Glossary of Guitar & Music Terms

Guitar Glossary

Action

The height of the strings above the fret board.

Acoustic-Electric

An acoustic guitar with built-in pickups which you can plug into an amp.

More on Acoustic-Electric Guitars.



Alternating bass

A style of playing where the right hand alternates between two or more strings.

Arpeggio

A chord played one note at a time.

Bar

A sub division of time in music.

Bar line

A vertical line which shows the end of a bar of music.

Barre Chord

A barre chord takes its name from the role of the 1st finger of your left hand. This finger acts as a “bar” across the
fingerboard, depressing all six strings and replacing the nut (the ivory piece at the top of the neck). By using your
first finger as a “bar,” you can move many of the open chords you have learned up and down on the fingerboard.

More on Barre Chords

What’s the correct way to form barre chords?

Bass-strum style

A right hand technique which involves picking a bass note then strumming the rest of the chord.

Beam

A horizontal line which shows two eighth or sixteenth notes belonging to the beat shown on the bottom of the time signature.

Beat

A sub division of time usually felt as the pulse within a piece of music.

Body

The main part of a guitar (not the neck).

Capo

A capo is a mechanical device that places a barre 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 barre 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.

more on capo’s

Chord

A group of three or more notes played simultaneously.

Chords tips, resources, sites

Chords 2 learn chords without reading music

Chords 3 musical Theory of Chords

Chord chart

A diagram which shows a chord progression.

See a Chord Chart text file covers: Ab, Abm… to Gdim, Gaug

where to find more chord charts/programs/sites

Chord progression

A sequence of chords played one after another.

Chromatic Scale

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.

More on the Chromatic Scale

Count in

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).

Double bar line

Two vertical lines which show the end of a section or piece of music.

Down stroke

Right hand movement from top to bottom.

Eighth beat

A beat half as long in time as a quarter beat.

Electric guitar

A guitar which can be electrically amplified (usually with a solid body).

Fingerstyle

A right hand technique which involves using some or all your right hand fingers.

The Association of Fingerstyle Guitarists

Flat

Lower in pitch.

Four/four time

A time signature of four quarter beats in one bar of music.

Fret board

The front side of a guitar neck which contains the frets.

Frets

The vertical metal bars on a guitar fret board.

see Fret size, radius, and scale length

see Guitar Anatomy

see when did the FRET first appear?

Fretting

Placing a finger next to a fret.

Guitar tablature

A system of reading and writing guitar music (abbreviated to TAB).

Guide to Tablature

List of TAB resources on 1000 Great Guitar Sites

TAB archive of 300+ popular TABs

First of four pages listing TAB sites

Guitar Music Archive search slot

h chord

This is old German notation for a flat chord.

More on the h chord.

Half beat

A beat twice as long as a quarter beat.

Harmonize

To bring two or notes together in harmony.

Harmony

Two or more notes sounding simultaneously.

Headphone Amp

Headphones with a built in amplifier that plugs directly into your guitar – some contain effects and amp modeling technology.

Headstock

The part of a guitar situated on the end of the neck which houses the machine heads.

Machine heads

Used for tuning up each string and housed on the headstock (sometimes referred to as tuning heads or tuning keys).

Melody

A succession of musical notes played one after another (usually the most recognizable tune of a song).

Melody is Boss by Kirk Lorange

Neck

The part of a guitar which houses the fret board.

Nylon string guitar

An acoustic guitar which has three nylon strings.

Open

A string played with no left hand fingers fretting any note.

Pickups

An electromagnet housed underneath the strings on an electric guitar which produces a signal to be amplified by a guitar amplifier.

Plectrum
A small triangular shaped piece of plastic used for striking the guitar strings with the right hand.

List of the different types of guitar picks – plus you can purchase them.

Power Chord

A chord which contains no 3rd (suspended chords, and chords containing 3 or more notes exempted).

More on Power Chords

General Chord Theory

How to play Power Chords

Chord tips & sites

Power Chord lesson

another Power Chord lesson

Beyond Power Chords

Quarter beat

A sub division of time in music twice as long as an eighth beat.

Repeat sign

Two dots placed before a double line indicating the repeat of a section of music.

Rhythm

A sequence of events played with the right hand on a guitar which gives a piece of music a distinct beat.

Rhythm notation

A system of reading and writing music which shows rhythm.

Sharp

Higher in pitch.

Shuffle

A rhythm of which each main beat is divided into three smaller beats (prominent in blues music).

Silent Guitar

A special type of acoustic guitar that makes virtually no sound – you wear headphones when you play it.

Sound hole

The hole in the front of an acoustic guitar body from which the sound is projected.   More…

sound hole

Steel string guitar

An acoustic guitar which has all steel strings (usually four wound and two plain ones).

Stem

The vertical line in music or rhythm notation which appears above or below a note or rhythm.

Strap

Used to hold the guitar while in standing position.

Strumming

A technique where the right hand plays the noted of a chord simultaneously either with down or up strokes.

Swing

A rhythm in music in which the down beat is felt slightly longer than the up beat (sometimes called a shuffle).

Synth Pedal

Unlike a guitar synth where you use a guitar to control a synthesizer – a Synth Pedal is used as an effects pedal to add synth effects to your guitar sound

Tempo

The speed of a piece of music.

Three/four time

A time signature of three quarter beats in one bar of music.

Three quarter beat

A beat which is one and a half times as long as a half beat.

Tie

A curved line which shows two notes of the same pitch joined together and played as one with the time value of both.

Time signature

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).

Travel Guitar

A guitar that can be folded up and carried in a small bag.

Truss rod

A curved metal bar implanted into the neck of a guitar used to adjust the amount and direction of bend in the neck.

Twelve/eighth time

A time signature of twelve eighth beats in one bar of music.

Up stroke

Right hand movement from bottom to top.

Volume Pedal

A pedal which lets you control the volume of your guitar out-put before it reaches your amplifier.

Waist

Part of the body of a guitar which is smallest in dimension from top to bottom.

Whole beat

A beat in music which lasts for a whole bar in music with a time signature of four/four.




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