Guitar are made up of wood, metal, plastic and electronics. All guitars may be little bit different but have 3 fundamental parts in common. These are: head-stock, neck and body. We’ll discuss about parts of 3 types of guitars. Those are:
1. Acoustic guitars
2. Electric guitars
3. Classical guitars
Guitar basically has six strings. Although some guitar has seven, eight or more strings. But six string guitars are tuned to E standard (440 Hz) EADGBE from top to bottom strings. 6th string = E (82 Hz), 5th string = A (110 Hz), 4th string = D (146 Hz)
Chord blocks are the diagrams that show how a chord is played. They are diagrams in which the model of guitar is set and they tell about which frets are to be played, which strings are to be played or not.Being guitarist you need to know how to read the chord block.
As shown in figure, take your guitar and put your index finger at first fret of G string, middle finger at second fret of A string and ring finger on second fret on D string. Now you strum gently.
To play A minor chord, as shown in figure, take your guitar and put your index finger at first fret of B string, middle finger at second fret of D string and ring finger on second fret on G string. Now you strum. Note the 6th sting (low E), try avoiding that sting while playing.
Open chords are the chords which include open strings. These are very easy to learn and they provide the huge benefit as they can be turned into the barre chords. There are five major (CAGED) and three minor (EAD) open chords. But you have already learnt the E major and A minor, we are not discussing them here.
Your goal is to increase the muscle memory. Remember it was how hard to play a single chord previously, but now you can play them without any problem. It is due to the muscle memory. Now it’s time to increase that memory to little bit higher. You have to train your fingers to remember the basic shapes of the chords.
These are the chords which are derived from the basic chords. They provide variations, pleasing tone and colors to the original chords. In these chords some of the notes are added, some are flattened and some are sharpened. We’ll deal with the theory behind these chord at music theory section.
Holding the pick is one of the crucial skill in playing guitar efficiently. The main benefit of this technique is, it prevents the pick from falling while playing and gives stability to the pick. If you hold the pick randomly, the pick may slip off and you have to readjust the position continuously. Hold the pick between your thumb and index finger. You have to hold the pick at 90 degree angle with the thumb. Make sure that pick is sticking out form underneath the thumb a half (or quarter) inch.
Musical alphabets go like this: …..A, A#/ Bb, B, C, C#/ Db, D, D#/ Eb, E, F, F#/ Gb, G, G#/ Ab, A……………The notes on the guitar follows the same pattern. So, if the first string open is E, then first fret will be F, second fret will be F#/ Gb, third will be G, fourth will be G#/ Ab…. and so on. If second string open is B, then first fret of second string will be C, third fret will be C#/ Db, fourth fret will be D… and so on.