The guitar is a very simple instrument consisting of a body, neck and headstock. Both acoustic and electric guitars are constructed in this fashion, and their differences come down to how the sound from the strings is propagated.

In order to simplify the guitar lessons here, we are going to focus on the electric guitar. If you happen to own an acoustic, though, don’t worry: all of the music theory remains the same.

Acoustic and electric guitars are both tuned in the same fashion and have roughly equal neck lengths. The main difference is that many acoustic guitars lack the “cut away” body design so common on electric guitars, and this tends to impede your ability to reach notes above the 12thth fret.

We are going to focus primarily on notes below the 12thth fret, though, so this shouldn’t be an issue as far as your ability to follow the guitar lessons.

That said, let’s go ahead and look at a diagram of an electric guitar so you can familiarize yourself with the names of all of its parts. The screen shot below shows the basic set up of a Fender Stratocaster, one of the most popular rock guitars of all time.

What I would like to draw your attention to is the Fretboard and the Tuners. We’re going to talk about your fretboard, first, and then discuss how to tune your guitar.

The guitar is a very simple instrument consisting of a body, neck and headstock. Both acoustic and electric guitars are constructed in this fashion, and their differences come down to how the sound from the strings is propagated.

In order to simplify the guitar lessons here, we are going to focus on the electric guitar. If you happen to own an acoustic, though, don’t worry: all of the music theory remains the same.

Acoustic and electric guitars are both tuned in the same fashion and have roughly equal neck lengths. The main difference is that many acoustic guitars lack the “cut away” body design so common on electric guitars, and this tends to impede your ability to reach notes above the 12thth fret.

We are going to focus primarily on notes below the 12thth fret, though, so this shouldn’t be an issue as far as your ability to follow the guitar lessons.

That said, let’s go ahead and look at a diagram of an electric guitar so you can familiarize yourself with the names of all of its parts. The screen shot below shows the basic set up of a Fender Stratocaster, one of the most popular rock guitars of all time.

What I would like to draw your attention to is the Fretboard and the Tuners. We’re going to talk about your fretboard, first, and then discuss how to tune your guitar.