Welcome to "Guitar From Scratch" – your ultimate guide to learning guitar from the very basics. Before you make a purchase, I encourage you to spend a few minutes reviewing the course content. If you've always wanted to learn the guitar but struggled due to lack of time, resources, or previous failed attempts, you're in the right place. Regardless of your age, if you are patient and dedicated, then this beginner's guitar course will have you playing numerous songs, complete with theory and techniques suitable for novices.
To fully benefit from this guitar course, practice each lesson for at least 30 minutes daily for a week before moving on to the next exercise or lesson. Remember, learning the guitar is a journey, not a race. This is not a flashy course that you can complete in just 3 or 6 months. Instead, it’s an art form that requires time and dedication. As you progress, you'll find yourself more absorbed in the music, with your skills steadily improving.
"Guitar From Scratch" is not your typical guitar learning course. It’s a product of my personal discovery, developed over years of working with beginners and understanding the unique challenges they face. This course has evolved through countless questions, errors, and solutions, especially addressing the difficulties that make many people feel learning guitar is too hard – but it isn’t, if approached with patience and logic.
This course is a result of nearly a decade of experimentation and refinement, helping thousands of students at our Online Academy, "Music Circle." Each exercise in the course is logically explained, leading to over 50 songs you'll learn, opening doors to thousands more.
I'm confident in saying, "Anyone can play the guitar." This course provides solutions to common problems that hinder learning. However, remember that buying the course alone won’t make you a master. Dedication and devotion are key. Patience is the secret to mastering this beautiful instrument.
I will list a few common challenges that beginners face. Although these are simple to overcome, they can often be the main reason people give up. As I discuss the following points, I am sure you’ll be able to relate. Please note that I myself tried learning the guitar and failed a couple of times as a beginner.
I am especially excited to share this with people who have failed before since they can understand and relate to what it takes to play the guitar. People like me, who failed before, tend to have a more realistic approach and expectations than absolute beginners, who might give up easily due to unrealistic expectations and lack of exposure. I gave up three times with different instructors in the first year, so you are not alone in this.
This is one of the most common and serious reasons why people find it challenging to progress as beginners. It takes time to get used to the correct posture since we never use our fingers in daily life the same way as we do on the fretboard of a guitar. Our fingertips are soft, so it hurts initially, and we do not get the right tone at the beginning.
With practice, you develop calluses, and as the fingertips get harder, the notes sound beautiful. The only cure for this is chromatic exercises, which most people don't like. Human psychology often leads us towards instant gratification, and we chase songs at the beginning. The end result is often giving up or developing poor technique, causing us to get stuck after a while. This course will help you love these exercises and practice them religiously every day. No need to worry, just keep following this book, videos, and backing tracks.
To tell you the truth, I love playing fast. As a beginner, I always wanted to play those fast rock solos or even shred. While I love speed, it's important to build a strong foundation first. This fascination with speed led to a disastrous outcome for me as a beginner; I started making more mistakes.
Later, I learned from one of the fastest guitar players in the world that to build speed, you need to slow down. I started practicing very slowly with a metronome and gradually built speed. This approach did wonders. I developed more control, and when I increased speed gradually, I made far fewer mistakes. In this course, you will learn how to use a metronome to build speed and stamina effectively. I have included multiple backing tracks for your practice. Now pick up your guitar and watch the videos.
Developing your sense of rhythm is another crucial aspect of playing the guitar. The best way to improve your timing is by using a metronome.
This list of obstacles continues, and in the upcoming lessons, we will discuss how to overcome the next level of challenges for beginners. These include smoothly shifting chords, playing rhythm guitar with ease, understanding strumming patterns, and improving left and right-hand coordination.
I understand your excitement, but hold on, we're almost there. Our system is very logical, similar to a math class where you learn the formula first and then use it to solve problems. Our approach to learning music is pretty much the same. We will start with a roadmap, specifically the Major scale in its basic form.
In India, we refer to the Major Scale as “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa,” and in the Western system, it is known as “Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do.” For now, we will stick to the term "Major Scale" and explore the basic open position C Major scale. It is simple yet very effective. If you follow the instructions in the course and learn this scale as directed, a bunch of songs will be waiting for you.
In case you are unaware, most songs are formed using a particular scale as a roadmap. While we don't have the scope to discuss exceptions here, what I mean is that if you learn a particular scale—such as the open position C Major scale—you will be able to play many songs using these notes, as shown in the diagram below.
Now that I assume you have practiced well, you are ready to learn a few songs as instructed in the full course. We will proceed gradually, learning different songs while simultaneously developing finger strength. This structured approach ensures that you build a solid foundation and continuously improve your skills.
The exercise you are about to learn is a game-changer. For ages, this exercise or group of exercises has helped innumerable people learn the guitar. Even at the pro level, it is very popular as a warm-up before a concert or regular practice at home. Warm-up is an important aspect of any sport, be it football, cricket, basketball, swimming, etc., and for guitar, it is no exception. These warm-up exercises are lifelong friends for guitar players.
These exercises are called Chromatic exercises. If you are patient enough, these exercises will take your guitar playing skills to the next level. When I started learning the guitar seriously as a beginner, I used to practice these exercises with a metronome for hours. I remember the struggle, as playing along with a metronome was quite difficult for a beginner, but it was thrilling, and I would get completely engrossed. It would take me to a "flow" state, which I sometimes miss these days.
By incorporating these chromatic exercises into your practice routine, you will develop finger strength, dexterity, and precision, setting a strong foundation for more advanced techniques.
The Chromatic exercise
Being able to play chords and rhythm guitar is a dream for most beginners. It looks and sounds fantastic when you see someone singing and playing along. Most people, without any guidance, start learning chords at the beginning, but very few make it through sheer dedication. There is a reason behind it.
We've addressed this issue in this course. As a beginner, when you start learning chords, your individual fingers are neither ready nor independent because they haven't had a basic workout. Thus, in “Guitar From Scratch,” we begin with finger exercises, scales, and single-note melodies and songs. This way, your fingers gain the strength and independence needed to play chords with ease. Additionally, this process helps your fingertips harden, making the chords sound cleaner. As a beginner, the biggest struggle is often muting a few strings when you hold the chords, which makes them sound bad. This happens because your fingers tend to touch the string below and mute it. Thus, a simple chord like C may take you a year to make it sound clean.
The next challenge is switching chords in time so that you don’t fall out of tempo. Many can relate to this struggle. To solve this problem, I have created a few exercises called Pre-Chord exercises to bring you one step closer to learning chords. These Pre-Chord exercises are designed to solve the problem of muting the strings below any fretted string. Here, you will learn to focus on the strings (that have a chance of getting muted) and gradually develop the muscle memory to solve the muting issue.
With these exercises, you are now prepared to learn chords, and you’ll find that the previous exercises have paid off. Your struggle with chords will be significantly reduced because you had the patience to devote 2 to 3 months to the earlier lessons before starting your chordal journey.
Well... of course, it could be if you don’t know the proper ways to practice. As a beginner, I wasted a lot of time trying to learn different songs before I could switch basic chords properly. If I had practiced patiently for a couple of months, I could have saved a year or two.
In this course, you will learn how to patiently solve this problem. The key is to take one step at a time. This means focusing on two chords and learning to switch back and forth between them.
For example, if you take two basic chords like E and A, spending quality time practicing to switch back and forth between E and A using a metronome will work wonders. You will experience the power of practicing slowly and methodically, which will help you develop precision and smooth transitions.
By focusing on these foundational techniques, you will build the skills needed to switch chords effortlessly, making your playing smoother and more enjoyable.
You will progress through this online guitar course for beginners slowly and with a specific goal in mind. When shifting chords, the order in which you move your fingers play a crucial role in developing precision. The sequence of finger movements is logical and based on basic physics.
The ultimate goal is to move and place all your fingers on the respective strings simultaneously to eliminate any time lag. This will take practice, but by following the "one step at a time" rule, you will achieve this gradually.
To make this process more engaging, I have included backing tracks. These tracks will allow you to practice basic chord shifting without getting bored. You'll feel as if you are already part of a band. Practicing with these backing tracks will enhance your enjoyment and improve your results as you become more engrossed in your practice sessions.
Once you've mastered the basic chords and learned some two-chord and three-chord songs as outlined in this online guitar course for beginners, it's time to elevate your strumming by exploring different strumming patterns. Rhythm guitar becomes even more enjoyable when you can sing along or accompany someone else.
The key to learning rhythm guitar is understanding beats, subdivisions, and tempo, rather than merely imitating popular strumming patterns from your favorite songs without grasping the underlying rhythm.
In this course, I guide you through the fundamentals, teaching you how to comprehend beats. By using logic and mathematics, you can create various rhythm patterns on paper and in your mind. With this logical understanding, you can first spell out the rhythm orally, then apply it to your guitar using the up and down strokes taught in the course.
Using up and down strokes becomes much more logical once you understand the formula for when to use each. Correctly applying up and down strokes is a common challenge among beginners, often leading to breaks in continuity and missed beats or lost rhythm while playing.
Understanding the correct use of up and down strokes is crucial for seamless rhythm guitar playing. In this online guitar course for beginners, we provide a logical formula to help you determine when to use a down stroke and when to use an upstroke.
Many beginners struggle with correctly applying up and down strokes, leading to breaks in continuity, missed beats, and lost rhythm. By mastering this technique, you can maintain a smooth and consistent rhythm, ensuring your playing sounds polished and professional.
Let's put it all together. Practicing strumming with a drum loop offers hours of uninterrupted fun and focused practice, making it an essential part of any online guitar course for beginners. Using a drum loop helps you maintain a consistent rhythm, allowing you to easily identify and correct mistakes by noticing any timing mismatches with the loop.
By integrating drum loops into your practice routine, you can improve your timing, rhythm, and overall guitar-playing skills more effectively.
Wondering about the name? Zig Zag and Criss Cross might sound unusual, but many of you guessed correctly by thinking about geometry or shapes. These exercises are variations of chromatic exercises and are incredibly beneficial for beginners learning guitar.
When I was first introduced to these exercises, I was amazed by their benefits. I spent hours practicing them with a metronome and have continued to do so for nearly two decades. These exercises are extremely powerful for building finger strength, stamina, and coordination between your left and right hands.
Incorporating Zig Zag and Criss Cross exercises into your practice routine can significantly enhance your guitar-playing skills, helping you achieve better precision and control.
Now that you have learned several different concepts and techniques in this online guitar course for beginners, it's time to structure your practice routine. This will ensure you retain previous lessons and maintain a disciplined approach that will significantly enhance your guitar playing.
A well-structured practice routine doesn't mean you need to practice everything you've learned so far. Instead, we’ll focus on the most effective exercises that can be practiced regularly for the best results. By filtering and prioritizing these key exercises, you'll see improvements in your playing more efficiently.
Commit to practicing these selected exercises every day for at least three months. This disciplined approach will help solidify your skills and ensure continuous progress.
Good luck, and don't forget to share your progress with us!
Suspended chords, also known as sus chords, are beautiful sounding chords that can add a new dimension to your playing. These chords are frequently used in many popular songs, providing a distinctive sound that enhances the overall musical experience.
Some well-known examples where suspended chords are prominently featured include the "Sholay" theme music and Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69." By incorporating sus chords into your practice routine, you can spice up your guitar playing and expand your musical repertoire.
Music theory isn't always boring, and as a beginner, having a basic understanding of the fretboard is crucial. This foundational knowledge will aid your progression beyond the beginner level. In future courses, we'll delve deeper into the fretboard, but for now, we'll focus on these essential topics:
By covering these topics, you'll gain a solid understanding of the basic theory, which will greatly enhance your guitar-playing skills as you advance.
Backing tracks are an excellent practice tool that keeps you engaged and absorbed in your practice sessions without getting bored. It helps students focus and build a strong foundation in rhythm. In this online guitar course for beginners, I have included numerous backing tracks to provide you with hours of fun and effective practice.
Check out the demo examples to see how these tracks can be used for chord shifting and other exercises. Using backing tracks will make your practice sessions more enjoyable and productive.
In this lesson, we'll explore a basic shape for the major scale that can be played starting from the 5th or 6th string. This is a movable shape, allowing you to start from any fret and play the corresponding scale depending on the starting point, which determines the root note.
I've included a series of exercises in this section to help you practice the major scale shape with logical fingering. These exercises are designed to build on the concepts you've learned in previous lessons. Practicing these exercises will enhance your understanding of the fretboard and improve your ability to find notes on the 5th and 6th strings with ease.
You don't need to memorize the location of these notes; instead, regular practice will develop muscle memory, which is more beneficial than memorization. As you practice, you'll find that locating notes becomes second nature, thanks to the muscle memory you've built.
The real excitement begins when you apply a concept or theory you've learned to create music. As an application of the major scale, you will be taught an excerpt from Mozart’s Symphony No. 25, a widely recognized tune that has even been featured in an Indian commercial. Once you listen to it, you’ll immediately recognize its familiar melody.
While learning this piece, you’ll be amazed at how a simple major scale shape can produce such beautiful and intricate melodies. This exercise will help you visualize and appreciate the power of the major scale in music composition.
You can create beautiful melodies using this basic major scale shape. This is just the beginning. Although it’s beyond the scope of this course to explore the major scale in depth, I have a dedicated course called “Major Scale from Scratch” that dives deeper into this topic. Be sure to check it out later to further enhance your understanding and skills.
As we continue our guitar learning journey, we will explore the following essential topics to further enhance your skills:
Stay tuned as we delve into these exciting topics to further develop your guitar playing skills..
To make your journey easier and help you reap the rewards of your efforts, I have included a selection of standard chord progressions using the basic open chords you've learned so far. By developing muscle memory through practicing these chord progressions, you'll be able to play countless songs at ease.
This is the homework you need to complete before I present a list of songs you can attempt, along with in-depth tutorials to help you learn them.
Here's a little hint about the number of songs you'll be able to play after completing this lesson: the songs span different genres of music. But no cheating and no rushing—take it easy, even if it takes a month to complete this lesson. Can you guess the number of songs?
These chords might not be magical in themselves, but their combination creates a truly magical sound. These are simple chord shapes, and the most beautiful aspect of these progressions is their ease of chord shifting once you learn the secret.
It seems as if the chords are woven together, producing a continuous stream of sound with very subtle differences between each chord. This seamless blending creates a harmonious and captivating musical experience.
Loads of fun await you! Now, we are going to learn a strumming pattern that is used in most popular songs in 4/4 time. In fact, all modern artists have used this pattern at some point in their careers.
But it doesn’t stop here. After you learn this fundamental strumming pattern, I will teach you many variations that take it to the next level. Additionally, there are several ways to change chords within the pattern to make your playing sound even cooler.
In the full course, you will find lessons on splitting the strumming pattern and other advanced techniques. For now, enjoy mastering the basic pattern and its variations in this demo.
Finally, it's time to move towards barre chords. You are gradually preparing to learn these essential chords, and starting with F and Dm will widen your horizon, allowing you to play more advanced songs.
As always, we will dive into logical methods for making chord shifting easy. Along with learning these new chords, you will practice several chord progressions that incorporate them.
By mastering F and Dm, you’ll be ready to tackle more complex music and enhance your overall guitar-playing skills.
As you have been playing the guitar for several months now, I hope you have practiced well and are ready to learn more strumming patterns and the concept of rhythm guitar based on popular genres of music such as Blues and Country. Although these examples are basic compared to the full complexity of these genres, they are very helpful for expanding your understanding of rhythm guitar in a beginner’s course.
As we explore different styles or genres like Blues and Country, simple major and minor chords are not enough. We need to learn another type of chord known as a Dominant 7 chord. This new chord will add richness and depth to your playing, making it perfect for these styles.
By mastering Blues and Country strumming patterns and incorporating Dominant 7 chords, you will significantly broaden your musical horizons and enhance your rhythm guitar skills.
So far, we've learned rhythm in a straight feel. Now, we'll explore the swing feel, which is essential for Blues rhythm. The swing feel gives Blues its characteristic groove and will add a new dimension to your playing.
Country style strumming patterns not only sound great but also play an important role in developing the independence of your strumming hand. In these rhythms, you will learn to pick bass notes and strum in a way that makes it sound like two separate guitars are playing. This technique requires patient practice to develop the balance needed to switch seamlessly between picking and strumming as required.
By mastering these strumming patterns and techniques, you will significantly broaden your musical horizons and enhance your rhythm guitar skills.
Barre chords are one of the most discussed topics among beginner guitar players. Many beginners are obsessed with barre chords, but it can also be a common reason for giving up. The reason is clear: many start learning barre chords too early, before their fingers are adequately prepared.
In the "Guitar from Scratch" course, I have ensured that the essential aspects of finger strength development are addressed before diving into complex techniques like barre chords. We have also covered specific exercises to help you get accustomed to E shape barre chords. These shapes come from the CAGED system, a vital concept for guitarists.
While it's beyond the scope of this course to delve deeply into the CAGED system, understanding its basics is crucial for mastering barre chords. For detailed instruction on the CAGED system, you can refer to my "Arpeggios from Scratch" course, where I teach it extensively.
By following this structured approach and gradually building your finger strength, you'll be prepared to master barre chords and avoid the frustration that often leads to quitting. With the right preparation and practice, you'll find that barre chords can be a powerful tool in your guitar-playing arsenal.
Video + pdf + backing tracks
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