This beginners (and improvers) course starts at the very beginning. After the first 10 lessons on basic chords and strumming you can move onto other areas - I usually teach things in roughly this order, to offer some variation, but feel free to mix it up a little and tailor it to fit what you want to learn. This is just a suggested progression.

It is very important that you understand that there are many ways to learn the guitar and there is more than one correct method. What I offer you here is a method that I have developed for teaching beginners over many years and I have found it to be effective. But it doesn't mean any other method won't work.

Learning songs is an important part of learning the guitar. You can either follow my advice and get into transcribing (working out songs off CD yourself) right from the start, or buy some books with many songs in it, or just use the internet to get free tabs. But be warned, many web tabs are completely wrong! There are many guitar methods on the web, some made there by students or beginner players and sometimes I have seen very bad advice offered for beginners on the web. So if not here, make sure you study with a reputable site.

If you have any questions I will be happy to answer them in the forum, please leave the questions there.

Take care and I wish you the best of luck.

Justin

Before you begin....Please read the following before you get started, it will answer many of the questions that I get asked about learning the guitar and the best way to practice when you start out. It really will make a difference to how you learn if you check this out BEFORE you get going...

BC-030 • Common beginners questions answered
BC-031 • The acoustic vs electric debate for beginners
BC-032 • Practice shedules, focus and times
BC-033 • Before you begin....

RE-020 • Recommended beginners products (instruments, tuners etc)
Many people are also a bit confused about what guitars to buy and ask my opinion. The most important step in buying a guitar is to buy one that YOU like. That said - on this page I will give you all the advice I can about particular models and why I rate them. Please don't email me to ask, because I have no idea what YOU should buy!

TB-020 - Beginners Practice Routine *NEW*
A guide to what you should practice from this course - just a rough guide you should read. This is the normal path that my private students go down. Everyone is differnt of course - but I hope this will help...


Lessons - Chords and BasicsBC-001 • Chord Boxes, Posture, Plectrums and Left Hand Finger Placement
BC-002 • Your first chord - D
BC-003 • Two more chords - A and E
BC-004 • Some very easy songs
BC-004b • Common Chord Sequences --> *For DVD users
BC-005 • Five more chords

Someone made a great pdf for you with all the beginners chords for you all to print out if you like... I forgot the persons name - but big thanks for helping the community :) Download it here.

BC-021 • Make your chord changes faster
This lesson I go through the "1 minute chanes" exercise and explain what I think is the best way to work on your chord changes. Not part of the actual "course" but a very useful lesson none the less.


Lessons - Strumming and more ChordsBC-006 • Basic rhythm guitar
BC-006b • Strum Along with Justin --> *For DVD users (no notes for this - just strum along!)
BC-007 • The F chord
BC-008 • Tied rhythm patterns
BC-008b • More Strum Along with Justin --> *For DVD users (no notes for this - just strum along!)
BC-009 • Blues 7th chords
BC-010 • Blues strumming


Lessons - Blues and Improvising basicsBC-011 • The Minor Pentatonic Scale
BC-012 • The 12 Bar Blues
BC-013 • 12 Bar Blues variations
BC-014 • Exploring the pentatonic
BC-015 • Improvising Basics
BC-015b • 12 Bar Blues jam with Justin --> *For DVD users (no notes for this - just jam!)

Lessons - Rock Basics (NOT ON THE BEGINNERS DVD)BC-016 • Power Chords 1
BC-017 • Power Chords 2
BC-018 • Rock rhythm
BC-019 • Palm muting
BC-020 • Rock accents

 

Beginners DVD

Remember that the first 15 lessons of this course are available on my very reasonably priced DVD for your viewing pleasure. It's a lot better quality than the YouTube videos and you can pause where you like and laugh at my dodgy hair on a big screen. ha ha. Check out PR-006 • Beginner Course DVD