How to Play Guitar, Types & Parts of Guitar

How to Play Guitar, Types of Guitar, Body Parts of Guitar, What is a chord, How to hold a guitar pick & How to hold Guitar

How to Play Guitar: 

In this post we will discuss about all Guitar basics and How to play Guitar which are quite important for every Guitar beginner.

Well you are at the right place if you want to learn How to play guitar. Guitar is one of the most famous instrument to play and you need consistency and patience to learn and play Guitar.

To know how to play Guitar you must first learn Guitar basics including chords of guitar then progressively you can start playing Guitar. We’ll cover all basics one by one.

Let’s start the Guitar journey together ---

·         Types of Guitar  :

Generally there are 4 types of guitar,

1.       Acoustic Guitar

2.       Classical Guitar

3.       Electric Guitar

4.       Bass Guitar

However there are many more guitar types exists as below,

5.       Electro-acoustic Guitar

6.       Twelve-string Guitar

7.       Archtop Guitar

8.       Steel Guitar

9.       Touch Guitar

10.   Resonator Guitar

11.   Double-neck Guitar

Both Acoustic and Classical guitars are popularly known as Acoustic Guitar.

Only difference is Acoustic Guitar have Steel strings and hence sometimes known as Steel-String Acoustic Guitar. 

However Classical guitar have Nylon strings and wider Fret board and sometimes known as Spanish Guitar.

Here is your lesson on DIFFERENT TYPES OF GUITAR. This lesson will help you to understand the basic difference in between the guitars, their relevance and functionality. 

·        Body Parts of Guitar:

Before going to start identifying Guitar Strings we should know the different Guitar body parts. Let’s have their basic categorization.

1.       Guitar Head

2.       Tuning Keys

3.       Nut

4.       Frets

5.       Fret Board/ Finger Board

6.       Sound Hole

7.       Bridge

8.       Saddle

9.       Body

Tuning Keys are mounted on Guitar Head and are basically responsible for tuning Guitar strings by tightening or loosing Guitar strings.

The middle section consists of Fret board which is divided into multiple frets separated by metal wire.

The rounded biggest wooden part is known as Body which has a hole in the middle section known as Sound Hole.

Let's have a detailed review in Lesson Body Parts of Guitar and what they do. This will give you the exact functionality of each part and tells you about their importance in the structure of Guitar.

If you can’t explain to your friend or follower what is a Fretboard or tuning keys, they most probably won’t take you as a responsible Guitarist.

Click here 'Body Parts of Guitar and what they do'.

The Guitar String Names/ String Notes and Position:

Identifying String with their Names or number is very important in terms of playing guitar Chords and Tabs. Basically the thickest String is called as Bass String and its name is E or 6^th String. You can see its position in the picture appended below,

The complete arrangement of Strings is E, A, D, G, B and E from sixth String to the first String.

Here is your lesson to know more about ‘The Guitar String Names String Notes and Position’ (Click on text). 

The Guitar String Names and Position topic will help you to understand Guitar string completely and how to remember string names.

How to Hold and Play Guitar in Classical Style (Classical Guitar):

Fig. How to play Guitar in Classical Style

To hold guitar in classical style, you need to sit on the chair which doesn’t have arm support and need to give support from the thigh of left leg to the lower bottom side of guitar. 

Now you need to place the body of guitar on the left leg. Basically an angle will be formed in between your Body axis and Guitar axis as shown in the above picture.

After practicing it multiple times and when you feel comfortable sitting in this position then try to keep the guitar body as close to your body.

This is how you hold and Play the guitar in classical style.

How to Hold and Play Guitar in Modern Style (My Style):

Fig. How to play Guitar in Modern Style

To know how to hold and Play Guitar in Modern style you need to follow below procedure,

The curve of the guitar body is resting on your right leg, your right elbow is resting on the top of guitar and guitar neck is slightly angled towards the ceiling (Almost parallel). 

In this style you don’t need any Stepper to lift your left leg up. However, I will recommend using a smaller one to lift your left leg up as this will give extra support to your left hand (Fretting hand) to hold the guitar comfortably.

Also, keep you strumming hand (Right hand) wrist flexible which strumming.

This one is the best way to hold the Acoustic guitar.

How to hold and play guitar Pick: 

This is also one the the most beginners lesson on How to play guitar using pick. Well, pick is not essentially required to play the Guitar as we can do picking and strumming with the help of our fingers as well.
But use of Pick is recommended for your initial days learning to correctly understand and know how to play guitar.

Hold the Guitar pick correctly is actually very important for every beginner. Please follow procedure mentioned below,

Step 1- Place pick on Index finger.

Fig. How to play Guitar Pick I

Step 2- Hold pick in between Index finger and thumb.

Fig. How to play Guitar Pick II

Make a Fist from your picking hand fingers as shown in the picture and place your pick on your index finger as shown in the picture.

Now hold the pick between your thumb and index finger, grip the pick gently that works for you (Not too loose not so tight).

In the initial stage choose thin or medium thick pick to strum later after improving this skill you can go for thick pick. Hope you understand how to hold a guitar pick comfortably.

Important Terms to understand:

1.     Strumming: The process of sweeping the thumb or a plectrum (Pick) up or down across the strings near sound hole.

Upstroke: Strum from bass string ‘1’ to treble String ‘6’.

Downstroke: Strum from treble String ‘6’ to bass string ‘1’.

2.     What is a Chord: A chord is an arrangement of three or more different notes played simultaneously on guitar. 

3.     Types of Chord: Majorly Guitar Chords are classified into 3 types-

a.     Open Chords

b.     Barre Chords

c.      Power Chords

Next lesson on Chord is available at 'Chord Of Guitar Chart: Guitar Chord'.

4.     Guitar Chord Progression: Switching from one chord to another.

Hope this information helps you to understand the basic stuff about Guitar.

Now you have understanding of Types of Guitar, body parts of Guitar, What is a chord, types of Chords and its Progression by definition.

We’ll explore each one of them along with Chords of guitar chart which will be majorly focusing on basic chords (Major and Minor Chords) such as Chord E, Chord A, Chord C and Chord F with 'Steps and How to Play tutorial and Explanations' in upcoming post.

There is lot more to share, keep in touch!!

Happy How to play Guitar Learning.