Lesson 1: The Absolute Basics
In this lesson, Mr. Steve Eulberg welcomes you to the acoustic guitar by thoroughly covering its physicalities and how each part affects your sound. Steve also teaches how to tune your guitar using the piano as a reference. Finally, he covers finger positioning and correct placement. These concepts are essential to left hand technique.
Chapter 1: (00:49) Introduction
Steve Eulberg introduces himself in this intro segment and plays some great acoustic music.
Chapter 2: (19:31) Notes: The Guitar as Person & Strings
Think of the guitar as a person and attention to the head, neck, body, shoulders and hips. Additionally for the more detailed parts of the guitar, reference the nuts, bridge, saddle, pegs, posts, sound board, sound hole, and the fret board. These will be vital in understanding the physicality of the guitar for future references during lessons.
String References and Notes:
Steve also references the first notes of the strings by chord name: Starting at the thickest string and going down, they are:
| Weight |
Name |
# of String |
Sound |
 |
| Thickest |
Low E |
6th String |
Lowest |
| Thicker |
A |
5th String |
Lower |
| Thick |
D |
4th String |
Mid |
| Medium |
G |
3rd String |
High |
| Thinner |
B |
2nd String |
Higher |
| Thinnest |
High E |
1st String |
Highest |
It is vital to know that the thicker the string, the lower the pitch. And while this default note structure holds true, playing any chord on the fret board shortens the strings.
Tuning your Guitar:
- Pitch Pipe: Pitch pipe is a pipe that you can buy at your local music store. Blow into it to produce a reference tone. The guitar string is then tuned to this tone.
- Tuning Fork: With a tuning fork, you are tuning one string, usually the 5th or 6th, then tuning all of the other strings to that one. If you are tuning the 5th string, you will be using an A 440 tuning fork.
- Electronic Tuner: Electronic tuners are widely available at music stores, and are probably the easiest method to tune a guitar. The tuner “listens” to the pitch of each string as you strum it, one at a time, and uses an easily understandable display to let you know if your pitch is too high or too low.
- The Intellitouch is a tuner that clips to the headstock of your instrument. Since the Intellitouch tunes via vibration, rather than pitch, tuning a guitar in a noisy room proved to be a simple task.
Available for $19.95
