ally built on guitar scales, such as the major scale, pentatonic scale or blues scale.
Riffs are short musical phrases that are repeated at various parts of a song. They can also be used as introductions to songs, and as accompaniment parts.
Many guitarists get by without reading traditional musical notation. This is because much popular music is improvisatory in nature, and also because guitarists also have two other ways of reading music: chord charts and tablature (usually shortened to TAB).
Chord charts show where in the music the chords should be played.
TAB is a way of writing music for fretted instruments. It shows the fret number at which the fingers should be positioned. It is often shown underneath traditional musical notation.
Traditional music notation
Traditional music notation (‘the dots’!) is used by all guitarists, but only for classical guitarists is the ability to read music considered to be an essential skill. However, in order to become a good all round musician, it is a good idea to learn how to read music from the beginning, no matter what kind of guitar you play.
Additional information on guitar basics is available on these pages:
Guitar Basics – Summary
We hope that this page has been useful to you if you are thinking about learning the guitar. The guitar in all of its forms is a versatile and expressive instrument, with the potential to give years of pleasure to the player. Because the guitar basics are the same for all types of guitar, you can change between them depending on where you are in your musical career. Many classical guitarists started on electric or acoustic instruments, and vice versa. So, now you know the guitar basics, take the next step and visit your local music shop or find a local guitar teacher using our guitar teacher directory. We wish you many years of happy guitar playing.
Guitar Command is a dedicated publisher of music and tuition material for the guitar. Our high-quality Guitar Backing Tracks are used by thousands of guitarists all over the world.