| An Introduction to the Guitar | Quick Anatomy | Tuning the Guitar | Posture and Position | |
Before you begin it's important you familiarize yourself(quickly) with the anatomy of your guitar(not your own, we hopefully believe you know enough about that). You can learn the specifics later. If your feeling adventurous though, there is a reference page called Anatomy of the Guitar.
Lets take it from the top:
Headstock - upper end of the guitar, normally holding tuners.
Tuners - fix the upper end of the string(s) and give you the chance to change their tuning according to a special tuning system (standard EADGBE') the head ends at the nut.
Nut - which fixes the space between the strings and in most cases functions as a zero fret.
Neck - is a flat or slighty rounded board divided into scaled partitions by the frets on upper side, and a rounded back to stabilize the construction.
Frets - Metal stripes that allow to modify the tone produced with a string by shortening distance to the bridge.
Bridge - is the lower end of the sounding string. Depending on guitar type it can contain variable or fixed saddle(s) that limit and define string length and a construction to fix the lower end of the strings it is screwed or glued to
Body - which may be constructed to influence outgoing sound or keep electronic parts for further amplification.
The Strings and Tablature[]
There are six strings on your guitar.
(Standard Tuning) *Closest to the floor. e-----1st String(thin)---------------------------------------- B---------2nd String------------------------------------------ G-------------3rd String-------------------------------------- D------------------4th String--------------------------------- A----------------------5th String----------------------------- E----------------------------6th String(thick)---------------- *Closest to the ceiling
Looking down the sixth string will be closest too you. In this way this diagram looks up side down, but it is how all tablature is constructed. Those letters represent the note each string is tuned to. The sixth string is an E. So is the first string. It is important to memorize what note each string is.