Guitar

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The guitar is a very popular stringed musical instrument. This book is mainly concerned with standard six-stringed acoustic or electric guitars; twelve string guitars are also applicable in most cases. It is definitely not necessary to understand music theory to read this book, although it can yield a deeper understanding of the principles contained herein.

The purpose of this book is to introduce novice and intermediate players to the basic concepts of good guitar playing. Important techniques are given their own section, and exercises and examples are provided whenever they can. When you have finished reading this book, you should have a good understanding of the fundamentals of guitar, and be on the right track towards mastering the instrument.

An Ibanez 440-RS1, with three pickups and a tremolo bar.
An Ibanez 440-RS1, with three pickups and a tremolo bar.

Contents

Getting Started

Playing the Guitar

For Beginners

Lead Guitar

Rhythm Guitar

Playing Styles

General Guitar Theory

Equipment

Maintenance

Appendices

About this Book

External Links

Music Theory Wikibook: The Basics

Guitar Resources

  • WholeNote.com On-line guitar community, tabs, reviews, and interactive lessons.
  • GuitarWiki.com Wiki based guitar resource with lessons, chord library, music theory, a gear section and tabs.
  • Wiki Guitar Wiki Guitar site with tablature, lessons, resources, articles, and forums.

Guitar Lessons

  • Free Online Guitar Lessons Free guitar lessons for beginner.
  • Free Online Guitar Lessons Free video guitar lessons for kids & adults
  • IGDB.co.uk Guitar lessons, chord charts, useful links, and how to set-up your guitar.
  • GuitarNationLive.com Learn, play and master your guitar with comprehensive guitar lessons. Topics range from complete beginners to advanced.
  • Rhythm-Patterns.narod.ru Sight-reading rhythm patterns, offers rhythmic exercises for guitarists (notes+MIDI)
  • Guitar Tuning Tips has information on basic tuning, along with alternative guitar tunings.
  • 12bar.de teaches you how to play slide guitar in standard tuning (as opposed to an open tuning), along with some licks and basic technique.

Guitar Software and Hardware

  • www.power-tab.net Useful guitar tab editor named Powertab that lets you play back the song as MIDI.
  • GuitarFX.net Guitar effects software for PC.
  • TuxGuitar Open-source tablature editor for Linux, Windows and Mac.

Guitar Tablature & Chords

Tabs

Chords

  • HowToTuneAGuitar.org Chord Finger Over 1800 guitar chords, organized by type of key. As well 8 Chord Inversions for each chord
  • ChordChart.ro Learn to play any song, by learning basic guitar chords
  • All-Guitar-Chords.com Comprehensive scale, chord, progression database, with a very good interface. Also includes a jamming machine allowing you to practice with backing tracks.
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