Talk:Guitar

Comments from 2004
I beg to differ on the statement that very few pieces are written specifically for the classical guitar, and that most are originally written for the lute and piano. You are referring mostly to music from the baroque period. There are now many classical works which are written for the guitar, including concertos, such as those by Rodrigo. Villa-Lobos, Barrios, etc, all wrote for the classical guitar.

Title should be more specific, e.g. "Rudimentary Guitar" -- Daniel

Hehe, yeah, I didn't know where I was going with it when I created it. It looks, though, like it's going to (attempt to) be a complete reference from a learner's perspective, rather than be a lesson-oriented book. I haven't settled on a title yet, myself, but of course anybody is welcome to suggest one.

BTW, do you really think we need a chapter on standard notation? The whole idea of standard notation is that it's not limited to guitar (in fact, it was rather designed for piano, IIRC), and very little of it is specific to guitar. Usually standard notation is presented along with tablature in music books for guitar, so the necessary information can probably be presented there. Because standard notation is not trivial to explain, either, I don't think it belongs here. Perhaps somebody could start a music theory book and include it there, and our book can link to it.

--Furrykef 11:14, 1 May 2004 (UTC)

I see your point, but I still think there should be chapter explaining standard notation, even if no further use of it is made in this book. As you say yourself, standard notation applies to all music, not just guitar, which makes it extra useful to learn, not less so; learning guitar means learning about music, and a large proportion of the skills and knowledge here transfer directly to other instruments, which is a good thing. For instance, almost all of this guitar book applies to bass guitar as well (I was considering adding little comments explaining where something does not apply to bass, and pointing out in the intro that this book also teaches bass). Furthermore, even for guitar itself it's extremely useful: you've referred to classical guitar a number of times and that will always require an understanding of standard notation, plus in many contexts outside of pop-rock guitar it's an essential skill. I haven't changed the text back to include the stub for standard notation, I'll wait till we finish discussing it, but I really, really think it belongs here and should be explained.

--Daniel 19:14, 1 May 2004 (UTC)


 * How about we rename the tablature chapter to something like "Music notation", and on the TOC add a note saying "tablature and standard notation"? I agree with you that the learning of standard notation is essential, but it's a bit of a separate problem than learning to play the guitar. Of course, as you pointed out, it's still important regardless, but this leaves us with a dilemma: the inevitable duplication of information. Somebody else might write a book about the violin, and then somebody starts writing about the piano, then yet another person starts writing about music theory. All of these should have some information on standard notation -- but we don't want to say the same things in different places, because it takes more effort for no gain. So I'm saying we should find a common place to put it and then cross-reference it instead of putting it in the guitar book. See what I mean?


 * --Furrykef 00:29, 2 May 2004 (UTC)


 * I'm fine with that. So let's have a "Music notation" chapter, which can be essentially what the tablature chapter is now, and we'll add at the bottom a (very) brief explanation of standard notation with a reference to a more general-purpose lesson on standard notation (which can be created later). Sound good?


 * --Daniel 10:46, 2 May 2004 (UTC)

"Advanced techniques"? I'd classify them all as "beginner" techniques; intermediate at a stretch. -- Jimregan 21:43, 4 May 2004 (UTC)

I started writing the music theory book.

--Furrykef 22:21, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

Im the one who started Guitar:Philosophy thread, mostly as a non-technical idea, to fill in the gaps that the other book does not cover. You can get a sense of that from the outline. Me: Ive been playing guitar for about 20 years, I have perfect pitch, and am more into structured jamming, going into differring styles of play. I dont read notation, but I do well with chord charts, and short notated motifs and phrases.

I have lots of other interests, but the book idea seems like a good one. I didnt mean to imply a replacement for the existing text, I just had some thoughts and insights as to what might be a good way to frame the idea of being a guitar player. -Slide 16:40, 27 May 2004 (UTC)

Lesson oriented book?
Sorry to start a new discussion here, but are there plans for a lesson orientated book? The guitar book in its current form seems like little help to a complete novice. Heres a layout that might make a good start for an absolute beginners book:

The Guitar -> Acoustic -> Electric -> Further Reading (links to History of Guitar, How guitars make noise, Famous Guitarists. etc) Holding the Guitar -> Left Hand Position -> Right Hand Finger Picking Position -> Right Hand Holding the Pick Music Theory: Notes -> Notes -> Notes on the fretboard -> Tips to help eventually memorize all the notes on the fretboard Song Notation -> Tab -> Classic Practice Songs -> Simple songs constructed of notes (this will be hard due to copyrights) -> Suggestions of good tabs on the internet Music Theory: Chords -> Basic Chord theory (should link to Music Theory for more information) copy -> Basic Chords (and how to finger them) -> A maj, C maj, D Maj, G Maj, E Maj, C min, D min, E min, A min Practice Songs -> Simple songs using Chords (again, hard to find good stuff due to copyrights) -> Suggestions of good tabs on the internet Further Learning (reference to a sequal wikibook, Music Theory, Favorite Guitar Books) Conclusions Pep talk closing speech.

Again this would focus on only the very basics, emphasis on trying to get the learning playing some simple songs, without fear that they're method is incorrect. This book would hint at things like scales and chord construction techniques and rythm, without going into detail. These topics would be covered in follow up material.

I haven't started any information because I would hate to 'fork' the guitar book project. What are your opinions on this book layout?


 * I myself like the idea, and do not think that a fork is that bad an idea. I actually was about to do the same thing, when I read your post.  The lesson-oriented book, called "guitar lessons" or something, would more complement this book than fork it.  They would cross-reference each other whenever possible, and though they would unavoidably repeat much of the same information (which isn't a wiki-sin) the lesson book would be much more oriented towards learning and ordered differently.  While there are good lesson sites out there already, none of them are wikis, and many have a slant towards one genre.  Also, it would be nice to have a lesson book, that, if good, would eliminate the need to wade through the "trial/pay lessons" and money shams (there are a lot of them).  The wiki could link to good lessons elsewhere on the net.


 * That said, we would not have to rewrite this book, and we can link to this book whenever it makes sense.


 * Assuming there is decent support for it, I will continue. If someone decides to make one, I will contribute a lot.  But I'd rather someone else started one.

Sameerkale 21:52, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

It exists already a guitar course with complete very detailed and beginner-friendly lessons on the German Wikibooks. I had offered months before already my assistance, but it did not seem to exist any interest. You only would have to transferred these lessons only into the English (by Alta Vista babel fish),  and after this  you need a stylistic revise. I would crib myself from in response with you, as their it makes better, and surly I could brush up my English. on the other hand you could still fill my gaps, and I can copy your ideas for the German.Example1, Example 2 Songs without copyright ... You can contact me, if it are interested in a co-operation with germany. I could likewise use each assistance for the German project. user Mjchael de.wikibooks.org --Mjchael 13:26, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Sounds good to me. I can't read any of it, but it looks detailed and complete.  I haven't checked this place in a while because noone responded.  I can see right now that Babelfish will not help much at all, the page makes no sense, so we will have to write it all over again anyway.  I'll work on it some more now (I'd forgotten about it) and we can fact-swap so that both the English and German versions have all the information in them.  I know about six words in german, so I can't really translate anything, nor can I navigate the page.  But, we can do it somehow.  Soon enough, this book will be on par with all the other lesson sites on the internet, hopefully.
 * Sameer Kale 23:26, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Guitar woods
I believe there should be some info on specific guitar constructions and materials, because these offer vastly different sounds for the guitar. Guitarists and potential luthiers would both appreciate the addition. --Alexnye 06:42, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Styles
I added a 'Styles' section to the main page. I thought the book needed one. I put them in alphabetical order. Feel free to add whatever other genres you think could use a page ( as if I needed to tell you that!), but I think it would be best if the categories were kept broad. Sameer Kale 18:07, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Anatomy of a Guitar
Anatomy of a Guitar page does not load properly (as of 4/26/07).

Fantastic!!
Dear editors!! I'm really looking forward to read this book!!

Thanks! Geir Solerød, Norway

Images
In my opinion, this book seriously lacks images and schemes - how to grab guitar, play certain chords etc. Take a look at German book - they have many graphics. If you like graphics there, please move them to Commons. If you don't know how - no problem, I can help. You can also check some photos already being there on Guitar page and category. --Derbeth talk 20:01, 18 June 2007 (UTC)


 * One step further, find a bilingual german/english Wikipedian and a Wikipedian whose native language is the opposite of this Wikipedian (so a German who speaks English and a native English speaker, or vice versa; two bilinguals of opposing native languages works best) that will volunteer to do an exhaustive quality check. Read the whole of both books, discuss them, eliminate the weaknesses from both and combine their strengths, and make each a direct translation of the other.  Doing this with two bilinguals will actually produce the best results. --Bluefoxicy (talk) 03:52, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Print version
Can someone make a print version too cuz i can't load the pdf. Icelandic Hurricane 22:58, 20 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Ask and ye shal recieve, your printer friendly version is right here. --NickPenguin 05:45, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
 * tx!! Icelandic Hurricane 23:28, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Electric guitar mods
I recently started learning to play the guitar and wound up grabbing a large amount of equipment for cheap, including:


 * $150 Epiphone Les Paul Special 2
 * New push-pull pots (500k,500k to replace 300k,500k)
 * New pickups
 * Two capacitors (0.022uF, 0.047uF)
 * New tuning machines (locking)

I have a number of things I can play with now, such as:


 * 1) Cap mod:  Pull tone pot to switch from 0.022uF to 0.047uF
 * 2) Split coil:  Pull vol pot to switch from Humbucker to Single Coil
 * 3) Series mode:  Pull vol pot to place the coils in series instead of parallel
 * 4) Phase switch:  Pull vol pot to switch the phase on one pickup
 * 5) High protection:  Add 560pF cap and 300k resistor in parallel across the hot leads of vol pot

Mod (1) uses the tone pot, and mod (5) stands on its own; mods (2), (3), and (4) use the Vol pot and I can only do one.

Mod (1) will allow a mode where the tone pot kills more of the highs, giving a darker sound when pulled.

Mod (2) will give a single-coil sound, but eliminate the noise removal.

Mod (3) will give a mode that produces a brighter sound.

Mod (4) may produce a unique, "nasal" sound; or it may just cancel the sound.

Mod (5) protects high frequencies. When turning up the volume, the higher frequencies sometimes do not increase in volume as fast as the lower frequencies (my pickups specifically cause this situation); the RC circuit here prevents this, so the volume control works more smoothly across all frequencies instead of leaving the highs behind.

After a lot of googling, I will probably go with mods (1), (4), and (5); yet I have not quite determined how mods (2), (3), and (4) will actually affect the instrument. A section of the Wikibook devoted to explaining the guitar's internal electronics and how they affect sound, along with possible modifications controlled by various switches, may prove interesting. Not so much of a list of possible projects, but more a list of more general theory like what phase switching does and how the impedance of multiple coils affects their interaction; what various capacitors do; what changing the vol and tone pots does (500k vol + 1M tone == brighter sound than 500k + 500k, where a 1M + 1M might just cause noise if the pickup won't handle the 1M vol pot...).

I also threw on some locking tuners and some locking strap holders. Not quite sure how this fits in with the above but it's fascinating. --Bluefoxicy (talk) 03:48, 19 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Feel free to create a page about guitar modification, I'm sure other readers would be interested in reading/contributing their knowledge on the subject. --NickPenguin (talk) 02:21, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Guitar Tablature & Chords, Tabs
If you want you may put my side TAB Theke http://tablatures.buschhausen.eu/ into Guitar Tablature (Tabs) StevieB (talk) 18:10, 18 February 2010 (UTC)StevieB

Just test:


 * TAB Theke A tablatures collection in 4 books: acoustic guitar, e-guitar, e-bass and polyphone tablatures.

StevieB (talk) 18:10, 18 February 2010 (UTC)StevieB

Orphaned page
G'day, Guitar/Different Types of of Guitars appears to have been orphaned from your book. Please see if you can reintegrate it somehow, or request deletion. Webaware talk 15:22, 16 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks, now merged and deleted. Webaware talk 13:27, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Asking for advice on pedals
I'm trying to decide which kind of pedals I want to buy and wonder what you guys think. I mostly play alternative, punk, pop-punk, soft rock, and other kinds of rock. I know that I want a Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter, a Boss DS-1 Distortion Pedal, and some kind of delay pedal. What else could help me in these genres, especially in pop-punk and punk? Saksjn (talk) 23:41, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

template CRD
I've created a template for guitar chords. Original for the German wikibooks. I've copied it to the English wikibooks, so you can use it for your projects.

It is easy to use:
 * Source code
 * texttext text


 * becomes
 * texttext text

Rock my Soul

 * Verse 1


 * Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham,Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham,


 * Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham,oh rock mysoul.


 * Verse 2


 * Sohigh, you can't get over it, solow, you can't get under it,


 * sowide, you can't get round of it,oh rock mysoul.

You can copy the songs simply for your wikibooks. Certainly these songs have no copyright. Maybe you will start a songbook for yourselves. (And I hope sometime in the future I can copy some of your songs.) much fun thereby and greeting from Germany --Mjchael (talk) 16:34, 16 May 2009 (UTC)
 * more Examples
 * de.wikibooks.org ... Songbook category: Songs in English

How can I play the B chord (Blues)?
I'm sorry, but I can absolutely not spread my fingers so that I could play the a string at the second and the d string at the sixth fret simultaneously (the the section about Blues). Does anyone have tips for me how I could manage it? Which fingers shall I use? The other chords, A and E, are no problem, but this one (B) is very tricky for me... --Jayk (talk) 19:34, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Your question is old, however: you could take B7. It's no barree chord! On http://chords.buschhausen.eu/vol1/ you can look at the fingering. Barree chords in the I. and II. fret are not easy for beginners. I let my students start barree playing with chords in the V. fret... http://chords.buschhausen.eu/vol2/ sorry, written in my native language but the PDF tablature and the playalong MP3 file are international. StevieB (talk) 12:36, 19 February 2010 (UTC)StevieB

I've done some work on the "barre" page
Hello. I've been replacing the tab/chord templates with images. Since this is a major change, please check it out and post a comment if you have any complaints. --Sluffs (talk) 10:51, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Just one comment from a nobody...
This book is very very very blues and rock oriented. Leaving aside that rock guitar may not be the best way of teaching guitar to a novice regardless of the guitar style he's aiming at (I'm not a teacher and I don't know nothing about teaching, I personally think that a classic guitar player will easily learn to play rock music whereas a rock player will learn classical pieces with extreme difficulties), it should at least be mentioned at the beginning of the book that what is presented here is at the moment the most popular way of approaching guitar playing, but by no means the best.

lorenzo 29 jan 2010

External Links - Guitar Lessons
If you like feel free to put my page Online Guitar Tuner http://4-ways-to-tune-your-guitar.blogspot.com/ into your link list. I explane 4 tuning methods on my page: 1) Tune your guitar with MP3 comparison tones, 2) Tuning by comparing strings, 3) Tuning with flageolet tones and 4) Tuning by comparing octaves. There are useful MP3 and PDF files.

StevieB (talk) 18:55, 18 February 2010 (UTC)StevieB

You may want to consider updating this book and adding Fret Stickers as a valid aide for teaching guitar notes, chords and scales. They have become very popular over the last few years and recommended by many guitar teachers. 98.155.117.216 (discuss) 09:48, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

The Guitar handbook by Denyer
It would be great if this wikibook can be improved to the level of the book

The-Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer

.Condmatstrel (discuss • contribs) 04:10, 5 May 2012 (UTC)


 * It is an excellent book and contains a vast amount of information that would be useful to any gutarist . Contains information ranging from stringing and cleaning guitars to scale theory. However I've removed the Amazon link for the simple reason of allowing the student to source the book themselves. E-bay, second-hand bookshops, discount book stores, etc. All of these may prove to be cheaper. I feel it is only fair not to guide any reader to a single "buy site" site regardless of the reason that the editor who provided the original link may have had.

--Sluffs (discuss • contribs) 13:15, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

Having myself thoroughly reviewed over 400 guitar methods, I respectfully disagree that The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer is a good reference here. The current Guitar Wikibook is already similar: a compilation of a bunch of reference topics that would be better left to Wikipedia. What we need is actual pedagogy, and both Denyer's book and 99% of the current Wikibook are atrocious for that. Aside from the German Wikibook mentioned above, another decent resource that is compatibly licensed (it is CC-BY) and could be incorporated here is: the Connexions Guitar Course Backfromquadrangle (discuss • contribs) 00:11, 16 November 2013 (UTC)

External links and Advertising - Analysis
I'm going to use this section to do a comparative study of the featured books. Today I looked at three other featured books and noticed they all had no external links to commercial sites on their main entry page (contents page, cover page or whatever you wish to call it). I have a feeling that the Guitar book may be suffering from commercial interests occupying the front cover. Below is a list of featured books and alongside each title I will detail whether commercial or non-commercial external links are present or not.

I will use a numerical key system:


 * 0 = no external links
 * 1 = external links to commercial sites
 * 2 = external links to non-commercial sites
 * 3 = mixed external links (commercial and non-commercial)

I started and then thought why not just remove all the external links from the front page and see how the community reacts. I cannot see any purpose in having these "adverts" placed on the front of the Guitar book. They are profiteering from this placement and when did all these sites disappear from Google or the net therefore they are already available to readers through search engines. They have an online presence so do we need them to further their internet presence at the expense of the Guitar book.

I'll remove them now and if you feel differently then restore them and leave a reason here. Before you do restore them bear in mind that the argument that "they are resources that help readers" is just another way of saying "why not let Google and these sites profit from our non-profit endeavors as well as profit from our readers". Please note that all Wikibook editors work for nothing and our readers pay nothing.

This action applies only to the sites that carry adverts.

Sluffs (discuss • contribs) 19:58, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

I removed the external links to the chord finder software sites. You know the type where they show you the fingerboard and you have a chord menu and you select the chord you want and the dots appear. These auto-generated chords are terrible and most of the time you wouldn't be able to use them fluently since they are not designed to teach you how to move from chord to chord. There's some exercises in the Jazz section which though advanced should illustrate this point. In Jazz Movement Exercise One your little finger should be on the B note (4th fret G string) and if you follow the exercise you will notice that your little finger stays on that string and just moves one fret out then back in and then back out. You don't need to remove or lift the little finger of the string. This is a Jazz approach (Classical guitar as well) - Jazz guitarists are expected to play at fast tempos and if they were to use all six strings they would soon falter. So from the early days of the guitar they adopted an "economical" movement to their chord changes. Jazz Movement Exercise One in the Jazz section goes G - C (2nd inversion - basically you're keeping the G in the bass for ease of movement) - G7 (the chord finders I've removed from the external links section on the front page of this book will show this chord as a four note chord but notice that in the exercise the 5th, the D note of the G7, is omitted - once again to aid movement). This is why I've removed the links to these auto-chord finders - they just cause problems in positioning and fluency. Why do it the hard way?

Tip: musicians exploit a very human trait - basically audiences will fill out the missing notes (harmony) if need be - try singing the "Star Spangled Banner" and pay careful attention to what your mind is really creating - when a familiar melody is presented to the mind without chordal accompaniment the mind creates the harmonic framework for understanding the relationship that exists between the melodic notes. As a further example of this - audiences may not know anything about key changes or how to use a pivot chord to change key but they will know you've changed key.

Hopefully you'll agree that these chord finders, though great pieces of software or applets, are not good for positioning and fluency.

Sluffs (discuss • contribs) 22:31, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

Navigational box needs to go
I have recently created a collection out of Guitar, and when it's in print the navigational box is just unnecessary. I'm quite new to Wikis and I have some knowledge of editing, but I would like some help excluding the box at the bottom from print. Thank you. --Browniebear13 (discuss • contribs) 17:30, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Cover Icon
Unsure if this is warranted, but if a cover icon is desired, this file may help. --Mbrickn (discuss • contribs) 16:04, 7 October 2021 (UTC)