Guitar glossary

Guitar words, in plain English

Every word you’ll meet in your first year of guitar, explained simply. In lessons, tap any underlined word to see its meaning without leaving the page.

The guitar

Headstock: The end of the neck that holds the tuning pegs.
Tuning peg: The knobs on the headstock. Turn one to make its string higher (tighter) or lower (looser).
Nut: The small white strip at the top of the neck, where the strings leave the headstock.
Neck: The long part of the guitar that your fretting hand holds.
Fretboard: The front of the neck, where you press the strings down.
Fret: The thin metal strips across the neck are fret wires. “Fret 3” means the space just before the 3rd wire, counting from the nut. Press there, close to the wire.
Body: The big part of the guitar that rests on your leg.
Bridge: Where the strings are fixed to the body, at the opposite end from the nut.
Action: How high the strings sit above the frets. Lower action is easier to press; a music shop can adjust it.
String names: From thickest to thinnest: E A D G B E. Strings are also numbered 6 (thickest) to 1 (thinnest).
Standard tuning: E A D G B E. Almost every lesson and song uses it.
Capo: A clamp you put across the neck. It raises every string, so the same chord shapes sound higher (in a different key).
Pick: A small, thin piece of plastic (also called a plectrum) you hold to strum and pick the strings.

Your hands

Fretting hand: The hand on the neck that presses the strings. Your left hand if you’re right-handed.
Strumming hand: The hand that strums or picks the strings. Your right hand if you’re right-handed.
Finger numbers: On your fretting hand: 1 index, 2 middle, 3 ring, 4 little finger. T is the thumb.
Open string: A string you play without pressing any fret. Written 0 in tab and o on chord diagrams.
Ring (ring out): When a string keeps sounding clearly after you play it.
Buzz: A rattling sound. Usually your finger is too far from the fret or not pressing hard enough.
Mute: Stopping a string from sounding, on purpose or by accident (a finger touching it).
Calluses: The tougher skin that grows on your fingertips over the first two or three weeks of regular practice. It’s what stops the soreness.

Reading music

Chord diagram: A picture of the neck standing upright. Dots show where to press and which finger to use.
Tab: Short for tablature. Six lines (the strings, thinnest on top) with numbers (the fret to press). Read left to right.
Note: A single musical sound with a letter name, like A or C.
Sharp and flat: A sharp (♯) is one fret higher than a note; a flat (♭) is one fret lower. A♯ and B♭ are the same fret.
Octave: The same note, higher or lower. Twelve frets up the same string is the same note one octave higher.
Time signature: The two numbers at the start of music. The top one is how many beats are in each bar; 4/4 means four beats.
Rest: A silence of a set length. Every note length has a matching rest.
Tie: A curved line joining two notes: play the first and hold it for both.
Chord chart: A song written as chords in bars, with a slash (/) for each beat.
Repeat signs: ||: and :|| around a section mean: play it twice.

Rhythm

Beat: The steady pulse you tap your foot to.
Bar: A group of beats, usually four. Counting “1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4”, each group of four is a bar.
BPM: Beats per minute: how fast the music goes. 60 BPM is one beat every second. Bigger numbers are faster.
Tempo: The speed of the music, measured in BPM.
Metronome: A clicking timer that keeps a steady beat so you can practise at an even speed.
Count-in: A few clicks before the music starts, so you’re ready to come in on “1”.
Strum: Brushing the pick across several strings in one movement.
Down-strum: Strumming from the thick strings towards the thin ones (towards the floor). Usually on the beat.
Up-strum: Strumming back up from the thin strings, lighter, usually between beats.
8th notes: Two even notes per beat. Count them “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and”.
16th notes: Four even notes per beat. Count them “1 e and a, 2 e and a…”.
Shuffle: A bouncy long-short rhythm instead of even notes. The sound of a lot of blues.
Groove: The feel of a rhythm: the part that makes you want to move.
Strumming pattern: A repeating order of down- and up-strums, like down, down-up, up-down-up.
Backbeat: Beats 2 and 4, where the snare drum usually hits. Accenting them makes a groove lock in.
Accent: A note or strum played louder than those around it.
Chuck: A percussive slap on the strings that stops them dead, like a snare drum on the guitar.
Boom-chick: A bass note followed by a strum of the thinner strings. The basic country and folk rhythm.
Travis picking: Fingerstyle where the thumb alternates between two bass strings on every beat while the fingers add notes in between.

Chords and keys

Chord: Several notes played together. In practice, a shape your fingers make so you can strum several strings at once.
Major: A chord or key with a bright, happy sound. Written as just the letter: A, C, G.
Minor: A chord or key with a darker, sadder sound. Written with a small m: Am, Em.
7th chord: A chord with an extra note that adds colour: bluesy (7), smooth (m7) or dreamy (maj7).
Power chord: A two- or three-note chord used in rock, written with a 5 (E5). It isn’t major or minor.
Barre chord: A chord where your index finger presses several strings at once, so the same shape works anywhere on the neck.
Root: The note a chord or scale is named after. The root of A minor is A.
Chord progression: The order of chords in a song, like G – D – Em – C.
Key: The home note and the set of notes a song uses. A song “in G” feels finished when it gets back to G.
Triad: A chord made of three notes.
Interval: The distance between two notes.
Scale degree: A number for a note’s position in a scale (1, 2, 3…). ♭3 means “the 3rd, one fret lower”. You’ll meet these from Stage 4.
Sus chord: A chord with its 3rd swapped for the 2nd (sus2) or 4th (sus4). It sounds open and wants to resolve.
Slash chord: A chord with a different bass note, written like G/B: G with B as the lowest note.
Number system: Writing chords as numbers in a key (1, 4, 5, 6m) so a song can be played in any key.
Transpose: Move a song to a different key, keeping the same chord relationships.
Drop D: A tuning with the low E string lowered to D, for deep one-finger power chords.
Open tuning: Tuning the strings so they make a chord when strummed open, like open G (D G D G B D).
Turnaround: A short phrase at the end of a 12-bar blues that leads back to the start.

Playing lead

Scale: A set of notes that sound good together, played one after another.
Pentatonic scale: A five-note scale. The minor pentatonic is the scale most guitarists use for their first solos.
Box: A scale pattern that fits under your hand in one area of the neck.
Riff: A short, catchy part that repeats through a song, often on the low strings.
Lick: A short phrase you can reuse in solos.
Solo: The part of a song where one instrument plays the lead, often made up on the spot.
Improvise: Make up music as you play.
Call and response: Play a short phrase (the call), then answer it with another (the response).
Hammer-on: Sounding a higher note by bringing a finger down hard, without picking again. Written h in tab.
Pull-off: Sounding a lower note by flicking a finger off the string. Written p in tab.
Slide: Moving a pressed finger along the string to a new fret while it keeps sounding. Written / in tab.
Bend: Pushing a string sideways to raise its pitch. Written b in tab.
Vibrato: A steady wobble in pitch on a held note. Written ~ in tab.
Alternate picking: Picking strictly down, up, down, up.
Palm muting: Resting the edge of your strumming hand on the strings by the bridge for a tight, chunky sound.
Fingerpicking: Plucking the strings with your thumb and fingers instead of a pick.
Arpeggio: A chord played one note at a time.
Mode: A scale that uses another scale’s notes but starts somewhere else, giving it its own mood.
Harmonic: A bell-like tone made by touching a string lightly over certain frets (12, 7, 5) as you pick. Written <12> in tab.
Pinch harmonic: A squealing harmonic made by brushing the string with your picking thumb right after the pick. Mostly used with distortion.
Double stop: Two notes played at the same time, usually on neighboring strings.
Trill: Fast, even hammer-ons and pull-offs between two notes.
Tremolo picking: Picking one note as fast as possible with tiny down-up strokes.
Rake: Dragging the pick across muted strings just before a note, for a “krrr” lead-in.
Volume swell: Fading a note in with the volume knob or a pedal so you don’t hear the pick.
Slide guitar: Playing with a glass or metal tube on a finger, gliding along the strings instead of pressing them down.

Practice

Backing track: Recorded band music without your part, so you can play along.
12-bar blues: A 12-bar chord pattern used in blues and early rock and roll.
Ring test: Make a chord, then pick each string one at a time to check every string sounds clearly.
One-minute changes: A drill: switch between two chords for 60 seconds and count your clean changes.
Transcribe: Work out a song or solo by listening, then play or write it down.
Chunking: Practicing a song in small sections, especially the hardest bar, then joining them up.
Looping: Repeating one short section over and over until it’s right.
Warm-up: A few minutes of easy, slow playing before practice so your hands are ready.

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