How to play the guitar to

The Ultimate Guide on How to Play Guitar for Dummies

Want to learn how to play acoustic guitar? You’re in the right place. This is one of our most popular guitar lessons, so let’s jump straight in!

In this free guitar guide, you will learn:

I hope that sounds useful to you? By the end of this lesson, you will have an excellent understanding of how to play guitar for dummies. Let’s do it! 🙂

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You’ll learn to play acoustic guitar faster if you put great ‘fundamentals’ in place. And the most important thing of all is posture.

Posture (AKA ‘how you hold the guitar’) isn’t the sexiest subject globally, but it is the most important. Nothing will influence your chances of successfully learning guitar more than your posture.

If there are errors in your posture, you will never learn how to play the acoustic guitar as well as you’d like.

How to have perfect guitar posture

Ok, this is super important: The Thing You Sit On is vital.

1) Don’t slump down into a low sofa.

This restricts your movement and makes playing the guitar very difficult. (Especially if you’re using a large-bodied dreadnought or jumbo acoustic.)

You shouldn’t have to reach OVER the guitar to play it.

2) Don’t sit in a chair with arms.

Again, this restricts your movement and encourages you to keep your left elbow tucked into your torso. This is terrible for guitar playing!

If you want to learn to play the acoustic guitar correctly, your left arm must be completely free of obstructions.

3) Don’t perch on a high stool.

Low stools are perfect for guitar playing, but high stools are forbidden for guitar players! If you’ve tried playing at the breakfast counter, you will probably have experienced this already.

Playing on a tall stool tends to make your thighs slope downwards, and this means the guitar slips away from you while playing.

If you want to learn how to play acoustic guitar, it’s a prerequisite that the instrument is secure.

4) So what’s the best ‘thing’ to sit on?

Sit on anything you want, provided these two things are in place:

With these two things in place, you can learn how to play acoustic guitar quicker and with less frustration.

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✓ Stop struggling. Start making music.

✓ This is our most popular guide and it will improve your chord ability quickly.

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How to Play Acoustic Guitar – Important Guitar Anatomy

You don’t need to know much about your guitar’s anatomy, but you do need to know a little. Here are the parts of the guitar that are ‘essential knowledge’:

The ‘Fretboard’

This is where you press your fingers to play different chords or notes. Learning how to play acoustic guitar is simpler than electric or jazz guitar because we don’t need to worry about amplification. We can focus purely on your right-hand and left-hand techniques.

The ‘Bridge’

This is where the strings are held in place. The strings are usually fixed into the bridge using small pegs on an acoustic guitar.

The ‘Machine Heads’

You will see the guitar’s ‘headstock’ inside the red box above. You’ll also see some keys that you can turn. We call these ‘machine heads,’ and they raise and lower the pitch of each string. Adjusting these is how you keep your guitar in tune.

If you want to continue learning guitar, you must know how to keep the instrument in tune, so the machine heads are a vital piece of your guitar’s anatomy.

What are the notes of the guitar strings?

You’ll find it almost impossible to learn how to play acoustic guitar if you don’t know the notes of the strings. In standard tuning, the strings have a name and a number.

How to remember the string names/notes

The easiest way to remember the string names in your practice routine is by using a mnemonic.

This next one is my favourite:

What’s the difference between chords and notes?

Think of it like this: Notes are like letters. Chords are like words.

For example, here is a G Chord:

Do you understand this chord box image? If not, here’s an article that will help you: How To Read Guitar Chord Boxes

And here is a G Note:

There are a lot of guitar notes on the fretboard, and it can be overwhelming for a beginner. All beginners should focus solely on CHORDS. Don’t try and understand all the notes of the fretboard as a beginner – that’s a frustrating and unhelpful path to take.

What are ‘chords’?

For example, you play a chord if you strum the G, B and E strings. (Because you’re strumming a ‘group’ of notes simultaneously. )

‘Should I focus on notes or chords?’

They’re both awesome. But guitar chords are more suitable for beginners. If you want to learn how to play acoustic guitar easily, start with chords.

How to fret chords correctly

Make sure you use the very TIPS of your fingers. You don’t want to use the fleshy part, where your fingerprints are.

Using the tips of your fingers allows the maximum space in between each string. Notes can ring clearly without being muffled or deadened by unwanted fingers.

Try playing some simple chords with your fingertips vs your fingerprints. You will quickly see which one sounds best!

How To Play The Guitar: A 10-Step Programme For Beginners

Wondering how to play the guitar? Follow this 10-step roadmap to get started quickly.

In this guide you’ll learn everything you need to get off to a perfect start.

Learning how to play the guitar can be confusing, but after reading this lesson you will understand exactly what the guitar journey looks like and what you should do next. Let’s get stuck in!

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How to play the guitar step 1: Learn with a guitar that suits YOU

Some guitars are easy to play and some are very difficult to play.

The guitar you choose to learn with has a huge influence on your chances of successfully learning the instrument. Any guitar is better than ‘no guitar’ of course, but ideally, you want a guitar that suits your body shape and size.

This will make a profound and long-lasting difference to your guitar journey, so treat it seriously.

‘How much should I spend on my guitar?’

Not much, but as a beginner you need a guitar that is EASY to play and is in good working order.

The Fenders and Epiphones of the world are well established brands. Their guitars are good, but pricey. There’s some affordable guitar brands that offer amazing value like Yamaha, Redwood, Squier, Farida and Ibanez.

‘Do I have to buy my own guitar?’

You can borrow a guitar, sure, but this should be a temporary thing. If you’re serious about wanting to know how to play the guitar you need to buy your own hardware.

The Essentials…

You need a tuner. The Korg GA-1 is fantastic:

You also need a capo. These trigger capos from Jim Dunlop are brilliant:

What else? You need a strap and a few picks (thickness of 0.65-0.73 is ideal for newbies).

If you’re rocking on electric guitar then you’ll need an amp and a cable.

Learn the 12 EASIEST beginner chords with our famous FREE guide

✓ Stop struggling. Start making music.

✓ This is our most popular guide and it will improve your chord ability quickly.

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How to play the guitar step 2: Tune up right. Stay in tune.

A quality tuner is a smart investment. There are 4 types of tuner:

Microphone-based tuners have to ‘listen’ to the notes to be able to tune. (You can also plug in an electric or electro-acoustic.)

Vibration-based tuners clip on the neck of the guitar. The Snark is my favourite.

Pedal tuners are for bass, electric and electro-acoustic guitars. They are super-accurate and robust.

Smartphone apps help you tune your guitar for cheapz! They are mostly free and some of them are ok.

To learn more about tuners and the different ways to tune (and STAY in tune) check out Rob’s article:

Here’s a fast demo of how to use an electric tuner.

Some amps and guitars have built-in tuners. They’re never as good as dedicated tuners but they are sometimes handy.

As a beginner, having a tuner is essential. As you progress you’ll eventually be able to tune by ear, without needing a tuner at all.

How to play the guitar step 3: Learn the numbers and letters of your strings

I have this conversation with new students all the time:

Me: Pluck your open ‘A’ string please.

Student: Uhm… Which string is the ‘A’ string?

Me: The ‘A’ string is the 5th string.

Student: Uhm…. Can you explain the string numbers again please?

Don’t worry if this is you, this is common! 🙂

You must know which string is which if you want to know how to play the guitar! You need to be able to communicate clearly with your teacher and other musicians.

From the thickest to the thinnest strings this is the order: E A D G B E.

You can remember this is loads of ways. These are my favourites:

Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie.

Elephants And Donkeys Grow Big Ears.

‘The 1-6 should be the other way round, surely?’

The strings are numbered 1 to 6 from thinnest to thickest. This can be weird for beginners to understand because we strum the thickest string first, so people usually think that’s the 1st of the strings.

Sorry amigo, but this is just one of those funny idiosyncrasies that you need to get used to. 🙂

To learn a lot more about the notes of the fretboard and the musical alphabet (& ‘sharps’ and ‘flats’) check this out:

How to play the guitar step 4: Master basic chords

You MUST know basic chords, regardless of your guitar aims and regardless of your genre preferences.

Chords are the building blocks of the guitar world. If you want to know how to play the guitar then you must master basic chords.

There’s a whole area dedicated to beginner chords here, so take some time to poke around. Chords are an essential part of understanding how to play the guitar.

The secret to learning chords fast is to follow Mike’s stepping-stone approach.

There is an easy version of every chord.

As a beginner, you won’t be able to play a B chord or an F chord in the standard way.

So, you have 2 options:

Choosing the second option lets you enjoy playing music while you improve your finger control and dexterity.

You can then ‘graduate’ to the more difficult chord versions.

If you don’t understand these diagrams read this: How To Read Chordboxes In 60 Seconds

(Figuring out how to play the guitar will not be possible if you don’t know how to read chordboxes.)

Why perseverance is so important

Your chords will sound clunky to begin with. That’s normal. If you use easy chords you will get better quickly.

If your chords don’t sound right you’re probably not pressing correctly. We fret chords with the absolute tips of our fingers. (Not the fleshy pads of your fingerprints.)

Understanding how to play the guitar ultimately comes down to two things: using your left hand correctly and using your right hand correctly.

Let’s spend a bit of time talking about the all-important right hand: the music maker!

How to play the guitar step 5: Learn to strum the guitar properly

If you want to know how to play the guitar, you must be able to strum rhythmically. The most important element of music is the RHYTHM.

If you can’t strum with rhythm then you can’t make music. This is crucial folks, so read carefully!

I often see beginners trying to put too much power into their strums. Calm down amigo, you don’t need to strum powerfully to play loud.

Pete Townsend wrote some great songs, but his windmilling approach convinced a lot of learners that that’s how it’s done. Check out 4 mins 30 seconds into this vid. Awesome! 🙂

This is fun entertainment, but it’s not going to help you as you learn how to play the guitar.

Learning to strum with rhythm and in time should be your primary goal as a guitar learner.

Check out this article, it will help you a lot:

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How to play the guitar step 6: H old your pick properly

Picks are cheap and get lost all the time, so it’s a good idea to buy lots of them.

Most people prefer to start with a softer pick and after figuring out how to play the guitar they progress to a thicker pick for a little more control.

A pick thickness of 0.65-0.73 is perfect for a beginner. Any thicker and it gets a lot harder to fluidly strum.

Whatever pick you pick(!) make sure you hold it right: Grab it between your forefinger and thumb so only the pointy bit can be seen sticking out.

A huge part of understanding how to play the guitar is understanding how you make contact with the instrument. This can seem like a minor detail, but it’s very important.

In this image, the pick is being held too far back:

This is much more like it:

Most beginners find picks are difficult to use initially. Some beginner then follow the path of least resistance and choose to strum with their fingers or even their thumb.

This might feel easier at the time, but strumming with your thumb is an awful and limiting habit for a guitarist. Using your fingers is fine.

You need to be able to strum with your fingers AND a pick. Practice with both, but do not abandon the pick.

If you want to learn how to play the guitar, you have to be able to use a guitar pick.

How to play the guitar step 7: Play songs you adore

These are 3 objective facts:

Forget about learning ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ and ‘happy birthday’!

You can tilt the scales in your favour if you learn music that you adore.

Whenever I take on a new student I ask them for a list of their favourite bands/artists/songs. The more I know about their musical taste the easier it is for me to find a song they love and that they can use as a VEHICLE to progress as a guitarist.

Some songs might be too hard, but you should still tell your guitar teacher you want to learn them. Your teacher will be able to simplify the tracks for you.

A huge part of understanding how to play the guitar is understanding what makes you want to pick the guitar up and play. (There is nothing that will boost this motivation more than learning music that you adore.)

How to play the guitar step 8: Get a brilliant teacher

Don’t rely on YouTube! There are many good guitarists on YouTube, but very few good guitar teachers.

It can take a while to find a teacher that’s a good fit for you. You may have to try 5, 6 or 7 teachers before you find a good fit.

The right guitar teacher will transform your chances of learning how to play the guitar. Don’t be discouraged if it takes a while to find one that ‘clicks’ with you.

When chatting with guitar teachers be clear on your goals:

Be clear. “I want to know how to play the guitar” means different things to different people. You should specify what ‘success’ looks like in your eyes.

Learning how to play the guitar can be hard, but with a good teacher who understands clearly what you want to achieve, it becomes easy.

Use clear examples and specific bands/artists/songs.

How to play the guitar step 9 : Practice the right way

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s this…

‘Talent’ counts for very little. The difference between strong guitarists and poor guitarists is nothing to do with finger length or hand size or whether they have a ‘musical family’.

What makes the difference is practice. If you want to learn how to play the guitar you need to be clever about how you practice.

‘How often should I practice?’

Ideally 15 minutes a day, but 5 minutes a day will work.

I sometimes hear students say: “Sorry, I didn’t practice this week. I blocked a few hours on Saturday for practice, but then something came up.”

Don’t put all your practice into 1 day.

Life gets in the way. That’s life. Things WILL come up!

But even if you know you’ll have that day free, you’re creating a HUGE workload for yourself.

It’s far better to go bite-size. 15 minutes a day is manageable, not at all stressful and if something comes up, it’s alright. (Losing 15 minutes of practice isn’t a big deal.)

How to play the guitar step 10 : Be kind to yourself. Permit failure. Have patience.

There will be ups and downs as you move along your journey and figure out how to play the guitar.

There will be times when you struggle with a certain song or a certain chord. Know that this is normal. Don’t think that you ‘should’ be better than you are. (Or that you ‘should’ be further along than you are.) ‘Should’ is a dangerous and subjective word.

Breathe. Be calm. There will be inevitable hurdles. That’s normal. We want progress not perfection.

Getting impatient doesn’t help. In fact it makes things worse. It clouds your thoughts and can make you careless.

This is another reason that I suggest 15 minutes as the ideal practice time. It helps lower stress because if you ask too much of yourself you are bound to lose patience. Think: ‘small wins, often’.

Download this lesson’s worksheet

To download a summary of these steps to print off and put in your practice space click here: how to play the guitar in 10 steps

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Want free guitar tips and video lessons delivered to your inbox?

Join over 200,000 other guitar learners and subscribe to our guitar-tips-by-email service. (It’s free.)

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How to Play Guitar for Beginners in 2022

A complete beginner’s guide to playing the most popular instrument in the world

FTC Disclosure: We are a professional review site and may get commission from purchases made through the links on this page. As an Amazon Associate, Deviant Noise earns from qualifying purchases.

Last Updated: August 2022

Want to learn how to play guitar? In this complete beginner’s guide you’ll learnthe basics of how to become a guitar player. PLUS, we’ll give you free guitar exercises and a daily practice plan at the end!

If you follow this guide you’ll have:

We’ll go over the core basics, show you guitar technique and much more. It’s absolutely possible to teach yourself to play the guitar as a kid or an adult even if you have no musical training or talent.

Bottom Line – you don’t need to be “born with it” to be a phenomenal guitarist.

You can make yourself better, regardless of your current skill level or “talent.” And we can help.

Article Table of Contents

3. Additional Tips for Beginners

Learn the secrets of playing guitar from the Legend Carlos Santana

The best way to learn how to play guitar from A to Z

What Great Guitarists Focus On

We’re not gonna BS you – playing guitar isn’t easy. There’s a lot to focus on when you’re first starting out, like:

That’s a ton of shit to worry about… So let’s get started. We won’t go into things like sight reading and rhythm in detail, but you can brush up on those things here.

Special Note: If you want to speed up your learning check out these online guitar lessons. They really help make learning easier and faster. Our favorite is JamPlay, but Guitar Tricks is great too! Read our JamPlay Review or our Guitar Tricks Review to learn more about them. We also have a TrueFire Review, Guitar Mastery Method Review and a Fender Play Review if you’re interested.

Playing Guitar for Beginners – The Basics

Here’s everything you need to know about playing guitar. You can skip this first section if you want to get right to playing, but knowing the parts of a guitar, how to hold it and making sure it’s in tune are important things to know!

Parts of a Guitar

And it’s important to understand. So how does it all work? Regardless of the type of guitar you’re wanting to play, the basic structure of the instrument is the same. Some are made of metals, plastics and woods but they all work off the same basic idea.

A guitar works by producing a sound at a certain pitch by plucking a string. The sound the string makes then resonates through the body or electrical components within it. That sound can then be amplified further if necessary. The types of materials used in making the guitar, strings and even pick can have an impact on HOW it sounds.

Here are the basic different parts of the guitar:

Certain guitars will also have specific parts like a sound hole on acoustics or pickups for electrics.

How to Hold a Guitar Correctly

It may seem like something basic but the way you hold the guitar has a lot to do with how well you’ll be able to play. It shouldn’t matter much if you’re right or left handed – the guitar should play fine either way.

Here’s some tips on making sure you’re holding the guitar right:

It might not feel super comfortable at first, but you’ll get into it.

How to Tune a Guitar

Now comes time to tune your guitar. It’s pretty straight-forward, so we won’t get into it much.

If you’re got a smartphone you can download a free guitar tuning app to help you get everything sounding right.

Here are some good options:

Basically start the app, and play each string one at a time near the phone’s speaker. The app will tell you if that string is too low or too high.

What you’ll do is adjust the tuning knobs at the top of the guitar headstock, either tighter or looser until it’s perfectly in line with what the tuner says.

While you’re adjusting the tuning knob with your hand that supports the guitar neck, keep picking the string with your dominant hand so the tuning app gives you feedback.

Repeat for each string and you’ll have a finely tuned guitar!

The best way to learn how to play guitar from A to Z

How to Play a Guitar Correctly

Ok, finally… We’re gonna show you exactly how to play the guitar. First up, you need to learn about notes and fretting.

Notes on a Guitar

Here are the order of the notes on the guitar from top (first string – thickest) to bottom (sixth string – thinnest)

These will be important later so memorize the order. Think of it this way – Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie. That’s an easy way to memorize the strings in order from top to bottom. Also try to remember how they each sound once you’ve tuned your guitar properly.

Using Guitar Frets

Frets are the metal strips that run up and down the neck of the guitar. By pressing your finger on a string right before the metal fret (NOT on the metal fret itself) you change the note that string will play.

Pressing right before the fret will give you the best sound. But how do you know which fret is which? Well let’s call the very top fret (closest to the tuning pegs/knobs) Fret 1. And you can count down from there.

So, if you’re asked to play the second fret, you’d press down on the string between fret 2 and fret 3 (as close as you can to the actual metal fret without touching it).

Where to Put Your Thumb When Fretting a Guitar

Normally, you won’t use the thumb much to press down on strings. You push it up behind the neck of the guitar so your fingers get enough leverage to press down on a string with force. Try to make sure that when you’re positioning your fret hand, you’re loose and comfortable, not tensed up.

How Hard Should You Press

And make sure you press down hard when fretting. Otherwise when you strike the string, you won’t get a clean sounding note (it’ll buzz if you don’t press down properly). It may start to hurt your fingers at first, but you’ll gradually get used to it. Practice fretting strings at different positions and plucking the string to hear how it sounds, until you get the hang of it.

Guitar Picking vs. Guitar Fingering

It’s up to you whether you use your fingers or a pick to play the guitar, but it’s good to be comfortable with both techniques.

A guitar pick is a small tear-drop shaped piece of plastic (in varying weights) that you use to strike a guitar string.

It produces a different sound than if you just used your fingers.

Using Your Fingers

If you’re using fingers, practice plucking the strings with each of your fingers. You don’t want to pull too much and snap the string back. You want a gentle even pluck using each of your fingers.

How to Hold a Guitar Pick Correctly

To hold the guitar pick make a loose fist with your hand and put your thumb on top of it. Put the pick in between your thumb and top of fist with the pointy side away from your inner palm.

The pick should be resting between your thumb and index finger and poking out enough so that your fingers won’t hit the guitar strings while picking.

Guitar Strumming and Picking Techniques

To begin, practice your picking and strumming without holding down any frets. First, grip the guitar and hold it above the top guitar string at a 45 degree angle (see picture below).

Now that you have a good grip on the guitar pick, glide the pick across the strings from top to bottom. Make sure you’re not rigid and playing too forcefully.

Be gentle, but firm. You should hear each string play fully without any muting caused by your fingers hitting and dampening the strings as they ring out. Practice doing this until it becomes second nature.

To practice picking (and not strumming), simply use the pick – with the same grip – to play each string on the guitar separately. Make sure you’re getting a nice, loud and even sound from each string.

Don’t pull on the string with your pick or fingers too much, unless you’re going for an exaggerated sound on purpose. Now try picking individual strings while you’re holding them down on a fret. Adjust your fret and pick/strum technique until you’re able to get a nice clean and even sound from each string.

Yours FREE:

Guitar Chord Diagram & Guitar Tab Cheat Sheets + Practice Plan

Playing Chords

Now that you’ve got basic fretting, picking, plucking and strumming down, it’s time to get into playing CHORDS. So what’s a guitar chord?

It’s when more than two notes are played at the same time to produce a harmonious sound. Simple, right? Why are they important? Because they form the basis of songs. They lay the “harmonic foundation” of how the music will flow emotionally.

Huh? You know how a certain song makes you sad? It’s probably because the harmony (the movement form chord to chord or note to note) uses chords and a sequence that’s universally felt/heard as “sad.”

And because guitar is such a rhythmic instrument, chords are an important part of your playing.

Playing Guitar Chord Progressions

Chord progressions are basically patterns of chords you play to convey a certain sound or emotion. Remember, harmony evokes emotion and it guides the flow of the song melodically as well. So by playing different chords one after the other, we can start to build the foundation of a song.

You may be thinking “I barely remember the chords you just taught me! How am I supposed to play different chords one after another?” Don’t worry, keep practicing the chords and eventually muscle memory will kick in and you’ll have various chord positions memorized so you can switch from chord to chord easily. Let’s try it…

Your First Chord Progression on the Guitar

So now that you know the “Big 3” guitar chords (C, G and F Major chords above) it’s time to put them together to make your first (straight up basic) song. Playing these 3 chords one after another sounds great. Try it – play the C Chord a few times, then switch to an G, and finally a G. Now go back to the C. Doesn’t that sounds amazing? (I know, not really – but it’s a start right?)

Do it in this order and it’ll start to sound like a real song:

Doesn’t that sound great? But you can’t just randomly choose different chords and expect them to sound great together. So why does it work with those chords? The reason is because those 3 chords make up very important “Scale Degrees” in the C Major scale.

The above chord progression is known as a I – IV – V (i.e. 1-4-5) progression in the key of C Major.

If you have no idea what I just said there, don’t worry. It’s a bit of an intermediate music theory subject. You can learn more about it here – The Nashville Number System

Smooth Transitions

At first, your chord transitions (moving from one chord to another) is going to sound broken and sloppy. And you’ll be slow when learning how to play guitar. And it won’t sound “clean,” because you won’t be pressing the strings on the fret properly. It’s normal. Just keep at it. Practice the three chords above until each one sounds pristine, and your transitions between chords are smooth and not jittery.

A great way to do this is by first practicing your left hand movements. Practice moving your fret hand from one chord position to another. Once you’re good with that, try strumming and changing chords together. You should be able to move from one guitar chord to another without hesitation, trouble and thinking. That’s the goal.

Common Guitar Chord Progressions for Beginners

There are some common chord progressions you can learn on guitar that will allow you to freestyle your playing easily. But you need to learn guitar scales and guitar chords fully. That’s really beyond the scope of this tutorial. Check out our music theory guide to learn about finding scales, finding the chords in a scale and then putting together a chord progression.

Then come back here and try out some of these chord progressions on your guitar:

An easy and fun way to learn how to play guitar

The Ultimate Guide on How to Play Guitar for Dummies

How to play acoustic guitar – 4 easy beginner chords

Let’s look at some cool beginner chords that make it easier to learn how to play acoustic guitar.

This is a G6 chord. You can use it as a substitute for any G chord.

To play this chord you:

Your chord should sound something like this…

G Chords are great and there’s so many different ways to play them. Here’s article which explains a whole bunch of G Chords: 4 Easy Ways To Play The G Chord On Guitar

C Major 7

This is such a cool chord. It sounds awesome and is easy to play. You can use it a as substitute for any C chord.

Cmaj7

To play a this chord you:

Learning how to play acoustic guitar requires you to learn some important chords. There are no chords more important than G and C, which is why these two chords are so useful. This Cmaj7 chord should sound like this:

Check out this article for more cool C chords: 4 Easy Ways To Play The C Guitar Chord

The E Minor Chord

This is another fundamental guitar chord. If you want to learn how to play acoustic guitar this is a brilliant chord to get under your belt. It sounds really full-bodied on an acoustic.

To play this chord you:

It should sound like this:

You can learn more E minor chords here: Em Guitar Chord – 4 Easy Ways To Play This Essential Chord

The Dsus2 chord

The final one of our fundamental chords is Dsus2. You can play this as a substitute for any D chord:

Dsus2

To play this chord you:

D is a great chord and there are loads of different ways we can play it. Read this article to learn more: 3 Easy Ways to Play the D Chord on Guitar

How to strum a guitar

Chords are important, but strumming is how we make music. This is where everything comes to life!

One of the key things in learning how to play acoustic guitar is developing a strong and rhythmic strum. Unlike electric guitarists, you can’t hide behind effects or a distorted amp. Your strumming has to be on point.

‘Should I use a pick to strum?’

Learning how to play acoustic guitar is easier with a pick. It feels weird to begin with, but that only last for a few hours.

After tens of thousands of hours of teaching guitar I learned that, overall, people learn guitar faster if they play with a pick.

The correct way to hold a pick

1 – Do a thumbs up sign:

2 – Place your pick on the top of your index finger, with the pointy edge facing you

3 – Bring your thumb down

That’s how you hold a pick. This takes EVERYONE a while to get used to, so don’t worry if it feels foreign or awkward to begin with.

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How to strum an acoustic guitar

Strumming can be difficult when we first start, but it’s essential you master it if you want to learn how to play acoustic guitar. This is how we bring music to life.

This is what it should look like from your perspective when you strum:

Check out this article to learn much more about strumming: How To Strum A Guitar

Timing Tips

If you don’t keep in time you will find it hard to play along to songs and with other people. This is important.

Most of the time when we strum chords, we want each strum to be even. So the gaps between each strum are the same.

You don’t want to have uneven gaps as this often causes you to go OUT of time.

Here I’ve strummed a chord four times.

Can you hear how each one has the same amount of time between each one?

Feeling the tempo

When we listen to music we often hear a ‘pulse’, this is the beat.

We notice this when we tap along to a piece of music, we feel the music and instantly know whether it’s fast, slow or medium paced.

In this audio clip Jack talks about how to establish tempo:

Once we’ve established the beat we can use it to help our strumming technique.

The vast majority of popular music is in 4/4 time. This means there are four beats per bar of music. Don’t worry too much about what this means – as a beginner all you need to know is that you should count 1, 2, 3, 4 repeatedly!

So because our beats go 1, 2, 3, 4…. We strum downwards on each beat.

That should sound like this..

This sounds ok because it’s in time. But it doesn’t sound very fluid. This is where upstrokes arrive.

We need to add some upstrokes in too. We add these in-between the beats.

So instead of just strumming, 1, 2, 3, 4.

We strum: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, etc…

(On the “and” you should use an up stroke.)

If you want to learn how to play acoustic guitar this is a critical point, so forgive me for labouring it. This needs to be clear! 🙂

Here’s what the pattern should sound like.

Can you hear the downstrokes ON the beat and the upstrokes IN-BETWEEN the beat?

Let’s take it to the next level…

The final strumming pattern we can do here is simply double the speed of our last one.

This is slightly harder to play but gives us a relentless fluidity which sounds great in acoustic & folk-based tracks. Check out this song by Amy McDonald and listen to the acoustic guitar to get a flavour of this:

This style of strumming fun to play and sounds awesome. If we refer back to our ongoing example, it would sound something like this:

3 Cool Acoustic Guitar Songs For Beginners

The easiest way to learn how to play acoustic guitar is simply to learn as many acoustic-based songs as possible. We learn best by playing songs we love.

Here’s 3 cool acoustic tracks you can try right now.

1 – ‘Three Little Birds’ by Bob Marley

An awesome tune by Bob Marley and it’s so great for beginner as it only uses 3 chords: G, C and D. (We can use G6, Cmaj7 and Dsus2 to make things easy.)

Play along to the track using the above chords, try and figure out the changes yourself, it’s great practice:

2 – ‘Stand By Me’ by Ben E. King

This is a perfect beginner acoustic song, it uses just four chords and they repeat in the same order for the whole song.

The chords for this song are G, E Minor, C and D. However we’re going to use our stepping stone version chords which are G6, E Minor, Cmaj7 and Dsus2.

Here’s a video from Jack explaining how to play this song:

3 – ‘Songbird’ by Oasis

‘Songbird’ is a sweet acoustic track that’s very easy to play.

Check it out. The video is terrible, so just focus on the music! (The music starts at 39 seconds.)

This song only has two chords and sounds great on acoustic guitar. To play ‘Songbird’ we only need G6 and Em:

Here’s a video from Andy showing how to play this:

Download this lesson’s worksheet

Download this lesson’s worksheet & checklist by clicking here – You can print it off or save it for future reference and this will help you internalize the key points.

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Learn to Play the Guitar in 10 Hours – No Musical Talent Required

This post is for anyone who has thought about picking up the guitar but hasn’t yet. For those of you who aren’t musicians, becoming one is both more fun and easier than you imagine.

I’m writing this post in the hopes that I can convince 1 or 2 of you to pick up a guitar and start making your own music. Below I describe a basic theory and method for getting started with the guitar that I’ve taught in real life to many friends with success.

Before I picked up the guitar, I was operating under a lot of false assumptions about how difficult it is to become a musician.

I couldn’t have been more wrong on all these assumptions.

If you don’t have musical talent I’ve got good news for you– you don’t need it.

You just need time. Playing guitar is fundamentally about teaching your fingers to do weird things they aren’t used to doing. That’s it. It doesn’t take a genius. It takes some hours. Set aside 10 hours with the guitar and you’ll be playing some great songs. Promise.

I love playing the guitar. When I think of the decisions I’ve made that have changed my life the most, picking up the guitar was one of the most important and meaningful decisions I’ve ever made.

Learning how to play an instrument opens tons of doors:

This post will teach you how to play songs on the guitar in less than 10 hours.

The information you need to play the guitar can be learned in 5-10 minutes. That information consists of 5 finger shapes you must remember. I’ve posted them below. The rest of your 10 hours will be spent teaching your finger muscles to play chord shapes.

For those of you who play guitar, you might have noticed that some of my tasty licks aren’t so tasty. I’m no Stevie Ray Vaughn. You don’t need to be superstar to have tons of fun with this stuff. Despite not being the best guitar player, I’ve played my songs in front of 1000’s of people in live venues, had songs I’ve written and recorded played on San Diego’s leading rock station, and played in some super cool seedy dive bars to drunken hipsters. That’s just a few among a countless other memorable experiences. You don’t need to be a genius– half the battle is just showing up.

Here’s what your 10 hours can look like.

The shapes you need to remember (the only information you need to get started):

G – pointer finger 2nd fret, 5th string, middle 3rd fret, 6th string, ring 3rd fret, 1st string

C – Ring finger 3rd fret 5th string, middle 2nd fret 4th string, pointer 1st fret 2nd string.

D – Ring finger 3rd fret 2nd string, middle finger 2nd fret 1st string, pointer 2nd fret 3rd string. (Don’t hit the big string)

E minor – Ring finger 2nd fret 4th string, middle 2nd fret 5th string

A minor – ring finger 2nd fret 3rd string, middle 2nd fret 4th string, pointer 1st fret 2nd string

Tips for playing:

Songs you can play along with within 1 hour:

Easy-ish:

A little faster, perhaps after a week or so of jamming out….

Ok, I did my 10 hours and I can Play John Denver’s entire catalog. My roommates/family members are going to kill me. What’s next?

Have fun and let me know if you need more help.

*Update February 2nd, 2017*

Wow! This post really seems to have helped a lot of folks get started with the guitar. It has been read by – I kid you not – millions of aspiring guitarists. Thank you! As many of you have noted in the comments below, no, I’m not selling anything here related to playing the guitar. My motivation to write this post was that musicians, and especially guitar teachers, can often make learning the guitar sound way too hard. It’s actually easy.

Sometimes it’s easier for an outsider to say stuff like that. I know many people in my life have used this simple approach to play the guitar and now, because of this blog post, certainly many hundreds (maybe even thousands!?) more. That’s super cool.

A lot has changed for me since I first wrote this post well over five years ago, but not the guitar’s role in my life. That’s one of the cool things about this skill. It’s like riding a bike. Once you’ve got it, you have it for life.

I wanted to add a few comments regarding the most frequently asked questions I receive about playing the guitar. I’m also going to make a few product recommendations for those of you looking to purchase your first guitar. “What guitar should I buy” is the #1 question I receive from readers.

Question: “Hey Dan, my fingers are really hurting, is there anything I can do about this?

Answer: Not really, except know that you’re sharing that pain with every guitarist who came before you! It’s like a right of passage. If you practice enough, the pain will go away, guaranteed!

Question: “My hands are small and I’m having a tough time making the chords, what can I do?”

There’s plenty of people with small hands who play the guitar. Nine times out of ten smaller people confuse the terrible awkwardness that comes with the first week of playing the guitar and mistakenly think it’s because their hands are small. Again, you’re teaching your hands to do really strange movements here. Imagine going to an advanced yoga class having never stretched before, that’s basically what you’re doing.

I’m a bigger guy and I still had a lot of trouble my first ten hours. All of that said, I do think there is a virtue in a 3/4 scale guitar.

A 3/4 scale guitar is basically a “baby” sized guitar, designed for kids or travelers. I actually have one myself. Why? Because I think they are fun to play and it’s convenient in the small apartment I live in. I also think they are slightly easier to play. So there you go. A complicated answer!

Question: “Is it better to start with an electric or acoustic guitar?”

It doesn’t really matter. What counts most is finding a guitar you’ll want to play. You could base the decision on the type of music you aspire to play. What I was starting out, my motivation was to play Dave Matthews songs, so an acoustic guitar was an obvious choice.

I do think playing an electric guitar is slightly easier but not so much that it’ll matter that much (basically, it’s easier to push the strings down). So the best answer is: the guitar you’ll play the most. Eventually you’ll have both 🙂

“What is the best guitar to start with?”

So what I’m going to do is recommend guitars that are mid-range and that you can grow with. Although these guitars aren’t that expensive, you could easily play with them in a band and in front of audiences. And as your skill progresses, you won’t be thinking “this thing sucks.”

I actually gave my original Yamaha to a friend and former bandmate, and a few years later when I settled into a new apartment in a new city, I went out and bought the same damn guitar. So yeah. That’s as good a recommendation as I can give. If you want an acoustic, go get the Yamaha.

3/4 Size Acoustic: I also have a 3/4 Scale Guitar in my apartment because they are awesome to sit beside your couch and just pick up easily and jam with. I bought the guitar a few months ago, and when I was playing it a concerned shopper came up to me and reminded me “that’s for kids you know.” I laughed. Fair enough, but I think little guitars are cool to have around the house, so if you do too (or if you have really small hands) perhaps this could be the guitar for you.

Electric guitar: Well the world of electric guitars is in some ways more complex, as there are all kinds of different looks and technologies. And it’s not good enough to just have a guitar, you need to buy an amplifier as well. I will just recommend mid-level stuff that’s worked for me based on my preferences, but if you like “stuff” and collecting gear, you’ll find playing the guitar to be a deeply satisfying hobby 🙂

So what’s the coolest electric guitar there is? Well, that’s for you to decide. But for me it’s the classic Fender Standard Telecaster (that’s what I’m playing in the video above) or the Fender Standard Stratocaster.

My heart rate just went up 10 beats a minute just looking at these things!

I love love love these guitars. No gimmicks. They are pure class (but are capable of absolute fury!) 🙂 Think a Telecaster can’t rock? Johnny Greenwood respectfully disagrees. Check out Bonnie Raitt using a Strat to lay down some nasty slide licks. SRV nearly tears the strings off his Strat. Would you prefer something a little funkier? Here’s Prince playing the greatest guitar solo of all time on a Telecaster.

One problem, particularly if you are just starting out. They are expensive! So perhaps just something for those of you who know you’re in this for the long haul. But these guitars are the type that you could have for your entire life!

And also remember: it’s not always true that a more expensive guitar is better. I had one “knockoff” brand Stratocaster in high school that to this day is one of the best guitars I’ve ever had. Sadly, it was stolen some years later 🙁 Oh well.

If you like these guitars but don’t have that kind of money, Fender has an “entry” level brand called “Squire.” Now, when I was young Squire guitars were junk, but nowadays they are much much better. I think the entire guitar industry has upped their game. You can see Fender has created a simple “beginner’s” pack here.

Not bad! The only downside to a setup like this is that you’ll start to feel the “limit’s” of the rig, if you play a lot, within the first year. But it’s also affordable so you can’t argue with that!

Now many people are going to ask about other brands, like why don’t I suggest Gibson guitars? It really is a personal taste thing, and it’ll ultimately depend on yours. Perhaps by the style of music you play or the artists you admire. For me, Fender guitars represent the best in quality and feel. Many Gibson style guitars have fatter necks, bigger frets, are heavy, and feel and sound “muddy” to me, whereas the feel of a Stratocaster– light, slender, classic– feels, plays, and looks fast. 🙂

Amplifiers:

To rock, you need an amplifier. I personally enjoy anything “Line 6” or “Fender.”

On the high end, you can play gigs with the modern Line 6 Guitar Amplifier (offers many on-board effects), or for a more classic live performance oriented amp you cannot go wrong with the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. This is the amp I used to play to audiences in my rock and roll days. Your neighbors are going to hate you! 🙂

If you want something more for in-home use, I’d recommend a smaller amp with on-board effects. For that purpose Line 6’s amps work better than Fender’s in my opinion. This little amp, the Line 6 Spider Classic is killer! And really affordable. It’s great for beginners practicing John Mayer licks in their bedroom.

One other cool thing about electric guitars– you can plug them into your computer and use a program like Apple’s Garageband as an amplifier. You can basically have 100’s of classic sounds available virtually. You can “jam” virtually with your computer and create full-on recordings on your laptop. You’ll just need a “pre-amp,” which is a device that amplifies the signal from your guitar before it sends it to your computer. I’d recommend something like the Focusrite Scarlett

Other stuff you might need:

Probably a guitar tuner. If you have an iPhone, this app is incredible! If you prefer to have a dedicated tuner the KLIQ “UberTuner” will work. As you scan tabs on the internet, you’ll notice a lot of songs require Capos, this one is my favorite. And you might want a guitar stand to show off your axe 🙂

Do you have other questions about learning to play the guitar? I continue to respond to readers in the comments and occassionally I’ll come back to update this post since, even so many years after I wrote it, it seems that many folks are finding value in it. It’s working! People are playing the guitar 🙂