Parts of the Guitar

Now that we are just about ready, we need a little frame of reference.  Below is a photo of my guitar labeled with the major parts of the guitar.

The Head is at the end of the neck.  It holds the tuners which are used to keep the guitar in tune.  You may notice I have a tuner clipped to the end of the head of my guitar.  It’s always there so I can always stay in tune. 

Between the head and neck is the nut.  This is where the string stops vibrating when you pluck an open string.

The neck is the long, thin piece of wood between the body and the head of the guitar.  On the neck are a series of metal strips called ‘frets’.  While most people, when giving directions tell you to put your finger “ON the third fret” (for example), you actually press your finger down on the string BEHIND the third fret.  When a sting is pressed down behind a fret, what you are actually doing is shortening the length of string to a distance that is from the bridge to the fret just ahead of your finger.

The body of the guitar can be hollow (as an acoustic), solid (as on an electric) or partially solid with empty cavities, called semi-hollow (as on the guitar in the picture above).  On an electric, the body houses the pickups which transmit the sound to the amplifier.  On an acoustic, it has a sound hole which amplifies the sound of the strings.

Behind the pickups or sound hole is the bridge.  When a string is “open” or plucked without a finger on the fretboard, the string vibrates from the bridge to the nut.

Here’s a little bit o’ physics.  The thicker the string, and the longer the length that vibrates, the lower the pitch, or sound, is.  Conversely, the thinner the string and shorter, the higher the pitch.  Putting your finger on the fretboard and pressing down on a string shortens that string to the distance of the bridge to the fret in front of (closer to the body) the finger.  The closer your finger goes to the body, the higher then note will sound.

Next, we will look at some notation that will help you learn how to play.  Our first lesson is just around the corner!!!