Beginner Guitar Lessons

What will you learn during beginner guitar lessons? We will cover how to hold the guitar in sitting and standing positions, how to tune the guitar and reading basic tablature. 

Beginner Guitar Lessons - How to Hold A Guitar 

    There are two basic ways to hold a guitar: In sitting or standing positions. These positions are completely subjective to the guitar player’s comfort levels. 

Beginner Guitar Lessons - To Hold a Guitar While Sitting

Ÿ  Do NOT hunch your back. This will cause discomfort and back problems later.  Try to sit with your back as straight as possible. 

Ÿ  Angle the guitar towards you. This aids in ease of finger placement.

Ÿ  Rest the curved part of the body of the guitar in your lap.

Ÿ  Keep your elbow pointed towards you for greater flexibility.  

Beginner Guitar Lessons - To Hold a Guitar While Standing

Ÿ  It is ideal to have a guitar strap around your shoulder. This aids in keeping the weight of the guitar balanced and evenly distributed. 

Ÿ  Stand with your feet a few inches apart to distribute weight evenly. 

Ÿ  Do NOT hunch your back. 

Beginner Guitar Lessons - How to Hold A Guitar Pick

Ÿ  Close your hand into a loose fist.

Ÿ  Rotate your fist until your thumb knuckle faces towards you

Ÿ  With your free hand, slide the pick in between your thumb and forefinger, making sure it protrudes about a half an inch. 

Beginner Guitar Lessons - Tuning Your Guitar

Play the thickest string first (E), against a piano or a pitch pipe along with the rest of the strings to get a feel for how the notes are supposed to sound.

After this task is completed, perform the following steps to ensure your guitar is in tune:

Ÿ   Play the sixth string, fifth fret (A), then tune your open fifth string (A) until it they sound the same.

Ÿ   Play the fifth string, fifth fret (D), then tune your open fourth string (D) until they sound the same.

Ÿ     Play the fourth string, fifth fret (G), then tune your open third string (G) until they sound the same.

Ÿ     Play the third string, fourth fret (B), then tune your open second string (B) until they sound the same.

Ÿ   Play the second string, fifth fret (E), then tune your open first string (E) until they sound the same.

Beginner Guitar Lessons - Reading a Guitar Tab

A guitar tab is 6 horizontal lines, each representing its own string (or note) on the guitar.  The numbers on the tab represent the fret that is required for the finger placement for the corresponding notes.

Numbers stacked vertically on a tablature represents the fret to be played.  So 0 would represent an open fret and a 5 would represent placing all five fingers on the guitar

A fret is a simple term describing where to place your fingers on the neck of the guitar. 

Source(s): Dan Cross, About.com.  How To Read Guitartabs.net, theguitarsuite.com