Guitar lesson for beginners part 2 By Gary Hutchings. Ear tuning. Harmonic Tuning. I play an original 2000 Ibanez RG7421 7-String Electric Guitar – Made before they were cheap guitars. Digitech GNX2 genetx guitar processor. The recording is done straight out of my GNX2 Spdif port directly connected to my Audigy Spdif port. Sennheiser Evolution E 835 – microphone – Metallic gray also connected to my Audigy platinum face plate.

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Learn to Play Electric Guitar Beginne

Some basic parts of an electrical guitar are tuning keys, string trees, necks and bridges. Learn more about electric guitar parts withexpert tips from a professional musician in this free video about electric guitars. Expert: Floyd Kunz Contact: www.theacousticmusician.com Bio: Floyd Kunz has been playing instruments since he was 12 years old. Currently, he works for the Acoustic Musician. Filmmaker: Michael Burton

If you want to learn how to play guitar, you should be familiar with the electric guitar parts first. Then you can take guitar lessons and become skilled at guitar tuning. The broad base at the bottom is known as the body of the guitar. The body holds the other smaller guitar parts like the bridge, strings, neck pickup, bridge pickup, tremolo inputs, volume controls, tone controls, and strap holders. Normally, the body is made of wood but plastic is also used occasionally. The guitar is designed in several attractive colors.

Usually the guitars would six strings. The strings are named (from highest to lowest) Low E, A, D, G, B and High E, respectively. If the string were thicker, the sound would be lower and vice versa. The strings are plucked and picked to produce the different notes. Bridge is the place where the strings start. The bridge might be Floyd Rose, Bigsby, Tune-O-Matic, Hardtail or Tremolo. The neck pickup and the bridge pickup are electronic devices. They pick up the magnetic fluctuations around them when the strings are plucked to create the sound. They are situated under the strings in the body of the electric guitar.

Majority of the electric guitars would have tremolo inputs but you might need to install them in some models. When the tremolo bar is pressed down, a wavy sound would be produced. The tremolo bars act like sticks that are pushed into the tremolo inputs. Volume controls and tone controls are also located on the body of the electric guitar. When the settings are mixed, a unique sound would be produced.

The headstock is the piece that is situated at the top part of the guitar. The ends of the strings are tied to the tuning pegs at the top portion of the headstock. The tuning pegs are made with small silver stubs. Before you start playing on the electric guitar, your first guitar lessons would begin with guitar tuning. The headstock and the body are connected by the long fret board, which contains the frets and fret markers. The frets are nothing but small metal ridges along the fret board. The fret markets are placed on the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, seventeenth, nineteenth, and twenty-first frets. When you press your finger on the string between each fret, a different note is created.

The guitar strings are likely to break at times and you should learn how to replace them immediately. The electric guitar would also have strap holders. These strap holders are little metal stubs situated around the edge of the guitar body. The strap is held with their support. You should know these different guitar parts before you start your guitar lessons on how to play guitar. It would be advisable to take your guitar lessons on how to play guitar and guitar tuning from a professional guitar expert, though many websites provide online guitar lessons nowadays.

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A perfect guitarist is someone who not only plays good guitar but who also takes care of the instrument just like his child. It includes cleaning and polishing the guitar regularly, changing the strings, storing it in its suitable place and moreover, most importantly, it is necessary to know how to tune a guitar properly. Tuning is essential in order to keep the guitar sounding well. Therefore, not only the established guitarist but also the beginners should get acquainted with every prospects of tuning.
Discussing about how to tune a guitar, the first point to be mentioned is the perfect meaning of tuning. Normally a guitar has six strings, each of which is of different size and posses different note value. Tuning a guitar means adjusting the pitch of each of these strings so that they play the correct note. This basically is done by tightening and loosening each of the tuning pegs (as tightening raises the pitch of the strings and loosening lowers it).
Talking about, how to tune a guitar, the next point follows is the type of tuning. Mainly the process that is followed to tune a six-string guitar is the standard tuning. The pattern of the strings is like this:
- E is the 6th string and the lowest sounding one.
- A is the 5th string.
- D is the 4th string.
- G is the 3rd string.
- B is the 2nd string.
- E’ is the 1st one and the highest sounding string.
Other than standard tuning, the guitar tuning option also includes alternate guitar tuning. The guitar can be tuned to Drop D, Open C, Open G, , Open E or Admiral, Half step down, and Full step down. But the most popular one for both Electric and Acoustic guitar is the standard tuning and a perfect answer to the question how to tune a guitar.
However, it should be noted that in a perfect tune, the 1st and the 6th strings open must produce the same note, of course at different pitches. Therefore, following the standard tuning, lets see how to tune a guitar methodically:
E String Tuning – To tune the sixth string, the tuning peg has to be slowly adjusted after playing the pitch. And it is necessary to tune up by increasing the string tension. Until and unless the sixth string is tuned to E, the other strings cannot be tuned.
A String Tuning – To tune the fifth string, the first thing to be done is to placing the index finger of the left hand just behind the 5th fret of the 6th string and slowly playing the 6th string at the 5th fret with the right hand. Next is to adjust the 5th string tuning peg gently until both the notes are same.
D string tuning – Same as the last one, the tuning of the 3rd string can be done by putting the first finger of the left hand behind the 5th fret on the A string, which is the D note. Then gently tuning the 4th string i. e. the D note to the last one is the only thing to follow.
G string Tuning – Just like the last one, the tuning of the G – string needs placing the first finger of the left hand behind the 5th fret on the D string, which is the G note. Then a gentle tuning of the G-string to that note is all to be done.
B String Tuning – The tuning needs the first finger of the left hand to be placed behind the 4th fret and the rest is same as the earlier one, i. e. to adjust to the last one.
E’ String Tuning – The tuning needs the first finger of the left hand to be placed behind the 5th fret on the B String, which is the E’note. Rest is to adjust E string to that of the last string.
Now that you have learnt how to tune a guitar, get tuning.

Have you ever had a guitar or bass that didn’t quite play in tune no matter how many times you tuned it up? If so, it is quite possible that your instrument’s intonation is incorrect. If you’ve never heard of intonation, read further because it may be the key to making your instrument play in tune. This article will discuss what intonation is, why it needs to be set properly, how to read it and how to make basic adjustments to your instrument’s intonation. Please follow this link to view the figures for the article. What is Intonation? The intonation of a guitar or bass has to do with how accurately the instrument voices its notes. A perfectly intonated guitar or bass will play all of its notes with perfect accuracy. An A will be exactly 440hz, and the octave of that A will be exactly 880hz, no matter where it is played on the fretboard. A guitar or bass that is not properly intonated may still sound a perfect A in the open position, but play an A in any other position and it will be slightly out of tune. On a properly intonated guitar or bass, the length of the string between the nut and saddle will be slightly longer than the instrument’s stated scale length (the theoretical distance from the nut to the saddle). As you fret a string to sound a note it stretches a little, causing its pitch to go slightly sharp. To counteract the change in pitch caused by the stretch, the saddle is placed slightly further back from the fretboard, effectively increasing the length of the string and lowering the pitch. This extra distance the saddle is placed beyond the scale length is called compensation. A string under lower tension will stretch more than a string under higher tension and will require more compensation to be properly intonated. All things being equal, a guitar or bass with high action, a high nut or lower tension strings will require more compensation than an instrument with low action, a short nut or higher tension strings. Checking the Intonation of Your Instrument To see if the intonation of your instrument is set properly, you will first need to obtain a good quality chromatic tuner. You should spend at least $20 on a tuner that you intend to use for reading and setting intonation. A cheap, non-chromatic tuner may produce readings that are inaccurate. If you are reading the intonation of an electric instrument with more than one pickup, plug the tuner into the instrument, make sure the volume and tone controls are turned all the way up and that only the pickup nearest the fretboard is turned on, then follow the steps below: 1. Tune the instrument to pitch. 2. Play the harmonic at the twelfth fret of the low E string and note the reading of the tuner. 3. Now fret the string at the twelfth fret, play the E and note the reading of the tuner. 4. If both the harmonic E and fretted E are exactly in tune with each other, the E-string is properly intonated. If the fretted E is not in tune with the harmonic, the string is not properly intonated and the instrument requires adjustment. 5. Repeat for each string. Setting the Intonation of Your Instrument If you’ve never had your instrument set up or intonated, there is a good chance that its intonation is off. If you have an instrument with saddles that adjust forward and back from the fretboard, similar to those pictured in Figure 1, use the following procedures to adjust your intonation, otherwise skip to “Adjusting Intonation with Fixed Saddle(s)”. Note: If you are doing a full setup on an instrument, do not adjust the intonation until all other adjustments have been made first. Adjusting Intonation with Moveable Saddle(s) 1. Tune your instrument and read the intonation of the low E-string. 2. If the E fretted at the twelfth fret is sharp compared to the harmonic at the twelfth fret, the string requires more compensation and the saddle should be backed away from the fretboard. If the fretted E is flat compared to the harmonic, the string has too much compensation and the saddle should be adjusted towards the fretboard. 3. Adjust the saddle slightly in the proper direction by tightening or loosening the intonation screws found on the rear or front face of your bridge (Fig. 2, Fig. 3), re-tune the string and check its intonation again. 4. Repeat these procedures until the harmonic E and fretted E are in tune with each other. Repeat for each string. If you have a fretless instrument you should fret the twelfth fret position with the edge of a credit card, instead of your finger, to get maximum accuracy. If your fretless instrument does not have a marker that designates its twelfth fret position, divide the instrument’s scale length in half and measure that distance from the nut down the fretboard; that is the twelfth fret position. Mark this position with some low-tack tape that will not damage the fretboard or finish, then adjust the intonation. Once you have applied the above procedure to each string, you will have successfully intonated your instrument! Adjusting Intonation with Fixed Saddle(s) Adjusting the intonation of a guitar or bass that has a fixed saddle is more difficult as it is not as easy to move the saddle. If you have an instrument with a fixed saddle there are a few ways to correct the intonation: 1. You can have the existing saddle “compensated” by a professional luthier or repair tech. This involves re-shaping the saddle to properly compensate the strings and achieve correct intonation. 2. You can purchase a ready-made compensated saddle if your instrument doesn’t already have one or its existing saddle is otherwise flawed. A compensated saddle differs from a straight saddle in that portions of its top edge will be differentially carved so they are slightly off center, causing some of the strings to be further from the fretboard than others. 3. The entire bridge can be removed and re-set, or the bridge’s slot for the saddle can be filled and re-cut, but these are relatively complex and expensive repairs. 4. Changing string gauges and/or changing the action can sometimes improve or correct the intonation of an instrument with fixed saddles. These methods will be discussed in detail in the next article. Setting intonation by moving the saddles on an instrument is a fairly straight-forward procedure, but sometimes it may not fully correct the intonation by itself. The next article will discuss some simple, inexpensive ways to improve or correct the intonation of instruments with fixed saddles and go over some intonation troubleshooting. Thanks for reading, see you next month! Copyright © Anthony Olinger, Xylem Handmade Basses and Guitars 2008.