Hal Leonard Corp. - The Hal Leonard Beginning Guitar Superbook (Guitar Instruction)

Steel-string

Nylon-string

Electric

When you are tuning your guitar, you will adjust the pitch (highness or lowness of sound) of each string by turning the corresponding tuning key. Tightening a string raises the pitch and loosening it lowers the pitch.

The strings are numbered 1 through 6 beginning with the thinnest string, the one closest to your knee. Tune each string in sequence beginning with the sixth string, by playing the correct key on the piano (see diagram) and slowly turning the tuning key until the sound of the string matches the sound of the piano.

Tuning with an Electronic Guitar Tuner

An electronic tuner reads the pitch of a sound and tells you whether or not the pitch is correct. Until your ear is well trained in hearing pitches, this can be a much more accurate way to tune. There are many different types of tuners available, and each one will come with more detailed instructions for its use.

Keyboard

Relative Tuning

To check or correct your tuning when no pitch source is available, follow these steps:

• Assume that the sixth string is tuned correctly to E.
• Press the sixth string at the 5th fret. This is the pitch A to which you tune your open fifth string. Play the depressed sixth string and the fifth string with your thumb. When the two sounds match, you are in tune.
• Press the fifth string at the 5th fret and tune the open fourth string to it. Follow the same procedure that you did on the fifth and sixth strings.
• Press the fourth string at the 5th fret and tune the open third string to it.
• To tune the second string, press the third string at the 4th fret and tune the open second string to it.
• Press the second string at the 5th fret and tune the first string to it.

There are several ways to hold the guitar comfortably. On the left is a typical seated position, and on the right is the standing position. Observe the following general guidelines in forming your playing posture:

• Position your body, arms and legs in such a way that you avoid tension.
• If you feel tension creeping into your playing, you probably need to reassess your position.
• Tilt the neck upwards never down.
• Keep the body of the guitar as vertical as possible. Avoid slanting the top of the guitar so that you can see better. Balance your weight evenly from left to right. Sit straight (but not rigid).

Left-hand fingers are numbered 1 through 4. (Pianists: Note that the thumb is not number 1.) Place the thumb in back of the neck roughly opposite the 2nd finger as shown below. Avoid gripping the neck like a baseball bat with the palm touching the back of the neck.

These photos show the position for holding a pick and the right-hand position in relationship to the strings. Strive for finger efficiency and relaxation in your playing.

Music is written in notes on a staff. The staff has five lines and four spaces between the lines. Where a note is written on the staff determines its pitch (highness or lowness). At the beginning of the staff is a clef sign. Guitar music is written in the treble clef.

Each line and space of the staff has a letter name: The lines are, (from bottom to top) E - G - B - D - F (which you can remember as Every Guitarist Begins Doing Fine): The spaces are from bottom to top, F - A - C - E, which spells Face.

The staff is divided into several parts by bar lines. The space between two bar lines is called a measure. To end a piece of music a double bar is placed on the staff.

Each measure contains a group of beats. Beats are the steady pulse of music. You respond to the pulse or beat when you tap your foot.