How to play guitar scientifically

Why learning how to play guitar in scientific way?

There are many ways to learn how to play an instrument. As every instrument has it own's theory, we can explain every phenomenon happened with the instrument. For several kinds of people such as engineers or scientist, they are more likely to learn and understand things with theory back up. Therefore playing guitar with theory can help them learn faster and increase public's professional knowledge.

1. How to produce sound from guitar:

The theory of producing sound from guitar is the vibration of the strings, wood and air particles. No matter what do you use for strumming the strings, it could produce sound unless there doesn't have any vibration on the string(muting).

2. How to determine higher/lower note string

There are usually 6 strings on a guitar. When you look from the headstock(top of guitar), you can see all of them are in different size. 

From the formula below, the frequency which affecting the pitch produced is inversely proportional to the density of the string. When the density higher (more material), it will produce lower pitch. When the density lower (less material), it will produce higher pitch. Hence, thicker strings will produce lower pitch while the thinner strings will produce higher pitch.

3. How to play different notes:

There are number of metal strips placed on the fingerboard (neck). They are the notation of different notes. The note will change according to the vibratable length of the string. When the length decrease, it would produce higher note. When the length increase, it would produce lower note.

From the formula of frequency, we found that the frequency is inversely proportional to the length of string. Higher frequency will produce higher pitch and lower frequency will produce lower pitch. Therefore, it will produce higher note when you press on the fret that closer to the bottom part of the fret board.

You should able to produce different sound with your guitar with the above theory behind it. However, theory can not make a beginner become a professional in a short time. If you want to perform better, you have to practice different technique over and over instead studying the theory.

Image credit
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/just-a-theory-7-misused-science-words/
http://www.zxjita.com/news/jtyueli/33938.html
http://hep.physics.indiana.edu/~rickv/Standing_Waves_on_String.html
https://opencurriculum.org/5571/frequency-wavelength-and-pitch/
http://www.gitardersivideo.net/faydali-bilgiler/23457-sap-atmasi-nedir-resimli.html
https://guitaralliance.com/2013/05/frets/