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By Marc Barnacle, Music Instructor

Learn Guitar: The Complete Beginners Guide

Language: English
All Levels

Course description

This course caters for the complete beginner and is suitable for both electric and acoustic guitar. No experience is necessary. Each class will provide you with everything you require to quickly get you confident and creative with the guitar. We will gradually progress to providing you with a wide range of chords, introduce scales, learn some great songs and riffs - and also focus on encouraging you to write your own music. There are lots of PDF’s attached, that contain detailed information on chord boxes, tab, string names, scales - plus, the full tab of the songs/riffs we discuss, and some extra ones for you to experiment and challenge yourself with. The course is broken up in to an easy to follow guide: Anatomy and Tuning: A nice easy start that will cover all the essential parts of the instrument. We will also learn how to effectively tune our guitar, and develop a few tips and tricks to make this process a bit easier.

Chord Boxes and Tab: These can look confusing at first. But this short section and accompanying visuals will make everything a lot easier to understand.

Picking Exercises and First Riffs: The proper playing starts! Some great exercises to get you up and running, and some cool pieces of music to learn! Introduction To Chords: Some essential chords to prepare you for the songs we will be learning. Strumming Patterns, Timing and Rhythm: These are all very important things that will develop your overall playing ability and provide you with the basic understanding of how music is constructed. Songs: 2 songs from 2 different eras, that use exactly the same chords. A great demonstration of how just 4 chords can open you up to a vast amount of playing options. More Major and Minor Chords: Another 5 chords to really expand your abilities. Scales: These are highly valuable! We will scratch the surface of what can be a very in-depth area and then utilise this initial knowledge to compose a piece of music. Write Your Own Music: A section I love! This will also act as a class project. You will combine all of the above and use this to create your own chord progression, and lead guitar parts. I demonstrate some lead ideas, and then provide a backing track that you can play along to, jam over and generally get creative with!

More Riffs: Two more riffs to expand your skillset even further! How To Restring Your Guitar: Some handy knowledge to have, that I don’t think gets covered enough when first learning guitar. By the end of this course, you will have developed a great level of playing ability, will be well versed in a variety of guitar knowledge, and will have all the tools you need to take your guitar playing and creativity to the next level. Good luck!

Related Skills

Course overview - 25

  • Introduction

  • Anatomy

  • Tuning

  • Chord Boxes & Tab

  • Picking Exercise & First Riff

  • 2 More Riffs

  • Chord Introduction

  • 1st Chord - E Minor

  • G Major Chord

  • C Major & D Major Chord

  • Strumming Patterns, Timing & Rhythm

  • Song 1 - Stand By Me

  • Song 2 - Perfect

  • More Major Chords

  • More Minor Chords

  • Scales

  • C Major & G Major Scale

  • Write Your Own Music

  • Lead Guitar Ideas

  • Introduction To Backing Track

  • Backing Track

  • Riff - Enter Sandman

  • Riff - Oh, Pretty Woman

  • How To Restring Your Guitar

  • Conclusion

Learners who have already enrolled in this course

Meet your instructor

Marc Barnacle
Marc BarnacleMusic Instructor
Hi there, I’m Marc - A full time musician and Director/Instructor of the music service T.I.M.E - Therapy In Musical Expression. I have been playing guitar for over 20 years, and teaching for 15. My role at TIME means I am continually adapting my approach to education, creativity and personal development. Our aim is to encourage self-expression, increase confidence and make music available and accessible to everyone.