Instrument Exploration: Guitar

INTRODUCE the guitar

Look at a picture of a guitar and ask: “Does anyone have a guess what instrument this is? That’s right, it is a guitar.  Have you seen or heard a guitar before? There are many different kinds of guitars. The guitar in this picture is called a classical acoustic guitar. What are some things you notice when you look at it?”

LEARN how the guitar makes sound

1. Ask students if they’ve ever stretched out a rubber band and plucked it. Explain that a guitar makes sound in the same way. There are six strings stretched over a hollow body, usually made of wood.

2. If you’d like to incorporate hands-on learning, stretch six rubber bands over an open shoebox to demonstrate the concept. Allow students to experiment and explore. Notice that thicker rubber bands make different sounds than thinner ones.

3. On a guitar, each string is a different thickness, so they each make a different sound. Demonstrate on a guitar if possible. Notice that the strings are held in place by pegs. If you turn a peg to tighten a string, it makes the sound a bit higher. If you turn the peg to make the string looser, the sound gets lower.

4. If you press your finger on a string and pluck that string, just one part of the string vibrates and that changes the pitch, or the note. Guitarists learn exactly where to put their fingers to play certain pitches/notes.

WATCH and LISTEN to the guitar

1. Guitarist Joel Spoelstra demonstrates his instrument in this short video.

2. In this video the musician Prince plays an electric guitar. An electric guitar is hooked up to an amplifier, which connects the guitar to an electrical current, which changes the sound.

3. In this video notice how guitarist Milena Petkovic plays the guitar in different ways to make different sounds. Sometimes she plucks on string, sometimes she strums all strings at once.

REVIEW what you learned about the guitar

1. Can you name some different parts of the guitar?

2. How does a guitarist make a sound on a guitar?

3. What can a guitarist do to play different pitches/notes?

4. Can you think of some instruments that are related to a guitar?