Guitar Strings

A lot of players, not all of them beginners, take strings for granted. For them, the only reason for replacing a string is that is has broken. They go on indefinitely playing on strings that are discolored and rusty, their covering frayed and loose. And they wonder why they cannot produce a good tone!

Give your instrument a chance, Strings are literally its vocal chords, and the best guitar in the world won't sound good if it isn't stringed properly. In the course of begin played strings pick up dirt, grease and perspiration from the fingers of even the most fastidious player. I would not dream of picking up a guitar with dirty hands, but during he course of a three or four hours session, especially if the weather is warm or the room over-heated, everybody's hands perspire and some of that must end up on the strings.

I always wipe the strings of my guitar with a duster kept especially for that purpose after a playing session. Even so the underside of the plain strings picks up dirt and corrosion, and the covered strings absorb the same stuff in between the windings where it is impossible to wipe off. Imperceptibly at first, this deposit begins to dull the sound of the strings, getting gradually worse and worse as it accumulates. Added to this is the fact that after a time the action of the metal frets on the covered strings will cause them to fray. This will interfere with pitch and cause them to buzz.

They should never be allowed to deteriorate to that degree, and this one of the reasons why I say that you should not wait until a string breaks before replacing it. In fact, unless you're a very muscular player or just unlucky, you'll find that strings, particularly metal ones, break very seldom. Nylon strings have a habit of popping off during some quite moment with a sound like pistol shot and scaring the life out of you, because they are more sensitive to atmospheric changes.

A special note on 3rd strings. In the earlier post of this blog I recommended the use of a covered 3rd string on metal string guitars, because in those days uncovered 3rd string tended to play out of tune. Due to improvements in manufacture this condition no longer applies, and I have been quite happily using plain 3rds for some time on my metal stringed guitars as well as on my nylon stringed instruments.

These are just some of the bare bone facts about the guitar that you ought to know. You'll pick up a lot more as you go through this blog. But right now you must be anxious to start playing. So, if you've tuned your instrument, let's go to Title Types Of Guitars and get on with it!

Guitar Playing Position

In the classical guitar stance the player sits on a chair, with his left foot resting flat on a stool and his right on the ground. The waist of the guitar can then rest naturally on his horizontal thigh and is steadied in this position by the right forearm, which hangs naturally over the hips of the instrument.

The natural position of the left hand is found by bringing the hand up, with the palm facing away from you, until the thumb is in the middle of the back of the neck of the instrument and roughly parallel with it. The fingers are then arched round the neck so that they make contact with the strings at right angles. In this way, the pressures between the thumb and fingers balance each other .

This playing position has been developed over many years as both the most comfortable and the most efficient method of holding the guitar. I use it for both finger style and plectrum playing.

An alternative to the classic playing position, which does away with the need for a footstool, is to sit with the left leg crossed over the right, then rest the waist of the guitar on the left thigh, as before. This is the commonly suits you is a matter of physical proportion between yourself and your guitar. BUT is essential to remember that the instrument should not depend at all on your left hand for support. The left hand must be completely free to move up and down the fingerboard. To further ensure this freedom, take careful note of the angle of the neck, which should bring the head of the player to reach any position on the fingerboard without any physical contortion.

About Electric Guitar

This is the instrument that is seen in a vast variety of forms in Rock, Heavy Metal, and even in Pop Groups etc.. and could in that sense be classed as the most popular guitar. The Electric Guitar is fitted with pickups like those on the Semi Acoustic, but as it consists of little more than a block of wood with a guitar neck attached it depends entirely on an amplifier for the production of sounds. For this reason a beginner buying an Electric Guitar must be prepared at the same time to go to the expenses of buying an amplifier, which could cost him as much or even more than the guitar itself. This begin so, I would no happily recommend a complete beginner to start off with an Electric Guitar.

Later on, well that's a different matter, because when it comes to group playing an Electric Guitar has several advantages. Firstly it is usually quite light in weight, which is a consideration if you are playing in a standing position all night with it hanging from your neck. Secondly, the action of an Electric Guitar can be made very light, which makes it easy to play, because there are mo structural acoustic properties to consider in the making of the body. The shape of an Electric guitar is limited only by the imagination of the maker, as will be seen from illustration C.

The third point about Electric guitars is that because there is no need of any consideration of acoustics in their construction a Electric Guitar with special electronic refinements, but there are a number of very reasonably priced copies of the original Les Paul model around that are quite adequate. Just bear in mind that without the help of an amplifier you Electric guitar will produce nothing more inspiring than a tiny 'Plink' - in contrast with an Acoustic, which you can play anywhere and produce a musical sound.