Before you start playing your guitar, you need to ensure the strings are in tune. While the method of tuning would be similar for acoustic and electric guitars, there are some structural differences in both which will be explained now.

Difference between Electric and Acoustic Guitars

The first difference you will notice is a tremolo arm or whammy bar attached to the bridge, which you can move forward or backward, and press down as required. It lets you bend the bridge and change the pitch of all the strings at the same time, by increasing/decreasing the tension in the strings.

But the most important difference is with respect to the addition of pickups on the strings. These pickups are basically electromagnets around which a coil is wrapped. When the strings vibrate around their magnetic field, an electric current is generated and sent to the amplifier/speaker. And that’s how you hear the sound from an electric guitar.

The combinations of these pickups can be varied along with certain effects, to produce a lot of different sounds, which is what makes the electric guitar such a versatile musical instrument used by professional guitarists and band members.

Strings of the Guitar and the Notes

The starting point in learning to play a guitar is having the knowledge of how to tune the strings. For this, you need a basic understanding of notes. These are denoted by a combination of alphabets and symbols, the symbols representing certain characteristics of the notes.

We use the seven letters from A to G, along with certain symbols to denote if a note is higher/lower in pitch to a reference note. The list of notes is as follows.

A    A#/Bb    B    C    C#/Db    D    D#/Eb    E    F    F#/Gb    G    G#/Ab    A

A# = Bb    |    C# = Db    |    D# = Eb    |    F# = Gb    |    G# = Ab

The six strings of a guitar are counted from the bottom to the top as 1 to 6, with the 1st string having the highest pitch and the 6th string having the lowest pitch. String 5 is tuned to note A. We can go all the way from A to B to C…and back to A on this 5th string by placing our finger on the different frets. Open string is A, 2nd fret B, 3rd fret C, 5th fret D, 7th fret E, 8th fret F, 10th fret G, and 12th fret is back to A. The frets that we left out are where the notes with symbols (#, b) come in.

The symbols ‘#’ and ‘b’ are referred to as sharps and flats respectively. A note that is higher in pitch compared to another note is a sharp, and one that is lower in pitch than a reference note is a flat. So, the frets or spaces between the notes that we missed out on earlier denote the following notes: 1st fret A#/Bb, 4th fret C#/Db, 6th fret D#/Eb, 9th fret F#/Gb, and 11th fret G#/Ab.

Tuning the Guitar

To tune the guitar strings, we can use an electronic tuner (there are many mobile apps available) and follow the notes EADGBE, in that order, from the 6th to 1st string. An easy way to remember this is with the mnemonic, Eddie Ate Dynamite Good Bye Eddie.

As you learn to play the guitar, your ear gets trained over the years, to the point that you can identify and tune the strings without needing an electronic tuner. For now, try hitting the different open strings and getting familiarised with the notes, and use the electronic tuner to ensure your guitar strings are tuned.

In the next blog post, we’ll learn about the right posture and way to hold your guitar while playing it. This is also quite important as it can affect your health in the long run if you follow bad posture. Read on and get started with playing the guitar.