Your first guitar

Posture

• Sit on the edge of the chair, back straight, guitar resting on your right thigh (left-handers: the other way round).
• Neck pointing slightly upwards, never drooping. Your left thumb sits behind the neck, not peeking over the top.
• Fingers press just behind the fret (the metal wire), with the fingertip and the last joint curved, as if holding a ball.

The pick

Hold it between the pad of your thumb and the side of your index finger, with only about 3 mm showing. Loose wrist: the movement comes from the wrist, not the elbow. To start, a medium pick (0.70 mm) is the easiest.

In the tab, ⊓ is a downstroke and V an upstroke. Always alternating them is called alternate picking and it's the basis of everything else.

Exercise 1 · alternate picking on open strings

Four strokes per string, from the thickest to the thinnest and back. With the metronome at 60, one stroke per click.

    ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V
e|-------------------------------------------0-0-0-0--|
B|-----------------------------------0-0-0-0----------|
G|---------------------------0-0-0-0------------------|
D|-------------------0-0-0-0--------------------------|
A|-----------0-0-0-0----------------------------------|
E|---0-0-0-0------------------------------------------|

Exercise 2 · the spider (1-2-3-4)

One finger per fret: index on 5, middle on 6, ring on 7, little finger on 8. Go up across the six strings and back down. The fingers that aren't playing stay close to the strings instead of flying away.

    ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V
e|---------------------5-6-7-8--|
B|-------------5-6-7-8----------|
G|-----5-6-7-8------------------|
D|------------------------------|   …y sigue con D, A y E
A|------------------------------|
E|------------------------------|

Press Listen on each chord to hear how it should sound. When you play it, strum string by string slowly: if one sounds muted, your finger is too far from the fret or touching the next string.

First set · the essential five

Second set · once the first ones come easily

Exercise · timed changes

Choose two chords and switch between them over and over for one minute, pressing the button at each change. Write down how many you get. Start with Em → Am (you only move your fingers one fret and one string). Goal: 30 clean changes in a minute.

Recommended order of pairs

• Em → Am · Am → C (index and middle fingers stay put)
• C → G · G → D · D → A · A → E

The beat comes first

Almost all the music you'll play is in 4: you count 1, 2, 3, 4 and start again. Your arm goes down on each number and up between them (the "and"). Your arm never stops; what changes is whether the pick hits the strings or misses them.

Pattern 1 · downstrokes only

   1   2   3   4  |  1   2   3   4
   ⊓   ⊓   ⊓   ⊓  |  ⊓   ⊓   ⊓   ⊓
   Em              |  Am

Pattern 2 · down-up

   1 y 2 y 3 y 4 y
   ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V

Pattern 3 · the one that works for 80% of songs

Down, down-up, (silence) up, down-up. On "3" your arm goes down but without touching the strings.

   1 y 2 y 3 y 4 y
   ⊓   ⊓ V   V ⊓ V

Exercise

With the metronome at 70, one bar of each chord with pattern 3: C · G · Am · F… which you don't know yet, so use C · G · Am · Em. When the change no longer stops your arm, go up 5 beats per minute.

A scale is the "alphabet" of melodies. Playing it with a metronome trains your fretting hand, your picking and your ear at once. The diagrams show the neck lying down: thickest string at the bottom, as in tab.

C major scale · open position

The notes marked in amber are C, the "home" of the scale. Go up from the lowest note to the highest and back down.

    ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V
e|-------------------------------0-1-3--|
B|-------------------------0-1-3--------|
G|---------------------0-2--------------|
D|---------------0-2-3------------------|
A|---------0-2-3------------------------|
E|---0-1-3------------------------------|

A minor pentatonic · the rock and blues scale

Five notes, one shape that repeats and lets you improvise over almost any song in A minor or C major. Index on fret 5, little finger on 8, ring finger on 7.

    ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V ⊓ V
e|---------------------5-8--|
B|-----------------5-8------|
G|-------------5-7----------|
D|---------5-7--------------|
A|-----5-7------------------|
E|-5-8----------------------|

How to practise them

• First one note per click at 60. When it's clean going up and down three times in a row, go up to 70, 80…
• Then two notes per click at 60. Same tempo as before but twice as fast: that's where you'll notice whether your alternate picking is right.
• Play around: with the pentatonic under your fingers, play the notes in any order over a blues backing in A. You're already improvising.

Strumming · La Cucaracha

Just two chords, C and G7, in 3: count 1, 2, 3 and strum down on each number. Sing along, even quietly: it forces you not to stop.

Switch to G7 on "caminar" and back to C on "atrás". Until the change comes easily, sing more slowly; never stop your arm.

Picking · Ode to Joy

Beethoven's melody on the two thinnest strings, within the first three frets. Index for fret 1, ring finger for 3. Alternate picking and metronome at 60: one note per click (notes marked ━ last two clicks).

e|-0-0-1-3-3-1-0-------------0-0-----|
B|---------------3-1-1-3---------3-3━|

e|-0-0-1-3-3-1-0-------------0-------|
B|---------------3-1-1-3-------3-1-1━|

When you can play it from memory, try it with your eyes closed: that way you know your hand has learnt it.

What next

• Learn the F chord (your first barre chord) and B7; with them and the nine here you can play hundreds of songs.
• Search for songs you like with "chords" and every day play one you know and one new one.
• Record a video today. In a month you'll watch it and won't believe it.