How to Learn to Play the Guitar For Beginners

Learning to play a guitar from 0 is not easy. I would love to tell you otherwise but it’s not.

Now, what I can tell you is that this process can be accelerated and made easier with a good method, the one I’ll summarize in this article (and for free, because with the guitar we’ve spent enough money already).

Valid for electric, acoustic, classical, Spanish or classical guitar!

Ah! and forget about those stories that say you can only learn if you are a child or a teenager.

Because you can learn to play the guitar at 40, at 50 and even if you are retired.

How to learn to play guitar from scratch

This tutorial to learn guitar from 0 is based on 3 modules and each of them, in 3 lessons. It is important that you follow the established order since each lesson includes the previous one.

Likewise, in this method to learn guitar from basics we start with theory and end up with practice.

Why?

Because if you understand music theory you will advance much faster.

Yes, I know, when you start playing guitar from the very beginning the last thing you have in mind is to study theory. But the key at this stage is not to study music theory, but to give it a comprehensive reading to establish the foundations of your musical knowledge.

And this is fundamental.

Moreover, this is good news, because it means that you can learn to play the guitar at any time: on the train, before going to bed, in the dentist’s waiting room… whenever you want!

Take out your cell phone and start expanding your musical knowledge.

Let’s begin the complete & online guitar course

Let’s start with the basics: 3 basic posts when getting into music theory and the guitar.

Scale Degrees

The first and fundamental thing is to understand what musical grades are. Here is an example.

In the C major scale the musical degrees are:

C D E F G A B

But, in the G major scale the degrees are:

G A B C D E F#

Why in this last example is the F sharp (F#)?

Read this article below and you will understand it. And likewise, you will learn the importance that these elements have in music.

Tones and Semitones

A semitone is the minimum distance between 2 notes.

For example, between E and F there is a semitone. However, between A and B there is a tone.

Again, I explain why in the article, you will see how simple it is.

How to read tablature

So much for the theory, now let’s play our first songs.

And for that we need to know how to understand the TABs or tablatures, those 6 lines diagrams with numbers on them.

A tablature is a representation of the guitar strings that is composed of horizontal lines (one for each string) with each number indicating the fret to play.

In short, tablatures are diagrams that greatly simplify the music reading.

In fact, if you are learning to play the guitar from scratch, I don’t advise you to start with sheet music. The reason for this is that learning how to interpret a staff is not easy and it will take you a long time.

If you don’t know how to draw the treble clef on the staff, don’t even think about the music sheet.

Finger exercises, Chords and Songs

Now that we have undertood the basics let’s start digging deeper. To do so, take a look at these 3 lessons.

Finger exercises

Let’s move on now and see some finger exercises. These exercises allow us to gain fluency, speed and independence with the fingers.

In addition, they are perfect for warming up, so I advise you to practice a minimum of 10 minutes before you start playing the guitar.

Have you warmed up? Then let’s go with our first chords!

Basic Guitar Chords

In this lesson, the idea is not to learn all the chords on guitar, but to learn the basic ones so we can start playing our first songs.

Learn this basic chords and practice the chord change to get used to them.

Songs

Do you know the best way to practice chord changes? With songs.

Correction: with songs that you like.

I’ve selected as an example the song Born in The USA because it’s very simple, but I advise you to take a look at my easy guitar songs guide and focus on the ones you like.

And if you don’t like any of them ask me!

Pentatonic scale, major and the notes on the guitar

And we finish with the famous musical scales:

Pentatonic

The first musical scale to see is the minor pentatonic, a basic scale in blues and rock.

Perfect for beginners and for practicing for hours and hours.

Major Scale

The mother of all scales. The one we all know by heart without knowing that we know it.

It’s the one that started it all.

The major scale is very important in the musical world and if you master it you will make a great leap with your guitar.

Notes on the guitar fretboard

Do you want to master the fretboard of your guitar? Then you should master the notes that are on it!

In this lesson you will learn all the secrets and tricks to find and link all the notes on the guitar.

The journey continues

So much for the free guitar course for beginners. I hope you liked it. But let me tell you that the journey has only just begun. We still have a whole world to explore!

There is still a lot to learn and play.

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