Basic Guitar Terminology

Hey guys, what’ s up it’s Aaron Gallagher of free and easy guitar. And this is the 2nd lesson extreme beginners basics of guitar, so this is the 2nd lesson and what we’re talking about right now is guitar terminology. Or words that you’re going to hear associated with the guitar and also the parts o the guitar so if you’re hear this in the future, you’re not too confused. So there’s going to be some that I’m sure you don’t cover where into, just Google it alright. So we’re going to start with the anatomy of the guitar and this part up here is the Head Stock okay? This is where your housing of your strings are connected to your tuning knobs, tuning mechanisms, tuning machine anything you want to call it. And what these are is they turn one way to tighten the string one way to loosen the string. You’re going to tighten the way it to tight in the certain direction whenever you put your strings on and you want top tight them up to the correct pitch. [Demonstration] And you can tune in the other way whenever you’re tuning down if you go down a couple of steps for tuning or anything like that. So that is how you adjust the pitch in your tuning. The strings, okay just slide a little on the back okay. And this Head Stock is connected right here to your neck alright. And the neck of the guitar connects the body obviously with the Head Stock. Now the front of the neck, you have your finger board or fret board okay? Finger board is called that because it is where your fingers go and the fret board is the same right thing it’s called that because you have your frets. What a fret is, F-R-E-T fret is a metal strip they’re located at a certain distances of the neck and those distances they create certain sounds okay? And if you know much about physics, what happens actually is when a guitar string vibrates— [Demonstration] It vibrates is starts a frequency okay? Whatever frequency it vibrates that depends on what pitch you get. So as this is an open E okay? You vibrate that and vibrates many times per second to create and E note. Alright as you shorten it by playing out the frets it vibrates faster or slower. [Demonstration] And in different amount of vibration gives you different sounds, okay? That’s all we going to guys. That’s something you need to know by the learning but so each of the metal strips is a fret okay? The reason they’re there is because just a like a set of there. whenever you press an open, it shorts the note okay? [Demonstration] That’s is what the fret are for , for you someone say pointer finger first fret it means you stick your pointer finger above the first fret okay? S if they say pointer finger above 5th fret that is your first one 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, fret and you point your pointer finger above that 5th fret okay? [Demonstration] Talk about fretting notes and chord letters, so don’t worry about that. As you move up the neck you’re running to the body of your guitar okay? The body of the guitar is where the sound from each of your string resonates and gives you the sound of the guitar okay? so we’ll start off with a couple of different parts, this is a sound hole here in the middle all right. And this is where the sound from your strings enters the body and resonates this little guy here; you won’t see all of the guitars which is pick guard. It’s just basically to protect your guitar fro, the pick whenever you’re strumming down get in the strings and you hit that pick guard. It’s a protective thing so you don’t actually damage the finish with the wood on the top of the body of guitar okay? This right here is called you’re saddle alright. And with the saddle is this little piece of what you see the white there right. What that is actually is a little piece of plastic bone lot of different things that your strings rest upon. And these little black things here are actually called your tuning pegs so the string, one end of the string is down under that tuning peg okay? so some of the other parts of the guitar. A lot of guitars this is an acoustic and electric guitar which means you plug in to an amp and amps got a little input here that’s goes acoustic electric plug-in alright. And then if you have a acoustic- electric you’ll have some different electronics here to control volume and stuff like that. So a lot of the guitars have these which are basically your strap holders, your little strap knobs you can put one in your strap here run around you r shoulder put he other in there. We’re going to stop as far as the body of the guitar right there because that’s all I think you’re really need to know and some other guitar terminology I wanted to talk with you guys about right now. It is just kind some words that you think you can run into and I want you guys to understand what we’re talking about it. One of the big things you’ll hear in my lessons in lots of people is tuning, standard tuning drop d tuning. And what that refers to is what tuning your strings even be in okay? Standard tuning is the most common tuning and what that means this 6 strings okay? Your 6 strings is what guitars are called a 6 string, and they’re actually numbered from the bottom to the top. [Demonstration] Now this is a little confusing to a beginner but whenever you hear someone says standard tuning they’re always going to mention it. [Demonstration] So really when you hear standard tuning E, A, D,G, B, E that’s really giving you the tuning from 6,5,4,3,2,1, okay. But all G got you confused because the strings are number 1,2,3,4,5,6 from thinnest to thickest okay. So you have that there that‘s standard tuning and they’re a lot of tunings which you’ll run into let’s talk about those on the later lesson. One of the biggest things that you’ll going to hear is called tablature, I can’t read music, m I can read it slowly but I can’t slide read it in playing the guitar. I’ve learned exclusively through tablature a little by ear but most of my tablature. What tablature is really just a picture of the guitar neck and it really just shows you with numbers how to play a song, okay? So you could have a notes which I just one single note. [Demonstration] Anywhere on the guitar. [Demonstration] Or you can have chords, and what a chord is 2 or more notes play together so a chord is like this. [Demonstration] Okay? That’s 6 strings played this is a chord itself. [Demonstration] Okay? Because it is two or more notes played at the same time. [Demonstration] Okay, so that’s what a chord is, you’ll hear some people talk about action. And all that means is how far the strings set of the fret board fingerboard, so you might see strings are fairly close some people will be higher some are lower or just basically on preference. You can also adjust that in the guitar shop or don’t try to adjust it by yourself okay? What are the basic tablet and talk about real quick in the lesson that we heard is the types of guitars and strings. There are electric guitars obviously than the most other common are classical and skill string okay. This is a steel string guitar because it has. [Demonstration] Strings are made of steel or whatever you want to call it. But there’s a difference between steel string guitar and a steel guitar okay. A steel string guitar is just like this an acoustic guitar with a steel strings and a steel guitar you’ll see people play a lot lying flat on their lap like this, it is a little different. So we have a steel string guitar this is one that its talking about okay. They’re 2 there’s lot of types of acoustic guitar but the 2 main lines are steel string and nylon string okay. You’ll know it now on string when you pick up because the strings are steel obviously they’re not nylon. So one way to tell the difference in a sound is too. [Demonstration] That’s the steel string. And this is a classic guitar. [Demonstration] Okay, the tuning pegs are sometimes looks like this okay. But the main thing you’ll notice is the neck is little wider usually and the strings are farther apart and that’s why it’s wider and there some of these are tight plastic. And m those strings are nylon. [Demonstration] And it has made to put your fingers and also made to give you a different type of sound. [Demonstration] A lot of classical guitars are played are nylon strings, so that really is some of the terminology if you have other question. You can always send me an email at Aaron@freeandeasyguitar.com for questions at free and easy guitar dot com an d also take advantage of the forms even when the time you first start. There’s lot of thousand people around the forums that will help you out, just get on there and log in and register post your questions and either you ask them or send me an email and we’ll get you started. So take care of that lesson and if you are ready, we go on to the next.