Beginner Guitar Lessons – How To Start Your Guitar Journey

Want to start learning the guitar? We’re going to show you 6 beginner guitar lessons that will get you started on your guitar journey.

In this free guitar lesson you will learn:

• 4 easy chords that every guitarist MUST know.
• 2 chord hacks that will make your chords sound amazing.
• 3 super-simple songs that people will adore.
• The no1 secret to unlocking the fret board.

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1) Beginner Guitar Lessons – Learning The String Names

In this beginner guitar lessons, we’re going to show you what the names of each string are.

It’s important to have a good grasp on the names of the strings as this helps you to learn more about the guitar.

On your guitar you have 6 strings. Each of these strings has a note name and number assigned to it. These are:

• 6th String – The low E String – This string is the one closest to the ceiling and is the thickest string.
• 5th String – The A String.
• 4th String – The D String.
• 3rd String – The G String.
• 2nd String – The B String.
• 1st String – The high E String – This string is the one closest to the floor and is the thinnest string.

You must know how to tune each these strings, to learn how to do this, go here: How To Tune A Guitar: A Guide For Beginners

2) Beginner Guitar Lessons – Learning The Frets

As a beginner guitarist must understand what a fret is. The fret is the space between the two pieces of metal on your fret board.

Like this:

For each fret, we label them 1 – 20+. Most guitars have between 20 and 22 frets.

Like this:

The first note on your guitar is the open string. For every string that you play which ISN’T fretted, this is classed as a ‘open string’.

For example, if you strum the low E string (6th string) without fretting any notes on it, you are playing a open E string.

This works for EVERY other string on the guitar. Now we understand what an open strings are, let’s learn about frets.

Frets 1 – 3

As a beginner guitarist, you only need to understand where frets 1 – 3 are. This is because ALL open chords are played here.

This is what the first 3 frets look like from your perspective:

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How Do I Fret Guitar Notes?

Many beginners, find fretting notes difficult. It’s essential that you can fret notes correctly as this will help you play single notes and chords.

Here are two tips which will help you fret the notes correctly.

Use Your Finger Tips

When you fret notes, you must use your finger tips. Try and fret the note as close to your finger nail as possible.

You will get more clarity out of the guitar note when you use your finger tips.

Use Your Finger And Thumb Together

A common mistake that beginners make is that they try fret a note, by just using their fingers.

Make sure that you push your thumb back into the back of the neck, whilst your fret the note with your fingers. 

Think of it like this:

Imagine, a clothes peg. A clothes peg has two points within it, when these two points come together, they squeeze the clothes so tight that it holds them on a washing line.

Think of your thumb and your fingers as a clothes peg, you want to squeeze them together so that note can be fretted correctly.

How To Enhance Your Dexterity And Technique

The best way to enhance your dexterity and techniques is to try and play some single note riffs. Here’s the tab for the mission impossible theme tune, these will get your fingers warmed up in no time.

Try this as a challenge, use the following fingers to play this riff:

• 1st finger.
• 2nd finger.
• 3rd finger.
• 4th finger.

To learn more beginner guitar riffs, go here: Guitar Tabs For Beginners: 20 Easy Songs That Sound Great

3) Beginner Guitar Lessons – Learn Easy Chords

As a beginner guitarist, you must learn how to play guitar chords. Chords are essential to know as they form the foundation all of music.

In this beginner guitar lessons, we’re going to show you 4 of the most common guitar chords. Let’s get started.

1. The ‘G6’ Chord

Too hard? Go here: 4 Easy Ways To Play The G Chord On Guitar

• Place your 2nd finger on the 3rd fret of the low E string. (6th string.)
• Place your 1st finger on the 2nd fret of the A string. (5th string.)
• Strum all the strings.

When you learn guitar chords, you will often see a number in the middle of the circles in a chord box. This tells you what fingers you must use when fretting the chord.

For example, on the 3rd fret of the low E string. (6th string.) You must use your 2nd finger.

And for the 2nd fret of the A string. (5th string.) Use your 1st finger.

To learn more about how to read chord boxes, go here: How To Read Guitar Chords

2. The ‘E Minor’ Chord

• Place your 1st finger on the 2nd fret of the A string. (5th string.)
• Place your 2nd finger on the 2nd fret of the D string. (4th string.)
• Strum all the strings.

It should sound like this:

Finding this chord difficult? Go here: Em Guitar Chord 4 Easy Ways To Play This Essential Chord

3. The ‘C Major 7’ Chord

This chord is exactly the same shape as the G6 chord. To play C major 7, move the G6 chord to the A string. (5th string.)

Like this:

• Place your 2nd finger on the 3rd fret of the A string. (5th string.)
• Place your 1st finger on the 2nd fret of the D string. (4th string.)
• Strum from the A string. (5th string.)

To learn more voicings of this chord, go here: Easy Ways To Play The C Guitar Chord

4. The ‘Dsus2’ Chord

The final chord we’re going to learn is a Dsus2 chord. This chord is perfect for beginners as it only uses two fingers.

Learn to play other voicings of this chord here: 3 Easy Ways to Play the D Chord on Guitar

• Place your 1st finger on the 2nd fret of the G string. (3rd string.)
• Place your 3rd finger on the 3rd fret of the B string. (2nd string.)
• Strum from the D string. (4th string.)

This chord can be tricky as you have to miss out the low E and A strings. To learn how to skip strings while strumming click here.

4) Beginner Guitar Lessons – How To Hold A Pick & Strum Correctly

Before we learn how to strum we must learn to hold a pick. Learning how to hold a pick is essential if you want to enhance your strumming technique. You will never become the guitarist you want to be unless you do this right, so listen up.

Why should I learn to use a pick?

Learning how to hold a guitar pick will accelerate your progress.

Often many beginners:

• Strum with their finger nails.
• Strum with their thumb.

Even though these techniques are easier than holding a guitar pick, they both look and sound terrible. You will become a better guitarist if you learn how to use a pick.

Picks are sometimes called ‘plectrums’. ‘Picks’ and ‘plecs’ are the same thing.

How Do I Hold a Guitar Pick?

Here a 3 simple-steps which will show you how to hold a guitar pick correctly.

1) Do A Thumbs Up Sign

2) Place The Pick On Top Of Your Hand Pointing Towards You

3) Clamp Your Thumb Down

Now you know how to hold a guitar pick, let’s learn how to strum. Here are 3 must-know tips which will show you how to strum a guitar.