Lesson 3
Get Playing: What Do You Need?
A brief look at the hardware available to the modern guitarist.
A Bit of Both?
OK, I lied — there is a third category of guitar, the electric-acoustic. As the term implies, this instrument can be played either acoustically or electrically. Note, however, that although this may sound like a compromise between the two, it really isn’t. Such instruments tend to be either hollow-body electrics, which give a slightly different (but nonetheless traditional) electric-guitar sound, or they aim to amplify the tones of an acoustic guitar. They won’t cover both bases satisfactorily. For an in-depth look at the Ovation electroacoustic guitar, see page 66 of the K.I.S.S. Guide to Playing Guitar.
Electric or Acoustic?
If you want hands-on experience during this course, you’ll need a guitar. That stands to reason, really. In this lesson, we’ll be looking at the kinds of guitars that are used in different musical genres. When you walk into a music store, it will become immediately evident that there are quite a lot of choices out there. So what’s the difference between one guitar and another?
Broadly speaking, there are two types of guitar: acoustic and electric. The distinction is a simple one. You can pick up an acoustic guitar, strum a chord or pick a note, and it will be immediately audible. All acoustic guitars work along the same basic principles. You strike a string, which causes the string to vibrate. These vibrations are converted into sound waves by the guitar’s body (the soundbox), which vibrates with the strings. Do the same thing to an electric guitar, though, and you won’t hear much noise at all. That’s because an electric needs to be plugged into an external amplifier and loudspeaker for it to be heard properly.
Acoustic Guitars
Within those two broad categories, there are other subdivisions. Some acoustic guitars are built to use steel strings; others are designed for use with nylon strings. Each has its own unique sound and use. Classical music is almost always played on nylon-strung guitars, as are flamenco and most Latin and jazz styles. Steel-string guitars are more commonly used in pop, rock, country, and folk music.
A Martin Orchestra Model guitar, introduced by the C.F. Martin Company in 1929. This instrument featured a 14-fret neck and was designed for increased range (photo courtesy of the Dorling Kindersley Picture Library).
Electric Guitars
When most people think of electric guitars, they think of a classic rock or pop instrument such as the Fender Stratocaster. This is an example of a solid-body electric guitar, so-called because the body of the instrument is sculpted from a solid piece of wood. Since these guitars are solid, they have no hollow acoustic chamber — that’s why you need an amp to hear them.
This Fender Stratocaster dates from the late 1950s (photo courtesy of the Dorling Kindersley Picture Library).
So What Should I Get?
The choice is yours: it depends entirely on the type of music you want to play.
Getting to Know the Guitar
Guitars are not the most complicated musical instruments. Nevertheless, it’s a good idea to get to know the component parts. You never know when you’ll need to refer to them by name. (And imagine the embarrassment of going into your local music store to ask for a replacement “winding thing.”)
For those of you curious about the workings of the electric guitar, Page 59 of K.I.S.S. Guide to Playing Guitar has a detailed diagram of an electric guitar with all of its different parts labeled. The same names apply to an acoustic guitar, except that an acoustic will have a hollow sound chamber.
Choosing a Guitar
Choosing a guitar can be a nerve-wracking experience, so it’s a good idea to try to involve someone who already knows about them, especially if you plan to buy a used model. Used guitars can be an ideal way to start out, as long as you take certain precautions.
How much should you spend? That’s easy: AS MUCH AS YOU CAN REASONABLY AFFORD. Compromise can be a false economy. A cheap model may save you money, but may sound poor and be difficult to play. When you are starting out, there is no greater motivation than hearing yourself sound good. The better your guitar, the more likely that is to happen.
Quality Checks
Before you buy a guitar, make sure that it passes some basic quality control checks. For most new instruments this ought to be a formality, but second-hand guitars can be more questionable.
Intonation
- The guitar should remain in tune everywhere along the fingerboard. This is called intonation. If you play a note on 12th fret, it should always be exactly one octave higher than the note played on the open string. If the notes are not perfectly in tune, then the intonation is poor. This means that the guitar will gradually go out of tune the further you play along the neck. This can be fixed, but only by someone who knows how to set up guitars. If you find a guitar in that kind of state in a store, it might be a good idea to shop elsewhere.
Warping
- If the fingerboard is curved or warped, the intonation will be bad, and the guitar will be difficult to play. To test it out, hold the guitar as if you were aiming a rifle, and align your eye with the top surface of the fingerboard. It should appear perfectly even. If the top of the fingerboard appears to be twisted, put it down and walk away. A warped fingerboard can only be repaired by fitting a new neck.
- Check the side of the neck in a similar way. You are likely to notice a very slight curvature halfway down the neck between the 7th and 9th frets. This is normal, but be cautious if the curve is extreme.
Action
- A guitar’s action is determined by the distance between the top of the fret and the bottom of the string. If your guitar’s action is low, your fingers don’t have to press down quite as hard on the fingerboard. This makes the guitar easier to play. If the action is too low, though, you may get fret buzz when you hold down a note. PLAY EVERY SINGLE NOTE ON THE GUITAR BEFORE YOU MAKE A DECISION.
Sustain
- The length of time a note lasts before it fades out is called sustain. As Spinal Tap fans will know, sustain is greatly prized by guitarists. Play every note on the fingerboard to ensure that the notes sustain about the same. On some instruments, you will experience “dead” notes (or wolf notes as they are properly called) where the sustain is dramatically reduced. This is invariably the result of a guitar’s natural frequencies. Avoid.
Winders, Knobs, and Buttons
- Finally, take a careful look at the hardware. The machine heads — the tuning mechanisms on the headstock at the top of the neck — control the tension of each string. If they turn too easily the strings may slip, sending the guitar out of tune.
- On electric guitars, make sure you twiddle around with the tone and volume controls while playing a note. If you hear any buzzing or popping noises, keep your money.
No Amplifier?
As a first-time guitarist, the further expense of an amplifier can easily push you over your budget. A slightly unsatisfactory compromise is to use your stereo system as an amp. To do this, you’ll need to ensure that your stereo can take external connections. Newer models usually have an auxiliary input that can be used for pretty much anything. Since most stereo systems use RCA connections, you’ll need to get a hold of an adapter or a guitar cable that has a normal guitar jack on one end and an RCA plug on the other.
Electronics
Now let’s take a look at some additional needs facing the electric guitarist. If you have an acoustic guitar, this page doesn’t really apply to you. Read on, though — some of this stuff might be useful in the future.
Choosing an Amplifier
If you have an electric guitar, you need an amplifier and loudspeaker in order to be heard. You can either buy the amplifier and speaker separately or as a part of a combined unit, known as a combo. An amplifier not only boosts the guitar’s volume, it also affects the quality of the sound, so try out a variety of different types before you make your choice. Tube-driven amplifiers are more popular among guitarists than their solid-state (or transistor) counterparts. Tube amps sound much nicer, but they are usually more expensive.
Try to think ahead about what you ultimately want to do with your amplifier, or at least how loud you intend to play. Wattage is the measurement of an amplifier’s loudness. If you want to perform on stage you are likely to need a capability of between 50 and 100 watts. High output doesn’t necessarily guarantee high quality, though.
If you are buying a separate amplifier head, you will need a separate loudspeaker. These can vary enormously in size from single 10-inch cones to mighty cabinets containing four interconnected 12-inch speakers. If you go the latter route, make sure that you have sufficient room to store it. And give a thought to getting it in and out of your home: do you really want to have to haul it up and down twelve flights of stairs every time you play a gig or go to a rehearsal?
Used Amplifiers
Just as if you were buying a used car, look out for signs that a used amplifier has been badly treated by a previous owner. If the covering is filthy, battered, or covered in beer stains, who knows what demons might be lurking inside. If possible, remove the grille that covers and protects the loudspeaker to check that the cone is not worn, torn, or dented, since that would adversely affect the sound.
Listen out for excess buzzing or hiss before you plug in your guitar. These sounds may mean that some of the circuitry is worn or damaged. Next, test all of the switches, volume knobs, and tone controls. Make sure that they do all of the things they are supposed to without making unpleasant clicks or crackling noises.
As a final test, unplug the guitar, but leave the amplifier switched on. Now stamp your foot on the ground right next to the where the amplifier is standing. If you hear any electrical noises as a result, there may be loose valves or circuitry, which could eventually cause problems.
Electronic Effects
We’ve all heard the strange and exotic sounds that can be conjured out of an electric guitar. This is invariably the result of electronic sound effects like distortion, reverberation, and echo. You can create these effects by using external plug-in effects, which take the form of foot pedals or rack-mounted units.
Here are the most common guitar effects. You can hear each one by clicking your mouse on the appropriate button:
(NOTE: Lesson 3, tracks 1 to 7)
- Guitar sound bite: reverberation
- Guitar sound bite: delay
- Guitar sound bite: chorus
- Guitar sound bite: echo
- Guitar sound bite: pitch shift
- Guitar sound bite: fuzz
- Guitar sound bite: wah-wah
Although these effects can play a major part in the sound of some modern guitarists, it may be a good idea to limit their use when you first begin playing. For one thing, you’ll find it hard enough getting your fingers to move to the correct positions without the distraction of multiple flanged echoes coming out of the loudspeaker. Secondly, it’s always a good idea to use the cleanest sound possible when you are practicing your basic playing techniques — it’s the only way you can hear with absolute certainty how you are progressing.
Moving Forward
OK, that’s your equipment sorted out for you. Next time we’ll take a look at the most effective ways of holding the guitar and techniques for getting your instrument in tune.
Assignment : Hit Those Stores
This assignment is simple: HIT THOSE STORES.
If you want to find out more about guitars, amplifiers, and effects, take a look at the following sections of my book, The K.I.S..S Guide to Playing Guitar:
- Guitars (pages 27-39)
- Guitars and musical genres (pages 41-49)
- How guitars are made and how they work (pages 51-69)
- Amplifiers (pages 299-309)
- Effects (pages 311-321)
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Lesson 1
A Bit of History
A look at the way in which the guitar has evolved from its pre-Christian origins to the present day.
Our Textbook for This Course
Our textbook is a book I wrote for Dorling Kindersley’s Keep It Simple Series, K.I.S.S. Guide to Playing Guitar. This 432-page book includes chord charts galore, tips for buying your first guitar and gear (acoustic or electric), the basics of scales and keys, style tips for jazz, classical, country, and rock — plus an included CD that you can play along with as you get started.
The Popular Guitar
For much of the past 50 years, the guitar has been a major influence on the sound of popular music, and it’s easy to see why. Although the serious-minded student could spend a lifetime mastering the instrument’s nuances, just about anybody can invest a couple of days and learn enough simple chords to play along with some of their favorite songs.
If playing music is new to you, you may be surprised by how few chords are needed to play a whole lot of pop, rock, country, and folk music:
- Think about Elvis swinging his hips and thrashing out “Hound Dog” on his acoustic guitar. There are only three chords to “Hound Dog,” and you’ll be able to play them all by the end of Lesson 5.
- Think about John Denver singing and playing “Annie’s Song” (OK, it may not be the most pleasant thought). “Annie’s Song” features some neat finger picking (you’ll do that in Lesson 6) and some extra major and minor chords (which we’ll cover in Lessons 8 and 9).
- Now turn your mind to the rock anthem of the 90s, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The bulk of this classic is based on four bar chords — you’ll come across those in Lesson 10.
We’re not pretending that within the space of four weeks you’ll be an Eric Clapton, a B.B. King, or even that guy with the funny rubber mask in Slipknot. But you will be armed with the basics to enable you to take your playing in any direction you choose thereafter.
This is a pretty basic course — we can only go so far in five weeks. But if you’ve already got a bit of guitar experience and are still not sure if this course sounds right for you, try telling yourself these three statements:
- I can play the chord G minor 9-5
- I am familiar with the Myxolydian mode
- I know that a compression pedal is not something I’d find under the hood of my Dad’s automobile
If you can’t say all of the above truthfully, then this course is for you. What are you waiting for? Let’s get this show on the road.
Tuning
The standard modern-day guitar has six strings tuned to the notes E, A, D, G, B, and E. During the 16th century, most guitars featured four courses of strings tuned to C, F, A, and D. Five-course instruments also existed, adding a lower G.
The Ud
The guitar’s most significant ancestor found its way into Europe via the south of Spain following conquests by the Moors around 800 A.D. This Arabic stringed instrument was called the ud. The ud evolved over the centuries, spreading throughout Central and Northern Europe, giving rise to instruments such as the lute and the gittern.
Ancient History
The origins of the guitar are shrouded in a mystery that has been further confused by disagreement among music historians. The oldest truly recognizable ancestors of the guitar can only be traced back as far as the 14th century. But how they evolved up until that point, we can only guess. We do know, based on archeological discoveries made over the centuries, that stringed instruments certainly existed before those times.
The earliest evidence of stringed instruments can be seen in Babylonian clay reliefs discovered in Asia Minor. Dating back around 4000 years, images depict groups of musicians playing instruments from which the guitar probably evolved. These instruments shared important features with their modern counterparts, such as a fingerboard, frets, the use of more than two strings, and a resonating body capable of projecting sound. It seems likely that the volatile cultural landscape of the region, as well as the movements of the early merchants and traders, are likely to have spread the use and popularity of these mysterious early guitars.
The First Real Guitars
The earliest true guitars appeared at the end of the 15th century, but these instruments were much closer in size to the smaller lute. The vihuela, an instrument about the same size as the modern guitar, was prevalent at this time. Even though most people today have never heard of the vihuela, during this period the guitar was viewed very much as its smaller, cruder relative.
Back in the 16th century, the 12-stringed vihuela was considered a superior instrument to the guitar (photo courtesy of the Dorling Kindersley Picture Library).
The early guitars looked something like their modern counterparts, but there were some striking differences. For instance, rather than featuring a series of individual strings tuned to different notes in the modern way, the strings on these early guitars were grouped together in pairs called courses (somewhat like modern-day 12-string guitars). Each pair was tuned to the same note.
More dramatically, however, the fingerboard did not have fixed metal frets permanently in place: they were made from pieces of animal gut, which the musician wrapped around the neck. The number and position of these frets depended on the nature of the music being played. This meant that before performing, the 16th-century guitarist would not only have had to ensure that each pair of strings were in tune, but that the frets were positioned for correct intonation. Thank goodness that all changed!
The Great Segovia
By the beginning of the 20th century, the guitar had become very popular, but was still looked down upon by the dowdy classical fraternity. It was largely through the efforts of one man — the self-taught Spanish virtuoso Andres Segovia — that the profile of the guitar escalated in concert halls throughout the world. Through his influence, some of the finest composers of the past century — Villa-Lobos, Ponce, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and Rodrigo — have created seminal works for the guitar.
The Classical Guitar
By the 17th century, the guitar had become quite popular in the courts of Central Europe, replacing the vihuela as instrument of choice. Although Spain was home to the instrument’s major developments, Paris and Venice were by now the two most important centers of activity.
At the middle of the 18th century, the guitar began a period of transition. Four- and five-course guitars gradually gave way to six-course instruments. Over time the courses were replaced by single strings, and the now standard E-A-D-G-B-E tuning system was adopted. And, thankfully, the frets were finally fixed into the fingerboard.
In Spain during the following century, the work of Antonio de Torres Jurado (1817-92) turned the guitar into a serious and credible instrument. Torres experimented with construction and dimensions and created a template for the classical instrument that exists to this day. Torres became the maker of choice for the finest classical players of the second half of the 19th century. Among them was Francesco de Tárrega, who as a musician brought respectability to the guitar, and as a teacher created the foundations of the modern classical guitar technique. As far as the classical “Spanish” guitar goes, that’s pretty much the whole story in terms of the development of the instrument.
This 1876 Torres guitar was designed to carry 11 strings (including five bass strings). It has been restored to carry six strings (photo courtesy of the Dorling Kindersley Picture Library).
Who Was First?
There is considerable disagreement as to who actually invented the solid-body electric guitar, since there were clearly a number of like-minded individuals working along similar lines at the same time. One claimant is the well-known country-jazz guitarist Les Paul, who created his own guitar using a Gibson neck attached to a solid piece of pine on which the pickups and a bridge were mounted. For more on the history of the solid-body guitar, see pages 36-39 of the K.I.S.S. Guide to Playing Guitar.
Developments in America
Although the guitar is clearly a European instrument, its most significant developments over the past 120 years have taken place in America.
The first serious guitars to be made in the United States were produced by Christian Frederick Martin. The heir to a long and eminent line of instrument makers, Martin left his native Germany in 1833 to seek his fortune across the ocean. His flat-top instruments provided a template for the modern steel-string acoustic guitar. During the same period, a British migrant named Orville Gibson set up shop. His guitars had features more closely associated with violins, in that they had a curved arch top and acoustic f-holes. The companies formed by both men remained the most significant guitar makers until the beginning of the post-war period.
In spite of the growing popularity of the guitar throughout the jazz age, an acoustic guitar’s naturally low volume meant that in most bands it could only be used to provide rhythmic backing. This began to change with the development of the magnetic pickup. The earliest experiments in this area were conducted by Gibson engineer Lloyd Loar.
Fitting pickups to an acoustic guitar revolutionized music, but also resulted in one serious problem. If the sound coming out of the loudspeakers was too loud, the body of the guitar would vibrate, creating a howling noise known as feedback. The solution to this problem was to increase the body mass of the instrument so that it would not vibrate so readily. So it was that at the end of the 1940s, the first solid-body electric guitars were developed.
At this point we can bring in the single most important name in the history of the electric guitar: Leo Fender. In 1950, this Californian radio repair shop owner created the first mass-produced solid-body electric guitar — the Fender Broadcaster. A year later, Fender re-christened his groundbreaking instrument the Fender Telecaster. A year later Gibson replied with the famous Les Paul. And in 1952, Fender produced the Stratocaster — arguably the most famous instrument of them all.
Moving Forward
Now that we’ve taken in a brief history of the guitar, we’re ready to move on to the next lesson. In Lesson 2 we’ll cover some of the different types of guitar music and the great players from each genre. See you next time.
Assignment : Introduce Yourself
For your first assignment, visit the Message Board. Consider introducing yourself. Let the other students know where you’re from, how long you’ve been playing (or simply admiring) the guitar, and who some of your favorite players are. It’s guaranteed to get opinions flying.
If you’re interested in guitar history, flip through pages 28-39 in K.I.S.S. Guide to Playing Guitar for an illustrated history of the guitar through the ages.
