Beginners Guitar Lessons

If on the other hand you think you would like to learn a little more music theory for the guitar now, then please read on. These beginners guitar lessons is the perfect place to start. These lessons will guide you through the often confusing aspects of guitar theory and how to apply it when playing. It's important to learn some theory in order to get anywhere on the guitar at all, but the trouble is, music can get very complicated and often unnecessarily so, especially if you aren't musically minded.

These beginners guitar lessons aim to make this whole process of learning the guitar as simple and enjoyable as possible for those that aren't musically minded as well as for those that are.

An important thing to remember while studying the guitar and going through these lessons, is to try not to understand why 'this is this' or 'that is that' so to speak. Follow these beginners guitar lessons from the beginning and try to accept the things you will learn about music as 'musical principles'. Some of it may not make sense at first or you may think to yourself - why? Try not to fall into that trap at the early stages of learning the guitar.

The more you learn over-time, the more things will fall into place, and by following these beginners guitar lessons from the beginning things will start to make more sense and have more relevance. The most important thing to remember is to enjoy the whole process and that means not getting too bogged down with the theory! The great thing is, the beginners guitar lessons and all the other guitar lessons on this site are completely free. 

OK, let's get started.  

The first beginners guitar lesson starts here

'Open' String Names - beginners guitar lessons

In order to be able to work out what the notes on the fret board are, you will need to know the names of the strings. Firstly, the fret board is where the frets are on the front face of the neck. The frets are the metal strips that you place your fingertips behind in order to create a musical note. An 'open string' is the term given to a string that is plucked without a finger being pressed on the fret board to make a 'note'. The string is thus played 'open'. Starting at the top of the guitar with the fattest string and working our way down to the thinnest string, the order of the strings are:- E, A, D, G, B, E. You can memorise this by making your own rhyme up. I used to use - Eating Apples Daily Gives Brilliant Energy.

Now you will notice there are two E strings. The fattest, at the top of the guitar, is called the Bottom E string, because it is the lowest note of the two E Strings. In fact, it is the lowest note on the entire guitar neck. The thinner of the two E strings is called the Top E string because it has the highest note of the two E Strings. This is not the highest E Note or pitch though, just the highest E String. We we'll come to that later.

Working out Notes - beginners guitar lessons

The 'Chromatic Scale' is a musical scale of twelve notes each a semitone apart from one another. A semitone is the 'interval' or 'jump' from one fret to the next fret in any direction along any string. Therefore, the Chromatic Scale is the order of notes that run one after the other along any string from any one note on the fret board, in any direction. We will learn it now going up the neck towards your strumming hand. To go down the string towards the nut, just reverse it.

If we memorise this, which isn't difficult, we can easily know the name of every single note on the entire neck of the guitar. The notes of this musical alphabet in alphabetical order are: - A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#. These notes are the only musical notes in existence. There are no other notes in music. This is just musical principles and the laws of music.

Now, working out the names of each note on the guitar's fret board is simple. The first note we have is the name of the open string. For example, if we pluck the fattest (Bottom E) string, the note that sounds is E. If we then follow the 'musical alphabet' (chromatic scale), the next note along that string is F, behind the first fret. The note after that is F#, then G, G#, A etc. etc. You get the picture? Do this for every string starting with the name of the open string first and then continuing up the neck using the Chromatic Scale and you will find the name of every note on the guitar neck.

Only Twelve Notes? - beginners guitar lessons 

Now, the thing is, you may have thought to yourself, there's only twelve notes, but there's more than that on one string, so what happens when I get to the twelfth note? Easy, it all repeats itself. When you reach G# the next note is A, then A# and so on, and so on.

In fact, the twelfth fret is where it all starts again. The entire fret board repeats itself at the twelfth fret starting with the names of the open strings on the twelfth fret. Therefore the notes on the twelfth fret are the same as the notes of the open strings - E, A, D, G, B, E. Likewise, all the notes on the thirteenth fret of each string are the same as on the first fret of each string. The notes then continue to repeat themselves.

That's why, on a guitar with markers (usually dots) on the fret board, the markers are in the same position in relation to the nut and twelfth fret. Let me explain further. The first marker after the twelfth fret is at the fifteenth fret and relates to the same notes as the very first marker on the fret board at the third fret. Likewise, the seventeenth fret marker relates to the same notes as the fifth fret marker and so on. To put it another way, the fret board markers after the twelfth fret, mark the same note positions as the markers before the twelfth fret. Got it? I'm glad somebody has cos I'm lost!

Seriously though, it's important to start to go over this and get it in because it will open up the whole neck to you. Later on, you will easily be able to instantly know the names of chords after moving the chord up or down the neck just by knowing the root notes on the fret board. More about chords and root notes later on.

Repeating Notes - beginners guitar lessons

By applying the chromatic scale you will realise that notes repeat themselves all over the fret board. There is more than one 'A' for example. Try to hear these notes are the same when you play them even though they are at different pitches. This is a good way of starting to train your ear to recognise what is in key etc.

It will pay dividends later on. All you have to remember is, A-G with sharps added for each, but no B# or E#, simple.