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Thursday, July 2, 2009

Learning Acoustic Guitar: The Parts of the Guitar and Proper Posture

By Scott Forrester

Though it may seem to be a daunting task at first, learning to play the acoustic guitar really isn't as hard as some people make it out to be. Every skill has a starting point and the guitar is no exception. The best place to begin, is by learning every single part of the guitar, because once you know how it works you'll be better able to understand it, and therefore be able to play it better. The acoustic guitar is fairly simple and doesn't sport quite as many parts as other guitars might, so we can go over them relatively fast:

1. The body of the guitar is the big part that you need to worry about. This is where the strings are, and it is the largest part. It has a hole in the center which creates the so und that you hear when you actually play the instrument.

2. Behind the pick hand at the end of the body you will find the bridge. This is the area in which the strings are attached to the guitar before making contact with the hole, and making their way up the neck. On the majority of acoustic guitars, you will find that this bridge is composed of wood.

3. The next part to concern yourself with is the neck. Where is the neck? It is way on the other end of the guitar. It's very hard to miss because it's the only part on the guitar that's long and skinny. The strings of the guitar travel up the neck and attach themselves to the tuning keys.

4. In order to make different notes and sounds with your guitar, you need to place your fingers behind the frets. The frets are the golden bars running across the neck, and there are normally twenty four of them.

5. The next part is the nut; this is a divider that goes between the neck and the head stock. Normally this is grooved and keeps the headstock from sliding about while you play your guitar.\

6. Next there is the headstock, which is the topmost section on the neck. This is where the tuning keys are situated.

7. What exactly are tuning keys? Those are the metal table located either on the side or the bottom of the head stock, and they are used for tuning the guitar. If the guitar is in tune then it will actually sound right, as opposed to when it is not in tune.

You have now been filled in on the various parts of an acoustic guitar. The next part of course is to learn the right way to hold this instrument, and if you keep reading you're certain to find out!

For right handed players: Begin in a sitting position, and raise one of your knees just a little bit. Put the guitar body in such a way that you are holding the neck to the left. Take the neck with your left, and then put the pick in your right. This is a decent posture, and one suitable for playing the guitar. If you need to, you can always use a strap.

If you need to play with your left handed, then just reverse the posture and make sure that you're comfortable. You can sit in any way that you want, so long as you are comfortable and that the guitar sounds right. - 18424

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