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Guitar > Life and style: Playing the guitar | guardian.co.uk
Articles published by guardian.co.uk Life and style about: Playing the guitar
1.) Playing the guitar: Why you don't need to read music to learn
2.) Playing the guitar: Four funk grooves
3.) Playing the guitar: Rock instrumentals
4.) Playing the guitar: Modern rock: Alternate picking
5.) Playing the guitar: Electric blues guitar
6.) How to the play the guitar: part two, acoustic strumming lessons
7.) Playing the guitar: Leonie Cooper's must-have rock albums
8.) Playing the guitar: The electric guitar
9.) Playing the guitar: Laura Barton on the acoustic masters
10.) Playing the guitar: Runaway success story: Joan Jett
11.) How to the play the guitar: part two, an instrument for beginners
12.) How to the play the guitar: part two, rock guitar: legato
13.) Playing the guitar: Rock guitar: Sweep picking
14.) Playing the guitar: Brendon Benson on the blues
15.) How to the play the guitar: part two, Graham Coxon on picking
16.) How to the play the guitar: part two, Slash offers readers some tips
17.) Playing the guitar: A history of blues
18.) Playing the guitar: Two-hand tapping
Topics
A guitar is a musical instrument characterized by its visually dominant body and neck. Guitar strings are strung parallel to the neck, whose surface is covered by the fingerboard (fretboard). By depressing a string against the fingerboard, the effective length of a string can be altered, which in turn changes the frequency at which the string will vibrate when plucked. Guitarists typically use one hand to pluck the strings and the other to depress the strings against the fingerboard. The strings may be plucked using either fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick), thus creating the sound of notes or chords. The strings of a guitar produce little sound by themselves. Instead, their vibration must be amplified to audibly useful levels. In general, this amplication is achieved either mechanically or electronically, with the result being that there are two main categories of guitar: acoustic (mechanical amplification) and electric (electronic amplification).




