Category: Free Guitar Lessons

As seen in the graphic below, there is a guitar numbering system in place that indicates which finger to play relative to the frets. See the guitar fingering chart below for more information on guitar fingering notation.

Note: The dots on the side and face of the guitar neck are placed before the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 17th and 19th frets. The 12th fret has two dots. These dots help you find your way on the neck.

Lessons from eMedia Music use the finger and string numbering systems shown above.

Strumming is used for playing chords on the guitar. You strum with either the thumb, index finger or all the fingers across the strings in an up and down motion. With any of the strumming styles, the right arm rests on top of the guitar and the usual place to strum is just behind (toward the bridge) or over the sound hole. For an electric guitar, which doesn’t have a sound hole, the strumming is done over the pickups. This video shows you how to strum a guitar.

Receive over 180 beginner guitar lessons in eMedia Guitar Method.

Sometimes one person’s easy guitar chords are not so easy when you are a beginning guitar student. That’s why we include simple guitar chords with eMedia’s beginner guitar lesson software. The simple guitar chord voicings use fewer strings so they don’t require as much effort. This is perfect for the small hands of young kids, or those who might have a hand or finger condition (such as arthritis, broken fingers, etc.).

First Guitar Chords

The guitar chords below are called simple guitar chords. They are perfect for beginner guitar lessons, as most of them only require a single finger and three strings to play. They are the most basic, easy guitar chords for beginners and work well for children with small hands, or others who might have problems playing full chords. Try playing them and remember to play all the notes in the chords.

Here are some videos to help you learn some of these beginning guitar chords and beginner guitar songs that use them.

How to Play a Simple G Chord

[Excerpt from eMedia Guitar Method]

Beginner Guitar Song #1: Play Brother John/Frere Jacques

Now use your simple G chord to play this classic folk song. Each slash (/) indicates a downward strum on the beat. If possible, play to a metronome click so that you can to stay on the beat.

How to Play Simple C and G7 Chords

[Excerpt from eMedia Guitar Method]

Once you master this beginner guitar lesson on chords, then make sure you know how to read guitar charts and go on to this free guitar lesson that teaches you more easy guitar chords. It also uses easy guitar chord charts and videos to help you learn even more chords easier.

Beginner Guitar Song #2: Play Skip to My Lou

Here is another song to try with the simple guitar chords you have learned.

More Easy Beginner Guitar Songs

Once you have mastered the simple guitar chords, you can play several easy guitar songs. Here is a carefully selected group of 10 easy guitar songs for beginners!

To learn how to hold a guitar pick, try making a loose fist and put the pick between your index finger and thumb. Don’t let too much of the pick be exposed as you need to control firmly as you strum and play individual notes. Here is a video to show you how to hold a pick.

Keeping a minimal amount of pick exposed also keeps it from being caught in the guitar strings and coming out of your hand. When using a pick, alternate between down and up strokes, giving each note a separate stroke. Thus the first note would get a down stroke, the second an up stroke, the third down, the fourth up and so on.

Over 180 beginner guitar lessons are ahead for you with eMedia Guitar Method.

This is the technique widely used by classical and folks guitarists. Here your hand rests above the guitar strings with the thumb roughly parallel to the strings and the rest of your fingers curved and plucking the strings perpendicularly. Note that some rock guitarists will use fingerpicking too. When using fingers (playing fingerstyle), pluck alternately with the index (i) and the middle (m) fingers. Thus use i for the first note, m for the second, i for the third, m for the fourth and so on.

Over 180 beginner guitar lessons are ahead for you with eMedia Guitar Method.

Here are some things to observe when developing proper left hand technique for guitar…

Play With Thumb Parallel to the Neck and Arched Fingers

Your thumb should rest in the middle of the back of the neck, opposite your 2nd finger and vertical (perpendicular to the neck, not angled or parallel). Try holding your guitar neck with your left hand and then pull your hand down keeping your fingers slightly curved.

Keep space between the curve of your hand that is making the chord and the guitar neck. If you were to look at your hand from the end of your guitar (near the tuning machines), it should be in a “C” shape, with arched fingers.

Play On Your Finger Tips

Make sure you play with the tips of your fingers, so that notes can ring out and not be accidentally muted. Do not let your finger flatten out when playing single strings.

There is generally a one finger per fret, rule, that says all notes played on a particular fret should be played by the same finger across all strings on that fret. For example, if the 1st finger is on the 3rd fret, it plays all notes on the 3rd fret across all strings, the 2nd finger plays notes across the 4th fret, the 3rd plays the notes across the 5th fret and so on. Then as you move your hand up and down the neck you always have maximum reach with minimal movement. Very important when playing melodies and riffs at higher tempos.

Play Slightly Behind the Fret, and Don’t Press Too Hard

Your fingertips should press down just behind the frets (slightly towards the tuning machine end of the neck), and as close to the frets as possible without having your finger on the top of the actual fret. This will make it much easier to hold down the string to get a good tone. You should not need to press down very hard to make a note sound. If the note sounds muffled, your finger is probably on the fret and you need to move it back a bit.

If your left-hand fingernails are too long, they may need to be trimmed.

Paying extra attention to technique as you learn how to play guitar pays off greatly as you start to improve. Getting the basics right during your initial beginner guitar lessons pays off a lot in the long run.

Learn Faster with eMedia’s Interactive Beginner Guitar Lessons!

Guitar lesson software such as eMedia Guitar Method helps you learn how to play guitar faster. It provides a mix of great beginner guitar lessons by qualified teachers from leading music schools, and interactive music technology that gets you playing quickly. The Animated Fretboard and interactive guitar notation lets you see which notes to play, while the software listens to you and displays whether you’re actually playing the right note. Plus you learn hit songs like Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door and Rock’n Me.

Here are some good lessons on guitar technique designed to help the beginner guitarist get started the right way. Remember to watch your hands and fingers in the early stages. As you learn how to play guitar you don’t want to develop any bad habits. It is much harder to fix problems with your technique later.

Right Hand Guitar Technique

The right hand is used to make the guitar string vibrate by touching the string with your fingers, thumb and/or guitar pick. The right hand should rest comfortably on the guitar, with the hand basically parallel to the front of the instrument.  The main right-hand guitar techniques are:

How to Strum a Guitar

Strumming is used for playing chords on the guitar. You strum with either the thumb, index finger or all the fingers across the strings in an up and down motion. See video for a demonstration. With any of the strumming styles, the right arm rests on top of the guitar and the usual place to strum is just behind (toward the bridge) or over the sound hole. For an electric guitar, which doesn’t have a sound hole, the strumming is done over the pickups. This video shows you how to strum a guitar.

[Excerpt from eMedia Guitar Method]

How to Hold a Guitar Pick

To learn how to hold a guitar pick, try making a loose fist and put the pick between your index finger and thumb. Don’t let too much of the pick be exposed as you need to control firmly as you strum and play individual notes. Keeping a minimal amount of pick exposed also keeps it from being caught in the guitar strings and coming out of your hand. When using a pick, alternate between down and up strokes, giving each note a separate stroke. Thus the first note would get a down stroke, the second an up stroke, the third down, the fourth up and so on. Here is a video to show you how to hold a pick.

Fingerpicking

This is the technique widely used by classical and folks guitarists. Here your hand rests above the guitar strings with the thumb roughly parallel to the strings and the rest of your fingers curved and plucking the strings perpendicularly. Note that some rock guitarists will use fingerpicking too. When using fingers (playing fingerstyle), pluck alternately with the index (i) and the middle (m) fingers. Thus use i for the first note, m for the second, i for the third, m for the fourth and so on.

[Excerpt from eMedia Guitar Method]

Left Hand Guitar Technique

Here are some things to observe when developing proper left hand technique for guitar. Those are:

Play With Thumb Parallel to the Neck and Arched Fingers

Your thumb should rest in the middle of the back of the neck, opposite your 2nd finger and vertical (perpendicular to the neck, not angled or parallel). Try holding your guitar neck with your left hand and then pull your hand down keeping your fingers slightly curved.

Keep space between the curve of your hand that is making the chord and the guitar neck. If you were to look at your hand from the end of your guitar (near the tuning machines), it should be in a “C” shape, with arched fingers.

Play On Your Finger Tips

Make sure you play with the tips of your fingers, so that notes can ring out and not be accidentally muted. Do not let your finger flatten out when playing single strings.

There is generally a one finger per fret, rule, that says all notes played on a particular fret should be played by the same finger across all strings on that fret. For example, if the 1st finger is on the 3rd fret, it plays all notes on the 3rd fret across all strings, the 2nd finger plays notes across the 4th fret, the 3rd plays the notes across the 5th fret and so on. Then as you move your hand up and down the neck you always have maximum reach with minimal movement. Very important when playing melodies and riffs at higher tempos.

Play Slightly Behind the Fret, and Don’t Press Too Hard

Your fingertips should press down just behind the frets (slightly towards the tuning machine end of the neck), and as close to the frets as possible without having your finger on the top of the actual fret. This will make it much easier to hold down the string to get a good tone. You should not need to press down very hard to make a note sound. If the note sounds muffled, your finger is probably on the fret and you need to move it back a bit.

If your left-hand fingernails are too long, they may need to be trimmed.

Paying extra attention to technique as you learn how to play guitar pays off greatly as you start to improve. Getting the basics right during your initial beginner guitar lessons pays off a lot in the long run.

It is important to hold the guitar properly while playing it. This can affect your arm and hand position which is crucial to get right when learning how to play the guitar. Hold the neck with your left hand and pluck or strum the strings with your right hand. Keep the guitar face nearly vertical with the top inclined slightly toward the body. If sitting, try to sit straight — avoid bending over the guitar. Settle into a comfortable position and stay relaxed. The type of guitar you have affects how you sit or stand with the guitar. Here are some examples of good ways to hold different types of guitars.

Holding a Guitar in Sitting Position

(right leg crossed over left)

Classical Position

(Left foot on raised platform)

How to Hold a Guitar in Standing Position

(With guitar strap)

Now that you know how to hold a guitar, you can start learning how to play guitar the easy way with eMedia Guitar Method!

Here is an overview of the different types of guitars and their parts. Note that some music styles require certain guitar techniques, and some guitars support those technique better than others. For example, the string bends done in blues and rock would be almost impossible on a classical guitar. This instrument is not designed for it, as string bends are not found in classical guitar repertoire. However, string bending is easy on an electric guitar, as they are built to support this technique.

Acoustic Guitars

Acoustic guitars are designed to make sound without amplification. Some might include a pickup, but they are still designed as acoustic instruments. Acoustic guitars are like hollow boxes made of thin wood, with a sound hole in the front underneath the strings. This allows vibration of the guitar strings to radiate sound waves into the guitar body, which then resonates. The front of an acoustic guitar (called a top) is usually made of softer woods like spruce that let the wood vibrate. The back and sides are usually hardwoods (mahogany, rosewood, etc.) to reflect sound back towards the sound hole.

Classical and Nylon-String Guitar

The classical acoustic guitar is commonly used for playing classical music — usually with the fingers, though a pick is also sometimes used. Unlike the electric and steel-string guitars, which have metal strings, the classical guitar has nylon strings, which can be easier on the fingers. The neck of the classical guitar is slightly wider and, likewise, so is the spacing between the strings. You also find nylon-stringed guitars used in flamenco and folk music. You should never try to put steel strings on these instruments, as they have no reinforcement in their necks to deal with the extra tension. Listen to how the nylon string acoustic sounds below.

Steel String Acoustic Guitar

The steel-string acoustic is the most common acoustic guitar, and is perhaps the most versatile. As the name implies, it uses steel strings and is common in folk, country, blues, jazz, pop, and rock music. It can also sound great when playing classical pieces, but will be much brighter than a classical guitar. Steel-string acoustics are commonly strummed and played with a pick, but can also be played with the fingers using various fingerpicking techniques. Play below to hear how a steel-string acoustic guitar sounds.

Electric Guitars

The electric guitar is hooked-up to an electronic amplifier and can be adjusted to create different types of electric guitar tones. Electric guitars are used primarily in pop, rock, country, blues, R&B and jazz. While usually played with a pick, it can also be played with fingers. The strings are usually thinner than the steel-string acoustic and the necks a bit easier to play. As a result, electric guitars can be a great fit for beginner guitarists who prefer the previously mentioned music styles. Hear the electric guitar licks below for a taste of how the electric guitar sounds. Electric guitars are one of the most popular types of guitars.

Here are some common musical terms for guitarists. Understanding these terms will help as you learn how to play guitar.

Accent

Special stress given to a musical note within a phrase.

Adagio

Indication that the music should be played at a speed not as slow as larghetto. 66 – 75 ticks per minute.

Allegro

Lively, or happy. Often used to indicate a fast piece, but not as fast as presto. 120 – 167 ticks per minute.

Andante

Indication of tempo (at a walking pace). 76 – 107 ticks per minute.

Bend

A guitar technique popular in blues and rock where the string is “bent” by pushing it across the fret (parallel to it) with your finger.

Bridge

The section on the body of the guitar where the strings are attached.

Capo

A device that acts like a barre going across a fret. It is used so that you can play open guitar chords in different keys.

Chika

The sound of a muted chord.

Chord

A combination of three or more tones sounded simultaneously.

Chord chart

Sometimes called a chord diagram, this is the standard notation used to represent chord fingerings on the fretboard of a guitar. Below is an example of a chord chart. Chord chart can also describe a piece of guitar music that shows the chord progression for a song.

Classical guitar

A nylon string guitar used for playing classical music.

Electric guitar

Electric guitars have a way to sense guitar string (and sometimes body) vibrations and send them to an amplifier to be made louder. They use a truss rod in the neck as they have steel strings and usually have lighter gauge strings than acoustic guitars.

Fingerboard (Fretboard)

On guitars this is also called the fretboard, as guitar fingerboards are demarcated with frets (definition below). This is the flat, front section on the neck that your fingers will play.

Frets

The thin strips of metal placed across the neck of the guitar at regular intervals to shorten/lengthen the string and create different notes. Fingers press down behind the frets to select the notes.

Gauge

The term used to describe a wire’s diameter, and in music to describe the thickness of an instrument string. String gauges are measured in thousandths of an inch. For example, the high E string used on many electric guitars is .009 gauge, or “9 thousandths of an inch”.

Half step

The smallest interval (see Interval below).

Head (Headstock)

Section of the guitar located on top of the neck and on which the tuning keys are mounted.

Interval

An interval is the distance between two pitches. In western music this is expressed numerically based on their distance from one another in a diatonic scale. For example, from the first note of the major scale to the third note the interval would be expressed as a major third as it is the third note of the scale. The smallest interval step is the semitone (or half step), which is the interval between two adjacent note in a chromatic scale. A whole tone (or whole step) is comprised of two semitones.

Larghetto

Indication that the music should be played at a tempo not quite so slow as largo. 60 – 65 ticks per minute.

Largo

Indication that the music should be played slowly, in a broad manner. 40 – 59 ticks per minute.

Major Chord

A chord with three notes called a triad  (see definition below), that combines the first, third, and fifth notes of a major scale. Major chords have a happy or cheerful sound.

Measures

Sections of music organized with a certain number of beats determined by the time signature. For example, one measure in 4/4 time might be made up of four quarter (1/4) notes, or 8 eighth (1/8th) notes.

Melody

A rhythmically organized sequence of single tones so related to one another as to make up a particular musical phrase or idea.

Metronome

A device that marks time at a steady beat in adjustable intervals, to help keep a steady beat while playing music.

Minor chord

A chord with three notes called a triad (see definition below), that combines the first, flatted third, and fifth notes of a major scale. Minor chords have a darker, melancholy sound.

Moderato

Moderate, as in a moderate speed. 108 – 119 ticks per minute.

Muting

Touching played strings lightly to deaden their sound.

Neck

Section of the guitar that includes the fretboard and carries the strings from the body to the head of the guitar.

Note

A single sound, or its representation in music notation.

Nut

Raised bar at the top of the fretboard that supports the strings and stops their vibration, as they run to the head of the guitar.

Open string

A string that is sounded without being held down with the left hand.

Palm muting

A technique in which the palm of the right hand is laid on the strings just above the bridge, so that the strings are slightly muffled; this is different from muting, where the strings are deadened.

Pick guard

A plate located on the body of the guitar to protect it from getting scraped by the pick.

Pickups

Electrical apparatus on the body of electric guitars which converts sound into electrical signals.

Pitch

A distinct musical note.

Power chords

Chords that use only the two lowest strings of a normal chord; indicated by the symbol “5” (e.g. “A5” for an A power chord). The chords are created using the first and fifth steps of a major or minor scale.

Prestissimo

Very fast indeed. Faster than presto. 181 – 208 ticks per minute.

Presto

Fast. Indication that the music be played at a fast tempo. 168 – 180 ticks per minute.

Reference notes

Properly tuned notes used to tune another instrument by comparison.

Rhythm

A regular pattern formed by a series of notes of differing duration and stress.

Riff

A short musical phrase that a song is based on.

Root

The note from which a chord is built. For example, the root of the A minor chord is the A note.

Sound hole

An opening cut into the body of the guitar to allow sound to project.

Steel-string acoustic

An acoustic guitar that uses steel strings vs. nylon (such as classical guitars). These guitars usually have a truss bar in the neck to handle the extra tension of steel strings and use bridge pins to terminate the string at the bridge.

Syncopation

Stressing a beat which is normally weak.

Guitar Tabs or Tablature

A system of notation using letters, numbers and symbols to indicate finger placement and notes sequences for playing a musical piece on a specific instrument (guitar, bass, etc.).

Tempo

Rate of speed at which music is played, usually expressed in beats per minute (BPM).

Tie

A curved line connecting two identically-pitched notes, implying that only the first note is to be plucked, and the note is sustained for the entire duration of the two notes combined.

Tone controls

Knob(s) located on the body of an electric guitar which allow the player to adjust the characteristics of the sound.

Tuning keys

Used to tune the strings of the guitar. The strings are wound around six pegs located on the head of the guitar. The pegs are turned to make the strings tighter or looser, according to the desired pitch.

Triad

A chord made of three notes usually spaced as every other note in a scale.

Truss bar

This is a steel bar that runs through the neck of guitars that use steel strings. It reinforces the guitar neck to handle the extra tension of steel strings.

Volume controls

Knob(s) located on the body of an electric guitar which allow the player to adjust the volume of the guitar.