Beginner Guitar Explained

So you've decided to learn guitar! We commend you on your choice and have just the course for you. In this 12-lesson series, pro guitarist Doug Boduch will walk you through the process from the very beginning, teaching you everything from the parts of the guitar and basic technique to learning chord progressions, strumming patterns, scales, and licks! By the end of the course, you'll be well on your way to playing your favorite songs and learning your favorite licks and solos. These videos are designed for complete beginners.

Videos

• First Guitar Lesson (08:36) - Begin your journey here! In this first lesson, you'll learn the parts of the guitar, how to hold the guitar (standing or sitting), how to hold the pick, the proper fret-hand technique, and you'll even play your first song at the end.

• Second Guitar Lesson (07:25) - In this lesson, you'll learn how to read a chord grid (or chord diagram), your first chords, and your first chord progression.

• Third Guitar Lesson (11:33) - You'll continue in Lesson 3 by learning five more open chords and a moveable chord shape called a power chord.

• Fourth Guitar Lesson (12:10) - Step into the world of lead guitar by learning some picking exercises, notes on strings 1-3, and a couple of songs: Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" and a blues melody.

• Fifth Guitar Lesson (09:55) - This lesson adds notes on strings 4-6, the musical alphabet, and your first scale!

• Tips for Beginners (10:42) - This lesson acts as an opportunity to check in our progress and ensure you're not continuing to develop any bad habits. While teaching a fun riff on the low E string, it touches on things like holding the pick properly, staying relaxed, fretting technique, using your pinky, counting rhythms/tapping your foot, and getting clean-sounding chords.

• Tuning by Ear (08:55) - As your ear continues to develop, it's important to learn to tune your guitar by ear for those times you don't have an electronic tuner handy. This lesson will show you how to do just that.

• Open Chords (07:59) - It's time to expand your chord vocabulary by learning several more open chords, including major, minor, and seventh chords.

• Strumming Chords (08:51) - This lesson will teach you the fundamentals of developing a solid strumming technique that will allow you to eventually handle just about any strumming pattern that comes your way.

• Acoustic Guitar Basics (08:19) - Here, we'll look closely at several different techniques commonly employed on acoustic, including various strumming patterns, the open-string cheat, fingerpicking, and more.

• Capo Basics (07:45) - If you're a singer/songwriter or would like to accompany singers, a capo is an extremely useful tool. Learn how it works and what you can do with it here.

• Lead Guitar Basics (09:33) - We'll close out with a fun lesson that starts stepping up your lead guitar game. Learn how to shine in the spotlight by learning some great-sounding licks, techniques (hammer-ons, slides, pull-offs, muting), a useful scale (minor pentatonic), and some additional tips and tricks!