Find yourself a comfortable chair. Make it a hard chair with a straight back and one without arms. Put it in a place away from the television. Away from the telephone. Find a spot outside the traffic patterns of your household and away from congregating areas.
When you find that spot, find your guitar. Don't worry too much about what is or is not proper posture but try and sit a little forward in your chair as you hold your instrument. Get comfortable.
Whether the strings are made of steel or nylon, guitars have six of them. Holding your guitar, they are somewhat parallel to the floor and ceiling.
Let's name the string closest to the floor the first string. And we'll call the string closest to the ceiling the sixth string. In between are the fifth, fourth, third and second strings. This is how most people number them. Six closest to the ceiling, one closest to the floor.
Next, look at the fingerboard. The narrow metal bars that run across its width are called frets. Some acoustic guitars have twenty frets. Some have eighteen. Either way, notice how the frets are closer together up near the body and farther apart down near the headstock.
The word fret actually refers to the narrow metal bar itself. But when we say a guitarist frets his instrument, we actually mean he is placing his fingers on the strings in the spaces between the frets. The space closest to the headstock is the first fret, the next space is the second fret, the next the third, and so on.
One of your hands will strum or pluck the strings somewhere near the sound hole and the other hand will fret the strings. On each hand we name your fingers the same way your kindergarten teacher and God named them: thumb, index, middle, ring and pinky.
As a guitar student, you will focus a lot of time and energy training your fretting hand, particularly here in the early going. In the long run however, the hand that does the strumming and plucking becomes more important. That's the hand that makes the rhythm. That's the hand that makes the sound.
When you find that spot, find your guitar. Don't worry too much about what is or is not proper posture but try and sit a little forward in your chair as you hold your instrument. Get comfortable.
Whether the strings are made of steel or nylon, guitars have six of them. Holding your guitar, they are somewhat parallel to the floor and ceiling.
Let's name the string closest to the floor the first string. And we'll call the string closest to the ceiling the sixth string. In between are the fifth, fourth, third and second strings. This is how most people number them. Six closest to the ceiling, one closest to the floor.
Next, look at the fingerboard. The narrow metal bars that run across its width are called frets. Some acoustic guitars have twenty frets. Some have eighteen. Either way, notice how the frets are closer together up near the body and farther apart down near the headstock.
The word fret actually refers to the narrow metal bar itself. But when we say a guitarist frets his instrument, we actually mean he is placing his fingers on the strings in the spaces between the frets. The space closest to the headstock is the first fret, the next space is the second fret, the next the third, and so on.
One of your hands will strum or pluck the strings somewhere near the sound hole and the other hand will fret the strings. On each hand we name your fingers the same way your kindergarten teacher and God named them: thumb, index, middle, ring and pinky.
As a guitar student, you will focus a lot of time and energy training your fretting hand, particularly here in the early going. In the long run however, the hand that does the strumming and plucking becomes more important. That's the hand that makes the rhythm. That's the hand that makes the sound.
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