BEGINERS

COURSE

BC-104 Guitar Anatomy

Body
The main part of the guitar, where you'll find the bridge, and on electric guitars, the volume and tone controls. This is
easy to remember: the body is the bit that is in contact with your body!
Fingerboard
The part of the guitar where you place your fingers to play; the flatter side of the neck.
Neck
The bit that pokes out of the body, which the strings run along.
Headstock
The bit at the end of the neck where the strings stop and we find the tuners.
Position Markers
The dots on the fretboard are a handy indicator of the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th frets. The 12th fret has two dots; then
the pattern repeats.
Fretwires
The small strips of metal that go across the fingerboard.
Frets
Actually means the spaces in between the fretwires. However when people talk about frets' as in, place your
fingers near the frets they are actually referring to the fretwires. This seems to be in such common use that on this
site we'll stick with frets' to mean the fretwire.
Pick-up (s)
A pickup is found under the strings of an electric guitar, and picks up' the sound. They contain magnets, and measure
the changes of the magnetic field made by the moving strings. They come in two basic types: single coil (as found on
most Fender guitars) and humbucker (found on most Gibson guitars). humbuckers have a fatter sound, and create
less hum (hence the name).
Pick-up Selector
Most electric guitars have more than one pickup, and the selector will allow you to choose which is being used. You
can often choose to use more than one at a time. Fender Stratocasters have three pickups, but have a five-way
switch. Gibson Les Pauls have two pickups and a three-way switch.
Input Jack Socket
This is where you will plug your guitar in if you use an amplifier. Make sure the cable is pushed all the way in or it will
make a lot of noise!
Strap Pin
This is thing that your guitar strap fits on. I seriously recommend getting some kind of strap lock for this!
(see lesson BC-103)

Bridge
The far end of the strings from the nut, on the body of the guitar, usually metal. This is where the ball' will sit when
you change your strings (see lessonES-110 and ES-111).
Volume Knob(s)
Pretty obvious really: these control the volume of the electric signal of your guitar. If you've got more than one
pickup, you'll usually have more than one volume knob (this is more often the case with Gibson-type guitars rather
than Fenders)
Tone Knob(s)
Most guitars have one or two tone controls. These control the amount of bass (low) and treble (high) sounds that the
guitar makes. Take some time to play a chord and move the tone knob so you know what it does, because you really
have to hear it to understand!
Scratch Plate
Scratch plates have a couple of functions. On acoustics they are there to protect the body and on electrics they hold
all the electronics in place and protect the wood.
Whammy' Bar
This is a metal bar that comes out of the bridge in some instruments and by pushing it down will lower the pitch of
the notes being played. They can make your guitar go out of tune, and in my opinion are not a very useful attribute
on a beginner's guitar, but they are a lot of fun and can be very expressive once you know what you are doing!
Tuners
The things that you turn to change the pitch of the strings. Usually found on the headstock.
Nut
A bone or plastic (sometimes metal) piece at the end of the fingerboard near the headstock.
String Tree
Some guitars have a small 'tree' that the strings run under in between the nut and the tuning pegs, to keep the
strings from jumping out of the nut. This isn't needed on most guitars.

Floating tremolo
A type of bridge system whammy bar that locks the strings so that they don't go out of tune, a common problem
when you use a whammy bar on a regular guitar. They are great if you are doing serious whammy bar tricks, like
Steve Vai or Joe Satriani, but for the beginner they are usually a complete nightmare. None of my guitars have them
because I don't play that style much, and my Jeff Beck Stratocaster is pretty good at staying in tune with a normal
Fender bridge!
D CHORD

A CHORD

E CHORD

D A,D E, A E
Amin CHORD

Emin CHORD

Dmin CHORD

Am E, Am Dm, A Dm, E D, Em D
G CHORD

C CHORD

STRING NAMES

1. C to Am - Just move your 3rd finger without letting the others lift up!

2. C to A - Keep your 2nd finger down as an anchor.

3. C to G - All change! Hardest change so far, but very common change so you have to
work it.

4. G to E - All change! Another common change.

5. G to D - All change! Another common change.