Guitar Lessons

Welcome to your guitar adventure! In this first lesson, you'll get to know your instrument, understand its challenges and rewards, and get ready for a life-changing musical journey.

A comfortable playing position and an in-tune instrument are the bedrock of your musical journey. In this lesson, you'll master both for the six-string guitar.

Get your guitar tuned, check string health, and set a reliable pre-practice routine.

Build relaxed fretting and strumming hand positions to avoid tension.

Learn to play individual notes on the open strings and understand how the guitar strings are named, numbered, and pitched.

This is the moment! In this lesson, you'll learn to play E minor and C major, two cornerstone chords that will allow you to play thousands of songs on your guitar.

Learn how to read guitar chord diagrams and tab notation so you can look up any chord or riff from any source without needing a teacher to translate.

Congratulations, you're ready to play your first song on guitar! In this lesson, you'll combine the Em and C chords with a simple rhythm to create a complete piece of music.

Learn the music theory fundamentals behind what you are already playing: note names, rhythm values, and time signatures explained through practical guitar examples.

Clean notes, minimal pressure, and efficient finger placement.

Build efficient strumming mechanics using forearm rotation, correct pick angle, and balanced down-up strokes.

Learn a steady fingerpicking pattern and tone control.

Learn Travis picking and arpeggio patterns that form the foundation of fingerstyle guitar.

Add expressive articulation to simple melodic lines.

Build speed safely using focused, repeatable drills.

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Understand how a capo raises pitch, the most useful capo positions, and how to match a singer's key without barre chords.

Down-strums are only half the story! In this lesson, you'll master the 'up-strum' technique and learn the essential rhythm patterns that will make your guitar playing sound full and professional.

Let's level up your rhythm! In this lesson, you'll learn how to create a classic folk/rock groove by using 'ghost strums' to create a syncopated, professional-sounding rhythm pattern.

Palm muting is how guitar players add punch and dynamics to rhythm parts. Learn the right hand position, when to lift and when to press, and how to mix muted and open strums.

Control silence and accents to tighten your groove.

Develop off-beat feel and internal timing.

Solid time feel separates players who sound good from players who sound great. Build your internal clock with metronome practice, subdivision drills, and listening exercises.

Knowing chords is one thing, but playing them smoothly in a song is another. In this lesson, we'll do exercises to give your fingers speed and precision, and add the G major chord to your arsenal.

Learn your first barre shapes and hand setup.

Expand your chord palette with 7ths and suspended shapes.

Identify the most common progressions and play them confidently.

In this lesson, you'll add the powerful D major chord to your collection. With G, C, D, and Em, you will have the 'key four' chords needed to play a huge number of rock, pop, and folk anthems.

Move a chord shape up and down the neck to play it in any key without memorizing new fingerings.

Suspended and add9 chords create harmonic color without introducing new scale degrees. Use them to add texture to standard progressions.

Diminished and augmented chords create tension that resolves naturally. Learn where they appear and how to use them.

Dominant 7th chords are the engine of harmonic motion. This lesson shows where they come from and how to use them musically.

The 12-bar blues is the most important progression in popular music. Every chord in it is a dominant 7th.

The ii-V-I is jazz's fundamental building block. Understanding it unlocks hundreds of jazz standards.

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Use intervals to navigate the guitar fretboard with confidence.

Understand key centers and how to transpose progressions on guitar.

Learn how triads and seventh chords are built from intervals on guitar.

Understand chord inversions, slash chord notation, and how G/B and other common inversions create smoother bass movement on guitar.

Train your ear to recognize chord movement and interval quality on guitar.

Major and pentatonic scales as tools for soloing and improvisation on guitar.

Modes as rotations of the major scale, with practical focus on Dorian and Mixolydian for guitar.

It's time to put all your guitar skills together! In this lesson, you will learn to play 'Four-Chord Freedom,' your first complete song, using the powerful G-D-Em-C progression and the classic Campfire Strum.

Time to expand your musical horizons! In this final lesson, you'll learn a new, epic-sounding chord progression (Em-C-G-D) and master the song 'Giants' to complete your foundational guitar training.

Combine new chords and rhythm into a full song.

Tackle a slightly harder song with dynamics and phrasing.

Learn to strip a song down to its essentials and rebuild it as a self-contained solo guitar arrangement.

Explore acoustic folk guitar: Travis picking, alternating bass patterns, and open-voiced chord textures.

Build a sustainable practice plan with measurable goals.

Use simple recordings to spot weaknesses and improve.

Learn the basics of ensemble playing and musical communication.

A practical method for learning guitar songs by ear: finding the key, using I-IV-V-vi, and confirming with bass notes.

Write a short original song on guitar using chord progressions and a basic melody.

Use the pentatonic scale to improvise guitar solos and melodies over chord progressions.