home \ tutorials \ Guitar Newbe

Tutorial: Newbe - strings names, fingers and chord boxes

So you just bought or got your first guitar, and you are wondering where to start? Well, let's start with some very basic information!

String names

A guitar has six strings. These strings have names. The one that has the lowest sound is called the E-string. The next one is the A, then the D, the G, the B and the E again. An easy way to remember is the following mnemonic. Fromn low(thick) to high(thin):

Eddy Ate Dynamite Good Bye Eddy

So there are two E-strings! A low and a high one. When they sound together you'll notice that sound the same, but different as well. The same thing occurs when e.g. a man and woman are singing the exact same melody. One sounds high, the other low.

Fingers

When you are right-handed, you use your left hand to press frets. Some left-handed guitarists play on a "special" left-handed guitar. In that case the right hand is used for pressing frets. Other left-handed guitarists play on a "right-handed"guitar.

Let's call the hand that you use to press frets the "fretting hand".

The fingers are numbered from 1 to 4, the Thumb gets the "T":

1 = index finger
2 = middle finger
3 = ring finger
4 = little finger
T = thumb

The fingers of your other hand do not have numbers, but letters. When you play with a pick, these names are not really important. But it might come in handy to know about it anyway.
So, for the right (picking) hand:

p = thumb
i = index finger
m = middle finger
a = ring finger
c = little finger

Chord diagrams

When you start playing guitar, one of the first things you'll learn is to play some chords. Chords can be written down in a "chord diagram". The image below explains how these chord diagrams work.

This example:
The “C” chord, two open strings (G and high E), 3rd finger on the 3rd fret of the A string, 2nd finger on the 2nd fret of the D string, 1st finger on the 1st fret of the B string.

Home