If you’re new to playing guitar… you’ve picked up a super exciting instrument to play! Even after all these years playing, I haven’t lost my passion for picking up my guitar and jamming.

Imagine being able to play all your favorite songs or being able to impress that girl or guy that you like with your amazing guitar skills. Or imagine just picking up a guitar at a party and playing songs everyone wants to hear. Maybe some day you might even become famous! That’s all possible if you take action on your dreams and start learning to play today.

And it doesn’t take as long as other instruments to be able to make some pretty cool music. In fact, by the end of this short 6 part e-course you’ll be playing the following rock ballad:

This ballad uses the chords A, D and E. By mastering these chords alone, you’ll be able to play hundreds of guitar songs. In fact, there are songbooks on Amazon that contain over 100 songs, which all only require these three chords. Of course you’ll probably want to learn more than just three chords, but you have to start somewhere, and the great thing about guitar is that you CAN play a song with only three chords.

Let’s get into it!

Tuning Your Guitar

The first thing you’ll need to do is tune your guitar. I can’t stress strongly enough how important it is that you have your guitar in tune. If you play your guitar when it is out of tune, and it’ll probably be out of tune after you’ve been playing it for about 30 minutes, then you’ll get frustrated with how it sounds. This frustration could be discouraging and hinder your motivation and progress. I strongly recommend that you pick up an electronic guitar tuner, like the Korg tuner for instance.

You can pick one up from amazon.com for only $13: http://www.amazon.com/Korg-CA30-Chromatic...

However if you’d prefer to tune by ear, then this is how you do it. It’s important that you know that a guitar can actually be in tune with itself, without any of the strings actually being exactly on the right note, so long as each string is in tune relative to each other. So if you don’t have another instrument, such as a tuning fork, a piano, or the play button below, then you can still tune your guitar to itself.

You should also know that it is easier to tune up than tune down (because it is easier to tighten a string until it sounds right than it is to loosen it). So, with that in mind, if you are not sure whether you need to tune a string up or down, simply loosen the string so that you will have to tighten it. Starting with the thickest string, E, tune your string to the note below:

Guitar Audio: E – audio/guitar-e.wav

{wav}guitar-e{/wav}

If you are playing along with a pianist, you’ll want to tune it to his E note, such as the sound below:

 
Once you’ve tuned the thickest string, E, you proceed to tune the other strings using your guitar. The strings are labeled as follows:

Photo here of guitar strings from thickest to thinnest, illustrating the notes for each string.

Tuning the A string

Pluck the thick E string at the 5th fret. Now pluck the open A string, and adjust it until it has the same pitch as the 5th fret of the E string.

Tuning the D string

Pluck the thick A string at the 5th fret. Now pluck the open D string, and adjust it until it has the same pitch as the 5th fret of the A string.

Tuning the G string

Pluck the thick D string at the 5th fret. Now pluck the open G string, and adjust it until it has the same pitch as the 5th fret of the D string.

Tuning the B string

Pluck the thick G string at the 4th fret. Now pluck the open B string, and adjust it until it has the same pitch as the 4th fret of the G string.

Tuning the E string (thinnest string)

Pluck the thick B string at the 5th fret. Now pluck the open E string and adjust it until it has the same pitch as the 5th fret of the B string.

Now that your guitar is in tune, you’ll want to start learning your first chord. Note: From now on, your fingers will be referred to as the following numbers:

Index finger: 1

Middle finger: 2

Ring finger: 3

Little finger: 4

The A chord

The A chord is played using your index, middle and ring fingers. Here is what it looks like:

Make sure that you press all 3 fingers down firmly. Note that the "x" on the 6th string (thick E) means that you don’t strum this string when playing. If you accidentally hit it, don’t worry, it just sounds a little crisper and better if you do aim for the 5th string when strumming A.

The E chord

The E chord is played using your index, middle and ring fingers. It looks as follows:

Make sure that you press all 3 fingers down firmly and strum.

Homework 

Now that you’ve learned A and E it’s homework time. To pratice these chords, spend at least 10 minutes strumming A and E. Practice putting your fingers on A and try to work on changing between them quickly. If you start to get sore fingers, don’t worry, this is normal as you are building up strength in them (especially in your fingertips). And don't be discouraged! You'll be amazed at how quickly you catch on.