Beginner Guitar Lessons
Are you just getting started with guitar but you’re not quite sure where to begin? Well, you’ve come to the right place. There are tons of guitar lessons, tips, and more in the guitar blog, but they’re not necessarily in an order that are designed for you to learn progressively. So follow along here where I’ve put the resources in forms of lessons that you can follow along in a step by step fashion.
Throughout these lessons, if there’s a term you don’t understand that isn’t explained, check out the guitar lingo section of the website to better understand the vocabulary.
Beginner Guitar Lesson 1: Tuning The Guitar
Knowing how to tune a guitar and keeping it in tune is an important first step to playing the guitar. Thankfully tuning a guitar is extremely easy to do and only takes a few minutes to do.
If you’re unsure about how to tune a guitar, or just want some tips, here’s an article on how to get your guitar in tune and how to keep it in tune.
Just make sure you tune up every time you play or practice.
Beginner Guitar Lesson 2: The Absolute Basics (Holding The Pick, Strumming, Etc.)
In this lesson, you’ll learn the absolute basics of holding the guitar, holding the guitar pick, and strumming. It’s designed to get you on the right path before jumping into chords and actually learning how to play the guitar. Sure, these things are basic, but it’s important to start in the right place. Have a read of this article then jump to the next lesson.
Guitar Lesson 3: Basic Chord Shapes
The lesson on basic guitar chord shapes takes you through the basic guitar chord shapes of G, C, E, A, and D, as well as the minor chord shapes of Em, Am, and Dm. These shapes will build the foundation of the rest of the chords you’ll learn over time and are the beginning of learning guitar. Take your time with this lesson as many of the chord shapes will be difficult at first.
The big take away for all of these shapes is to ensure that all the strings ring out clearly.
Beginner Guitar Lesson 4: Practicing Your Chords
Now that you know your basic guitar chords, let’s put those new skills to the test with with some easy guitar songs made up of only open chords. The list of songs linked is always growing, so you’ll be sure to find a song you like in there. And, as mentioned, all the songs only use easy open chords, so you should be able to play them all. It may be difficult moving from practicing chords in isolation to changing between them throughout a song, but this is the best way to practice. Have fun.
Beginner Guitar Lesson 5: Getting Started With Pentatonic Scales
Strumming chords can be fun, but it can also be fun to learn some lead lines. For this it’s good to know some scales. The best place to start with guitar scales is the minor pentatonic scale. The minor pentatonic scale has five patterns that are pretty easy to learn. Once you know the patterns you can easily play over many popular songs without getting anything wrong.
Although you’re still probably new at guitar, you should also be able to play with a friend just by walking up and down the right scale. It’s really that easy. And playing with friends is a great idea. It’s a good way to improve more quickly.
So have fun and start jamming.
Beginner Guitar Lesson 6: Practicing Minor Pentatonic Scales
So you know your minor pentatonic scales. That’s rad. Here’s a few tips on practicing the minor pentatonic scale. Here I give you some ideas for general practice as well as four licks to get your started with the minor pentatonic scale.
Heads up, this guitar lesson has homework. I’m apologising for this and nor apologising at the same time. Homework keeps you honest and helps your do better.
Beginner Guitar Lesson 7: Barre Chords
A barre chord (or bar chord) is a chord technique that allows you to move one of the basic guitar shapes up and down the neck to play any chord. While basic barre chords are something you should learn early, it’s where a lot of new guitar players start to get stuck. You may have the basic guitar chords down, but barre chords require a little bit more strength and coordination.
It’s still important that you push on with barre chords though! Once you master the basic barre chord shapes, it really opens up the songs you can play as well as other guitar techniques.
So persevere with your barre chords. You’ll be able to play many more songs on the guitar and get a lot more enjoyment out of the instrument.
Beginner Guitar Lesson 8: Practicing Barre Chords
Now it’s time to put your barre chords into action with some easy guitar songs featuring barre chords! These songs step it up a notch since they’re not all open chords, but they’re a good way to practice changing between your open chords and your barre chords.
As with playing open chord songs, start slow and make sure all the strings ring out. The list of easy barre chord songs is always growing, so feel free to check back often. You’ll always find something that’s right for you.
And that’s the primer: beginner guitar lessons to get you started. This is far from the end of your journey of learning guitar, but it’s a good place to start. Don’t rush through these lessons, you won’t be able to get through these in one night. Take your time and make sure you’re comfortable doing everything outlined in each article.
If you’re having trouble with something in particular, slow it down. Sometimes it even helps to take a break and come back to it later. If anything, don’t give up on the guitar. This is the hardest part. Once you’re through these lessons, a whole world of music opens up to you. So keep it up.
And now that you’re finished with these lessons and you’re a “proper guitarist,” why not grab a guitar themed t-shirt over at my friend’s website. Shameless plug, yeah, but everyone needs t-shirts. Why not make it a guitar one?