subject: Know Your Guitar – Why You Need To Fret [print this page] The key to playing a guitar is plenty of practice, but the devil is often in the details. For instance, it is the rare person that can pick up a guitar for the first time and be a master. Instead, most of us have to learn slowly from the ground up. In this article, we take a look the fret system on a guitar and what you need to know about it.
Why do you need to fret about your guitar? Because that is where a lot of the action happens! Imagine your favorite guitar player strumming away. It might be some shredding metal rock star. It might be a Spanish master playing a classic acoustic tune. It might be a jazz man playing something truly unique. Regardless, all of them are making their mark by creating patterns of finger placements via the frets.
The frets are the thin metal pieces running up the neck of a guitar. The strings on a guitar carry a vibration. This vibration makes a noise based on the heft and length of the string in question. By pressing a finger down between a fret, you shorten the length of the string. This changes the frequency of the vibration and the sound. It will always create a higher note compared to strumming the string with no frets engaged.
Now things can get a bit confusing. The use of the phrase fret can be used two ways by modern guitarist. It can refer to the actual metal fret running across the neck. On the other hand, it can also refer to the space between the frets. This is usually the case as you will almost always create notes by pressing down between the metal frets instead of on them.
So, how do you tell the frets apart? There is a numbering system. The space between the nut at the very top of the neck and the first metal fret is the first fret. The space between the first metal fret and the next one down the neck towards the body is the second fret and so on.
The frets of a guitar may seem maddening when you first start playing, but dont worry. Once you get the hang of it, youll be playing them like youre texting on a phone!
