pickups.

Single Coil

Basically, single-coil pickups use a single wind of wire around a magnet or series of magnets to transmit sound. These are what you would commonly find on Fender Strat’s.

Humbucker

Humbucker pickups, use two single coils with reversed polarity to cancel out interference that causes hum. They produce a warmer sound and are what you would commonly find on Gibson Les Paul’s.

P90

P90 pickups are a type of single-coil pickup but they produce a more mid-range treble sound (brighter) than humbuckers.

Another sub-category of pickups is between active and passive pickups. Most electric guitar pickups are passive, meaning that they do not require an additional power source to function.

On the other hand, active pickups have their own power, usually provided by one or two 9V batteries. You can think of active pickups as having a small preamp built-in.

Solid-Body Electric Guitar

This is the most common type of electric guitar. Solid-body electrics contain a solid block of material outfitted with pickups which “pick up” the sound of the ringing strings and send it through an amplifier.

Wood is the original and still most common material from which solid-body guitars are made, but not the only one. Graphite, lucite, polymer resin, plastic, metal, and even glass have all been used as a material for solid body guitars.

Unlike acoustic guitars, which all have a fairly uniform shape with some minor differences, solid-body electric guitars come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. 

Solid-body electrics can have any number of pickup configurations, employing single-coil pickups, humbuckers, or a combination of both.

Semi-Hollow Body Electric Guitar

Semi-hollow body guitars have a solid block in the middle of the body where the pickups are seated and hollow wings that feature some type of opening, usually an f-hole. They tend to be lighter than solid body guitars, and their shape is usually similar to an acoustic guitar, although many of them have a much more shallow depth.

Their open chambered sides give the guitars a slightly acoustic quality. They tend to be warmer sounding in general. Due to the open chambers, they can be finicky with feedback. 

Hollow Body Electric Guitar

Hollow body guitars are similar to semi-hollow bodies, except that they have no center block. Instead, the entire guitar body is a sound chamber like an acoustic guitar. They tend to have a very woody and acoustic-like quality to their sound.

Pure hollow body electrics are not very common these days because they are very fragile, and it is difficult to control the feedback from the amp, especially in a live performance situation.

Chambered Electric Guitar

Chambered electric guitars are the same as a semi-hollow body guitar, except that the chambers have no sound holes. They look like a solid body, but the construction is more akin to a semi-hollow body.

They blend characteristics of a semi-hollow and a solid body, giving a sound with a good bit of chime and resonance without the acoustic guitar quality. 

Twelve-String Electric Guitar

Like the 12-string acoustic guitar, these guitars are like their six-string counterparts in most ways. The 12 string configuration is the same as the acoustic guitars, with the bottom four notes having a matching string tuned an octave up and the two high notes having matching pitches/tunings.

They produce the same type of chimey, phased sound of acoustic 12-strings.

Lap-Steel Guitars

These guitars are commonly six stringed, although some have eight. Their bodies are smaller than standard electric guitars and are open-tuned,  and their strings are high above the fretboard. The strings are not pressed down on the fretboard like a regular guitar but, instead, the musician uses a slide to play them.

Pedal Steel Electric Guitars

Similar in some ways to the lap-steel, these are the guitars with the smooth sliding twangy sound that you hear in countless country songs.

Pedal steel guitars are played while sitting and are usually comprised of two fretboards with ten springs each, and several foot pedals and knee levers to adjust the pitch of certain strings. Like a lap-steel, the strings sit high above the fretboard and are played with a slide.

Seven and Eight-String Electric Guitars

These guitars have an added lower string, usually tuned to C or B, and the eight-string variety will have an extra high string, usually an A.

These electric guitars have been gaining popularity with players who go for heavier musical styles like metal and grindcore, although some jazz players have been known to use them as well. Joni Mitchell famously plays a seven-string guitar at times.

Double and Multiple Neck Electric Guitars

The double-neck electric was made famous by Jimmy Page of Led Zepplin fame. They feature an extra-wide body to accommodate two sets of pickups and electronics, one for each neck. They typically have one six string and one 12 string neck, although I’ve also seen a double-neck guitar with a six string and a baritone neck.

There are guitars with more than two necks. Rick Nielsen from the band Cheap Trick has guitars with up to seven necks.

Baritone Guitar

A baritone guitar is a hybrid between a guitar and a bass guitar. It has six strings like an electric guitar, but with a longer neck and thicker strings. This enables lower tuning with less string slack.

Baritone guitars have no standardized tuning. However, the most common tuning is a perfect fourth lower than standard tuning (B E A D F# B). Another tuning is a perfect fifth lower (A D G C E A). And even a major third lower (C F Bb Eb G C).

Touch Guitar

The touch guitar uses a fretboard tapping style to create sound, commonly known as touch-style. These guitars are not strummed.

They have either eight or ten strings and a range of over five octaves.

Types of Bass Guitars

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Although the first electric bass was made in 1935, it was, again, Leo Fender who produced the first electric bass guitar in the 1950s. Like electric guitars, bass guitars come in a variety of styles.

Bass guitars generally have four strings, tuned EADG, although there are exceptions.

Regarding pickups, it’s worth noting that active pickups are more common on bass guitars than standard electrics, although passive pickups are still the most common.

Solid-Body Bass Guitar

Solid-body bass guitars are the most common type of bass today. Like the solid-body electric guitar, they come in all shapes and sizes and can have any combination of single-coil and humbucker pickups. 

Solid-body basses are by far the most common type of bass, but you can also find semi-hollow body basses. To my knowledge, no one has made a fully hollow body electric bass guitar.

Semi-hollow Body Bass Guitar

These basses are very similar to semi-hollow body electric guitars in their woody acoustic qualities and thumpy hollow resonance. They also can be tough to handle with feedback issues in live situations for less experienced players.

Acoustic Bass Guitar

As the name states, an acoustic bass guitar is to an electric bass guitar what an acoustic guitar is to an electric guitar. It has an acoustic body construction with a soundhole and can sometimes be fitted with an internal pickup or have a cutaway for easier access to higher frets.

Fretless Bass Guitar

Often favored by jazz and fusion players, fretless basses feature a neck without frets. This gives these basses a rounder, buzzy tone and a feel akin to an upright. They have a unique flavor and appeal. 

Since they have no frets, you have to be very adept with finger placement to hit the right note. For that reason, they can be difficult to master for those just starting out.

Five-String Bass Guitar

These basses are like their four string cousins, but with an added low string, usually tuned to B. The necks are slightly wider but are usually otherwise quite similar to a standard four-string.

Six-String Bass Guitar

A six-string bass will have the low B string as well as a high C string added to the EADG strings. BEADGC.

Related Instruments

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In addition to the many types of guitars we talked about above. There are related instruments, think of them as cousins, to the guitar.

Travel Guitar

These can be classified as either. just a smaller guitar, a guitar that has a folding neck, or a specifically designed travel guitar.

Harp Guitar

In addition to a more standard guitar neck. A harp guitar also contains unstopped open strings like you would see on a harp.

Banjo

The banjo is a resonator style instrument that utilizes a membrane, normally made of plastic, stretched over the cavity. They are available in four, five or six-string.

Although the banjo is used in many genres of music. It’s generally most popular in bluegrass, country and folk music.

Mandolin

The mandolin is a stringed instrument that is meant to be plucked. It generally has four pairs of strings. Each pair is tuned to the same pitch. So, you would tune an eight string mandolin G G D D A A E E.

Mandolins can also have ten and twelve strings.

Ukulele

The ukulele is small and normally has four nylon strings. There are four common sizes; soprano, concert, tenor and baritone.

Standard tuning of a ukulele is G C E A.

Final Thoughts

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We hope you have found this guide on the types of guitars informative. Now that you know how many different guitars are out there, time to get shredding.

To learn more about guitars, check out our Parts Of A Guitar guide. Thanks for reading.

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It may seem overwhelming when you try to learn to play guitar. You may not be sure where to even begin. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. In this guide we will go over everything you need to know to help you learn how to play guitar.

Guitar Terms

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Before you start studying chord charts and Eddie Van Halen solos, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with some essential guitar terms.

While you might already know some of these terms, it’s a good idea to review them before learning to play.

Be sure check out our guide that explains the Parts of A Guitar in more detail.

Just a few of the essential guitar terms to know include:

• Amplifier. An amplifier is a piece of gear used to amplify the sound of an electric guitar. It’s typically connected to the guitar via an output jack and a guitar cable.

• Body. The guitar’s body is the main wooden part of the guitar. The neck, strings, bridge, etc… all attach to the body.

• Bridge. The bridge is the part of a guitar that holds the bottom portions of the strings. It also consists of the saddle. Bridge adjustment provides intonation.

• Capo. The capo is designed to clamp down across a guitar’s fretboard. It acts as a movable nut which in turn affects the pitch.

• Chords. A chord is a series of notes played together to form a harmonious sound or tone.

• Fretboard. The extended, thin portion of a guitar where the strings are is called the fretboard. This piece is embedded with raised horizontal stripes called frets.

• Fret. A fret is the raised strip along a fretboard. It divides the fretboard into sections that help guitarists differentiate tones. Frets are typically made of mostly copper and some nickel and other metals.

• Head or Headstock. The top of a guitar is called the head. This portion houses the tuning keys. gears and string posts.

• Output Jack. Any guitar that’s capable of connecting to an amplifier will have an output jack. This is where you connect your guitar cable.

• Pick. A pick is a small, triangular piece of plastic used for picking and strumming.

• Pickguard. A pickguard protects the guitar body from potential scuffs and scrapes.

• Position Markers. Along a fretboard, there are often small white dots, diamonds or other shapes, known as position markers. These help players identify which frets are which. They are commonly on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 17th, 19th and 21st frets on a 22 fret guitar.

• Tone/Volume Controls. These small controls allow players to customize tone and increase/decrease volume while playing.

• Tune/Tuning. Guitar strings are designed to play at specific pitches or notes. When the strings become too loose or too tight, they will not be in tune and produce the wrong pitch. Proper tuning ensures that your guitar always sounds great.

• Tuning Keys/Pegs. These are used to tune your guitar. Each guitar string is attached to a specific tuning post located at the head of the guitar. You can make your strings looser or tighter by turning the tuning keys.

• Vibrato Bar. Electric guitars may have a vibrato bar, which is a thin metal bar located near the bridge. When adjusted, this piece can add vibrato to your playing. It’s also called a ‘whammy’ bar.

Guitar String Names

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Guitar strings are named for the note they play in the open position. Most guitars have six strings, although some guitars have 7, 8 or 12 strings. Bass guitars commonly have four strings, but five and six string basses are available.

Starting with the thickest, the string names are: E, A, D, G, B, E

The strings are numbered one through six starting with the thinnest E string.

Why is the order we count the strings backwards?

If you were to place a guitar on your lap and look at the fretboard, you would count the strings from top to bottom. This is also how guitar tab is written.

What Equipment Do You Need To Play Guitar?

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The primary thing you’ll need to learn to play guitar is a guitar! This is obvious but which type of guitar you choose will also determine which accessories and other equipment you may or may not need.

For example, if you decide on playing acoustic guitar, you really only need the guitar itself to get started. However, guitar picks and a tuner will help drastically.

If you choose to play electric guitar, you will also eventually need a guitar cable (sometimes called a patch cord) as well as an amplifier (amp for short). Down the road you will also want to acquire different pedals to really adjust your tone.

If you must, you can begin playing electric guitar without an amplifier as it does not affect playability. But you will not get the tone or volume for which these guitars were designed.

You can also get headphones to plug into your amp so you’re able to practice in almost any situation.

If you decide to play bass guitar, the same rules apply as with electric guitars. You will also need an amp and cable.

There also various other optional accessories. Capo, slides, straps and music stands to name just a few.

What Size Guitar Should I Get?

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Guitars come in several sizes, ensuring that players of all ages and sizes can learn to play. Naturally, the right size guitar for you depends on your height and size.

Generally, guitars are separated into four size categories:

• Full-Size

• ¾-Size

• Half-Size

• Quarter-Size

A full-size guitar is just the right size for most adults’ torso, arms, and hands. However, if you struggle to close your hand around the neck of a full-size guitar, you may want to consider a ¾-size or half-size option.

A quarter-size guitar (also known as a ¼-size guitar) tends to work best for small children. Generally, this type of guitar is only slightly larger than a standard-sized ukulele!

Other important measurements to consider are scale length and fingerboard radius.

• Scale length is the length measured from the nut to the bridge.

• Fingerboard radius is how flat or arched the fingerboard is.

Another thing to be aware of is how many frets the guitar has. The more frets, the longer the neck. Most guitars have either 21 or 22 frets but some guitars are also made with 24 and other numbers of frets.

What Type of Guitar Should I Buy?

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The three most popular guitar types and some of their sub-categories:

• Acoustic
  • Acoustic-Electric
  • Archtop
  • Auditorium/OM
  • Classical
  • Flattop
  • Hybrid
  • Parlor
  • Resonator

• Electric
  • Solidbody
  • Semi-Hollow
  • Hollow

• Bass
  • Acoustic Bass
  • Electric

All these categories could be further broken down into, short/long scale, fretted or fretless, dreadnought variations and many other categories.

However, the most important thing is to choose whether you want to play acoustic, electric or bass guitar.

Acoustic guitars are great for playing anywhere, anytime. You do not need an amp, power or cables. They are also generally lighter than electric guitars.

With electric guitars, you have the ability to create endless sounds/tones/effects with pedal and amp combinations. The obvious downfall here, depending on how you look at it, is the need to play through an amp and how loud it can be. To be able to play an electric without disturbing the neighbors you can use a mini-amp or headphones.

Bass guitars, unless you have an acoustic, also require power, an amplifier and cable. Bass guitars, along with percussion, drive the rhythm. You are commonly playing single notes as chords are much less common with bass guitars

The best type of guitar for you depends on a multitude of factors. Consider what kind of music you’d like to learn to play and go from there!

How To Learn To Play Guitar By Yourself

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Most people begin their journey way, even if they eventually take lessons. You can utilize the below tips resources and guidelines to get you started.

In addition to this guide there are plenty of great online resources. We’ve linked some of these below.

Learning Environment

Make sure you have an environment suitable for you to learn to play guitar. Any quiet area, free from distractions will do.

Warm-Up

Warm-up before every practice/gig session. Hand and finger stretches may sound unnecessary but they can greatly reduce the strain from long practice sessions.

Dexterity drills also should not be overlooked. This can be as simple as playing frets one through four, on every string. Make your way from low to high E. Be sure to connect the notes smoothly.

Once you reach the fourth fret on the high E string, you can reverse the order. Play the frets four through one, starting with the high E string and make your way down to the low E string.

Learn Chords

Learning chords will be essential to playing your favorite songs. Power chords are generally easier to learn as they are only two note chords, the root and the fifth. They are played with and without the higher root octave. This may sound difficult, don’t worry, it’s much easier than you may think. Be sure to check our our guide on how to play power chords to learn everything you need to get you playing power chords.

You’ll also want to learn major and minor chords, as well as variations of those chords.

Our guide on how to play guitar chords contains twenty eight different chord variations and helpful tips.

Learn Scales

Scales are the foundations on which chords and solos are made of. Learning scales will set you up for success down the road. You’ll want to learn some essential scales. Fender can help us out with their beginner scales guide.

They recommend to learn:

• E minor pentatonic scale
• A minor pentanonic scale
• C major scale
• G major scale
• E minor harmonic scale

Learn Songs

Learning to play songs by ear, tab or sheet music are some of the best and funnest ways to improve your guitar playing.

Once you learn a riff or full song, it drives you to keep learning. To learn how to read guitar tabs, make sure to check out our guide.

Learn With Friends

If your friends play any instruments, use that to all of your advantage. Get together and jam. Learning with friends can be great motivation and you may even start a band!

Learn To Play Bass Guitar

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If you’re interested in learning how to play bass guitar, you’ll need specific resources that cater to that passion. Bass guitars only have four strings, and these guitars are played differently than six string guitars.

Online resources are readily available for beginner-level bass players, many of which are free to use. Be sure to check out the free lessons available on StudyBass.

Guitar Finger Pain

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It’s perfectly normal to experience pain in your fingertips, hands, and wrists when learning to play guitar. This pain arises because your body isn’t yet accustomed to strumming, fingering, and changing chords. This is entirely normal.

As time goes on, you’ll likely develop calluses on your fingertips. Having calluses will help prevent further fingertip pain.

Still, if you’re struggling with finger pain after a lesson or jam session, there are a few things you can do. The first thing you can try is simply taking some time off from playing. Resting your fingers for a day or two may lessen the pain during your next session.

Secondly, you can take an over-the-counter pain reliever like aspirin or ibuprofen to lessen any discomfort you experience while playing.

If your fingertips are peeling or reddened, you can also use a cold compress or ice pack to reduce any pain and swelling.

How Long Does It Take To Learn Guitar?

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The time it takes to learn guitar varies from person to person. Additionally, mastering the guitar is a lifelong pursuit that seems to never end. No matter how good you get, there is always something else to learn.

Reaching your desired level could take anywhere from a few weeks to several years. It truly depends on what your guitar playing goals are and how dedicated you choose to be.

The more you practice, the better you will get. So, if you only practice for a few minutes each week, you may struggle to improve and you may ultimately lose interest.

Final Thoughts

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Learning to play guitar is rewarding in so many ways. Learning a new skill is always great but there is something special about playing guitar. Being able to take an inanimate object and produce music out of it is a great feeling.

If you don’t remember anything else, remember this. Patience and practice are your most important tools and they go hand in hand. You will get frustrated, stick with it, it’s completely worth it. Happy playing.

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Learning how to read guitar tabs is an easy way to be able to learn your favorite songs, even if you cannot read sheet music or do not know music theory.

In this article, we’ll talk about the basics of how to read guitar tabs, talk about bass tabs, and throw in some extra tips along the way.

What Are Guitar Tabs?

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Guitar tab stands for guitar tablature.  Britannica defines tablature as: the “system of musical notation based on a player’s finger position”.

One of the brilliant things about guitar tabs is that you don’t need to know how to read sheet music to be able to learn new songs.  Learning from guitar tabs is rewarding as you’ll feel as though you can actually figure songs out and progress.

Let’s say you want to play Stairway To Heaven. Well, you could learn this in sheet music form:

However, many guitar players don’t have the necessary music theory to be able to read and play what is written on the sheet music.

Guitar tabs are a way to show guitar players what notes to play so that even beginners can learn and play any song.  Here is the same Stairway To Heaven intro that is above in sheet music, now written in guitar tab:

How Do I Read Guitar Tabs?

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Reading guitar tabs is simple.  The six lines indicate the six strings and the numbers indicate frets.  There are symbols to know, but we’ll get to that later.  First, we will go over the basics of the six strings on a guitar.

What Are the Guitar String Notes?

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A six-string guitar in standard tuning has the following strings:

Remember that the sixth string is the thickest (low E) and the first string is the thinnest (high E).  So, holding the guitar and looking down at the fretboard, the strings would count, away from you, 6 = E, 5 = A, 4 = D, 3 = G, 2 = B, 1 = E.

String 6, the low E, will give you the lowest tone on the guitar.  Just as string 1, the high E, will give you the highest tone.

It’s essential to know which strings are which so you can understand which string(s) the tab is telling you to pick/strum. 

How to Learn Guitar Tabs

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An empty guitar tab looks like this:

As you can see, from top to bottom, the tab reads from the highest string to the lowest. This order means that a tab is written from the perspective of the guitar player.

To read a guitar tab, let’s have a look at Stairway To Heaven.

The tab above is the first two bars (the first two measures) of our recurring example, Stairway To Heaven.

Guitar tabs are read from left to right, with each vertical line of the tab representing a single unit of time.  These units of time are called measures, or bars.  They refer to the number of beats played decided by the time signature. 

In our example, if we refer back to the sheet music, the time signature is 4/4 so there are four beats per bar/measure.

Each number refers to the exact fret to be played and is positioned on which string it should be played on.

If we look at the very first note, it’s a 7 located on the 4th line (from the top, the same way we count/label guitar strings).  This note is telling you to play the 7th fret on the D string.

The second note is telling you to play the 5th fret on the G string.

In our example, the first four notes are played individually.  If you look at the 5th notes in the measure to be played there are two, inline.  You are to play these two simultaneously.

To count which fret is which, we begin at the top of the guitar (the head-stock: that is, the place with the tuning knobs).  An open string, when played, is said to be fretted at “0”:

Frets are the raised lines on the fretboard that the string rests on when you push down on a string.  They are mainly made of copper and nickel. They are just one of the many guitar parts that make of the neck, and guitar as a whole.

If you press your finger down on the space between the nut and the first fret, you are playing fret one.  This process goes on, with each subsequent fret being labeled the subsequent number.

Thus, as the number on the tab increases, the note that you’re playing gets higher.

Guitar Tab Chords

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Guitar tab can also display chords. The tab will show the notes inline that make up a select chord. The tab may also show which chord is being played above the staff. The example below is G Major.

Guitar Tab Symbols

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On some guitar tabs, there are more there than just numbers. All sorts of letters might make their way onto a guitar tab. Let’s look at what some of these mean.

h: Hammer-on

A hammer-on is a classic technique on guitar. A hammer-on is when you play one note, and without picking the next note you hammer your available finger onto the desired note. Let’s look at an example:

In the above tab, the 5th fret on the G string is the first note being played. You would, most likely using your first finger, play this note and hold it. Using an available finger, most likely your third, but could also be your second. You would hammer this finger down on the 7th fret of the G string while the note you previously played is still ringing.

p: Pull-off

A pull-off is the reverse of a hammer-on. In a pull-off, you remove your finger from the fret it’s on, thereby changing the note of the vibrating string. This is best accomplished by using the finger you are removing to actually help pluck the string as you remove it

Using the example above. Place your first finger on the 5th fret of the G string. Hold this note and place your third finger on the 7th fret of the G string. Pluck the G string, and while still holding the note on the 5th fret, remove your finger from the 7th fret, this is a pull-off.

As mentioned, we can exaggerate the pull-off by sliding our third finger off the 7th fret towards the B string, as if we were plucking the G string with our third finger.

b: Bend

If a bend is indicated in your tab, you should push the string or pull the string perpendicular to the guitar while it’s fretted to increase the pitch of the note. Bends can be shown different ways on guitar tabs,

These are the symbols you need to know for bends.

5b could mean to just bend the note one semitone, or it could just be unspecified and you’ll have to listen to the song to figure out how much of a bend to apply. 

5b7 would mean to apply a full bend to the note on the 5th fret.  The final sound would match the note played on the 7th fret.

5^ is similar to 5b. The difference would be if whomever wrote the tab was using one ^ for half bend and ^^ for full bends. You’ll have to check the

5^7 would be the same as 5b7, bend the note on the 5th fret up to the pitch of the 7th fret.

Finally, 5 with a curved arrow. The arrow is telling us to bend the 5th fret, and in this case, as seen above the arrow point, we are to bend it full. A full bend would be the same as 5b7 and 5^7. You may also see this arrow with, 1/2, 1 1/2, etc… above it as well.

r: Release

This would be used after a bend.  For example:

The example is showing to bend from the note at 5th fret, up to the note at the 7th fret and then back down to the note at the 5th fret.

/: Slide up

A slide is exactly what it sounds like.  You simply slide from one fret to another, keeping your finger in contact with the string at all times..  In the example shown, you are playing the 5th fret on the A string and sliding up to the 7th fret. This is commonly shown as 5/7 or exaggerated like in the example below:

\: Slide down

Sliding down is just like sliding up, only thing to note is the symbol is a backslash instead of a forward slash like with the slide up example.

PM —-: Palm muting

If PM is written on your tab, you should play the indicated strings with palm muting.  Palm muting is slightly covering the strings at the bridge to deaden the sound of the note(s) or chord you are playing.  The technique takes some getting used to as you don’t want to completely mute the strings.

~~~: Vibrato

According to the Cambridge dictionary, vibrato is a repeated slight shaking of a note during its performance to give that note a fuller sound. 

For guitar players, we can create vibrato on a fretted string by moving our fingers up back and forth (that is, closer to us and further away from us) on the fretboard in a rapid motion while holding the note. Vibrato can be shown like below, or you can sometimes find tabs where the vibrato symbols are above the tab staff.

Vibrato is a significant part of classical guitar, you can view a great example by guitarist Nicholas Petrou here.

x: Muted hit

A muted hit indicates the string should be struck while being completely muted. The sound, in this case, will be percussive rather than melodic. In other words, strumming a muted string will create noise without the harmonic elements characteristic of typical strumming in guitar.

( ): Parentheses

Parentheses can either be used to let you know to let the note ring, or to play it as a ghost note (play it very lightly).

Downstroke and Upstroke

These are the directions in which you pick/strum that particular note or chord.

How Do I Read Bass Guitar Tabs?

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If you understand guitar tabs, you’ll also be able to read bass tabs. Bass guitars are an octave lower than regular guitars and most, but not all, only have four strings: E, A, D, G.

Each line on a bass guitar tab corresponds to one the four strings, just like six string tabs.

Tips for Reading Guitar Tabs

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Like any skill, reading guitar tabs takes practice. A little bit of work every day, and you’ll see in a short amount of time that you’ll be able to read guitar tabs with no issues.

If you have ambitions to one day read sheet music, I would recommend studying guitar tabs first.  Find a guitar tab that includes the sheet music above the tab.  This way you’ll get familiar with what notes are on the music staff.

Easy Guitar Tabs

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Here are some examples of easy guitar tabs for beginners to start learning some skills:

• Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
• Nirvana – About A Girl
• Bob Dylan – Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
• Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama
• Third Eye Blind – Slow Motion

Where to Find Free Guitar Tabs

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There are many places to get free guitar tabs.  Here are some of the best:

• Ultimate Guitar
• Songsterr
• GuitarTabs.cc

Final Thoughts

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Today we’ve covered a lot, and you should be ready to pick up your guitar and play some tabs. 

Now, one thing to note is that the kind of tablature we’ve covered in this article doesn’t indicate to the player the time signature or how long to hold every note. For these kinds of tabs, knowledge of the song is essential to play the tab correctly. 

Most (but not all) guitar tabs will include:

• Song Title and Band/Artist
• Tab Author
• Tuning
• Key
• Symbols used in the tab and what they mean

Keep practicing, learn songs and have fun.  Thank you for reading.

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Power chords are great for beginners and an essential tool for any guitarist.  They are used in a wide variety of music genres.  Power chords focus on the two lowest notes of a chord. Because of this, they can sound quite powerful, hence the name.

Here’s what you need to know about power chords, including some helpful tips and tricks to get you started.

What Are Power Chords?

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Power chords are two-note chords. They include either the root and fifth, or root, fifth and higher root octave of a chord.

Power chords are common in many styles of music, including pop, rock, reggae, country, metal, punk and jazz.

Examples of Well-Known Songs with Power Chords:

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AC/DC – Thunderstruck

Click here for guitar tab

Black Sabbath – Iron Man

Click here for guitar tab

Blur – Song 2

Click here for guitar tab

Bush – Glycerine

Click here for guitar tab

Deep Purple – Smoke On The Water

Click here for guitar tab

Green Day – American Idiot

Click here for guitar tab

Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit

Click here for guitar tab

Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop

Click here for guitar tab

The Kinks – You Really Got Me

Click here for guitar tab

Twisted Sister – I Wanna Rock

Click here for guitar tab

How to Learn Power Chords

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Because they’re composed of fewer actual fingering positions, power chords are easier to play. In addition, the removal of the third note that major and minor chords include eliminates a layer of complexity without sacrificing sound.

Learning power chords is simple.  There are only a few things to keep in mind:

• Made up of two notes, consisting of root, fifth and higher root octave.  For example: F C F
• Your first and third (along with your fourth) fingers will always have one whole fret in between them.
• Using power chords make chord changes easier because you can move your hand around the fretboard using the same fingering pattern.

How to Play Power Chords On Guitar

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First, you choose the lowest two notes of a chord to play – these are the root and the fifth. The root is the note for which the chord is named. It’s the basis around which the other notes work to form a complementary sound. The fifth is the note played at, predictably, a five-note interval from the root.

If you reference the image below, in our example, our root note is C and our fifth note is G.

If we look at the fretboard and see where those notes are, we see the finger positions required to play those notes:

Your index finger will almost always be on the root note when playing a power chord. So when you want to play, the pattern is to place your index finger on the root, then your third finger two frets up and one string higher.  You can use your third finger to cover both the fifth and the higher octave.  Or, you can use your third finger on the fifth and your fourth finger on the higher octave.  The latter better prepares you for more advanced chords.

If playing an F5 for example: 

• Your first finger will be placed on the first fret of the low E string (F note).  
• Your third finger will be on the third fret of the A string (C note).
• Your fourth finger will be on the third fret of the D string (F note).

To play F Major and see how it compares to the power chord you would play an F5 using the steps above.  Then you would add:

• Your second finger on the G string (A note).
• Your first finger will also be placed on the first frets of both the B (C note) and E (F note) strings

How to Play Power Chords on Acoustic Guitar

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Although it could be argued that power chords are best left for electric guitars, especially with distortion or overdrive. You can definitely play power chords on acoustic guitar.

You may find them harder to play on acoustic due to the potential fact that you may have to press down harder with your fingers than you normally would with an electric guitar. Don’t let this deter you, keep practicing.

What are power chords on acoustic guitar? They are no different than on electric guitar. Power chords are not guitar specific. You can even play power chords on bass guitar.

Power Chords Chart

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This power chords chart includes all twelve notes of the chromatic scale.  Notice the fret number changes for D5 and Eb5. Here are the guitar power chords:

Drop D Power Chords

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Tuning your guitar to drop D makes playing power chords even easier. This is because instead of using multiple fingers, you can now just use one finger to press on two or three strings on the same fret.

Variations of Power Chords

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The Root and the Fifth

As you can see, only the root and the fifth are played, no octave. These two position power chords are much easier to play.

Just the Octaves

Notice the chord is no longer called F5, there is no fifth, so it is just F. Also note that you are note playing anything on the A string, be sure to mute it.

Inverted Power Chords / Power Chord Inversions

These are simply chords played without the root or where the root isn’t the lowest note.

Power Chord Tips and Tricks

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Here are some more tips and tricks for learning how to play power chords on guitar.

• Learn from your favourite songs.  Choose one, play along until you’re confident.
• Do not strum the strings that have no notes.  The ones above in the chart marked with X are not to be played.
• Play around with strumming patterns and dynamics (how soft or loud you play the chord).
• You can technically play the same root note power chord instead of a major chord.  However, if you were trying to play a song that called for C major and you played C5 it won’t sound right.
• Power chords are a fantastic way to get comfortable playing chords so you can continue to progress.
• Familiarize yourself with the note and chord names
• Write your your own riffs and progressions

The biggest tip we can give you is to practice. Yes, you’ve probably heard that over and over.  But it really is the best advice.  You can’t get better if you never put in the time, consistency matters.  As long as you’re regularly practicing, you’ll get better at power chords in no time.

Conclusion

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Power chords are a fun way to vary your sound when playing guitar.  They are simple, but they can make a significant impact.  If you never knew what power chords were before you read this, your world is about change.

To learn more chords and more about chords be sure to check out our How to Play Guitar Chords guide!

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Is your guitar in need of some tlc?  Are you wondering how to clean a guitar?

I’ll walk you through everything you need to know to clean your guitar like a pro.

You can use basic household items to get the job done, no need to buy expensive cleaners.

Let’s dive in and I’ll show you how to clean a guitar.

Why You Need to Clean Your Guitar

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Your guitar’s surfaces can become dirty, stained, rust and even have the finishing break down over time due to contaminants from you and the environment where you keep your guitar.  

Oils and sweat from your skin can affect the finish.  This would happen slowly, however. But it can be completely avoided with regular cleaning.  Sweat can cause rust on your guitar’s screws, strings, bridge and pickup pole pieces.

If you store your guitar out in the open, whether on a stand, hanger, leaning, etc… This can allow dust, pet hair, pollen and other airborne debris to settle on your guitar.

If you clean your guitar regularly, you’ll improve its playability, increase the lifespan of the finish and it just looks and feels better when it’s clean.

How Often Should I Clean a Guitar?

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The best way to keep your guitar from getting excessive dirt and grime build-up is to wipe it down after every practice session or gig.  Use a soft cloth to wipe away all dirt and sweat so it doesn’t have the chance to settle onto the strings. hardware and body.  If you don’t wipe it down every time, try to at least do it once per week. 

Your fretboard should be cleaned at least once every few months. Or, you can simply clean your fretboard each time you’re changing the strings. You should change the strings every two to four months (unless gigging/recording daily).

Household Items to Clean Your Guitar

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Let’s review the basic household cleaners you can use when cleaning your guitar:

• Lemon oil
• Naphtha (Lighter Fluid)
• Mineral spirits
• Distilled vinegar
• Vegetable oil soap
• Water

Lemon is a popular choice to clean fretboards. It also works to restore oils into the wood while cleaning. Use it sparingly to coat the wood, let it sit for a minute and buff it with a soft, dry cloth.

Naphtha (lighter fluid) works and is safe to use on your guitar.  As it is highly flammable make sure to only use it in an open space with fresh air.  Follow safety directions on the product label.  You can use it on wood, fretboards, finishes, bridges and pickguards.  It is safe for nitro and poly finishes.  It can leave a flat, dry haze but can easily be buffed out to a nice shine.  Note: Make sure to only use a lighter fluid that has no additives.

Mineral spirits work well to remove sticky items from the fretboard. This product shouldn’t be your “go-to” cleaner, however. You can harm the fretboard by aggressively rubbing with mineral spirits.

Never use full-strength vinegar on your guitar. However, dabbing a little distilled vinegar onto a moist Q-tip or cloth works well. Don’t ever pour it (or any other cleaner) directly onto any part of the guitar.  The biggest downfall here is the smell.

You can use vegetable oil soap to clean your guitar. It’s a soap made from coconut, vegetable oil, and water.  This can also be diluted or, just make sure to wipe it off completely.  A word of warning: Don’t use actual vegetable oil that you would use for cooking, what we’re talking about is soap.

Water works well in the absence of any of the above cleaners. Use a lightly dampened cloth when applying water. Never pour it on the wood directly. Water won’t help much when cleaning a filthy guitar but it works well for light cleaning. 

How to Clean a Guitar Fretboard with Household Items

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Place your guitar on a safe surface, such as a table with a soft cloth or bed sheet on it. 

Remove all the strings when doing a deep cleaning. Many guitarists vehemently argue that you can’t remove a guitar’s strings all at once.  However, temporarily removing them to clean your guitar isn’t going to harm the instrument. Most luthiers would agree that no setup will be required if you remove all the strings.  The only exception to this, where you may not want to remove all the strings at once would be Floyd Rose or Ibanez Edge style tremolos.  It can make it difficult to restring and may need adjustments after being restrung.

Using a cotton ball or micro-fiber cloth, use your chosen household item to clean the fretboard.  No matter your chosen cleaner, don’t put too much on. Dab a little on your cloth, and then wipe away dirt and grime one fret at a time. Wipe away any excess cleaner with a dry cloth or cotton ball. 

If you’ve purchased a conditioner, then apply it to the fretboard after using the cleaner. Use it sparingly and use a cloth to wipe away any excess. 

Applying too much cleaner or conditioner is a common mistake made by many players. Once you’re done, let your guitar sit for a good 10-15 minutes before playing it again. 

How To Clean Guitar Strings

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You should clean your strings after each playing session since it helps avoid changing them as often due to breakdown from sweat as we talked about earlier.  Wipe down the strings with a microfiber cloth. Focus on removing any moisture and buildup.

How to Clean a Guitar Neck

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Naphtha (lighter fluid) comes in handy for the neck. Apply a little naphtha to a microfiber cloth and use it to wipe down your guitar’s neck. Go easy as you lift off any soil from the wood. Rubbing too hard only serves to polish the neck. Work the cloth while avoiding any removed soil from getting back onto the wood. 

How to Clean a Guitar’s Bridge and Hardware

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For regular cleaning just wipe down with a microfiber cloth.

When you need to deep clean the bridge, remove it and use a toothbrush and conditioner to remove dirt and grime. You can use cotton balls to get into the saddle slot. 

You can use WD-40 or 3-in-One oil on the metal hardware. Remove it, however, because these cleaners can’t come in contact with your guitar’s wood.

How to Clean a Guitar Body

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Water works the best on your guitar’s finish. Dampen a microfiber cloth and wipe away all grime and dirt. Rinse the cloth periodically to ensure that you’re removing all dust and grime. 

Avoid using lemon oil, alcohol, or other solvent-based cleaners on the finish. They can cause damage if used too often or too much is used. 

What Products Shouldn’t You Use When Cleaning a Guitar?

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Let’s review products that you shouldn’t ever use on your guitar. 

Avoid anything with bleach in it. The only thing bleach will help you achieve is to change the color of your fretboard. That’s not typically something any guitar player wants to do!

Furniture polish shouldn’t get applied to a guitar’s finish or fretboard. It can stain some finishes and even dry out the wood. 

It’s a good idea to stay away from acetone. You might find some guitar players talking positively about it on a forum here and there. Acetone is potent, however. It might work if you dilute it properly with water. For most guitar players, it’s simply something to stay away from. Too many other safer cleaners exist. 

Some players use toothpaste when cleaning the frets. The best recommendation is to refrain from using toothpaste anywhere near your guitar. It can have adverse effects on the instrument’s wood. It’s not a good idea to apply toothpaste to the frets unless you’re 100% certain you have the fretboard protected. 

Conclusion

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You now know how to clean a guitar! 

You might find that it takes a while to get used to the process. You’ll get faster over time once you discover your preferred cleaners and get more comfortable with the cleaning process.

Your next action item is to take out the guitar and give it a thorough cleaning for the first time. Then, watch how much better it feels when you pick it up to play again.

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Have you ever wondered how to hold a guitar? Holding a guitar may seem simple and obvious, and although it is definitely not difficult there are some helpful tips that can make it easier and have long-lasting, positive results.

Playing guitar involves a certain amount of dexterity, so you need to get your position right to play comfortably and effortlessly, especially for longer periods of time.  

The type of guitar you like to play will dictate your posture, so a classical guitarist will set up very differently from someone playing electric guitar.

Below you’ll find a breakdown of how to hold different guitars, how to hold a pick, as well as some other helpful info.

How to Hold an Acoustic Guitar

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A lot of people who decide to learn guitar do so on an acoustic.  This type of guitar is probably the bulkiest that you will come across, so you’ll have to position it slightly differently from how you would hold other guitars.  

As a beginner, it is better to learn to play them sitting down if you can.  The thickness of the body can make it difficult to play standing up until you get comfortable with the size and how to position the guitar.

If you are right-handed, place the guitar on your right thigh with the neck slightly higher than horizontal. You need to make sure that you’re not holding the guitar too tightly. It should support itself with minimal interference, if any, from you.  Your strumming arm should sit comfortably against the body of the guitar, while the fretting arm should bend at 90 degrees to easily navigate the fretboard.

To play standing, make sure to secure your strap. Find a comfortable strap height where your strumming/picking arm is resting gently over the side and top of the body. Adjust your posture to a relaxed position and make sure you can easily access the entire fretboard without straining.

How to Hold a Classical Guitar

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The positioning for a classical guitar is slightly different from an acoustic.  This ensures good posture and makes it easier to navigate the fretboard.  

Classical guitars sit on the same side leg as the fretting hand and you commonly raise your thigh using a small footstool.  The bridge end of the guitar should sit nicely on the inside of the thigh, causing the neck to point up in the air around 45 degrees. 

Can you hold a classical guitar just like you would an acoustic?  The answer is of course YES.  A classical guitar is still a guitar and you can hold/play it just like an acoustic.

How to Hold an Electric Guitar

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If you want to sit down when you’re playing electric guitar, then you should hold it in the same way as you would an acoustic. However, make sure that the model that you’ve got sits nicely on your lap. 

While the standard Stratocaster or Les Paul shape fits perfectly on your thigh, something like a Flying V or an Explorer is far from perfect for playing while sitting down.  It’s not impossible however,  you can rest the inverted point of the V on your right thigh and play similarly as you would with a classical guitar. 

In general, with an electric guitar, it’s common to stand while playing.  To achieve this you need to make sure you have a guitar strap.  Attach the strap to the strap pegs and make sure it is secured.  The last thing you want is a dented guitar!

The guitar body should sit a little higher than waist height with the neck pointing slightly upwards from horizontal. You’ve probably seen many guitarists performing with low-slung guitars. It does look pretty cool, but it’s also really hard for a beginner to get their fingers in the right place as you are now having to reach farther.

Try different strap lengths, find what’s comfortable and what allows you the best range of motion for playing.

How to Hold a Bass guitar

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A bass guitar has a longer neck than a standard guitar and is usually a lot heavier so that the low notes reverberate more.  Like an electric guitar, you can play a bass sitting down if that is what suits you best.  

However, if you choose to play standing, shortening the strap can help you reach the frets easier.  Because the neck is longer, it can be challenging to reach the lowest notes if the bass is too close to the ground. 

You rarely strum a bass guitar, so having it sat that bit higher helps your hand stay free and speeds up your movement around the guitar.

Once again, try different strap lengths, go with what’s comfortable. 

How to Hold a Guitar Pick Properly

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Hold the pick, in your strumming hand, between your thumb and index finger. 

Grip is important but make sure not to hold the pick too tightly.  This shouldn’t feel like a struggle, hold it firm and comfortably.

Whether you choke up or down on the pick depends on your comfort level, the type of music you are playing, whether you are strumming or picking, etc…

Try a bunch of different pick brands and thicknesses.  Your picks are an important tool that you will use a lot and you’ll want to spend the time finding which you like the best.

Final Thoughts

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If you are sitting while playing, make sure you choose the right chair.  It needs to be comfortable, but it also needs to have the correct structure.  For example, a chair with two armrests makes playing sitting down a lot more difficult and uncomfortable.  A chair you sink into may elevate the body of the guitar enough that it’s also in an uncomfortable position.

No matter what type of guitar, chair, strap, jam space, practice room, etc.. you have.  It benefits you to make sure your posture and positioning are just right.  Getting into a bad habit now is something that is going to follow you throughout your life.  

Being comfortable is essential to putting in long, repetitive practice sessions.  Take a bit of time to get your posture right now, and you will reap the benefits moving forward.

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Guitars come in an array of styles, shapes, and colors. However, despite this amazing variety, all guitars share a common basic build. You may think to yourself that a guitar has three parts: a body, a neck, and strings, right? 

Well, yes, that’s true in the most basic sense. But each of those components is made up of a number of parts that all come together to create what we know as a guitar. What are the parts of a guitar, and what are their functions? We include ‘parts of a guitar’ diagrams for both electric and acoustic guitars. This information will surely come in handy for you on your journey to rock stardom! 

Guitar Body

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The body of the guitar is the largest area of the instrument and is where the guitar captures and projects the sound. The parts of a guitar body include the following:

Guitar Top

Sometimes known as the soundboard, the guitar top is the front-facing side of the guitar. It is where the strings are struck, and it holds most of the sound-making components of the guitar. Guitar tops can be flat or what is known as an arch-top.

Sound Hole

All acoustic and most non-solid-body electric guitars have sound holes. For acoustics, the most common type is a round hole near the center but slightly toward the neck of the guitar. Arch-top acoustics and semi-hollow and hollow-body electric guitars often have f-hole sound holes that are on either side of the guitar top.

The decorative area around the sound hole is known as the Rosette.

Pickguard 

A pickguard, also known as a scratchplate, is a piece of plastic or resin that helps prevent scratch marks on the guitar top. Not all guitars have pickguards.

Pickups 

Found on all electric guitars as well as on some acoustics. Pickups are magnets that pick up the vibrations of the strings and send them to an amplifier to produce sound. On acoustic guitars, some pickups will grab sound from the body’s chamber as well.

Volume and Tone Controls

All guitars with pickups will have some form of these controls. They include volume and tone potentiometers, or “pots.” If the guitar has multiple pickups, then the guitar will usually have a pickup selector switch as well.

Bridge

The bridge anchors the strings to the guitar and raises them above the body so that they can ring out. The bridge consists of the bridge piece, the string anchor, and the string saddle. Some bridges are attached to the body while others are floating. Floating bridges use a tailpiece to anchor the strings.

Sides

The sides are sometimes referred to as the ribs and are the pieces between the top, or front, and the back of the guitar.

Back

This is the piece of the body that faces the player. For acoustic guitars, it is also where the bracing can be found.

Binding

The binding is a strip of material that joins the parts of a guitar’s body together. It can be made of wood, plastic, nitro-cellulose, or other materials. Binding can be ornamental or can blend in with the rest of the body.

Some guitar necks also use binding between the neck back and fretboard or on the edges of the headstock.

Bracings

Acoustic guitars have bracings inside the body of the guitar. Bracing is a series of wood pieces that reinforce the body and help shape the sound of the guitar. Common bracing styles include ladder bracing and cross bracing.

Strap Pegs

Strap pegs are where you attach your strap to your guitar. The rear peg is on the rear end of the guitar body’s side. The other peg is usually on the front of the upper side of the body, although sometimes it can be found on the heel of the neck. 

Guitar Neck 

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While the guitar body is the main piece of the guitar, the neck is the other major piece. It’s where a player changes notes and creates chords. What we call the neck is actually made of many different parts, all working together to complete the guitar. The parts of a guitar that make up the neck are:

Backside

This is the largest single piece of the neck. It is usually made of hardwood, like Maple or Mahogany, but can also be made of other materials like graphite or metal. It is usually c-shaped, and it is what you grip with your hand.

Some guitar neck backs include a heel that connects the neck to the body of the guitar. Other guitars use a bolt-on system, and still, others have a neck-thru-body style of build, where the neck and the body are made from the same piece of wood.

A guitar neck heel is more common on acoustic guitars, while a bolt-on or neck-thru-body style is more common for electric guitars.

Truss Rod 

A truss rod is a threaded metal rod that sits in a channel of the guitar neck and below the fretboard. It helps keep the neck straight and keeps it from bowing too much. 

The truss rod runs the length of the neck and can be adjusted to alleviate or increase tension. This ensures that all the notes are in tune and that the strings don’t sit on the frets, causing a buzz.

Fretboard/Fingerboard

The guitar’s fretboard is where you form notes and chords with the strings. Although some fretboards are made of synthetic material, the vast majority are made with hardwoods, mostly Maple or Rosewood varieties.

The fretboard is a major component of the guitar’s tone, feel, and playability.

Frets 

Frets are the metal rails on the fretboard of the guitar neck. The frets are what delineate the notes that the guitarist plays. Frets come in a number of sizes and will have a different feel for the player and different interactions with the strings.

Some bass guitars are fretless basses, meaning that the fretboard is smooth with no frets. These are commonly seen in jazz music, although players in other genres use them as well. Fretless guitars are also made, although they are extremely uncommon.

Position Markers

Most fretboards will have inlays that help a guitarist know where they are on the neck. Inlays can be made from a variety of materials and in a variety of shapes. The most common shape for a position marker is a dot or a rectangle.

Nut

The nut is the guitar neck’s counterpart to the bridge saddle. It supports the strings above the fretboard and also sets the spacing of the strings along with the saddle. The nut can be made from many types of material, including plastic, bone, resin, or metal.

The type of nut you have on your guitar will have an effect on how the string sounds and plays.

Headstock​

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The headstock is at the top of the neck and is where the strings are attached on the other side of the guitar from the saddle. The headstock houses the tuning pegs and is usually where the guitar maker will put their logo.

Headstocks can be any number of shapes and sizes. They can be very plain or incredibly ornate and tend to be some of the more interesting parts of a guitar visually. The parts of a guitar that make up the headstock, include:

Tuning Pegs

Also known as machine heads, tuning keys, or tuners. The tuning pegs hold the ends of the strings and allow the guitar player to increase or decrease tension on the strings to tune them to the right note.

Check out our guide on How to Tune a Guitar for more info.

String Post / Capstan

The post is what the string is wound on. They are connected to the machine head.

Guitar Strings

Guitar strings are what you pick, pluck or strum to create sound through vibrations. Guitar strings come in different varieties made with different materials. Electric guitar strings are made of different kinds of metal and are made by winding thin wire around a thicker core wire. They can be either round-wound or flat-wound, and each produces a different sound.

While standard acoustic guitar strings are also made of metal, classical guitar strings are made of nylon or other synthetic material.

Check out our beginners guide on How to String a Guitar for step by step instructions and tips that will help you swap your strings like a pro.

How Guitars Are Made

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Now that you’re familiar with all the different parts of a guitar. We figured it’d be relevant and informational to share videos on how both acoustic and electric guitars are made.

How Acoustic Guitars Are Made

How Electric Guitars Are Made

Final Thought

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If you put all these pieces together, you have a fully functioning guitar. The variations, designs, colors, woods, electronics, etc… are endless. There are custom guitars or you can build your own. You can repaint them and swap parts to make them your own unique one-of-a-kind guitar.

Guitars are fantastic instruments and pieces of art. I hope you have enjoyed this article and have learned a bit about the parts of a guitar. Enjoy being a guitarist and thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed this article, please check out our most recent posts:

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We’re going to show you twenty-eight different chord variations that you can use to learn how to play guitar chords.  Also, we will also provide you some tougher chords to work towards.  For every note, we will include major chord, minor chord, major 7th and 7th chord.

Before We Get Started

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It’s worth noting that learning new chords and learning to play guitar can be frustrating.  Your fingers are not used to doing what you are now asking of them.  Learning chords does not happen overnight.  You will have to put in the time to see results.  

However, once you begin to make progress, the time involved will seem completely worth it.  You are making an inanimate object sing and that’s pretty cool.

Also, make sure you tune your guitar before playing. It’s hard to know if you’re playing the chord correctly if it’s not in tune.

How To Read Chord Diagrams

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String Names and Frets

Note how the string names are across the top: E A D G B E

The frets are labeled on the side, one through six in this example.

Finger Positions

Each dot with a number represents which finger commonly goes where. These are not absolute, you can use whichever finger(s) feel the most comfortable. However, these are written in the way that most guitar players play them.

Beginner Guitar Chords

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From the chords listed below, we recommend a beginner focus on chords with open strings.  For example, C D E Em A Am

These are easier to learn and will provide a solid foundation to be able to learn harder guitar chords.  As you become more proficient in playing these chords, you’ll gain finger strength and dexterity that will enable you to start advancing the difficulty of the chords you play.

How to Learn Guitar Chords?

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Repetition until your fingers hurt… not kidding.  You need to teach your hands and fingers to cooperate and it takes patience, time and practice.

Hold each chord, pluck each string individually and make sure it rings out with no interference from your hand/fingers. Some chords will be much harder to do this than others. C Major 7, for example, will be much easier to pluck and let ring than F Major.

You’ll also want to spend time chord changing. The process is simple in theory, play a chord, change to another chord. This is ultimately what you’re striving for while learning to play. It’s not easy but don’t get discouraged.

Chords and Variations:

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A Chords:

• A Major
• A Minor
• A Major7
• A7

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B Chords:

• B Major
• B Minor
• B Major7
• B7

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C Chords:

• C Major
• C Minor
• C Major7
• C7

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D Chords:

• D Major
• D Minor
• D Major7
• D7

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E Chords:

• E Major
• E Minor
• E Major7
• E7

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F Chords:

• F Major
• F Minor
• F Major7
• F7

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G Chords:

• G Major
• G Minor
• G Major7
• G7

Are There More Guitar Chords?

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In addition to the chords above, which are just a few of the many, there are also augmented chords, diminished chords and suspended chords.

Augmented chords are just major chords with the fifth raised one semitone.  For example, a C chord would consist of the notes C E G.  The augmented C would include the notes C E G#.  Notice the fifth is raised one semitone from G to G#.

Diminished chords are chords consisting of the root, a minor third and a diminished fifth.  Taking the same C E G from above.  The diminished version would be C Eb Gb.

Suspended chords replace the third with another note.  For example, Csus2 would C D G.  Csus4 would be C F G

How Many Guitar Chords are There?

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Researching this I found a multitude of answers:

338

2210

2341

4017

4625

And more…

The correct answer?  A chord can be defined as a three, four, five, or six note chord.  Each of these chords can have multiple variations (Maj, min, 7th, dim, aug, sus, etc..).  

Guitars have a twelve note scale.  If you were to multiply all the possibilities, you would get a number in the thousands.  But there are too many variables, as you see from the numbers above, to completely settle on a definitive number.

How to Play Bass Guitar Chords

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To play chords on a bass guitar you’ll mostly focus on triad chords (chords with three notes) although there are four note chords with the root on the E string. This is just a very basic overview of bass chords. You can go really in-depth here, we’ll cover this in another article.

Helpful Tips

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• Make sure to stretch your fingers and hands before, during and after playing.
  
• Tune your guitar! Make this a priority every time you play. You’l begin to develop an ear for in-tune versus out of tune.

• Try to hold your chord and pluck each string individually to make sure each note rings out without being impeded, muted or silenced in any way by your own hand/fingers.

• Practice, practice, practice.  A regular practice routine will ensure you keep progressing.  The better you get, the more you’ll want to play. The more you play, the better you’ll get

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If you enjoyed this article, please check out our most recent posts:

• 
  How To Put On A Guitar Strap? Easy Steps With Tips!
• 
  Who Invented The Guitar? Origins, History and Modern Day
• 
  How Many Frets On A Guitar? Variations Explained
• 
  How Many Strings Does A Guitar Have? At Least Four
• 
  How To Hold A Guitar Pick – Basics and Pro Tips