Stacking the C-major scale with thirds creates a chord progression  Play (help·info), traditionally enumerated with the Roman numerals I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, viio. Its major-key sub-progression C-F-G (I-IV-V) is conventional in popular music. In this progression, the minor triads ii-iii-vi appear in the relative minor key (Am)'s corresponding chord progression.
The ratio of the spacing of two consecutive frets is {\displaystyle {\sqrt[{12}]{2}}} (twelfth root of two). In practice, luthiers determine fret positions using the constant 17.817—an approximation to 1/(1-1/ {\displaystyle {\sqrt[{12}]{2}}} ). If the nth fret is a distance x from the bridge, then the distance from the (n+1)th fret to the bridge is x-(x/17.817).[15] Frets are available in several different gauges and can be fitted according to player preference. Among these are "jumbo" frets, which have much thicker gauge, allowing for use of a slight vibrato technique from pushing the string down harder and softer. "Scalloped" fretboards, where the wood of the fretboard itself is "scooped out" between the frets, allow a dramatic vibrato effect. Fine frets, much flatter, allow a very low string-action, but require that other conditions, such as curvature of the neck, be well-maintained to prevent buzz.

One of our goals at CCM is to instill in students a great appreciation for guitar and music that will last them a lifetime. Students at CCM have won numerous international guitar competitions, performed outreach concerts all over the world, and have gotten into the best colleges in the United States. Recent CCM graduates have gone on to Harvard, Stanford, Brown, and USC. Visit our Yelp pages to see what families have to say about our program.
This unique degree program combines contemporary music performance training with the rigorous study of traditional disciplines including sight-reading, music history, arranging, conducting, recording and more. The comprehensive program instructs students to demonstrate stylistic depth, creative maturity and professional competence in preparation for careers in today’s music industry.

Classical guitars, also known as "Spanish" guitars [11] , are typically strung with nylon strings, plucked with the fingers, played in a seated position and are used to play a diversity of musical styles including classical music. The classical guitar's wide, flat neck allows the musician to play scales, arpeggios, and certain chord forms more easily and with less adjacent string interference than on other styles of guitar. Flamenco guitars are very similar in construction, but they are associated with a more percussive tone. In Portugal, the same instrument is often used with steel strings particularly in its role within fado music. The guitar is called viola, or violão in Brazil, where it is often used with an extra seventh string by choro musicians to provide extra bass support.
When playing seventh chords, guitarists often play only subset of notes from the chord. The fifth is often omitted. When a guitar is accompanied by a bass, the guitarist may omit the bass note from a chord. As discussed earlier, the third of a triad is doubled to emphasize its major or minor quality; similarly, the third of a seventh is doubled to emphasize its major or minor quality. The most frequent seventh is the dominant seventh; the minor, half-diminished, and major sevenths are also popular.[79]


My personal opinion on the topic, as one musician to another, is that the best thing you can possibly do when trying to figure out which string to go with is to try out as many different brands and types of guitar strings as you can. Strings are cheap enough that most people are going to be able to afford to experiment, and the truth of the matter is that you’re probably not going to really know what works best for you until you have hands on experience.
Try one that starts with C, moves to F, then G and then back to C. This is the most basic progression, and uses the major chords you know. If you start with an A minor before going to C you can make a more interesting progression which incorporates both major and minor chords. Generally speaking, you want to focus on the chord with the same name as the key (the root), which in this case is C. Think of the other chords as either springing from it or leading back to it. Play around with the chords and see what you can come up with!
An open tuning allows a chord to be played by strumming the strings when "open", or while fretting no strings. The base chord consists of at least three notes and may include all the strings or a subset. The tuning is named for the base chord when played open, typically a major triad, and each major-triad can be played by barring exactly one fret.[60] Open tunings are common in blues and folk music,[59] and they are used in the playing of slide and lap-slide ("Hawaiian") guitars.[60][61] Ry Cooder uses open tunings when he plays slide guitar.[59]
Anyone playing and/or teaching guitar needs staff paper, blank tab, guitar chord charts, guitar scale charts, and fretboard diagrams to chart their guitar lessons and musical ideas. You can find books with some combination of these blank charts and grids, but you can’t find one with all of them organized in a practical way. That’s why we chose to design our own.

A few years back, I dusted off the ol' Takamine I got in high school to try some 'music therapy' with my disabled son, who was recovering from a massive at-birth stroke. This reignited my long dormant passion to transform myself from a beach strummer to a 'real' musician; however, as a single mom, taking in-person lessons was financially difficult. Then I found Justinguitar! Flash forward to today; my son is almost fully recovered (YAY!), my guitar collection has grown significantly, and I'm starting to play gigs. None of this would have been possible without your guidance and generosity, Justin. Thank you for being part of the journey!

##### With so much information online about guitar theory, how do you know which sites to trust? Guitar teacher Zachary A. shares his top 10 favorite sites for learning about the guitar... Online resources for guitar theory are extremely helpful. You may want to explore the endless limits of the guitar, or maybe you're in need of a tiny refresher before your next lesson with a private teacher.  These 10 websites are all tremendously helpful tools for guitar players of all levels - beginner, interm

There are two basic types of electric guitars: solidbody and hollowbody. Today, the electric guitar still features in all types of music Ð rock, blues, jazz and big bands Ð and is played by men and women, young and old, throughout the world. Some well-known electric guitarists include Muddy Waters, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Pat Metheny, Wes Montgomery, Chrissie Hynde and Liz Phair.
The sound of an acoustic guitar is arguably the most well known in all of modern popular music. Without electronic components, the guitar relies solely on the interaction between the strings and the sound box to produce every note. Because of this, the strings of your acoustic guitar can significantly influence its sound. To get the most out of your guitar, keep an eye on the condition of the strings. You don't need to wait until your strings break to replace them. When they get old enough that their tone starts to change, it's time to re-string. Depending on the guitar, you may choose either nylon or metal strings. Nylon strings are the modern substitute for gut strings, so they're usually found on older styles of guitar such as baroque or flamenco. If you play the classical guitar, take care to fit it with the correct strings: since classical guitars are sized and tensioned differently from other varieties of acoustic guitar, they can be damaged by standard strings. Similarly, classical guitar strings won't work with other guitars. For metal-stringed guitars, there are several options available, each with its own acoustic character. The three most common types of metal strings are bronze, phosphor-bronze and silk-and-steel. The staple string for many guitarists, bronze produces a bright, quickly-fading tone that's lively and well-suited to any style of music. Phosphor-bronze is similar, but with added warmth and longer sustain. For a completely different sound, consider silk-and-steel. These strings create a tone that's gentle and mellow. Lower in tension and available in lighter gauges, silk-and-steel strings are easier to play and are great for vintage guitars that need special strings. It's also important to keep in mind the gauge of the strings you're choosing. Higher gauges are thicker, producing increased volume and extended sustain with an overall warmer tone. The trade-off of the rich overtones of heavy-gauge strings is that they are more challenging to play, requiring more force to fret, pick and strum. If you are an experienced guitarist, you likely have a preferred gauge already. If you're a beginner, it's a good idea to start with a lighter gauge to make the learning curve more forgiving. In the end, the right combination of material and gauge is a matter of personal preference. You may need to try several different acoustic guitar strings before you find the perfect ones for you, but the results will certainly be worth it.
The acoustic bass guitar is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually somewhat larger than, that of a 6-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar and the double bass, the acoustic bass guitar commonly has four strings, which are normally tuned E-A-D-G, an octave below the lowest four strings of the 6-string guitar, which is the same tuning pitch as an electric bass guitar. It can, more rarely, be found with 5 or 6 strings, which provides a wider range of notes to be played with less movement up and down the neck.
I strongly recommend beginner guitar players to use the Uberchord app (click for free download) for practicing chord progressions and chord changes, and use the real-time feedback to improve your playing skills. While, I’ll help you expedite the process of grabbing chords confidently on the neck and get you on your way to playing along expertly with your favourite band, or better yet, running a band of your own.
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Acoustic guitars form several notable subcategories within the acoustic guitar group: classical and flamenco guitars; steel-string guitars, which include the flat-topped, or "folk", guitar; twelve-string guitars; and the arched-top guitar. The acoustic guitar group also includes unamplified guitars designed to play in different registers, such as the acoustic bass guitar, which has a similar tuning to that of the electric bass guitar.
The teen and tween years are the make or break years for most people, in deciding whether they’re going to stick with a childhood hobby or interest, for life. As you go through puberty, and begin preparing for life as an adult, and responsibilities pile on your plate, the first things to go tend to be the personal interests you’re passionate about, because they don’t pay the bills. Also, because they’re not an official part of your school curriculum. In other words, what was once a must-have becomes a nice-to-have.
In an acoustic instrument, the body of the guitar is a major determinant of the overall sound quality. The guitar top, or soundboard, is a finely crafted and engineered element made of tonewoods such as spruce and red cedar. This thin piece of wood, often only 2 or 3 mm thick, is strengthened by differing types of internal bracing. Many luthiers consider the top the dominant factor in determining the sound quality. The majority of the instrument's sound is heard through the vibration of the guitar top as the energy of the vibrating strings is transferred to it. The body of an acoustic guitar has a sound hole through which sound projects. The sound hole is usually a round hole in the top of the guitar under the strings. Air inside the body vibrates as the guitar top and body is vibrated by the strings, and the response of the air cavity at different frequencies is characterized, like the rest of the guitar body, by a number of resonance modes at which it responds more strongly.
In acoustic guitars, string vibration is transmitted through the bridge and saddle to the body via sound board. The sound board is typically made of tone woods such as spruce or cedar. Timbers for tone woods are chosen for both strength and ability to transfer mechanical energy from the strings to the air within the guitar body. Sound is further shaped by the characteristics of the guitar body's resonant cavity. In expensive instruments, the entire body is made of wood. In inexpensive instruments, the back may be made of plastic.
Do you play a warm-up exercise when you practice guitar? Guitar teacher Kirk R. shares three guitar exercises that are perfect for players at all levels... There are literally thousands of exercises and studies for the guitar. There are some that are great for beginners who are just getting used to having their fingers on the guitar, and some that are designed to challenge and grow the technique of seasoned players. But who has time to learn thousands of guitar exercises, even over man
So with that in mind, would you like to learn the guitar on your own or with others? The choice is yours at Guitar Center. If you prefer one-on-one instruction, that's absolutely doable - in fact, you'll find our schedule to be very flexible. Of course, learning in a group is an excellent way to meet like-minded musicians with similar tastes and share ideas on how to improve one another's craft. Who knows, you might even leave a group guitar lesson with plans to start a band with your newfound musical companions. Either way, our group and private guitar lessons are very entertaining and informative.
Before the development of the electric guitar and the use of synthetic materials, a guitar was defined as being an instrument having "a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back, most often with incurved sides."[2] The term is used to refer to a number of chordophones that were developed and used across Europe, beginning in the 12th century and, later, in the Americas.[3] A 3,300-year-old stone carving of a Hittite bard playing a stringed instrument is the oldest iconographic representation of a chordophone and clay plaques from Babylonia show people playing an instrument that has a strong resemblance to the guitar, indicating a possible Babylonian origin for the guitar.[2]
Fretboards are most commonly made of rosewood, ebony, maple, and sometimes manufactured using composite materials such as HPL or resin. See the section "Neck" below for the importance of the length of the fretboard in connection to other dimensions of the guitar. The fingerboard plays an essential role in the treble tone for acoustic guitars. The quality of vibration of the fingerboard is the principal characteristic for generating the best treble tone. For that reason, ebony wood is better, but because of high use, ebony has become rare and extremely expensive. Most guitar manufacturers have adopted rosewood instead of ebony.
Lucky you, guitar players from all over the world, to take advantage of the tutorials presented in Justin's comprehensive website! Whatever the style you fancy, Justin is there for you with generous and precise guidance to help you enhance your playing and by doing so, introduce you to so many ways of approaching the guitar and discover new artists along the way. I wish there would have been such a medium and dedicated host around when I started to learn how to play. Bravo Justin, and my gratitude for bringing music to the heart and ears of many!
The next step is to figure out what gauge, or thickness of string is best suited to your playing ability and style. Thinner gauges are easier to fret and bend, and may be better suited for beginners, until callouses build up on the fingertips. Heavier strings tend to produce greater volume and fuller tone. Nylon strings are typically categorized as light, medium or heavy tension. Steel strings for both electric and acoustic guitars are categorized by the gauge, or thickness of the lightest string, the high E string, measured in thousandths of an inch, with .09 being a common size for an electric set. A set of electric strings may be labeled .09-.042 - this is the gauge of the lightest and heaviest string in the set. Acoustic sets are a little thicker, so a typical medium-gauge set might be .012-.054.
Bolt-on necks, though they are historically associated with cheaper instruments, do offer greater flexibility in the guitar's set-up, and allow easier access for neck joint maintenance and repairs. Another type of neck, only available for solid body electric guitars, is the neck-through-body construction. These are designed so that everything from the machine heads down to the bridge are located on the same piece of wood. The sides (also known as wings) of the guitar are then glued to this central piece. Some luthiers prefer this method of construction as they claim it allows better sustain of each note. Some instruments may not have a neck joint at all, having the neck and sides built as one piece and the body built around it.

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The implementation of musical chords on guitars depends on the tuning. Since standard tuning is most commonly used, expositions of guitar chords emphasize the implementation of musical chords on guitars with standard tuning. The implementation of chords using particular tunings is a defining part of the literature on guitar chords, which is omitted in the abstract musical-theory of chords for all instruments.
Steinway & Sons is pleased to recognize Susan Swenson 2016 Top Music Teacher as voted by Steinway Piano Gallery of Nashville.  She offers voice, piano, guitar, and ukulele private instruction in her Brentwood AAM Triple Arts studio where individuals of all ages and levels learn to play piano, guitar, and sing plus read and write music.  Susan is a member of national, state, and local music teacher associations. Her lif...
In acoustic guitars, string vibration is transmitted through the bridge and saddle to the body via sound board. The sound board is typically made of tone woods such as spruce or cedar. Timbers for tone woods are chosen for both strength and ability to transfer mechanical energy from the strings to the air within the guitar body. Sound is further shaped by the characteristics of the guitar body's resonant cavity. In expensive instruments, the entire body is made of wood. In inexpensive instruments, the back may be made of plastic.
Bolt-on necks, though they are historically associated with cheaper instruments, do offer greater flexibility in the guitar's set-up, and allow easier access for neck joint maintenance and repairs. Another type of neck, only available for solid body electric guitars, is the neck-through-body construction. These are designed so that everything from the machine heads down to the bridge are located on the same piece of wood. The sides (also known as wings) of the guitar are then glued to this central piece. Some luthiers prefer this method of construction as they claim it allows better sustain of each note. Some instruments may not have a neck joint at all, having the neck and sides built as one piece and the body built around it.
You need to place one finger on whatever fret you want to bar and hold it there over all of the strings on that fret. The rest of your fingers will act as the next finger down the line (second finger barring, so third finger will be your main finger, and so on). You can also buy a capo, so that you don't have to deal with the pain of the guitar's strings going against your fingers. The capo bars the frets for you. This also works with a ukulele.

The E minor chord is one of the simplest to play because you only use two fingers Take extra care not to allow either of them to touch any of the open strings, or the chord won't ring properly. Strum all six strings. In certain situations, it may make sense to reverse your finger position so that your second finger is on the fifth string, and your third finger is on the fourth string.
The types and models of pickups used can greatly affect the tone of the guitar. Typically, humbuckers, which are two magnet-coil assemblies attached to each other, are traditionally associated with a heavier sound. Single-coil pickups, one magnet wrapped in copper wire, are used by guitarists seeking a brighter, twangier sound with greater dynamic range.
Students can earn a Certificate in MI’s Performance Studies program for Guitar. With an innovative 360-degree approach to music education, MI Certificates are centered on Harmony, Theory and Ear Training, with core subjects in Reading, Technique and Performance. This Certificate program provides students with a broad foundation of knowledge and practical experience, encouraging the rapid development of skills in preparation for a range of professional music performance situations.