Chapter 3 - How To Position And Tune A Guitar

We will now learn how to position and tune a guitar.

Go and find an armless chair. You will need it to provide support for your back. When you first begin learning how to play the guitar, it is important that you learn to develop good habits. Keeping a good posture with your back pressed against the chair is vital. Since you can be playing your guitar for hours, slouching is bad and you must take note not to develop this bad habit.

Place the guitar on your lap with the rear facing your chest. The body should be on your right leg if you are right-handed since you will be holding the neck using your left hand. Most acoustic guitars are designed with indentations that allow them to be rested on your leg. The 6th string should be closest to your chest and the first string nearer to your feet.

The fret hand will be placed on the left for right-handed guitarists. Vice versa for the left handed. Next, grip the guitar neck with your fretting hand. Make sure that your thumb is behind the guitar’s neck. Your fingers should be pressing against the different strings.

Picking

A guitar pick is the triangular, flat tool which you use to strum the guitar. They are relatively cheap and are made of plastic, rubber, wood or even metal. Choose one that is not too flimsy or hard since you are a beginner.

Hold this pick within your index finger and thumb on your picking hand and start strumming the guitar. Make sure that your palm is facing you. If you are doing it correctly, your picking hand should be over the sound hole for an acoustic guitar and over the guitar body for an electric guitar.

Try upstroking and downstroking for practices.

Tuning

Tuning is a must and will have to be done quite regularly. This is to ensure that the guitar sounds right always. This is done by tightening or loosening the strings using the tuning pegs on the headstock. Tightening the string will raise the pitch and vice versa.

The most popular way for beginners is to use an electric guitar tuner. These are easy devices that can tell you right away if the note is flat or sharp. Most beginner guitarists will have trouble knowing whether a string is in tune simply by listening.

Even though using an electric guitar tuner is easy and convenient, it is best that you slowly learn how to recognize the tunes of different notes so that you can tune your guitar on your own.

There are other ways to tune your guitar such as using a tuning fork, intervals and harmonics, tuning with a piano, pitch pipes, keyboards and so on.

Next, Chapter 4 – Playing Guitar Notes And Chords

5-Part Beginner Guitar Course

Chapter 1 – Basic Guitar Tips

Chapter 2 – Beginner Guitar Basics

Chapter 3 – How To Position And Tune A Guitar

Chapter 4 – Playing Guitar Notes And Chords

Chapter 5 – Understanding Scales