Guitar for the Absolute Beginner: How to play guitar in 30 days
(This serves as the introduction to the Guitar for the Absolute Beginner series.)
Before you banish that pretty guitar you got for Christmas to the darkest recesses of your closet, give it one more chance. Read on, I think I can help you…
How long does it take to learn to play the guitar? The obvious, roll your eyes answer would be “a lifetime”. To master the guitar, yes. But you don’t want to master the guitar. Not yet, at least. You want to learn a few chords and strum along with your favorite songs, right?
In my experience, it usually takes people just a few weeks of focused practicing to play what I call “lead singer guitar”, that simple strum-and-sing kind of guitar playing. And I think for about half of the folks who take up guitar, that’s their goal anyway. But even if you plan to do far more than that, you’ve got to start somewhere, right? Whatever your goals are for the guitar, this should serve as a good foundation so that you can take it wherever you want to go.
So I’m going to take some basic things to learn on guitar into 30 posts, each representing a “day”. If you’re really focused, it may only take you a couple of weeks to get through it. Or if you’re busy, it may take you a couple of months. But I’m confident that if you actually PRACTICE, most people can play basic rhythm guitar in about a month.
Over the next month or so, I’ll present the lessons day-by-day*. An overview follows. For those of you who just can’t wait to get started, you’ve got the World Wide Interweb at your fingertips. It will not hurt my feelings a bit if you look this stuff up elsewhere!
* This will serve as the “first draft” of sorts. I plan to get your feedback and edit as needed. I always reserve the right to change my mind!
Here goes nothing!
Days 1-5:
- commit to a practice schedule
- basic basics (holding your pick, fretting the strings)
- learn how to tune your guitar with a tuner
- memorize string names
- learn how to tune your guitar using the “fifth fret” method
- memorize the notes at the fifth fret
- begin practicing the “guitar chromatic scale” - this will teach you basic alternate picking
- learn the C and G open chords and practice switching between these two chords
Days 6-10:
- learn the following open position chords: A, D, E, F
- learn the I-IV-V progression
- practice changing chords by rehearsing the I-IV-V progression in the keys of C, G, D, and A
- learn and begin practicing the major scale
- memorize the location of all of the “E” notes on the guitar
Days 11-15:
- learn the following minor open position chords: Am, Dm, Em
- learn the I-vi-IV-V progression
- practice changing chords by rehearsing the I-vi-IV-V progression in the keys of C and G
- learn and memorize relative minor chords
Days 16-20:
- learn barre chords! This is probably the most difficult and frustrating things for new guitarists. We will learn 4 different barre chord forms: E, A, Em and Am. Once you learn these, you can play major and minor chords in ANY key.
- practice changing chords by learning I-IV-V progression in the keys of E, F# and B
- practice changing chords by learning I-vi-IV-V progression in the keys of D and A
Days 21-25:
- learn power chords! This is one of the easier things a new guitarist will learn. By learning power chords you can “fake” about 99% of songs out there. I intentionally hold off on teaching you these b/c you need to learn barre chords first. Trust me on this one…
Days 26-30:
- learn the basic 12 bar blues progression in the keys of E and A
- learn and begin to memorize I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, and vii° chords
A few final notes:
- It’s not as hard as it looks! I’m going to break it down “day by day”.
- Notice your “workload” gets a little easier the last several days. This will build in time for review. Also, by this point you’ll have learned enough chords to start learning some songs!
- If you play guitar, you’ll notice a few things are missing. Seventh chords and diminished chords, while important, will probably confuse you more than help you in the very early going. Minor scales and pentatonic scales are vital to basic lead guitar, but are slightly beyond the scope of “guitar for the absolute beginner”.
- Feel free to give me feedback, comments and questions!
If you enjoyed this post you might like these:
- Guitar for the Absolute Beginner, # 1: Make a practice plan to ensure your success
- Guitar for the Absolute Beginner #3: Every Anglican Does Get Baptized Eventually, and other tricks to memorize string names
- Learn these five songs to improve your guitar technique
- Can you learn to play guitar by playing Guitar Hero?
- The absolute worst thing you can do
