Back to top Beginner Guitar Lesson Guide
Beginner Guitar-Lesson Guide
When I was a beginner, my guitar teacher had a great lesson plan for me. This guide I am about to share with you will teach you the foundational fundamentals that will allow you to be able to play the basic major and minor chords of any song. These techniques can be applied to playing an acoustic or electric style guitar.
Memorizing the String Note Names
If you will commit the following phrase to memory, it will help you to remember the guitar string notes.
“Every able dog goes behind elephants.”
E-every
A-able
D-dog
G-goes
B-behind
E-elephants
Finger Exercises
The first thing that every beginner needs to start doing is to walk the strings. These are exercises that will get your fingers get in shape for when you start to learn how to play bar chords. By starting on the E (elephants) string, place your pointer finger on the first fret and pluck the string. Continue moving on to the second fret with your middle finger, then to the third fret with your ring finger and so on. Play the notes in an ascending direction, then in a descending one and apply this “beginner guitar lesson” exercise on every string. You must follow this lesson guide every day. It's going to be uncomfortable at first, but eventually the lesson will pay off.
Learn the CAGED Major Open Chords and the F chord
Beginners need to start with the easiest open guitar chords: C-A-G-E-D.
It is also a good idea to learn an F chord. There are many free online chord charts where you can learn these finger formations.
Beginners Need to Learn Three Open, Minor Chords
The three most important chord positions that beginner guitar lesson teachers start their students out on are these 3 minor chords: Am, Dm and Em.
Here again… just find a free guide somewhere to learn these from.
Don't Fear Bar Chords
After a couple of months of continuing to do the finger exercises (walking the strings)- the beginner guitar student should be ready for bar chords. At that time, they will have learned the basic open major and minor chords. The four chords that need to be learned are the bar chords derived from the open E chord, the open Am chord, the two-finger, open Em chord and the open A. This foundation will act as an easy guide for learning the major 7th and minor 7th bar chord positions.
Obviously, there are lead playing-scales to be learned and the basics of music theory. Many beginners learn how to play a song-lead part from a tablature guide. Learning “tab” is yet another dimension of a guitar lesson plan from which beginners might build a firm enough foundation for to be able to play an acoustic or electric guitar.
Learning how to play the guitar is challenging and rewarding at the same time. Here is the most important thing I can tell you: Don't Quit!
Eventually the difficulty will become easy and beautiful music will flow from your finger tips. Just stick to a good lesson plan.
