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ABSOLUTE BEGINNER GUITAR LESSONS
WorkshopLive's Absolute Beginner Guitar Lessons are perfect for anyone who wants to learn to play guitar. Even if you don't own a guitar, these lessons will show you what to look for when buying a guitar, as well as all the parts of the instrument and how they work. You'll learn the essential techniques for learning to play guitar, such as basic open chords, all the notes on all of the strings, and how to read music. Once you have mastered these guitar lessons, you'll be ready to try out many of the great folk and easy pop song lessons available here at WorkshopLive.
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COURSE LESSON TEACHER DESCRIPTION
Introduction to Guitar Guitar Lesson: How to Buy a Guitar Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan If you're interested in this Absolute Beginner Guitar course you may be thinking about buying your first guitar. I remember my first guitar with real fondness. My mom bought it for me after I pestered her for awhile. It was by no means a great instrument, but it was good enough to get me started and I logged on countless hours of pleasure with it. Getting your first guitar can be very exciting but I know the idea of walking into a music store and shopping for one can be overwhelming or even intimidating for a beginner. At this point you may not know exactly what you want in an instrument. Lesson 1 will give you a good overall look at the different types of guitars and some tips on buying one. We'll look at the three main types of guitars, steel string acoustics, nylon string acoustics and electric guitars. You'll learn the advantages of each of them and the differences among them. And we'll end up with a few important tips on how to try out a guitar at a store. The more you know the better off you'll be when it's time to make your choice. So let's get started.
Introduction to Guitar Guitar Lesson: Parts of the Guitar Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan Do you know the song that starts, The foot bone's connected to the, leg bone, the leg bone's connected to the, thigh bone, the thigh bone's connected to the back bone and it goes on until you reach the head bone? I love that song and I do it at shows for kids. In this lesson, you'll learn what's connected to what on the guitar. Think about how many hours in your life you're going to be playing. Hopefully many, many hours as the years go by. It just seems like a good idea to be able to identify the parts of something thats important to you and that you'll spend so much time with. And you'll be able to talk the guitar talk with other guitar fans. Instead of saying I love my guitar. I really love the way the doo-hickey is shaped, it's got really responsive gizmos and a cool ebony thing-a-ma-jig, you can say I really love the way the bridge is shaped, it's got really responsive machine heads and a cool ebony fingerboard. We better get right into it; we've got a lot of important what-cha-ma-cal-its to talk about.
Introduction to Guitar Guitar Lesson: How to Hold the Guitar Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan How to hold the guitar; that's the topic for this lesson. You may be wondering why we're devoting time to this. Unless you've just arrived from a galaxy far, far away, you've seen people play guitar before, and you may think its no big deal; you just grab it, put it on your leg, and you're off. But I feel, and many teachers feel, that holding the guitar is a very important topic. One of the crucial things for beginners to do is to establish good playing habits from day one. This will enable you to make progress with ease. A good and efficient playing position will allow you to reach the strings with both hands in an effortless manner. You probably never thought about it like this, but I've had many years to think about the guitar. Do you realize that when you're playing guitar you're sitting in the back of it? A piano player sits in front of his or her instrument and the keys are right in front of them. We're behind the guitar, the strings are on the other side, and we have to reach around to play them. This is why playing position is so important; when we reach around to play, we can have our hands and wrists in good healthy positions, or in bad and stressful positions. I want you to adopt a good playing position that will help you become a great player.
Introduction to Guitar Guitar Lesson: Tuning Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan The first thing you need to know about tuning is this phrase "It was tuned when I bought it". It's a guitar cliche phrase that I and millions of others have used when tuning on stage. The audience will either laugh, or groan, or do a little bit of both. The second thing you need to know about tuning is the important thing. How to actually tune your guitar. We'll cover two ways to tune in this lesson. First you'll be able to tune your strings to the sound of mine. Next you'll learn about the two main types of electronic tuners and how to use one to tune on your own. The strings will go out of tune. This is because they can stretch and are affected by changes in temperature and humidity. And the very act of picking and fretting the strings can also help them go out of tune. Learning to tune is essential to every guitarist. You may suffer from tuning anxiety; I know I did at the beginning. And when I started, electronic guitar tuners had not even been invented. We had to do it the old fashioned way. But I got it eventually. And you will too. And I'm especially excited about this lesson becuse I'll be able to tell you about my good friend Ernie.
Basic Techniques Guitar Lesson: The Right Hand Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan This lesson is about right hand technique. On many instruments a player will work both hands in pretty much the same way. This is true of keyboard and woodwind instruments and also drums. But when we play guitar each hand serves a different function, and they need to work in quite different ways. This is why we need to look at each hand separately and in this lesson we'll take a good look at right hand technique. We always talk about how great a guitar sounds. Well put your guitar down, put it in its guitar stand, or on the couch, or just rest it anywhere. Now listen. How good does it sound? Of course you don't hear anything. The point I'm trying to make is that you bring the sound out of the guitar. And your right hand approach will pretty much determine the kind of tone or tone variations you get in you playing. The best sounding guitar will not sound good at all if played with a bad right hand technique. And a guitar that may not have a great tone will even sound better if played with a good right hand technique.
Basic Techniques Guitar Lesson: The Left Hand Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan We're half way there with our look at hand technique. We'll take a good look at left hand technique in this lesson. You'll learn how to hold your left hand to achieve maximum success in playing chords and single-note passages. You'll learn how to give your left hand fingers an easy access pass to every string and every single fret on the guitar. You'll set yourself up to be able to play with speed and efficiency in any position on the neck. It sounds good doesn't it? Well if you learn to play with your left hand in a good playing position your playing will sound good. The notes in your chords will all ring out cleanly and clearly and you won't struggle with muted notes. And in this lesson you'll also learn how we'll number our left-hand fingers in the musical examples that will appear in future lessons. You'll learn the answer to the mystery of why, even though we have five left hand fingers, we only use one through four to number them.
Basic Chords Guitar Lesson: Chords and Chord Diagrams Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan Now in this section, you'll be playing your first chords. This is an exciting moment, isn't it? You'll be strumming a G and C chords and making music with your guitar. You'll learn many more chord fingerings in this course, and countless others if you continue on into other courses and keep going with the guitar; but, you should know that there are many great songs that only have two or three chords. I'll also teach you how to read chord diagrams, which is the standard way guitarists write out chord fingerings. In this lesson and throughout this course, you'll be able to learn your chords by reading the chord diagrams, and also by looking at the screen and checking out where I have my fingers on the fingerboard of my guitar. Looking at my fingers will be a big help in seeing how the chords are played, but be sure not to neglect your chord diagram reading skills. And you'll also learn how to read slash notation, which is a way to write out guitar strums or rhythms. The chord diagrams will tell you what to do with your left hand and the slash notation will tell you what to do with your right hand.
Basic Chords Guitar Lesson: The One-Finger G7 Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan In this lesson, we'll add one more chord to your chord vocabulary. Its called G7th. It's another popular chord that you need to know. Once again, you'll be able to see it in chord diagram form and you'll also be able to see me finger it on my guitar. We'll add it into some examples with the C chord fingering that you've already learned. C and G7th are often found together in songs. They sound really good together and its easy to switch from one to the other. No matter what chord you're playing, make sure that each note is very clear. Work on each chord separately for a while and play each string one at a time so that you can hear that each note rings out. Make sure your fretting finger is not touching any open strings. In our previous lesson, we introduced the slash notation. I hope you're comfortable reading it. We'll use it again in this lesson and in other lessons. While earlier we grouped our strums in groups of four, here we'll have an example with strums organized into groups of three. So be sure to keep your strumming light, pay attention to your tone and keep your strumming very steady.
Basic Chords Guitar Lesson: C and D7 Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan The chords we covered so far were all three-string chords. They only had one fretted note but each one also included two open strings. In this lesson, you'll get into some four-string chords. Of course they sound a little stronger than the three-string chords. You're going to learn a new version of the C chord. We'll add one more fretted note to it to give it a fuller sound, so you'll need to use two left-hand fingers to play it; and, you'll be using three fingers to fret a D7 chord. Of course it's more of a challenge to place three fingers quickly in the correct position than it is to play one or two finger chords; however, learning your first three-finger chord is a good step for you. Most of our common chords are three-finger chords. If you practice them separately a few times and then work on the examples in this section, you'll get the hang of your new C and D7.
Basic Chords Guitar Lesson: Amin and Emin Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan Your next step will be to get started with five- and six-string chords. I'll teach you two new fingerings, an A Minor and an E Minor. You'll be fretting a note on the 5th string in the E Minor chord. As you start to play chords with notes on these lower strings, it's especially important that you maintain your perfect left-hand position. I know you have perfect left-hand position because I know you have a really good teacher. But seriously, it's very difficult, and sometimes impossible to get every note clear when playing chords with fretted notes on the lower strings if you don't have your left hand and fingers in good positions. I think you'll like the sound of the musical examples in this section. First, we'll work with A Minor and E Minor by themselves. But then we'll also play music that combines their minor sound with other chords that you already learned. We'll also continue writing our examples in slash notation and we'll include another piece with strums that are grouped in threes. I hope you enjoy this section. The minor sounds will add a new dimension to your playing.
Single Notes Guitar Lesson: Tablature Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan Our last few lessons have gotten you started on playing chords. In most musical situations as a guitar player, you'll be strumming chords to accompany your singing, or someone else's singing, or you'll be using chords to backup someone else who is playing melodically; but, it is important that you also learn to play melodies and solos. In this lesson, you'll take your first steps in single-note playing and you'll learn how to read single notes in tablature. Tablature, or tab for short, is not standard music notation but it is a system that is very popular among guitarists. It's been around for centuries, and for many players, it's their only method of reading or writing guitar music. You'll have the chance to learn standard music reading in an upcoming section of this course, and I hope you do take that challenge and learn to read music on your guitar. But for now we'll stick to tablature, and I think you'll find it easy to learn.
Single Notes Guitar Lesson: Fun Licks Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan In this section, you won't learn any new chords, concepts or techniques. This whole lesson will be made up of cool sounding licks, riffs, and phrases for you to play. Now here's some more musician talk for you to learn. We call a short melodic phrase a lick. Well, at least cool people like you and I do. People who aren't cool just call them short melodic phrases. I'd say that in general we think of licks as phrases that are played on the upper strings. A riff is kind of like a lick that is usually found on the lower strings, and a riff is usually repeated over and over in a piece. The repeated guitar part to Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones, Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple, and the opening of Enter Sandman by Metallica are all great examples of Rock 'n' Roll riffs. And you could say that the guitar solo that starts Chuck Berry's classic Johnny B Goode is made up of a great collection of guitar licks.
Notation Guitar Lesson: Pitch Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan This lesson will get you started reading standard music notation. I hope you'll stick with me - you won't regret it. When you are comfortable with note reading, you'll be able to look at any piece of music and learn it. Eventually you may even have the pleasure of writing out some music you wrote yourself. I've done that many times and I must tell you it's a real thrill. Learning to read music is like learning another language. Like any language, it has its own unique rules and vocabulary. In this lesson, you'll begin to understand these rules and get acquainted with important terminology. As we go through this segment of our course, you'll learn about pitch and the highs and lows of the guitar. You'll learn about the staff and how to identify notes that are written on it. And what about that curvy thingy is that sits at the beginning of each line of written music? What is that curvy thingy called? You'll find out what it's called in this lesson.
Notation Guitar Lesson: Notes on the 1st String Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan Can you feel the suspense in the air? In this lesson, you are going to read your first notes in written notation; another big moment for you. It's traditional in guitar education to teach one string at a time. We'll follow that proven model. We'll be starting with the 1st string. Every fret on the 1st string is a different note but you don't need to learn all of those notes right away. I hope you learn all of the notes on the fingerboard eventually but for now we'll once again follow the tried and true method. You'll learn three notes on this string, E, F, and G. I'll explain how they are notated on the staff. And I'll also show you how the notes look on the fingerboard. You'll be able to listen to me play our musical examples and later you can play them along with me. We'll be playing all of our notes as whole notes. Remember, play them when you count one and let them last for the second, third and fourth counts. Keep your count steady and make sure each note rings out clearly.
Notation Guitar Lesson: Time: Rhythms, Beats and Measures Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan It's about time, would be a perfect title for this section of our course, because this is where we'll cover all of the basics of musical time. We'll look at all of the important concepts that you need to know and get you started on being a good rhythmic reader. We'll talk about beats and how the staff is divided into sections that we call measures. And what about those numbers that are on the first line of every piece of written music? They sit right next to that curvy thing we call a G clef. What's up with those numbers? You'll find out all about those numbers in this lesson. We already covered whole notes and now we'll look at other note values. You'll get familiar with quarter notes and half notes also. You'll learn to recognize them on the staff and will be able to count and play them correctly. And, last but not least, you'll get to play some examples that use the material you'll learn. You'll be reading in rhythm before you know it.
Notation Guitar Lesson: Reading Music on the 2nd String Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan Moving on to the second string will be another good step for you. One string at a time and you may be surprised how soon you reach the 6th. You'll notice that the 2nd string has some similarities with the 1st. Once again you'll be learning three notes. Of course they sound different, and will be named differently than the notes you learned on the 1st string. These three notes are named B, C and D. But they are in the same fret location as the notes on the 1st string (open, 1st fret and 3rd fret). And you'll see that you'll use the same left-hand fingering as you did on the 1st string (1st and 3rd fingers for the fretted notes). You'll learn to recognize these notes on the staff and you'll also be able to watch me play them on the fingerboard. And as usual, you can listen to our musical examples and then join right in and play along with me.
Notation Guitar Lesson: Rests Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan By now you've covered so many new chords, notes and concepts you probably need a rest. Do you need a rest? Say yes. Well you'll get a rest in this part of our course. In fact you'll get three rests: a quarter note rest, a half note rest and a whole note rest. You'll learn that rests are how we write pauses in our musical notation. They are important to understand because every moment in time must be notated in a composition or song. In most cases there will be gaps in the music at the end of phrases, and sometimes short pauses that occur within the phrase. The rests are how we write these pauses or silences in the music. You'll play examples that include each of our rests. And the examples will also include notes from the 1st and 2nd strings. You'll need to move from one string to another smoothly without hitting a wrong note. Don't be discouraged if you miss a string once in awhile. Go slowly at first, keep repeating the examples, and you'll get the hang of switching strings really soon.
Notation Guitar Lesson: Notes on the 3rd String Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan One more string coming at you. Hope you're ready for it. Are you comfortable with the first two strings? Do you keep a steady beat when you play them? Do you get to your notes in time? If yes is the answer to those questions then you are ready to tackle this lesson. The notes you'll learn on the 3rd string are named G and A (only two this time). Seems easy right? Well I'd say so. But you'll have to use your 2nd left-hand finger to fret the A note, and you'll see why you'll need to be careful with that one. When you play the examples in this section, you'll find some music for the 3rd string alone. This will give you the chance to focus on your new notes and get really comfy with them before you move on.
Notation Guitar Lesson: Notes on the 4th String Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan On the 4th string, we once again have three notes that we'll need to cover. You'll learn D, E, and F and we'll follow the same routine. Why change a good thing? You'll learn how to read these new notes written in notation on the staff. And I'll be sure to demonstrate them on the fingerboard for you also. Just check me out on the screen and do what I do. You'll see that the pattern of the notes on this string is different from that on any other string that we've already covered. Here, the pattern will be open, 2nd fret and 3rd fret. And of course, since the notes have a different pattern on our fingerboard, you'll be using a different fingering. Be sure that you pay close attention to the fingering in the examples.
Notation Guitar Lesson: Notes on the 5th String Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan You should be proud of yourself! Only two strings left! And I guess this one will be as easy as A, B, C. Okay, you guessed it: the notes you'll learn on this string are called A, B, and C. The pattern of the notes is exactly the same as the pattern we already saw on the 4th string and, of course, the fingering is exactly the same also. When it comes to learning how to write these notes in music notation, we've got a problem. You'll see that they don't fit on the lines and spaces that make up the staff. Luckily for us, someone solved this problem a long time ago. You'll see how we write these notes and learn how to read them also.
Notation Guitar Lesson: Notes on the 6th String Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan So, we're off to the last string, and when you reach this string, you get the bonus prize. The note letter names on this string are the same as the note letter names on the 1st string; E, F and G. The next bonus prize: The notes on this string are in the same exact location as the notes on the 1st string. They're in the 3rd fret, the 1st fret and open. And, of course, you get a third bonus prize: The fingering is exactly the same also. If anything, you may be experiencing a little difficulty reading these notes, once you try them. All those ledger lines can seem confusing at first. You just need to memorize how each one looks as a graphic image, and then you'll recognize them faster. So dig into the examples in this lesson and smile as you hit those rich, deep notes.
More Chords Guitar Lesson: Introduction to Rhythmic Notation Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan In this lesson, you'll get to learn three different strums that will give your chord playing more variety. Until now, we've only used down strums to play our chord examples. Here, we'll be getting into rhythms that include up strums, and we'll be adding these new strums to progressions that include chord fingerings you've already learned. We will get into some great new chords in the next lesson. You've already covered slash notation in an earlier section. Now we're going to cover another, more often used, way to write strums. We're going to use the note values that you learned in our lesson on musical time. If you skipped that part of our course, you can still dig into this section by listening to me play the examples. You can imitate me and play along. Or, you may be better off if you just go back and read up on quarter, half and whole notes and then come on back. We'll use this new way of notating rhythms in the examples that accompany this lesson, and we'll also use this approach with the rest of our examples.
More Chords Guitar Lesson: The Full G and C Chords Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan In this lesson you'll be learning some new and improved versions of chords we already covered earlier in this course. You'll get to play a six-string G chord and a five-string C chord. These new fingerings are very important for you to know. They're the standard forms that intermediate and advanced players use when they play G and C. You know how, when you buy something like a printer or a DVD player, you get a big manual with all the details but they know you won't read it so they give you a one-page, quick-setup guide with pictures of everything? Well the G and C fingerings we already covered were sort of like your guitar quick-setup guide. They were good basic chords that got you playing right away, but the fingerings we'll cover now have a much fuller sound.
More Chords Guitar Lesson: Introducing A, D and E Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan Next, three brand-new chords: A, D and E. They're often found together in songs. They're used in all styles, but are really rock classics. Have you heard 'Wild Thing', by the Throggs? Then you've heard these chords. Have you heard 'Gloria' by Them? Yup, the same chords. And have you heard 'Fire and Rain' by James Taylor? You got it; A, D and E are also used in that tune. Elvis played them, Hendrix played them and now you'll get to play them.<br><br>Our first example will have a new strum for you to try out also. The other examples will all be played with strums you've already covered in previous lessons. Keep your arm loose and relaxed when you strum and really try to keep your beat steady. And remember that you only want to strum the first few strings when we play the up-strums. The down strums must sound stronger than the upstrums if you want your rhythm playing to really sound good.
More Chords Guitar Lesson: A7 and E7 Chords Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan In this lesson, we'll be learning two new chords called seventh chords. Seventh chords are used in all styles, but are especially common in blues music. You'll be using an A7th and an E7th, along with a D7th, to play your first blues example. Its in a form we call the 12 Bar Blues. Do you remember that a measure of music can also be called a bar? Well then, of course the 12-Bar Blues is 12 measures long. And, we'll use another popular new strum for our blues piece. I really hope you're feeling comfortable with the strums we already covered. Our new one will consist of a steady alternation of down and up strums.
More Chords Guitar Lesson: Cool Chord Exercises Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan The chords in this next section will be chords that you should already be familiar with, but the chord progressions will be new ones. They are great sounding chords and progressions that you will hear in many popular tunes. Look over the chords that are used in this lesson. Evaluate your ability with them. Remember that learning to play the guitar (or any instrument) is not a race. You need to go at a speed that works for you. If you see that you have a few chords that you have trouble fingering, you would be better off practicing them a little more before you move on. Keep trying to get every note in the chords clear; practice fingering them over and over, and over and over again, and try to increase you speed with them. And review any previous examples that use the chords that need more work, then you'll be more than ready to play the music in this lesson.
Expanding Beginner Knowledge Guitar Lesson: Relative Tuning Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan This lesson is about relative tuning. Let's say you're out playing guitar somewhere and you run into your favorite performer. He admires your playing but you've got your feet sticking out and he falls over your feet and breaks his wrist. He's got a big show that night. How's he going to play the show? Well, you can fill in for him. You know every song on every CD he's recorded. You start playing the intro to one of his biggest hits, but something's gone really bad! Your second string went flat! Your electronic tuner - the battery's dead! So, your favorite artist just keeps walking and you lose that chance. If you knew how to tune using relative tuning, you would have saved yourself in that situation. That's why I want to teach you relative tuning. It will allow you to get your strings sounding good without an electronic tuner or even another guitar.
Expanding Beginner Knowledge Guitar Lesson: Introduction to Fingerstyle Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan Fingerstyle players use their right-hand fingers to pick the strings. It's an exciting way to play. Paul Simon, Ani DiFranco, John Mayer, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, and many other famous players use a predominantly fingerstyle approach. There are even examples of fingerstyle guitar in many Beatles songs. In this lesson, we'll get you started in the basics of fingerstyle playing. You'll learn how to use your right hand fingers in the correct way when you pick the strings. And you'll also learn what the letters P, I, M, and A stand for. Once you get to our musical examples, you'll be able to play three popular fingerstyle patterns. It may take you a little while before you feel really good about your ability with these new patterns. Pay close attention to your fingering, and you should be doing fine before too long.
Expanding Beginner Knowledge Guitar Lesson: Two-Note Shuffle Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan I'm sure you'll recognize the music in this lesson. You've heard it in blues, rock and country styles. If you go out and listen to any blues band, on any night of the week, in any town, in any country, I bet you'll hear this pattern or a variation of it. And if you go hear the rock band playing in the club next door I bet you'll hear it there too. It may very well be the world's most popular guitar pattern. We'll cover the intervals that you'll need to learn in order to play the music in this section. And you'll also learn just what an interval is. You'll be playing the pattern based on the notes A, D and E. When you get good with these you can try to make up your own variations. I've written many songs based on these patterns myself and I'd encourage you do the same thing. The blues or R&B shuffle is really fun to play. I've taught it to hundreds of students and they love it because it's so easy yet it sounds so good. I bet you find it easy also. Watch the screen as I play the examples for you and copy what I'm doing. Listen closely to the sound and rhythm and check out the notation on the screen and you'll do fine with this lesson.
Expanding Beginner Knowledge Guitar Lesson: Improvising with the A Minor Pentatonic Manzi, Lou & Mazer, Susan In this lesson, you'll learn one of the guitar's most popular scales, the Minor Pentatonic. It's a scale you've heard in many musical settings. It's a standard sound in rock, blues, country and many other styles. Do you know that fantasy you have when you're in a band, and you're playing at a big outdoor festival? You've got 100,000 screaming fans in the audience. They're all screaming your name and you've got your helicopter waiting to whisk you away after the gig. You step up to the edge of the stage, you close your eyes and play a wickedly fast and furious solo, the best solo ever played on guitar? Well, the minor pentatonic scale is the scale you'd be using in that fantasy.
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