The Wah Wah effect was made popular during the sixties by bands such as Cream. The Wah Wah effect is activated by the guitarist's foot (by rocking the effect pedal), and alters the tone of the sound (going from low treble to high treble) - this creates a voice-like wah-wah-wah effect. New digital wah wah effects devices also have "Auto Wah", in which no pedal pressing is required - the computer in the device automatically varies the sound for you. Some popular rock songs use a wah wah pedal, but it is kept stationary in halfway position - this makes a unique funky sound. Many other effects are also available; such as producing an acoustic guitar sound from an electric guitar pickups, signal duplication (sounds like two guitars are playing), rotating speaker modelling (mimics rotating cone speakers used by some musicians), and many more effects.

Electric Guitar Types<<<Previous

At the 12th fret, the notes repeat at a higher octave. Your guitar may have helpful "dots" or markers on certain frets, both on the fretboard and/or on the edge of the neck facing you. They are usually at the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 12th frets (which has two dots). This makes it easier to find a particular fret without having to count them from the headstock onwards.

Note how the 2nd fret is both F# when it follows the F; and Gb when it precedes the G. Both F# and Gb are the same, they indicate the half step between F and G. Look at the illustration above for the notes on each string (print this page for reference). Repeat this exercise on all six strings, and as you move to next fret and start the fretting exercises from the 2nd fret say each note aloud each time as you pick them. This helps you remember their positions.

While practice seems boring - it is absolutely essential that you get sufficient practice in these simple exercises. Both your hands, right for the picking/strumming and left for the fretting - must be trained with repetitive actions so they will respond automatically when your brain thinks of a note. When you start formal guitar lessons, this will save you a lot of time (and money, since you would probably be paying by the hour) - if you already have your the rudimentary playing skills programmed into your hands and fingers.

The next section teaches Basic Guitar Chords. Chords are sounds created by combining notes simultaneously and are the basis for both rhythm and much of lead guitar. But your hands and fingers must be sufficiently trained, and you must know the individual string notes, before you can play guittar chords - so keep practicing!

Basic Guitar Lessons<<<Previous