Guitar Lesson 1: The Basics

So you want to know your way around a guitar, eh? In order to stand with the greats you first have to know the very basics and fundamentals of how to play, the parts of a guitar, and how to read tablature. Consider this your first and most crucial lesson.

LESSON 1A: Knowing the parts of a guitar

In order to not sound like a complete rookie around experienced players, it’s highly advisable that you know the different parts of both an acoustic and electric guitar. Don’t worry there aren’t many differences between the two. Here are some diagrams illustrating the basic parts of a guitar:

It’s also important to know the names of each string on a guitar. This is crucial for instructional purposes and if you were to need to tell someone how to play a certain part of a song, etc. From top to bottom the strings are labeled as shown:

E

A

D

G

B

e

This is also vital in reading tablature, which is our next lesson section.

LESSON 1B: Reading guitar tablature

Now that you know the different parts of a guitar it’s time to learn how to read tablature (“tabs” for short). Tabs are a unique form of sheet music that is usually created specifically for guitar. You can see an example of a portion of the tab for “Back In Black”, by ACDC below:

As you can see there are six lines, just as there are six strings on a guitar. Unlike the previous diagram showing the string names, a tab is reversed. The low E string is on the bottom line and the high e string on the top line with the other strings changed respectively. The numbers within the lines indicate the fret that the note is being played on. The number 0 shows that the string will be played open. This often means it is part of a chord unless it is by itself. Tablature is very simple once the player knows what he or she is looking at, but it has two major flaws. There is no sense of time and there is no way of knowing which finger to use for each given note. This second flaw is easily looked past though since most players can generally figure out the shapes.

There are probably a few symbols on the previous tab that look foreign to you if you’re a beginner to guitar. It’s important to know what each of these symbols mean. They are as follows:

b OR ^ – Bend

r – Release Bend

/ – Slide

S – Shift Slide

L – Legato Slide

h – Hammer On

p – Pull Off

tr – Trill

t – Tap

~ – Vibrato

< > – Harmonic

P.M. – Palm Mute

x – Muted String

( ) – Ghost Note

. – Short Note

o – Repeat Rhythm

LESSON 1C: Basic chord shapes

I could have started the first playing lesson with scales and note names, but quite frankly I know how confusing all of that was to me when I first began guitar. My uncle handed me a small notebook page with basic chord shapes and I had so much fun using them in different combinations. This is what sparked my love for guitar and I don’t want to bore you in the first lesson. Now that you know tablature, here are some basic shapes that you can use to play hundreds of songs already in existence:

     I hope you enjoyed your very first guitar lesson. The guitar truly is a wonderful and versatile instrument when played properly. Stay tuned for more lessons in the future! Happy playing.