The Equipment

Now when I first started playing, I knew nothing technical about the guitar. And in the beginning, you don't need to know much terminology to play. However, I would like to share my own experience as a word of warning: when for example, your G-string breaks and you walk into your local guitar shop for help, you want to sound at least mildly intelligent. When I was first looking for a case, I simply said that I was looking for a soft case for an acoustic. I thought I sounded very calm and confident, until the man working asked me "what kind of guitar" it was, and I'm thinking to myself, "I did say it was an acoustic, right?". He must've seen the blank look on my face, because he proceeded to ask me if it was, "a full dreadnought, or what?". Now at this point, I had no idea what a dreadnought was, so I proceeded to look behind me at the wall of guitars, pick one that was the approximate size and shape of mine, and said very intelligently, "It looks like that".

On that note, I present you with some basic knowledge that has almost nothing to do with playing the guitar.

Aside from the acoustic guitar itself, the guitarist has many other friends. As you begin to progress, some of these pieces of equipment may become more familiar to you than others; it all depends on what kind of music you're into. Today, I'm going to discuss the guitar itself, as well as its most common accessories: the guitar pick and the capo.


The anatomy of a guitar

 

For more on tuning, click here (link to be posted).
For more on the frets and how to play, click here (link to be posted).
For more on changing the strings, click here (link to be posted).


The accessories: The guitar pick

I'm sure that everyone's at least seen a guitar pick before, though not a lot of people know how diverse they can be. First though, I want to talk about why we use picks. It's perfectly acceptable to strum with your bare fingers. Some people do this by running their nails along the strings, some people use the side of their thumb, and some people pinch their thumb and forefinger together to strum up and down. I personally like the pick because it gives a crisper sound, and feels more exact that using my fingers to strum.

For more on strumming technique, click here (link to be posted).



The group of 5 on the left, as well as the 2 on top and 2 to the right are pretty standard. the only difference between them is the thickness. Under the logo, they read .73, .75, .71, .58mm, etc. This refers to the thickness. Again, when I began playing I had no idea what the differences between them actually meant, so I discovered my preference through trial and error. When I first started strumming, I used very thin picks (about .45mm), like the ones on the right. They were a lot easier to handle, and less likely to slip out of your hand when strumming. The two on the top are medium sized (about .60), and that's what I've gravitated towards now. They give a more distinct sound, but still bend easily when strumming. The group of five on the left are the thickest I've tried (about .75), though I've seen picks up to 1.25 mm. They tend to require a tighter grip, but the individual strings sound clearer. Again, it's all about personal preference. You'll come to your own decision the more you play.

The middle two sets of picks are ones that my friend (same friend from the previous post) uses. He's come to like the middle two especially, for finger picking. Since they're smaller and pointier, they can be more exact for plucking single strings.

The last pick I've used is the clear one in the corner, called a thumb pick. It slides onto your thumb, and is used for finger-picking. It makes the notes sound a lot clearer than just hitting the strings with your fingers. For someone who does a lot of finger-picking, there are picks that can slide onto each finger.

For more in finger-picking, click here (link to be posted).

The accessories: The capo

   


So, I know that this is a lot of information for today, and we haven't even gotten to playing yet. Hopefully though, this page can act as a reference if you ever need some quick, basic info. You know, in case you need help fixing your G-string, shopping for accessories, or buying a case, and you don't want to sound like the blithering fool I made myself out to be the first time I set foot into a guitar shop.

-Kal