Beginning Guitar Lessons
Beginning guitar lessons while we were still in grade school, my cousin has become one of the best guitar players I know. Although she does not professionally play, opting to play only in church during Sunday service, everybody knows that she is a gifted guitar player. My son Kevin became interested in guitar playing and my cousin agreed to teach him. Kevin is only 7 and I had to accompany him every time he goes for his guitar lessons at my cousin’s place.
On the very first day, at the beginning guitar lessons, he was taught about the different parts of the guitar. All guitars have the same parts, whether acoustic, electric, or classical, a guitar has the same components.
The top part of the guitar is called the headstock which is attached to the neck of the guitar. Located on the headstock are the tuners which are used in adjusting the pitch of the guitar strings. In between the headstock and the neck is the nut which is made of bone or plastic with small grooves designed to guide the strings to the tuners.
Then there is the neck where you place your fingers on the strings which run across it in order to create the different sounds and notes when playing the guitar. It connects to the body of the guitar which could vary according to the kind of guitar.
Acoustic and classical guitars have bodies which are hollowed out with a sound hole intended to project the sound of the guitar while electric guitars have bodies with pick-ups consisting of small microphones that capture the sound of the strings which amplifies them.
Then there is a plastic or wooden piece attached to the body of the guitar called the bridge where the strings are anchored. And of course there are the strings which are for me the most important part of the guitar since without them the guitar will not produce any sound. The strings run from the bridge over the sound hole or pick-ups up to the neck, over the nut and up to the tuning pegs.
Kevin’s beginning guitar lessons was not only educational for him but also for me since I can’t help but overhear what my cousin is teaching him. Who knows, we might learn to play the guitar together after all.