5.1 Guitars

Introduction

The group of instruments called guitars includes some of the world's most popular instruments. The guitar is classified as a chordophone in the plucked lute family . The fairly large, waisted (hourglass-shape) body that is most typical of the acoustic guitar gives it a fuller, more resonant sound than most other plucked strings. The electric guitar may have a different body shape and a more electronic timbre that features an ability to be altered in interesting ways, but the technique for playing the instruments is essentially the same, and players can switch back and forth between various types of guitars with little difficulty. There are many varieties of guitar found around the world; the guitars described below are only the ones most familiar in modern Western music.

Instrument basics

Most modern guitars have six strings. Modern instruments that have fewer strings are usually called by a different name, although they may still clearly be in the guitar family (ukulele, for example). The exception to this is the electric bass guitar, which, although it is called a guitar, has only four strings and functions more as a bass than as a guitar. Some guitars have a seventh string - an extra bass (low) string - but this is quite rare. There are twelve string guitars , but the strings of these are arranged so that the playing technique is the same as that for a six-stringed instrument.

Standar guitar tuning

The strings of most guitars are normally tuned to E, A, d, g, b, and e'. However, parts for the instrument are written an octave higher, so that the lowest written note is the e below the treble staff, not E. (See Octaves and Diatonic Music for an explanation of octave identification. See Transposing Instruments for more about instruments whose parts are not written where they sound.) Alternative tunings are occasionally used, particularly "D tuning", which involves tuning the lowest string to D rather than E. Hawaiian slack key guitar playing also features tuning some strings lower (or more "slack"), usually so that the open strings will play a major chord . Alternative tunings are usually used to provide easier fingerings in some keys and take advantage of the more resonant sound of the open string.

The four strings of the bass guitar are tuned one octave below the lowest four strings of a regular guitar.

The guitar is played by being plucked or strummed with the right hand, either directly with the fingers, or using a plectrum , usually called a pick . This can be either a flat pick, held between the thumb and fingers, or plectrums that are curled so that they can be worn individually on the thumb and each finger.

The left hand fingers the notes and chords by holding the strings down against the neck. The neck is fretted; the frets are thin raised bars embedded in the neck. When a string is held down, the string stops vibrating at the fret, not at the finger as it does for a non-fretted stringed instrument like the violin. Notes on the same string one fret apart are one half step apart. (For more about how holding a string down affects the pitch, see Standing Waves and Musical Instruments and Harmonic Series .) On a steel guitar , the pitches are changed by sliding a steel bar up and down the strings, rather than holding them down with the fingers. Steel guitars often do not have raised frets, which would interfere with the portamento (gliding pitch change) that is the characteristic sound of steel guitars.