Glossary of terms
Every technique term the entries link to, defined once — 27 terms. They are listed alphabetically, and each one links back to a lesson that uses it.
Alternate pickingalternate picking
Strictly alternating down and up strokes with the pick, one stroke per note. Alternate picking gives even rhythm and high attainable speed once the up stroke is as strong as the down, but it forces a change of stroke direction at every string crossing, which is where most players lose time.
Alternate picking: down-up on every eighth note · Drop D low-string riff with palm muting · Economy picking: three notes per string and the sweep between them · Palm muting: the eighth-note pulse that keeps a riff tight · Hybrid picking: holding a bass line under a melody
Anchor fingeranchor finger
A finger that stays pressed on one note while the others move around it. Anchoring reduces the amount of movement the hand has to make, keeps the hand oriented when the shape is unfamiliar, and gives the ear a fixed pitch to measure every other note against.
Chromatic warm-up inside frets 1–3 · G major pentatonic in third position · Shifting between first and second position without a gap · Hammer-ons and pull-offs: the legato drill that exposes both hands
Barre (bar chord)barre
Pressing one finger flat across several strings at the same fret so that all of them sound. A barre is required whenever a shape has no open strings to rely on, and it fails in a characteristic way: the strings under the middle of the finger are muted because the finger's curve leaves them unpressed.
Box positionbox position
A compact group of scale notes that sits under the hand in one place on the neck, playable without shifting. A box is defined by its lowest fret, not by its root, and the same box shape appears at several places on the neck because the guitar's tuning repeats the same intervals between string pairs.
A minor pentatonic in position I: the open-string shape · G major pentatonic in third position · A minor pentatonic in fifth position, above the double marker · A blues scale in third position: where the flat fifth lives
Broken chordbroken chord
A chord whose notes are played one at a time rather than all together, usually low to high. Broken chords turn a static harmony into a moving texture and are the standard way to accompany a melody without the accompaniment competing with it for the listener's attention.
Economy pickingeconomy picking
Combining alternate picking with sweep strokes, so that when a phrase crosses to an adjacent string the pick continues in the direction it was already moving instead of reversing. Economy picking is smoother across string changes and harder to keep rhythmically even than strict alternate picking.
Economy picking: three notes per string and the sweep between them
Fingeringfingering
The plan for which finger plays which note, in both hands. Fingering is not fixed by the notes: the same passage can be played several ways, and the choice depends on what comes before and after, on which strings the phrase lands, and on whether the player wants a legato or a picked sound.
Chromatic warm-up inside frets 1–3 · C major across frets 4–6: the second-position shape
Fret markerfret marker
The inlay dots on the fretboard, placed at frets 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15 and above. Markers are landmarks for the left hand when shifting and for the eye when reading: the double dot at fret 12 marks the octave, and knowing where it is keeps the hand from drifting a fret sharp or flat.
G major pentatonic in third position · E natural minor across frets 10–12 · A minor pentatonic in fifth position, above the double marker · D Dorian across frets 4–6: the mode with a natural sixth · A blues scale in third position: where the flat fifth lives · G major across frets 7–9: a full position, both octaves
Fret wirefret wire
The metal strip set into the fretboard that the string contacts to produce a note. Pressing just behind a fret wire gives a clean note; pressing on top of the wire or halfway between two wires produces a buzz or a note that is out of tune, which is the usual cause of a chord that will not ring clearly.
How to read tab: string order, fret numbers and stems · Chromatic warm-up inside frets 1–3 · Drop D low-string riff with palm muting · Palm muting: the eighth-note pulse that keeps a riff tight
Hammer-onhammer-on
Sounding a note by bringing a finger down hard onto a fret while the string is already vibrating, without picking it. The energy comes entirely from the finger's arrival, so a hammer-on played with a soft landing is quiet or silent — which is why hammer-ons above the twelfth fret need a firmer attack.
Hammer-ons and pull-offs: the legato drill that exposes both hands
Hybrid pickinghybrid picking
Holding the pick between thumb and index finger while also using the middle and ring fingers to pluck strings directly. Hybrid picking lets a single hand play a bass line and a melody at once, because the pick can take the low strings while the free fingers take the high ones.
Hybrid picking: holding a bass line under a melody
Legatolegato
Playing with hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides instead of separate pick strokes, so that notes are joined rather than articulated individually. Legato produces a smooth, singing line and demands more of the left hand, because every note's volume and clarity now depends on finger pressure rather than the pick.
Hammer-ons and pull-offs: the legato drill that exposes both hands
Metronomemetronome
A steady click at a fixed tempo, measured in beats per minute. The metronome does not make playing faster; it reveals where the playing stops matching the beat, which is the information you need before speed can be added at all. Practising without one usually means practising the same errors.
Alternate picking: down-up on every eighth note · Reading eighth and sixteenth note groups in tab · Palm muting: the eighth-note pulse that keeps a riff tight
Open stringopen string
A string played without pressing any fret, written as 0 in tab. Open strings ring longer and sound brighter than fretted notes because the whole string length vibrates, and they cannot be bent by the left hand — which is why phrases that need expression avoid landing on them.
A minor pentatonic in position I: the open-string shape · Shifting between first and second position without a gap · Open G slide phrases between frets 7 and 9 · Hybrid picking: holding a bass line under a melody
Palm mutepalm mute
Resting the edge of the picking hand lightly on the strings just in front of the bridge saddles to shorten the note and cut its high frequencies. Moving the hand toward the bridge makes the mute lighter and the note longer; moving it away from the bridge kills the note entirely.
Alternate picking: down-up on every eighth note · Drop D low-string riff with palm muting · Palm muting: the eighth-note pulse that keeps a riff tight
Plectrumplectrum
The pick, held between thumb and index finger with only a small tip protruding. How much tip is exposed controls the tone as much as the pick's thickness: a small tip produce a tighter, more controlled attack and less pick noise against the strings, while a large tip produces a louder, sloppier one.
Alternate picking: down-up on every eighth note · Economy picking: three notes per string and the sweep between them
Position playingposition playing
Playing with the hand parked at one place on the neck, so that the index finger covers one fret and the other fingers cover the frets above it. Positions are numbered by the fret the index finger sits on: first position puts the index at fret 1, second position at fret 2, and so on.
Chromatic warm-up inside frets 1–3 · C major across frets 4–6: the second-position shape · Shifting between first and second position without a gap · E natural minor across frets 10–12 · D Dorian across frets 4–6: the mode with a natural sixth · G major across frets 7–9: a full position, both octaves
Pull-offpull-off
Sounding a note by pulling a finger off a fret with a sideways drag, so that the fingertip plucks the string as it leaves. A pull-off that only lifts the finger makes no sound at all; the movement has to be a small, decisive pull toward the palm, not a lift away from the fretboard.
Hammer-ons and pull-offs: the legato drill that exposes both hands
Root noteroot note
The note a scale or chord is named after and the note the music resolves to. In a scale diagram the root is marked differently from every other degree because it is the pitch the ear hears as home, and phrases that end on it sound finished while phrases that end elsewhere sound suspended.
A minor pentatonic in position I: the open-string shape · E natural minor across frets 10–12 · A minor pentatonic in fifth position, above the double marker · D Dorian across frets 4–6: the mode with a natural sixth · A blues scale in third position: where the flat fifth lives · G major across frets 7–9: a full position, both octaves
Scale degreescale degree
The number a scale note occupies when the scale is counted from its root upward: 1 for the root, 2 for the next note, and so on. A prefix of b lowers the degree by a semitone and # raises it, so b3 means the third degree flattened — the note that makes a minor pentatonic sound minor.
A minor pentatonic in position I: the open-string shape · C major across frets 4–6: the second-position shape · G major pentatonic in third position · E natural minor across frets 10–12 · A minor pentatonic in fifth position, above the double marker · D Dorian across frets 4–6: the mode with a natural sixth · A blues scale in third position: where the flat fifth lives · G major across frets 7–9: a full position, both octaves
Shiftingshifting
Moving the left hand from one position to another during a phrase. A shift can be audible, with the fingertip sliding along the string and connecting the two positions, or silent, with the hand arriving before the next note is played — but an unplanned gap between the two is audible as a mistake.
C major across frets 4–6: the second-position shape · Shifting between first and second position without a gap · Open G slide phrases between frets 7 and 9
Slide (portamento)slide
Moving a pressed finger along a string so the pitch travels continuously between two notes. Only the first note is picked; the destination note is produced by the finger's continued pressure during the travel. A slide played with released pressure loses the arrival note entirely.
Open G slide phrases between frets 7 and 9
String numberingstring numbering
Guitar strings are numbered from the thinnest to the thickest: string 1 is the high E, string 6 the low E. Tab is written with string 1 on the top line, so the line order is the reverse of the physical order of the strings when the guitar is held in playing position.
How to read tab: string order, fret numbers and stems
String skippingstring skipping
Playing a line that leaps over one or more strings instead of moving to the neighbouring one. Skipping breaks the scale's visual box, forces the picking hand to control a wider arc, and is used to write melodies that would sound like plain scales if every note were on adjacent strings.
Economy picking: three notes per string and the sweep between them · Hybrid picking: holding a bass line under a melody
Tab stemtab stem
The rhythm marking attached to a bar of tab: q for quarter notes, e for eighth notes, s for sixteenth notes. The fret numbers say which notes to play and the stem says how long each lasts, so the same fret numbers with a different stem are a different piece of music.
How to read tab: string order, fret numbers and stems · Reading eighth and sixteenth note groups in tab
Tablaturetablature
Notation that shows music as six lines, one per string, with numbers indicating which fret to press. Tab says nothing directly about pitch or duration — both have to be inferred from the tuning and the rhythm stems — but it removes the need to translate a written note into a fret before playing it.
How to read tab: string order, fret numbers and stems · Reading eighth and sixteenth note groups in tab · Drop D low-string riff with palm muting · Open G slide phrases between frets 7 and 9
Tempo laddertempo ladder
A practice method that raises the metronome in small steps — usually four BPM — and only after a fixed number of consecutive clean repetitions. The ladder makes the current ceiling explicit and turns speed into a measured result of accuracy rather than something attempted directly.
Reading eighth and sixteenth note groups in tab