#HOW TO PLAY GUITAR HOW TO#

Be sure the pointed end of the pick is pointing directly away from your fist and is protruding by about a half an inch.The pick should be approximately located behind the knuckle of the thumb. With your other hand, slide your guitar pick between your thumb and index finger.Rotate your hand until you are looking at its profile, with your thumb's knuckle facing you.Your thumb should remain beside your index finger. Close your hand to make a very loose fist.Open your picking hand, and turn the palm to face you.

When reading, keep in mind that your 'picking hand' is the hand which is nearest to the bridge of the guitar, when sitting in the correct position.

#HOW TO PLAY GUITAR HOW TO#

The following documentation explains how to holdР’В and use a pick. You can experiment with different shapes and brands, but I highly recommend medium gauge picks to start ones that aren't too flimsy, or too hard. Don't be stingy, go and pick up at least 10 of them - guitar picks are easy to lose (they often don't cost more than 30 or 40 cents each). If not, you'll need to buy yourself some. Hopefully, you've found, bought or borrowed a guitar pick. It is extremely important to keep these fingers curled at the knuckles, except when specifically instructed not to do so. The thumb of your fretting hand should rest behind the neck of the guitar, with your fingers in a slightly curled position, poised above the strings. Next, concentrate on your 'fretting hand' (the hand closest to the neck of the guitar, when sitting in proper position). (NOTE: proper classical guitarist technique dictates the exact OPPOSITE of the above, but for this lesson, let's stick to our initial explanation) This means, a person playing the guitar in a right-handed fashion will typically rest the guitar on his/her right leg, while someone playing the guitar in a lefty manner will rest it on their left leg. In most styles of guitar playing, the guitar will rest on the leg farthest away from the headstock. When playing the guitar sitting down, the body of the guitar will rest on one of your legs. To play the guitar as a lefty would, you will need a left-handed guitar. The strings of the guitar run from the tuning pegs, over the nut, down the neck, over the body, over the sound hole (or pick-ups), and are anchored at a piece of hardware attached to the body of the guitar, called a 'bridge.' These 'pick-ups' are essentially small microphones, which allow the capture the sound of the ringing strings, allowing them to be amplified. Electric guitars will instead have 'pick-ups' where the soundhole is located. Most electric guitars have a solid body, and thus will not have a sound hole. Most acoustic and classical guitars have a hollowed out body, and a ' sound hole,' designed to project the sound of the guitar.

The body of the guitar will vary greatly from guitar to guitar. The neck of the guitar adjoins the 'body' of the instrument. The neck of the guitar is the area of the instrument you'll concentrate a great deal on you'll put your fingers on various places on the neck, in order to create different notes.

On the headstock are 'tuners', which you will use to adjust the pitch of each of the strings on the guitar.Р”Р„t the point in which the headstock meets the neck of the guitar, you'll find the 'nut.' A nut is simply a small piece of material (plastic, bone, etc.), in which small grooves are carved out to guide the strings up to the tuners. The diagram to the left illustrates the various parts of a guitar.Р”Р„t the top of the guitar in the illustration is the 'headstock', a general term which describes the part of the guitar attached to the slimmer neck of the instrument.

Although there are many different types of guitars ( acoustic, electric, classical, electric-acoustic, etc.), they all have many things in common.

How to play guitar