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Guitar and music in general is personally one of the most enjoyable hobbies you can pick up. Music is one of the few mediums that can totally cross language and cultural barriers. It’s extremely inspiring when you blast out a power chord through an amplifier at a rocking volume. Or strumming your acoustic at a party and having the whole room singing along with you. Actually being able to play songs and even compose your own is an inexpressible feeling. So here are some easy guitar lessons to get you going.

So a quick message to all the beginners out there. This does take time and patience, do not give up. I will never forget grabbing my first guitar for the first time knowing I would be jamming to my favorite CDs immediately. Boy was I mistaken. My fingers couldn’t even get one note right and a chord, not even a chance. I didn’t quit, I adjusted my goals and stuck to it.

Your fingers are most likely confused and in pain and it maybe just plain uncomfortable when you first pick up the guitar. Elasticity and agility are keys here and you do this through exercising those fingers. There is no trickery here, repetition is the only way to reach your objective. I know you’ve heard it before, practice makes perfect. When I was just beginning I liked to sit in front of the Tube and just repeat exercises kind of unconsciously just to get my fingers strong.

Getting both hands to play nicely as one is also going to take some time so don’t get dispirited. At first your fingers tips will hurt, practice through that pain for as long as you can, don’t just take a breather right away . Before you know it the calluses on your finger will develop and you will be practicing for hours. The worst part of starting with the guitar is this just starting out phase. Please just stick with it and battle through it, the rewards will be immeasurable.

Here are some pointers for your strumming hand. This is your rhythm hand and our plucking or picking hand. Slow and steady is vital here. Practice with your pick, alternating between down strokes and up strokes. Start slow and play along as you tap your foot to keep in time. Down stroke, up stroke, down stroke, etc. Slow and steady while you alternate. Increase speed as you go. Play this on 1 string then move on to 2 strings, then 3 strings and so on as if you were practicing chords. When starting out or practicing in front of the Tube you can mute the strings with your other hand to really pay attention to the rhythm.

Moving on to the fretting hand. Your fretting hand picks the notes that you want your strumming hand to play. This is the hand that also may start to hurt and the hand that doesn’t seem to know what it is doing when first starting out. No getting around this, just take it slow and steady with patience. It is key here to get all four fingers comfortable and in sync with each other. Don’t leave your pinkie out because it is harder to get going. When practicing guitar if you find something difficult then you need to practice it more.

So here is the nitty gritty exercise to get you smoking on that fret board. On fret one of your low E string press down strongly with your index finger. While still pressing use your middle finger on fret 2. While holding both down press your ring finger on fret 3. And of course the pinkie on fret four . As you are doing this you should be picking, always alternating, down and up, down and up. You then simply back up this process by lifting your pinkie first, then ring, etc So press 1, 2, 3, 4 and then reverse 4,3,2,1 while alternating your picking down and up.

This exercise should be practiced until you can’t stand it anymore, slow and accurate. Then as it gets simpler build up your speed. Practice this on all strings, all over the fretboard. This will unlock your fingers and really get them going. Start slow and build up. Guitar is my obsession and hopefully this can help you on your way. It honestly is an amazing instrument. Videos and photos will really help burn these concepts in your brain. Check out these easy guitar lessons.

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