Learn Guitar: The Complete Beginners Guide

This is the first class in my 'Learn Guitar' series. It caters for the complete beginner, on electric or acoustic guitar and requires no previous guitar playing experience! 

A quick note to let you know that this class has now been updated. This original beginner guitar class is what started my journey on Skillshare and lead me to becoming a top teacher. It still holds tons of value and is a shorter class to follow, with less information to digest. But, if you want to delve deeper, then you can check out the newer version of this class here. I take you on a longer and more detailed journey, which will develop your playing ability even further. There’s a ton of fresh content! And a bigger focus on lead work, songwriting and overall technique development. I hope you’ll join me in either of them.

Back to this original class.

In this class you will learn:

Anatomy and Tuning: A simple start that will cover all the essential parts of the instrument. We also learn how to tune our guitar, and develop a trick to make this process a bit easier.

Chord Boxes and Tab: These can look confusing at first! But this short section and accompanying visuals will make everything a lot easier to understand.

Exercises and Riffs: The proper playing starts! Some great exercises to get you up and running, and some cool pieces of music to learn, from a mix of musical styles!

Introduction To Chords: We cover Major and Minor chords. They will give you a solid foundation for your playing and enable you to play a wide range of music. 

Strumming Patterns, Timing and Rhythm: These are all very important things that will develop your overall playing ability and provide you with the basic understanding of how music is constructed.

Songs: 2 full songs from 2 different eras, that use exactly the same chords. A great demonstration of how just 4 chords can open you up to a vast amount of playing options. There are also plenty of extra songs attached as PDF's for you to try. 

Scales: These are highly valuable! We will scratch the surface of what can be a very in-depth area and then utilise this initial knowledge to compose a piece of music.

Write Your Own Music: A section I love! This will also act as a class project. You will combine all of the above and use this to create your own chord progression, and lead guitar parts. I demonstrate some lead ideas, and then provide a backing track that you can play along to, jam over and generally get creative with! 

How To Restring Your Guitar: Some handy knowledge to have, that I don’t think gets covered enough when first learning guitar.

This beginner journey will provide everything you require to become a confident and creative guitar player.  

There are lots of PDF’s attached to further assist your learning journey. They include the full tab of the songs & riffs we discuss, with some extra ones added for you to experiment and challenge yourself with.

By the end of this class, you will have developed a great level of playing ability, will be well versed in a variety of guitar knowledge, and will have all the tools you need to take your guitar playing and creativity to the next level. 

Feel free to start discussions on Skillshare, or email me with any questions.

Good luck! 

** When you're feeling ready - please check my other classes to continue your learning journey:

• Learn Guitar: Power & Bar Chords
• Learn Guitar Fingerstyle: A Beginners Guide To Fingerpicking
• Guitar Practice: Improve Your Finger Strength, Stretch, Speed & Independence 
• Guitar Songs: 6 Iconic Guitar Riffs
• Bass Guitar Lessons: The Complete Beginners Guide

• Intro
• Class Project
• Anatomy
• Tuning
• Chord Boxes and Tab
• Picking Exercise and First Riff
• 2 More Riffs
• Chord Introduction
• 1st Chord - E Minor
• G Major Chord
• C Major and D Major Chord
• Strumming Patterns, Timing and Rhythm
• Song 1 - Stand By Me
• Song 2 - Perfect
• More Major Chords
• More Minor Chords
• Scales
• C Major and G Major Scale
• Write Your Own Music
• Lead Guitar Ideas
• Introduction To Backing Track
• Backing Track
• Riff - Enter Sandman
• Riff - Oh, Pretty Woman
• How To Restring Your Guitar
• Conclusion