Lesson 2

Getting to know the strings and tuning your guitar

In our first homework assignment you were asked to fill in all the notes of the fretboard. Your illustration should have looked something like the one below. Our illustration on the homework did not have this many frets though. You would have filled in the notes up to the 19th fret of the guitar fretboard.

In our next lesson, we need to learn the open strings. Your guitar whether Spanish, Guild acoustic, Les Paul, electric, old or new should have six strings. Each string like each key on the piano has a particular purpose.

The Low E string or Fattest string when picked open (not fretting it) should sound the Low E note or tone. However, that's only true if your guitar is properly tuned. You will need to read up on tuning your guitar. Tuning is very important, so in this lesson we will cover the six strings, their names and placement.

An open A tuning  source and a tuning file has been included in the tuning chapter. You will use this source to tune the A string. Then you would read up on tuning the remaining strings.

In these lessons, colors have been assigned to each string. These colors are used to make learning easier and a little more understandable for those of you who are just beginning.

These are the six strings E A D G B E

You really need memorize these strings as soon as possible. Also, review the illustrations on the fretboard chapter to get a complete understanding of them. 

Assignments:

Good luck,

From the Jam Room