Glossary
A chord used for strumming or singular picking motion, containing at least 2 fingered frets and most of the strings.
The height of the strings above the fret board.
A concept to take various fret actions and combining them for use of exercise or for creating or adding to a riff.
A style of playing where the right hand alternates between two or more strings.
An exercise used to make your multiple fingering coordination improve by placing your index finger one on fret and tapping every other finger on every other fret in order, starting slow and increasing speed with improvement.
A chord played one note at a time.
A sub division of time in music.
A vertical line which shows the end of a bar of music.
A barred chord takes its name from the role of the 1st finger of your left hand, depressing all six strings at one fret and using your other fingers as the same pattern of frets as any normal acoustic chord from where your barred finger is.
A right hand technique which involves picking a bass note then strumming the rest of the chord.
A horizontal line which shows two eighth or sixteenth notes belonging to the beat shown on the bottom of the time signature.
A sub division of time usually felt as the pulse within a piece of music.
A fretting technique done by hitting a note and bending the string the note is on until its tone changes either slightly or fully.
The main part of a guitar (not the neck).
The part of a guitar located at the back end of the body which the strings run out of and are locked in place at.
A capo is a mechanical device that places a barred across the strings which as the effect of shortening the guitar's scale and thus raising its pitch. Huh? Basically we're talking about a clamp that puts a barred across the strings and makes the guitar's scale shorter. The effect is that you can play your familiar open chords (i.e., the basic "C", "D", "G", etc. chords you learned as a beginner) but now they're higher in pitch so you're playing in a different key.
A group of three or more notes played simultaneously.
A diagram which shows a chord progression.
A sequence of chords played one after another.
Because the chromatic scale has twelve notes and each fret on the guitar moves up one half-step, every note appears on all six strings somewhere before the twelfth fret. In other words, there is an 'E' on every string, an 'A' on every string, a 'Gb' on every string, etc.
A count at the start of a piece of music to show when to start and how fast to play (usually the top number on the time signature).
Cover Song
A song written by someone else played by another person for reference, practice, or just fun.
Two vertical lines which show the end of a section or piece of music.
A picking technique used to double note progression. Done by picking a string downward and upward in a repeated motion.
Right hand movement from top to bottom.
A beat half as long in time as a quarter beat.
A guitar which can be electrically amplified (usually with a solid body).
A right hand technique which involves using some or all your right hand fingers.
Lower in pitch.
A time signature of four quarter beats in one bar of music.
The front side of a guitar neck which contains the frets.
The verticle bars on the fret board which separate the spaces you place your fingers. Every fret that comes after a space goes to that space.
Placing a finger on a fret.
An exercise used to make your fingers quick at traveling down the fret board, done by going down the fret board using each finger for it's own fret from index to pinky.
A beat twice as long as a quarter beat.
A fretting technique used for note transition. Done by hitting a note and while it rings out, hammering another finger on a second note while the first finger is held where it stays.
To bring two or notes together in harmony.
Two or more notes sounding simultaneously.
The part of a guitar situated on the end of the neck which houses the machine heads.
Used for tuning up each string and housed on the headstock (sometimes referred to as tuning heads or tuning keys).
A succession of musical notes played one after another (usually the most recognizable tune of a song).
The part of a guitar which houses the fret board.
The part of a guitar dividing the fret board/neck, and the headstock which sets the "open" key notes for all six strings on the guitar.
An acoustic guitar which has three nylon strings.
A string played with no left hand fingers fretting any note.
A style of picking used for creating a growling sound from a note. Done by placing the side of your palm on the selected strings and depending where and how hard they are placed, picking the string to make the growling or punchy sound.
An electromagnet housed underneath the strings on an electric guitar which produces a signal to be amplified by a guitar amplifier.
A small triangular shaped piece of plastic or nylon used for striking the guitar strings with the right hand.
A chord containing 3 or more notes exempted.
A fretting technique used as a note transition. Done by placing two fingers on two frets on the same string, plucking that string, and letting off the higher fret.
A sub division of time in music twice as long as an eighth beat.
Two dots placed before a double line indicating the repeat of a section of music.
A sequence of events played with the right hand on a guitar which gives a piece of music a distinct beat.
A system of reading and writing music which shows rhythm.
Any sets of patterns of notes used by the guitar in a song.
An exercise used to improve travel on the fret board. Done by selecting a scale and fretting throughout it both forwards and backwards.
Higher in pitch.
A rhythm of which each main beat is divided into three smaller beats (prominent in blues music).
A fret technique used for smooth note transistions. Done by hitting a note and sliding to a higher or lower fret while letting ring out.
The hole in the front of an acoustic guitar body from which the sound is projected.
An acoustic guitar which has all steel strings (usually four wound and two plain ones).
The vertical line in music or rhythm notation which appears above or below a note or rhythm.
Used to hold the guitar while in standing position.
An exercise used to make your fingers more flexible and agile, done by placing your index finger on the first fret and stretching every other finger to the farthest fret possible regularly.
A technique where the right hand plays the noted of a chord simultaneously either with down or up strokes.
A rhythm in music in which the down beat is felt slightly longer than the up beat (sometimes called a shuffle).
Abbreviated as "TAB" - A numeric system of reading and writing guitar music with each line representing each string and read as if being viewed from the playing point of view and the numbers representing which fret to put your fingers on. The number 0 means "open" or the note made by hitting a string with no fingers on the fret board. All numbers represent the frets counted from the nut
The speed of a piece of music.
A time signature of three quarter beats in one bar of music.
A beat which is one and a half times as long as a half beat.
A curved line which shows two notes of the same pitch joined together and played as one with the time value of both.
A sign at the beginning of a piece of music (looks like a fraction) which shows how many beats in each bar (top number) and how long each beat lasts (bottom number).
A curved metal bar implanted into the neck of a guitar used to adjust the amount and direction of bend in the neck.
A time signature of twelve eighth beats in one bar of music.
Right hand movement from bottom to top.
Part of the body of a guitar which is smallest in dimension from top to bottom.
A beat in music which lasts for a whole bar in music with a time signature of four/four.