How to Learn Guitar for Free

Get to know the parts of your guitar., Tune your guitar., Learn How to Play Chords., Learn how to read guitar tab., Toughen up., Cut your nails., Learn to finger pick., Practice!, Once you get better at guitar and can read tab try checking out...

10 Steps 3 min read Medium

Step-by-Step Guide

  1. Step 1: Get to know the parts of your guitar.

    The hollow part of an acoustic and the solid part of an electric is called the body.

    The long thin part is called the neck.

    The fretboard is the flat part where you put your fingers.

    And the frets are the lines going across the fretboard.

    These are very important when it comes to where to put you fingers.
  2. Step 2: Tune your guitar.

    If your guitar has been laying around untouched for a while It's most likely out of tune. http://www.howtotuneaguitar.org/ is a great place to do this.

    Just match the sound of the string with the sound of the tuner.

    You'll want to tune in standard to learn in because that's how most songs are written in. , http://chordfind.com/ is practically an online chord book.

    Figure out how to play some of the major chords like D, G, C, A , and E along with D minor, G minor etc. , Download a free tablature program such as TableEdit, PowerTab, or tuxguitar.

    With one of these programs you will not only see where to position your fingers, but also be able to hear the song so you can learn the tempo.

    As your skills develop you may wish to graduate to a more advanced tablature program such as GuitarPro.

    Guitar players normally are too lazy to learn how to read music so they invented guitar tab.

    You can find a Monster load of guitar tabs at www.ultimate-guitar.com this site pretty much has every song you can think of and makes buying a tab book totally pointless. , Many people quit when their fingers hurt.

    When your first starting out your fingers have to build calluses.

    This you can't help, so take breaks and continue through.

    Nylon string guitars will be gentler on your fingers than steel strings. , Guitar Players sometimes have weird nails.

    Their left nails are to be as short a possible without cutting themselves (so their nails don't get in the way of their playing) and some finger pickers grow their right nails long to use them as picks. , You will learn more chord voicings easier playing with your fingers.

    A great song to learn how to finger pick on is Green Day's "Time of Your Life".

    It definitely takes some time getting use to. , Hear a song you'd love to play then find the tab for it.

    Take it slow at first but once you get the feel for it try playing with the song or even singing with your own playing ,, These are just a few sites that are very helpful and if you don't find what you need there scour youtube for the song or try to find tabs for your song here: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/
  3. Step 3: Learn How to Play Chords.

  4. Step 4: Learn how to read guitar tab.

  5. Step 5: Toughen up.

  6. Step 6: Cut your nails.

  7. Step 7: Learn to finger pick.

  8. Step 8: Practice!

  9. Step 9: Once you get better at guitar and can read tab try checking out websites for backing tracks (http://www.guitarbackingtrack.com/) which are fun to practice with.

  10. Step 10: Also for learning the guitar check out these website: http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/ http://www.freeandeasyguitar.com/.

Detailed Guide

The hollow part of an acoustic and the solid part of an electric is called the body.

The long thin part is called the neck.

The fretboard is the flat part where you put your fingers.

And the frets are the lines going across the fretboard.

These are very important when it comes to where to put you fingers.

If your guitar has been laying around untouched for a while It's most likely out of tune. http://www.howtotuneaguitar.org/ is a great place to do this.

Just match the sound of the string with the sound of the tuner.

You'll want to tune in standard to learn in because that's how most songs are written in. , http://chordfind.com/ is practically an online chord book.

Figure out how to play some of the major chords like D, G, C, A , and E along with D minor, G minor etc. , Download a free tablature program such as TableEdit, PowerTab, or tuxguitar.

With one of these programs you will not only see where to position your fingers, but also be able to hear the song so you can learn the tempo.

As your skills develop you may wish to graduate to a more advanced tablature program such as GuitarPro.

Guitar players normally are too lazy to learn how to read music so they invented guitar tab.

You can find a Monster load of guitar tabs at www.ultimate-guitar.com this site pretty much has every song you can think of and makes buying a tab book totally pointless. , Many people quit when their fingers hurt.

When your first starting out your fingers have to build calluses.

This you can't help, so take breaks and continue through.

Nylon string guitars will be gentler on your fingers than steel strings. , Guitar Players sometimes have weird nails.

Their left nails are to be as short a possible without cutting themselves (so their nails don't get in the way of their playing) and some finger pickers grow their right nails long to use them as picks. , You will learn more chord voicings easier playing with your fingers.

A great song to learn how to finger pick on is Green Day's "Time of Your Life".

It definitely takes some time getting use to. , Hear a song you'd love to play then find the tab for it.

Take it slow at first but once you get the feel for it try playing with the song or even singing with your own playing ,, These are just a few sites that are very helpful and if you don't find what you need there scour youtube for the song or try to find tabs for your song here: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/

About the Author

J

James Clark

Professional writer focused on creating easy-to-follow organization tutorials.

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