The guitar has come a long way since its evolution from the archaic guitar-like instruments of Europe, Egypt, and Mesopotamia over the past centuries. Even since the development of the modern classical guitar in the 19th century, guitar technique and technology has undergone huge changes and revolutions. Perhaps most exciting are the developments the guitar has made in rock music, particularly between the 1950s and 1970s.

The rock and roll genre of the 1950s drew its influences from blues, country music, and gospel, among other American styles of music. While people may disagree about which of these musical styles had a greater influence on the development of rock, each played an important role in developing rock and roll, from basic song structures to instrument techniques.

The way the guitar was used in early rock and roll music made its roots very obvious. The guitar tone Chuck Berry got out of his archtop electric guitar on his 1958 single “Johnny B. Goode” has a warmth and jazzy tone which clearly references early guitar playing and music genres. Yet, while Chuck Berry’s guitar sound lacked later rock guitar elements such as overdrive, his unique style revolutionized guitar playing and forever changed the direction of rock music.

It was Link Wray who pioneered the overdriven electric guitar sound with his 1958 instrumental, “Rumble”, which once again revolutionized the electric guitar sound and opened a world of possibilities for future guitar greats. Yet, even Wray’s distorted guitar was a comparatively soft and polite thing; it didn’t have the aggression, dominance, or volume that came to typify later guitar music.

The 1960s saw new guitarists build onto the work of these early innovators with the emergence of important rock bands such as The Grateful Dead and The Yardbirds. The Yardbirds were an important 60s band in that they focused on guitar solos, distortion, feedback, and helped make the guitar an even more central element of rock. Members of The Yardbirds went on to form other important 60s guitar bands such as Cream, The Jeff Beck Group, and Led Zeppelin. The Grateful Dead pioneered the “jam band” sound during this period with their emphasis on long musical improvisation.

The late 1960s and early 70s saw the dominance of guitarists Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix in particular developed a unique guitar-centred rock sound, with heavy distortion, feedback, complex solos, and electric guitar virtuosity. But as new and innovative as Hendrix’s guitar playing was, it was also influenced by older music, particularly blues, as is evident in the scales he based his solos on and the chords that made up many of his songs. At the same time, Led Zeppelin, with their focus on complex songs and musical virtuosity, became one of the biggest rock bands of the 1970s.

The 1970s continued its focus on over-driven guitar-centered music, with an emphasis on guitar solos and virtuosity, and a further development of psychedelic effects and techniques. Rock music of the 1970s continues to influence the music of today. Indeed, it can easily be argued that today’s rock music is created in a continuous reference to the benchmark music of the 1960s and 1970s Golden Age of Rock.

- Axel

Learning how to play acoustic guitar can be a great hobby. But unless learning the instrument is approached thoughtfully and carefully, the new guitarist can run into problems which might affect how enjoyable playing acoustic guitar can be. Without an understanding of how to develop good playing technique, and a basic knowledge of acoustic guitars, the new guitarist can run into snags very quickly.

This article offers some very basic tips for new acoustic guitar players. But even people who have been playing acoustic guitar for some time can find this information useful. Keep reading for some helpful tips and information that will make learning the acoustic guitar a smoother and more enjoyable activity.

Picking a good acoustic guitar can be a confusing thing for new guitarists. The range in price and quality of acoustic guitars is enormous. New acoustic guitarists usually don’t want to pay huge sums of money for a guitar, especially if they’re not sure that they’ll stick with the instrument. This can lead to people buying very cheap guitars. Unfortunately, cheap guitars come at a great price, as inexpensive guitars are typically poor quality. Besides not sounding good, they can also be quite difficult to play. If the action (string distance to fret) is too high, which is often the case with cheap acoustics, it can invite the new guitarist into forming bad playing habits. See our article on buying a guitar.

New guitarists should make a compromise when buying acoustic guitars. The trick is to buy something relatively cheap, but that can still be played happily. A great option is to buy a second hand guitar. Second hand doesn’t necessarily mean worn-out, and it is very possible to buy great pre-loved guitars at low prices.

Another option is to buy a low-range model from a good acoustic guitar manufacturer. For example, Martin and Taylor guitar companies are renowned for making great acoustic guitars. The good news for new guitarists is that these companies also make affordable models that still sound great. Guitars from the Martin X series and the Taylor 100 and 200 series are both relatively inexpensive and high quality.

Learning how to use a guitar pick is one the most essential skills for acoustic guitar players. The pick should be placed between the knuckle and the finger-tip of your index finger. The thumb is then pressed down onto the pick to create an “X” shape with your index finger and thumb. It’s best to make sure there is not too much pick hanging out from your thumb and finger. In order to have more control of the pick, it should be held quite deep, with only a small part of the pick hanging out.

Training your fingers to be strong is important for being able to play guitar comfortably and with stamina. The more you play, the stronger your fingers become, but it’s still a good idea to do some basic finger strengthening exercises every time you practice. See our blog on finger exercises.

Learning good hand posture is something a lot of guitarists fail to do. Good posture means greater ease when playing the guitar. More often than not, guitarists have bad left-hand posture, but training the left-hand to maintain good posture is not a difficult thing. The left-hand knuckles should run parallel to the bottom of the fretboard. The thumb should not come over the top of the back of the fretboard unless it is absolutely necessary, such as when forming particular chords or performing some other technique such as bending strings.

Keeping the above hints in mind will help new guitarists learn how to play acoustic guitar well. Being able to hold a pick properly, performing finger strengthening exercises, learning good hand posture, and knowing how to find good beginner guitars puts new guitarists at a great advantage. Even seasoned guitarists suffer from not following these simple guidelines, so they should be learned as early as possible.

- Axel

Guitar tablature (tab) is the easiest and most convenient to read and write guitar music. Students taking acoustic or electric guitar lessons are usually introduced to guitar tab within their first few lessons. But some guitar tutors don’t teach tab, and many guitarists don’t take guitar lessons at all. For these guitarists, the quicker they take steps to become literate guitarists, the quicker they can become great guitarists.

But before learning the basics of guitar tab — a word of warning. These days, it’s easy to find the guitar tabs to almost every song imaginable by searching the Internet. That’s great news for guitarists. Unfortunately, many of these guitar tabs are not completely accurate. This is because most guitar tab is tabulated by amateur guitarists. New guitarists should exercise caution and only use guitar tab from trustworthy websites. Better yet, using professional guitar tab books from music stores guarantees accuracy.

How Guitar Tabs Work
A guitar tab is made up of lines and numbers:

• Lines. There are six lines which represent the six strings of the guitar. These are — from the top of the guitar to the bottom — E, A, D, G, B, and e. The “E” is the thickest string on the guitar; the “e” is the thinnest.
• Numbers. The numbers used in guitar tab represent the frets that left-hand fingers (for right-hand guitarists) are pressed down onto to create notes.

Here is an example of a very simple guitar tab:

e——-1———————————————————
B—————————————————————–
G—————————————————————–
D—————————————————————–
A—————————————————————–
E—————————————————————–

One of the first things to notice about guitar tab is that the strings are written upside-down. The “E” string (the thickest string on your guitar) is at the bottom of the guitar tab, while the “e” string is at the top. It might take new guitarists some time to become used to reading guitar music that seems upside-down at first. A good exercise is to find and name the strings of the guitar, and then locate them on the guitar tab.

The number “1″ on the above guitar tab indicates that a left-hand finger should be pressed onto the 1st fret on the “e” string. The “e” string is then picked with one’s right hand to produce a note.

Below is a more complicated guitar tab, which shows a picked melody, and a strummed guitar chord.

D Chord
e–0-1-2-3——2————————————————-
B—————3————————————————-
G—————2————————————————-
D—————0————————————————-
A—————————————————————–
E—————————————————————–

The numbers in this example are written in two different ways: horizontally and vertically. When numbers are written horizontally, this means they are played one after another. So, the “0 - 1 - 2 - 3″ on the “e” string are notes that are to be picked one after another. The “0″ represents an “open string”; in other words, a string which is played without putting a finger down on any fret.

The numbers that are written vertically are to be played all at the same time. This is how guitar chords are written. The guitarist is required to put their fingers onto each of the frets indicated by the numbers and strum these all at once. The name of the chord — in this case “D” — is often written above the tabulated chord.

Besides lines and numbers, there are also several other symbols that can be used to write guitar tab which indicate various guitar techniques, such as hammer-ons and and pull-offs. Good guitar tab and guitar tab books should explain these symbols for the guitarist.

Being able to sight-read guitar tab is a great skill to develop. The above information should provide the guitarist with a good starting point to being able to read any tab. Thankfully, reading guitar tab is quite simple and becomes second nature very quickly.