Guitar

FUNdamentals
by Kelly Dow/guitar

Copyright 2016
 What is expected from the student.

Guitar is fun and exciting to learn, but does require time,

commitment and hard work to attain proficiency on the
instrument.

Like any other class you take in school, you are going to
have homework and studying outside of class. This will
primarily involve practicing your guitar to master different
techniques and skills we are working on. It may also
involve listening to music or reading about historically
important musicians and composers and music writing
assignments.
Table Of Contents

Classical Guitar Part Names
These are the names of each part of the classical guitar. Most of these terms are very
easy to memorize. For instance, the head of the guitar is at the top, the body is at
the bottom, and the neck is in the middle, just like on a human body.
However, some of the names - such as the bridge, the nut, and the rosette - may be
a little more difficult to remember. Do not worry if you cannot memorize all of these
names at first. You can always bookmark and refer back to this page if you need it
later.

Guitar Parts Diagram

Guitar Parts Definitions
• Back - The flat piece of wood on the back of the body
• Body - The large resonating chamber on the bottom half of the
guitar. Includes soundboard, back, and sides.
• Bout - The large round, circular sections of the body. The guitar has
two bouts. The upper bout is slightly smaller, while the lower bout is
slightly larger.
• Bridge - The thin piece of wood where the strings are tied on the
soundboard. The bridge is attached to the saddle.
• Frets - The thin pieces of metal inlayed into the fingerboard/neck.
Most classical guitars have 19 frets.
• Head/Headstock - The square piece of wood located at the end of
the neck. The tuning pegs are attached to the head.
• Fretboard/Fingerboard - The long black piece of wood with inlayed
frets located on the neck.
• Nut - The thin, white piece of ebony at the top of the neck. The nut
has 6 small grooves to hold the strings.
• Neck - The long piece of wood between the body and the head. The
fretboard is part of the neck.
• Rosette - The circular, decorative inlay around the sound hole.
• Saddle - The rectangular, dark piece of wood that connects the
bridge to the soundboard.
• Sides - The curved pieces of wood on the side of the body.
• Soundboard/Top - The large, lightly-colored piece of wood on the
front of the body. This is the part that vibrates and helps produce a
the sound of a guitar.
• Sound Hole - The circular hole cut into the soundboard.
• Strings - The six nylon wires attached to the guitar.
• Tuning Pegs/Tuning Heads/Tuning Gears - The small white pegs
that connect to the head and allow you tune the strings.
Posture and Hand Position
Let’s Get Started!

Posture while playing guitar is very important. There are different ways to
hold the guitar but what they all have in common is you are sitting up
straight and the guitar is straight, not angled in any way.

Here is traditional classical guitar posture with a

footstool. 

Tips for sitting and posture with a footstool:

There is not really any different advice for the

footstool, just experiment with the height until
you find something that is comfortable and fits
the reference photo.

•Sit up straight
•Sit on the forward edge of the chair
•The left foot is raised with the footstool
•Experiment with the height of the footstool so
the head of the guitar is at eye level
•Align your center of gravity by keeping your
head, neck, and body along the Y axis
•Relax and then align your shoulders along
the X axis
•The head of the guitar should be at the height
of your head (approximately)
•The guitar/guitar neck sits at a 45 degree
angle (approximately)
•Guitar contacts the body on both legs, the right
forearm (below the elbow), and both hands
 Alternative Ways To Hold Guitar

A more modern position with the

guitar over the right leg. Julian Lage
& Chris Eldrige

Al De Meola

The amazing Assad brothers Odair

on left unsupported with the guitar on
the right leg and Sergio on the right
with a high footstool

!
Finger Labelling
In general for right-handed guitar(some are accustomed to left-
handed guitar, such as one using left hand to write), we use right
hand(mostly p, i, m, & a, c is rarely used) to play the guitar string on
guitar body and left hand(mostly 1, 2, 3, & 4, T is rarely used) to
press the guitar string on guitar neck.The common finger labelling is
shown as the picture following.

Left Hand Right Hand

• T: Thumb(Rarely Used) • p: Pulgar (Thumb)

• 1: Finger Number 1 (Index Finger) • i: Indice (Index Finger)
• 2: Finger Number 2 (Middle Finger) • m: Medio (Middle Finger)
• 3: Finger Number 3 (Ring FInger) • a: Annular (Ring Finger)
• 4: Finger Number 4 (Little Finger) • c: Chico (Little Finger, Rarely Used)
Fingernails

Upkeep of Fingernails for Playing a Classical Guitar

Here are some personal hygiene that we need to take care about, not
in person but it will help you a lot in playing your classical guitar
smoothly. It s important to cut short your left hand fingernails of finger
1, 2, 3, and 4 as shown on the picture above. Long fingernails will
prevent you from pressing firmly on the Guitar Fretboard, as the
fingernails will knock on the guitar fretboard preventing you from
pressing with more pressure, this will generally results a bad tone
and buzzing sound generated. As for right hand fingernails, it’ll be
best to keep a moderate length and cut to shape following the curve
of your fingertips. Playing the guitar strings with fingernails will
generate a clear and solid tone compared to play the guitar strings
with bare fingers which will generate a dull sound.
How To Hold A Guitar: The Left (Fret) Hand
There are two essential steps to playing notes cleanly on your guitar
—knowing exactly what part of your finger to use on the neck, and
knowing that, as a beginner, you’re likely to do a number of things
that inadvertently keep you from optimally playing (also called
“fretting”) with your left hand. In this guide, we’ll look at the proper
way to hold the neck of the guitar, and how to fret—or play—with
your left hand.

Step 1
You want to use the very tips
of your fingers to fret the
strings. You want to gently
hold the guitar’s neck with the
left hand and not grasp it in
your hand. Remember that
your left hand isn’t the one
supporting the guitar and
holding it in place.

• Neck rests gently against upper third of thumb

• Plenty of space between lower edge of neck and palm of hand
• Wrist should stay relatively straight
 Step 2
Let your thumb relax and follow
the fingers as they move up and
down the neck. Anchoring your
thumb by grabbing the neck with
it means your thumb is limiting
finger movement, usually at the
cost of fretting with the fingertips.

Step 3
When fretting notes, your
finger should be between
the middle of the fret and
the fret closer to the body
of the guitar.
Step 4
Keep all your fingers arched and close to the strings. When fretting,
push the string directly onto the neck, taking care not to accidently
push or pull the string to one side. You don’t need as much pressure
to fret the strings as you might think.

Step 5
On top of all this, keep an eye both on your posture and on holding
the guitar correctly. Sitting and standing straight with good posture
will help you maintain a relaxed and comfortable position for your
arms, wrists, and hands.

Holding the guitar will initially be a challenge simply because you’re

going to want to see your fingers on the fretboard and you’ll tilt the
guitar face upward so you can. Doing so, however, places your
hands in a way that you can’t fret the strings optimally with your
fingertips. Too much tilt and your fingers will have little to no
clearance on adjoining strings. This can’t be helped at first, but when
you know where your fingers should go, reposition your guitar so that
the face is pointing directly outward and you should find your fingers
having a much easier time fretting their notes.
Holding A Pick

I strongly recommend buying

about a dozen medium gauge
guitar picks, not too rigid or too
flimsy.

1. Slide the pick between your

thumb and index finger, with
the tip perpendicular to your
thumb, protruding by about a
half inch.

2. Hover your picking hand

right over the strings. You can
rest your arm on the body of
the guitar but you want to
avoid placing your fingers on
the strings or the body of the
guitar. This will cause tension,
and you really want to keep
your hand relaxed.

3. Pick the lowest string (the sixth string) with a downward motion using your wrist
rather than your whole arm. If the string or pick pops or rattles, try a little less hard
with less of the pick.

4. Now try picking the string upwards.

5. Repeat this “up, down” picking motion several times on a few different strings. Try
to use the minimum amount of movement necessary. This is called “alternate
picking”.
How to Read Music
Music is written on a STAFF which has 5 lines and 4 spaces. Music is
read from left to right just like you would read a book. Where the note
is on the staff tells you how high it is or how low it is in pitch. The note
can be on a line or a space. Each line of the staff has a letter name
that goes with it. The musical alphabet goes from A to G.

Guitar History
The guitar is a string instrument which is played by plucking the strings. The
main parts of a guitar are the body, the fretboard, the headstock and the
strings. Guitars are usually made from wood or plastic. Their strings are made
of steel or nylon.
The guitar strings are plucked with the fingers and fingernails of the right hand
(or left hand, for left handed players), or a small pick made of thin plastic. This
type of pick is called a "plectrum" or guitar pick. The left hand holds the neck of
the guitar while the fingers pluck the strings. Different finger positions on the
fretboard make different notes.
Guitar-like plucked string instruments have been used for many years. In many
countries and at many different time periods, guitars and other plucked string
instruments have been very popular, because they are light to carry from place
to place, they are easier to learn to play than many other instruments. Guitars
are used for many types of music, from Classical to Rock. Most pieces of
popular music that have been written since the 1950s are written with guitars.
There are many different types of guitars, classified on how they are made and
the type of music they are used for. All traditional types of guitar have a body
which is hollow. This makes the sound of the strings louder, and gives the
guitar its quality. This type of guitar is called "acoustic". (An acoustic instrument
is one that makes its own dynamics.)
From the 1930s, people started making and playing guitars that used electricity
and amplifiers to control the loudness. These guitars, which are often used in
popular music, are called electric guitars. They do not need to have a hollow
body. This is because they do not use acoustics to amplify the sound.
Most guitars have six strings, but there are also guitars with four, seven, eight,
ten, or twelve strings. More strings make the instrument sound fuller. The neck
of a guitar has bars or marks called frets. Frets help a guitarist know where to
put his or her fingers to get the right pitch when playing.

1 Word origin
2 History
3 Different kinds of guitars
4 Guitar music
5 References
6 Other pages
7 Other websites
Word origin
The word guitar was adopted into English from Spanish word guitarra in the
1600s. In the Middle Ages the word gitter or gittern was used in England. Both
guitarra and gitter came from the Latin word cithara. The word cithara came
from the earlier Greek word kithara. Kithara could have come from the Persian
word sehtār[source?]. seh meaning "three" and tār meaning "string". There is also
a similar but two-stringed Persian instrument named dotār. do means "two" in
Persian. The Indian sitar instrument was named after the Persian sehtār.[1] The
sihtar itself is related to the Indian instrument, the sitar.

A person who plays a guitar

is called a guitarist. A person
who makes or fixes guitars is
a luthier, which comes from
the word "lute". The word
"lute", comes from the Arabic
"Al-Uud", a stringed
instrument from the Middle
East. The guitar appears to
be derived from earlier
instruments known in ancient
central Asia as the Sitara.
Instruments very similar to
The Lute the guitar appear in ancient
carvings and statues
recovered from the old Iranian capitol of Susa. The modern word, guitar, was
adopted into English from the Spanish word guitarra, which came from the
older Greek word kithara. Possible sources for various names of musical
instruments that guitar could be derived from appear to be a combination of two
Indo-European roots[source?]: guit-, similar to Sanskrit sangeet meaning "music",
and -tar a widely found root meaning "cord" or "string". The word guitar is a
word that the Iberian Arabic language took from the Persian language. The
word qitara is an Arabic name for various members of the lute family that
preceded the Western guitar. The word guitarra was introduced into Spanish
when such instruments were brought into Iberia by the Moors after the 10th
century.
 History
There have been instruments like the
guitar for at least 5,000 years. The
guitar may have come from older
instruments known as the sitara from
ancient India and central Asia. The
oldest known picture of a guitar-like
instrument is a 3300 year old stone
carving of a Hittite bard.[2] The oldest
guitar-like instrument that is still
complete is the "Warwick Gittern" in the
British Museum. It belonged to
Elizabeth I of England and probably to
her father Henry VIII before it was
given to her.[3] It is about 500 years old.
The guitar player (c. 1672)
The design of the modern guitar began
by Johannes Vermeer
with the Roman cithara. The cithara
was brought by the Romans to
Hispania (Spain) around 40 AD. In the 8th century the Moors brought the four-
stringed oud into Spain. The introduction to the oud caused changes to the
design of the cithara.[4] In other parts of Europe, the six-string Scandinavian lut
(lute) became popular wherever the Vikings had been. By 1200 AD, there were
two types of the four string "guitar": the guitarra morisca (Moorish guitar) from
Spain which had a rounded back, wide fingerboard and several soundholes,
and the guitarra latina (Latin guitar) which was more like the modern guitar with
one sound hole and a narrower neck.[5]

The Spanish vihuela, of the 16th century, was another instrument similar to the
guitar. It had lute-style tuning and a body that was like a guitar. The vihuela was
only popular for a short amount of time. It is not known whether it was simply a
design that combined features of the oud and lute or a transition from the
Renaissance instrument to the modern guitar.
The Vinaccia family from Naples, Italy were
famous mandolin makers. It is thought that
they also made the oldest six-string guitar
that still exists. There is a guitar built that
was signed and dated 1779 on the label by
Gaetano Vinaccia (1759 - after 1831)
Although there are many fakes that have
dates on them from that time, this guitar is
believed by experts to be genuine (real).[6][7]
[8]

The guitar's design was improved (made

better) by the famous Spanish luthier,
Antonio Torres Jurado (1817-1892) and by
Louis Panormo of London.[9]

The electric guitar was made by George

Beauchamp in 1936. Beauchamp co-
founded a company called Rickenbacher to
make guitars. However, Danelectro was the
first to produce electric guitars for the public
to use.

The Mandolin

Different kinds of guitars

A guitar was described by Dr. Michael Kasha as an instrument that had "a long,
fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back, most often with
incurved sides”.[10]

Modern guitars come in four main types. The classical guitar is used for
classical music. The term acoustic guitar is generally used for a guitar used for
popular music, even though a classical guitar is also an acoustic instrument.
There are many other different types of acoustic guitars from different parts of
the world.

A electric guitar can be flat, hollow, or semi-hollow (solid with hollow pockets on
the sides), and produces sound through its pickups, which are wire-wound
magnets that are screwed onto the guitar. Some guitars combine the hollow
 acoustic body with amplified
sound. Bass guitars are designed
to make a low bass rhythm.

A special electric folding travel

guitar called the Foldaxe (briefly
manufactured by Hoyer in 1977)
was invented for Chet Atkins (in
Atkins' book "Me and My
Guitars") by inventor and guitarist
Roger Field, featuring a built-in
way to keep the string tension
and tuning the same even when
folded, and ready to play when
unfolded. Atkins demonstrated
his several times on US
television, and alsoon The Today
Show with Les Paul, who was
Les Paul, guitar player, inventor and with him as a guest.
recording artist

Guitar music
Guitars are used in many different
genres of music, such as
traditional, regional, and folk to
modern punk, rock, metal or pop.
Guitars are used as rhythm
instruments, lead instruments, and
sometimes both.

Paco de Lucía, modern flamenco guitarist

 E String or 1st String Notes
Know the names of the notes! Know the notes in the music and on the guitar!

E is 1st string open F is 1st finger 1st fret G is 3rd finger 3rd fret
4w w w
&4

Half Note Etude - half note = 2 beats

Ex. 1
E E F F G G
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ w
&c
Beat count: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Say the names of the notes aloud as you play them, you can even sing them.

Quarter Note Etude - Quarter Note = 1 beat

Ex. 2
F F E E F E F E G G E E
4œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
&4
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ ˙ w
&

Ex. 3 Half Note Quarter Note Mix

˙ œ œ ˙ œ œ ˙ œ œ ˙ ˙ œ œ ˙ ˙ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ ˙
&c
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

Quarter Note Rest Etude - Quarter note rest = silence 1 beat (don't let the note ring over the rest)
Ex. 4
4œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ œ Œ œ Œ œ œ Œ œ ˙ ˙ œ œ œ œ
&4 Œ Œ Œ Œ
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

Œ œ œ œ Œ œ Œ œ Œ œ œ Œ Œ œ
œ œ œ
Œ œ Œ œ Œ ˙ ˙ Œ œ
&

Ex. 5 Mixing It Up
˙ w œ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ w
&c
˙ Œ œ Œ Œ

œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ ˙ œ
Œ
œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ œ w ˙ ˙ ˙ Ó
&
2

Half Note Rest Etude - half note = silence for 2 beats (do not let the note ring during the rest)
Ex. 6
˙ œ œ ˙ œ œ Ó œ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
&c Ó Ó Ó Ó
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

˙ œ Œ œ Œ Ó œ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ ˙
&
œ œ Ó Ó Ó Œ œ Ó ˙

Ex. 7
4œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ Œ œ œ Œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ
&4

˙ Ó œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
&

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ Œ œ œ Ó ˙
&

œ œ Œ œ Œ œ œ Œ Œ œ œ Œ Œ œ œ Œ Œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ ˙ w
& Œ Œ

Ex. 8
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ
&c Œ Œ œ œ œ

œ Œ Ó ˙ œ œ œ œ w œ œ œ œ w œ œ
&
˙ Œ œ œ œ Ó

˙ œ ˙ ˙ œ ˙ œ œ
& Œ Ó Œ Ó Œ Œ

œ œ Œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙
& Œ Œ Œ Œ Œ