The easiest and most flexible way to consistently tune a guitar is using the aforementioned reference pitch – a note played by a perfectly tuned instrument or available from a digital audio file. For instance, if you’re using the standard six-string tuning of E-A-D-G-B-E, you would start by tuning the sixth string (low E).

To do this, play a low E reference pitch and adjust the tuning pegs on your sixth string until the sound produced by the sixth string matches the sound produced by the reference pitch. Once your sixth string is properly tuned, you can use it to tune the other five strings on your guitar starting with the fifth string.

To do so, you’ll want to fret the fifth fret on the sixth string in order to produce an A note. This A played on your sixth string will serve to tune your open fifth string which itself is an A. In this way, the sixth string now serves as a reference pitch for the fifth.

Simply adjust the tuning pegs until the open fifth sounds the same as the A played by the sixth string. With sixth and fifth strings tuned properly, simply proceed in the same manner to tune the remaining four strings. The steps are as follows:

1. Play the fifth fret on the fifth string to tune the open fourth string.
2. Use the fifth fret on the fourth string to tune the open third.
3. Play the fourth fret on the third string to tune the open second.
4. Play the fifth fret on the second string to tune the open first.

If you follow these steps and the strings still sound dull or they go out of tune frequently and dramatically, you’ll need to replace the strings. The strings of a guitar wear out more quickly than the components of many other popular instruments so you have to be especially watchful when playing a guitar.

I favor the above method especially for beginners because it teaches them more about handling their guitar, but a guitar can also be tuned using an electronic tuner. Electronic tuners cost about $20 or less and can sense which string you are playing using a built-in microphone.

Simply place the electronic tuner within a few feet of where you are playing and then proceed to play each string, adjusting the tuning pegs based on the electronic tuner’s display. As you can see, using an electronic tuner is a simple way to quickly tune your guitar without the use of a reference pitch. As I said, I prefer to use the reference pitch method but either method can be effectively used for tuning a guitar.

First, before you start shopping, set a price that you’re willing to spend. Bass guitars start at about $200 new and $100 used. These entry-level guitars are a beginner’s best bet because they sound good, help you get a feel for the instrument when you’re starting out and constitute a fairly small investment so if you find out that the bass guitar is not for you, you haven’t spent $1,000 that you’ll never recoup.

Second, decide between a four, five and six string bass. In general, a four string bass is the most common and most suitable for bass guitar beginners. The five and six string bass guitars allow for greater experimentation and are useful for bass players who perform frequent solos. Beginners should start out with the basic four string bass because it’s an easier instrument to learn on. Neither the fifth or sixth strings are necessary for basic bassists so why pay for something you’re not going to use?

In the same vein, bass guitars can be purchased with or without frets. Like the choice between four or more strings, this is mainly a feature for individuals with a lot of talent and experience. Frets make the bass easier to play by clearly marking each semitone, producing a consistent intonation and generally making beginning bassists more confident in their handling of the strings. That being said, fretless bass guitars produce a distinct sound that some expert bassists crave. Without frets, the bassist presses the string directly against the wood of the fingerboard, producing a somewhat muted intonation compared to fretted bass guitars. The fretless bass also enables the use of vibrato and other musical effects popular in Jazz and Funk.

But perhaps the most important factor to keep in mind when purchasing the best bass guitar for you is just how comfortable it is for you personally. Everything from the weight of the instrument to the length of the neck to the width of the body can influence how comfortable the bass guitar is for you. Remember, how the guitar actually feels is far more important than how it looks or what it costs. Don’t settle on a guitar simply because it’s on sale or you like the way it looks.

One final feature to keep in mind is the wood the bass guitar is constructed with. The wood used in manufacturing a bass guitar has a significant impact on its tone. It isn’t something that a beginner should be concerned with but it is interesting to know that alder is the most common wood used for the body and maple the most common for the neck. The wood shouldn’t matter to your playing style until you’re ready to purchase your second or third bass guitar.

As a beginner, your choices are fairly simple and price will probably prove the most significant factor in your purchase. However, these other features will be important as you learn more about your instrument and progress enough to consider purchasing a second bass guitar.

In describing the different types of electric guitars, it’s best to start at the beginning of the electric guitar’s history with the hollow-body electric guitar. More than 70 years old, the hollow-body appeared in Swing bands during the 1930s and is still in use to this day. Also known as a semi-acoustic guitar, hollow-body guitars have both a sound box and electrical pickups. This produces a unique sound based on the vibrations of the open chamber in the body of the guitar combined with the vibrations from the strings. The hollow-body is still popular more than 70 years after its inception and its unique sound can be heard prominently in Jazz music today.

Even though the first electric guitar was the hollow-body, the solid body electric guitar is the dominant player in the electric market today. Debuted in 1950, the first solid body to hit the mass market was the Fender Telecaster. The solid body is the most radical departure from the traditional acoustic guitar. It’s comprised of a solid wood body and almost totally dependent on an amplifier. Solid body guitars require amps because they don’t have an empty chamber in which sound vibrates and is naturally amplified. Solid body guitars are noted for their clean, cutting sound totally divorced from the feedback that’s noticeable in hollow body electric guitars. The sound of the solid body is also more precise and it’s the natural starting point for anyone interested in learning the electric guitar.

An interesting cross between the solid body and hollow-body guitars is the semi-hollow-body. Built with a piece of wood running through the middle of the guitar, the semi-hollow-body has hollow chambers on the left and right sides of the body. Essentially a compromise between the hollow-body and solid body, semi-hollow-body guitars possess a relatively clear sound with less feedback than a hollow-body but enough vibration and resonance to still be suitable for Jazz. Unlike the hollow-body, the semi-hollow-body has a precise enough tone that it’s suitable for genres like pop, rock and country.

Aside from these three dominant types of electric guitars, there are a number of variations on the electric guitar with different necks or numbers of strings. For instance, some people may be familiar with the double neck guitar that allows the musician to play both the bass and six-string guitar at once. Also, although the six-string guitar is standard, electric guitars are available with any number of strings from six to twelve.

From the iconic solid body to the obscure double neck, there are many types of electric guitars that cater to specific playing styles, needs and genres of music. For this reason, it’s important to know how the guitar developed and exactly what options are available even though you may play the guitar your whole life and never own anything but a solid body.

Perhaps the greatest tool a novice guitarist can have is a good instructor, who can usually be found at your local music shop. Guitar lessons can be costly, but having a live person there to answer your questions and to guide you toward becoming the guitarist you’ve always wanted to be can be invaluable. There’s no substitute for a good instructor and a strong relationship between the teacher and the pupil.

Beyond the personal, hands-on assistance an instructor can provide, there are plenty of other tools for new guitarists. Magazines like Guitar World and Guitar Player, for example, can be very useful. Most guitar magazines include some combination of player features, gear reviews, how-to articles and fully tabbed songs. Check out several magazines before deciding which one best suits your needs.

If playing others’ songs is your goal, tab books can be very helpful. Many tab books are available. Some books feature all the songs from a particular album. Some feature a collection of songs from a particular band. Some feature a collection of songs in the same genre. And some feature “easy tabs,” which are simplified versions of popular songs.

For those more interested in creating their own music, a chord chart can be very helpful. This is usually poster-sized chart showing the most commonly used chords. Also, many books are available with information and charts on chords and scales, which can help a great deal when writing riffs and solos.

Two pieces of equipment that can be purchased rather inexpensively but that are both essential for playing guitar well are tuners and metronomes. A chromatic tuner will help you tune your guitar by displaying the note being played and whether it is precisely in tune or not. A metronome, which uses clicks to help you keep time in a given rhythm, can be invaluable when there’s no drummer around — or even if there is, if your drummer is as new to his instrument as you are.

The Internet might be the greatest tool of all for a new guitarist. Without much difficulty, one can find tuners, timekeepers, chord charts, scale generators and guitar tabs for free on the Internet. That might not be the best news for the sellers of such devices and information, but it can be a boon for the cash-strapped guitarist.

And when you find yourself struggling to maintain your motivation, there’s nothing like live music to snap you out of the doldrums. Seeing your favorite songs played live and in person is an exhilarating experience that’s always for a boost of energy when trying to learn the guitar. In addition to simply seeing first-hand what’s possible on a guitar, it can also be useful to see how a professional guitarist plays certain riffs and solos.

The key as a beginner trying to play a song, is to keep your standards low at first. Don’t expect to sit down for two hours and be slaying the song note-for-note by the time you’re done. It’s just not realistic. Rather, take the song one riff at a time.

First, go online and find a tab of the song you want to learn — and if you’re just starting out, do yourself a favor and keep it simple. Think Every Breath You Take not Master of Puppets. You can also find what are called “easy tabs,” which are simplified versions of songs tabbed out especially for beginning guitar players. If you are a stickler for detail, no, you won’t be playing every note. But these easy tabs allow you to at least sound like you’re playing a more complicated song.

It also helps to pick a song that matches your guitar. Rock songs with distortion, for example, won’t sound all that great on an acoustic guitar, and acoustic ballads might lack some character if strummed on an electric. That’s not a hard and fast rule, but it will likely make for a more enjoyable experience. When choosing a song to learn, make sure it’s one that you have in your CD or digital music collection. You’ll need to be able to listen to the song on decent speakers and have easy controls so you can move quickly back and forth over the section you’re trying to learn.

Before you begin trying to play the song, listen very closely to the intro several times, paying close attention to the guitar and what it is doing. Then look at the first bar or two on the guitar tab and slowly try to put the notes and chords together in your mind.

Again, I must stress: Lower your expectations. The first two, three, 20 times you try to play that intro riff, it might very well not sound like music at all. You’ll likely have to play the notes very slowly at first. The key is going to be – even if you are playing slowly — to play at a steady rhythm.

Try to get to a point where you can play the entire riff by memory, even if you are taking three full seconds between notes to get your fret hand where it needs to be. Just keep playing it and playing it some more. Once you can comfortably and smoothly play it at a slow speed, try to play it a little faster. Then faster still. When you can get through the entire riff without missing a note, at a reasonable speed, try playing it with the song itself playing in the background. If you can keep up, pat yourself on the back and move on to the next riff.

Go through the same process with each riff in the song — most songs have verse and chorus riffs that repeat, so it won’t take as long as you think. Each time you complete a riff, go back and play the full song up to that point so you can get comfortable with the transitions between riffs.

Don’t get discouraged, and don’t give up. Learning to play songs on the guitar can be very challenging. Just keep in mind that the harder a song is to learn, the more rewarding it will be when you finally master it.

However, it is hard to learn guitar for beginners. Many who pick up the guitar never get to the point where they can enjoy such pleasures. They get frustrated with the clumsy plucking and the dissonant sounds that inevitably torment a beginner who’s playing guitar for the first time.

Before you can even think about making beautiful music on your guitar, especially if you’ve never played one before, there is much work to be done.

Let’s start at the beginning, with the instrument itself.

It’s essential, if you want your notes to sound like anything at all, for your guitar to be in tune. Chromatic tuners, which read notes based on the sound vibrations the instrument produces, can be purchased at reasonable prices. If your computer is equipped with a microphone, you can even find chromatic tuners online for free. Many digital amplifiers, if you’re playing an electric guitar, also have built-in tuners.

Standard tuning for a guitar is (from the lowest, thickest string to the highest) E-A-D-G-B-E. There are tons of other tunings, but don’t worry about them for now.

Get a feel for the instrument by playing a few notes. Choose a string, press it down to the neck at one of the frets, and pluck it with your finger or your pick. Try different frets on that string and other strings, and try to find sequences of notes that sound good to your ear.

Next, find a chart with some basic chords (search “basic guitar chord chart” on the web) and start trying some. Once you’re able to maneuver your fret hand well enough to play a few of the basic chords without any buzzing or dead notes, try alternating between two or three different chords.

The ability to change quickly from one chord to another will be critical as you become a more advanced player, so it’s never too early to start. Play a slow, simple strumming pattern with your right hand (opposite if you’re left-handed) while switching from one chord to another.

If you find yourself getting bored with single notes and chords, don’t hesitate to have some fun and try playing a real song. Do an Internet search for “easy guitar tabs” and look for a song you like — if your goal is to become addicted to playing guitar, nothing will accomplish that faster than mastering a recognizable riff from one of your favorite songs.

Guitar tablature is a simple, wonderful creation that allows guitarists to learn songs without having any knowledge of how to read sheet music. A guitar tab features six horizontal lines — one for each string, with the lowest, thickest string appearing at the bottom. On those lines are numbers that represent the fret on the neck that you should finger for each note or chord.

Use guitar tabs to learn how to play some of your favorite riffs, but don’t forget to practice your basic chords. They are the building blocks you’ll need to begin writing your own music down the road, and you’ll find them appearing in most every song you try to play.

Finally, if you really want to take your guitar playing skills to another level, look at joining a site like Guitar Tricks. There are tons of great guitar lessons on the site taught by some really good teachers. It’s a fun community, that beginners just learning to play guitar will certainly enjoy.

Playing guitar is hard. Try not to get frustrated if you can. Not even the greatest guitar virtuosos were born with their incredible abilities. It’s never too late to start, and even the most unpolished beginners can learn the guitar with enough practice.

Practice to Music

Playing guitar to recorded music is one of the most enjoyable parts of guitar playing. You not only get to play along to some of your favorite songs, you also learn more about how to compose music. You intuitively learn what sounds interesting and what doesn’t.

One of the best ways to learn every note on your guitar’s fretboard is to try playing along with some of your favorite song’s vocal melodies. If the music you’re playing along with doesn’t have a vocal melody, try playing along with the melody of another prominent instrument. This technique will allow you to pick out notes that are clear in your music before you move on to the guitar parts, which are typically harder to pick out.

Once you’ve made some progress with mimicking the vocal melody, try playing along with the guitar parts. There are often several guitar parts in a given song. Start with the guitar that is most prominent in your music’s mix, then move on to the parts that are more subtle in the mix.

If you try again and again, but can’t figure out how to play a certain part, try performing a repetitive task for awhile (like mowing your lawn) and coming back to it later. The brain will often figure out the music puzzle on its own while you work on something else.

Play with your eyes closed

Focusing too much on memorized scales sometimes limits the creativity of a beginning guitarist. I’ve found that it helps to close my eyes while I play guitar. Shut your mind to all things but the sound of your guitar and try playing something. Don’t filter your creativity. Just allow yourself to enjoy the way the notes affect your emotions.

Believe it or not, this technique has nothing to do with new age relaxation techniques. It’s actually an excellent way to learn how to navigate around your guitar’s fretboard without thinking too much about scales.

I’ll be frank: you’ll probably sound horrible for awhile. You’ll miss notes left and right and you’ll probably want to go back to staring at your fretboard while you play. Please continue practicing with your eyes closed for as long as you can. It will definitely help you learn to play guitar by ear and it will also keep you from getting embarrassed if you happen to be playing on a dark stage someday.

As you probably know, scales are played in an ascending or descending sequence of notes. The choice of notes is based on the type of scale being played. We’ll start with the most basic scale.

Playing the Chromatic Scale

• Play the open bass E string.
• Use your index finger to apply pressure to the 1st fret on the E string and play the note.
• Play the E string while applying pressure at the 2nd fret with your middle finger.
• Play the E string while applying pressure at the 3rd fret with your ring finger.
• Play the E string while applying pressure at the 4th fret with your pinky.
• Now move down to the A string and repeat these steps. Follow these steps for each string except for G. On that string, play only the first three frets before moving to the B string.

Chromatic Guitar Scale

Learning scales allows you to jump between notes that are tonally far apart without moving you fingers unnecessarily. It’s a great way to learn all the notes of the fretboard.

Playing the Major Scale

The next scale to learn is the standard major scale. We’ll also play this scale in the key of E.

• Play the open bass E string.
• Play the E string while applying pressure at the 2nd fret with your index finger (F#).
• Play the E string while applying pressure at the 4th fret with your ring finger (Ab/G#).
• Play the open A string.
• Play the A string while applying pressure at the 2nd fret with your index finger (B).
• Play the A string while applying pressure at the 4th fret with your ring finger (C#).
• Play the D string while applying pressure at the 1st fret with your index finger (D#/Eb).
• Play the D string while applying pressure at the 2nd fret with your middle finger (E).
• Follow the diagram below to play the rest of the notes in the scale (note: bold string letters mean play the open string).

Major Guitar Scale

Playing the Minor Scale

• Play the open bass E string.
• Play the E string while applying pressure at the 2nd fret with your index finger (F#).
• Play the E string while applying pressure at the 3rd fret with your middle finger (G).
• Play the open A string.
• Play the A string while applying pressure at the 2nd fret with your index finger (B).
• Play the A string while applying pressure at the 3rd fret with your middle finger (C).
• Play the open D string.
• Play the D string while applying pressure at the 2nd fret with your middle finger.
• Follow the diagram below to play the rest of the notes in the scale.

Minor Guitar Scale

Here’s what a standard guitar tab looks like:

     G       D  Dsus    Cadd9  Cadd9  Cadd9
E|-333333--------------------------------|
A|-222222---------------3333---3333---33-|
D|-000000----000000-----2222---2222---22-|
G|-000000----222222-----0000---0000---00-|
B|-333333----333333-----3333---3333---33-|
E|-333333----222223-----3333---3333---33-|

This is how Third Eye Blind’s main chord progression to their song “Semi-Charmed Life” is written in tab form. You can see that each row of dashes (-) represents a guitar string, while each vertical column denotes musical time. This time is usually relative. It’s rare to find a guitar tab that actually has the timing worked out correctly.

The numbers in the tab show which fret your finger is supposed to press on a given string. For example, the first six 3’s along the bass E string indicate that you should play the E string while applying pressure to the third fret. Whenever a number appears in the same column as another number, you know that you’re supposed to play both strings at the same time.

You can see that in this case, the names of each chord appear above the top of the tab. This allows a guitarist who already knows how to play a chord, to learn the song more efficiently.

Special Guitar Tab Symbols

The above explanation should get you started on reading tabs, but you might discover that other confusing symbols appear in some guitar tabs. Take a look at the beginning of Led Zeppelin’s main riff to their song “Black Dog” below:

E|---------------------------|
A|-7------7------------------|
D|--5-6-7-----7-----------7--|
G|---------5b---7-9-5h7p5----|
B|---------------------------|
E|---------------------------|

You’re probably thinking, “What in the world are those letters doing there?” Let’s take them step-by-step.

The “b” next to the “5” means that you should bend the guitar string at this note. When you bend a guitar string while holding a note, the pitch modulates to a higher note. You’ll probably have to experiment with how much you need to bend the string before it sounds correct.

The “h” and “p” symbols represent hammer-ons and pull-offs. This means you should perform either a hammer-on or a pull-off at this note. This symbol almost always comes before the note you’re supposed to switch to.

Other Guitar Tab Advice

At first, reading tabs will probably be difficult for you. Give it some time though, and you’ll barely even notice the numbers. You’ll just see chords and notes.

Again, I recommend that you try to play a song by ear before you look up a tab. This is really for two reasons: (1) you’ll develop an ear for chords and scales, and (2) it will make it easier to learn the tab when you’ve already made some progress on learning the song.

Whether you take this advice or not, I highly recommend learning other musician’s songs. You’ll often discover new ways of playing that you might not have found on your own.

Acoustic Guitar advantages

The acoustic guitar has several strengths that the electric guitar lacks. For one, its aforementioned rhythmic sound is an excellent backing for many styles of music. Most acoustic guitarists focus heavily on chords and strumming. I would advise beginners to focus on these areas as well.

Learning Guitar Chords

We’ll start with chords. If you’re new to the guitar, I recommend learning as many chords as you possibly can. Once you’ve learned the standard chords and their basic variations (minor, suspended, 7 etc.), try creating your own by adding on new notes. Of course these won’t really be chords you’ve discovered, but experimenting with new sounds is absolutely foundational to a wide and deep library of chords. You’ll probably find that you often use these “discovered” chords while practicing with other guitarists.

While learning new chords, I highly recommend focusing especially on chords that use all six strings of the guitar. The guitar is an incredibly rich sounding instrument and chords that use all strings tend to sound much fuller than more limited chords. Barre chords are especially useful. They use the structure shown below.

F-Chord Diagram

This diagram shows a standard F chord, which uses a barre structure. When playing barre chords, you apply pressure to a fret using your entire finger. You can play any major chord by simply moving the structure up or down the fretboard.

Learning Guitar Strumming

The rich, rhythmic effect produced by a guitar strum is one of the instrument’s most unique qualities. If you’re just starting out, I recommend playing repeated downstrums. If you have access to a metronome, try playing along with it. Start at a low BPM (beats per minute) and gradually raise the tempo as you get better. Focus on strumming in time with the beat. When you’ve gotten more advanced at playing in time, try playing without a metronome.

Now try throwing in an upstrum on every third beat like this: downstrum-downstrum-upstrum-downstrum. Once you’re able to keep time with that rhythm, try playing alternating upstrums and downstrums like this: downstrum-upstrum-downstrum-upstrum.

Once you’ve mastered these strumming patterns, you should be able to figure out how to play any pattern on your own. Just practice different patterns and don’t be afraid to try something different. No guitarists play a single strum pattern throughout a whole song. Mix it up a little!

What Are Capos?

Capos are an inexpensive way to try a different sound on your guitar. These devices typically attach to the neck of your guitar and modulate the sound by applying pressure to the strings at a higher fret. This can allow you to create some very pleasant sounds without risking a broken string. You can also use them with an electric guitar, but their effect is most notable with the rich sound of an acoustic.