MORART Stewdios

I just got the guitar…now what? (part 1)

Oct 22, 2009 Music Theory
Posted by Mike Mora

Congrats…condolences…you just got a guitar!!!

Guitars are without a doubt the coolest and sweetest instruments ever created by man!!!  Take the piano for instance, there is only one place on the piano that you can play the E note an octave and a half higher than middle C.  One place?  On the guitar, you can play that note in 5 different places on 5 different strings.  Because of the way the guitar is tuned (in fourths – explanation coming soon), there is an amazing number of ways to approach chord construction.

So the guitar is the first instrument you’ve ever had and you thought when you saw it in the store or under the Christmas tree that I can learn a couple of chords and it’s off to the beach and and a campfire.  Well, yeah, that works if you want to play “Louie, Louie” for a 5 hour period.  So what do you do the next day?  Truck on down to the Guitar Center and pick up the simplest Mel Bay guitar instruction book.  You get  it home and start your journey into “Van Halen”-esque stardom.  Just make sure you master “Aura Lee” first.

Or…you could pick up a few basic theory rules and start way ahead of the crowd.  Probably the reason why you ended up here, so let’s look at some basic stuff.

First, let’s start by discussing some common terms for parts of the guitar.  Speaking the same language will be very important and a recurring theme in this series.  Let’s take a look at some parts.

Click on the image to see a bigger version.

Ok, that should cover the basics.

Next up, making sound!!!

Tags: beginnings, guitar, parts, theory