Guitar for Beginners
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Guitar for Beginners
This course is part of multiple programs.
Instructor: Thaddeus Hogarth
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2,282 reviews
2,282 reviews
What you'll learn
Identify string names and numbers and read music notation, tablature, chord block diagrams, and fretboard maps
Practice picking, finger picking, and strumming patterns
Play various chords including major and minor triads, open, barre, and pose chords
Read and play a lead sheet
Skills you'll gain
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There are 6 modules in this course
Grasp the essentials needed to begin playing acoustic or electric guitar. You'll learn an easy approach to get you playing quickly, through a combination of exploring the instrument, performance technique, and basic music theory.
For students who have long thought about picking up the acoustic or electric guitar, this course will provide an easy-access foundation that will get you playing. When first learning guitar, it is important to have the material presented in stages, in an enjoyable way that allows you to grasp the basics of the instrument and music. The course begins simply with the parts of the guitar, the names of the strings, tuning, and technique—whether finger-style or pick. It then explores the basics of music theory with such topics as scales, triads, power chords, and fingering and shapes. At the end of this course, students will understand the structure, parts, and accessories of the instrument, in addition to an understanding of its basic maintenance. Electric guitar players will learn the operation of their instrument along with basic options for amplification, effect pedals, and sounds. Students will also learn to develop correct technique and apply theory concepts to their playing. They will have the foundational knowledge necessary to pursue most intermediate guitar courses.
Welcome to Guitar for Beginners! Before you begin the course, we will cover all the details about the course and what you’ll need to know to get the most out of your experience. In this first lesson, we will focus on choosing the right guitar for you and what accessories are essential for any guitar player. Finally, we will discuss the different parts of the guitar, and you will be asked to correctly identify them on a graded assignment.
What's included
5 videos7 readings3 assignments
5 videos•Total 26 minutes
- Choosing Acoustic Or Electric Guitar•3 minutes
- Choosing the Right Guitar: Right-Handed vs Left-Handed•3 minutes
- Essential Accessories for Acoustic Guitar•7 minutes
- Essential Accessories for Electric Guitar•5 minutes
- Parts of the Electric Guitar•7 minutes
7 readings•Total 44 minutes
- Course Introduction•5 minutes
- Course Resources•7 minutes
- Earn A Course Certificate•7 minutes
- Connect with Your Classmates•5 minutes
- Review: Essential Accessories for Guitar•5 minutes
- Comparing the Electric and Acoustic Guitar•10 minutes
- Lesson Review and Progress Check-in•5 minutes
3 assignments•Total 50 minutes
- Identifying the Parts and Accessories of the Guitar•30 minutes
- Choosing a Guitar•5 minutes
- Essential Accessories•15 minutes
In this lesson, you will learn how to tune your guitar and start playing. This lesson will also include several practice exercises to start doing on your own in order to improve your guitar playing. We will start by learning the string names and numbers on the guitar Then we will move to the very important task of tuning the strings. Finally, we will begin to play our guitars by practicing strumming and picking.
What's included
10 videos10 readings4 assignments2 discussion prompts
10 videos•Total 45 minutes
- String Names and Numbers•2 minutes
- Chord Block Diagrams and Fretboard Maps•2 minutes
- Tuning Your Acoustic Guitar with a Tuner•5 minutes
- Tuning Your Electric Guitar with a Pedal Tuner•4 minutes
- A Minor and E Major Chords•5 minutes
- Picking Technique•7 minutes
- Additional Alternate Picking Techniques•3 minutes
- Finger Picking•6 minutes
- Chords and Finger Picking•3 minutes
- Strumming the Guitar•7 minutes
10 readings•Total 90 minutes
- Reviewing Fretboard Maps•7 minutes
- Tuners and Standard Tuning•6 minutes
- Practicing Your First Two Chords•20 minutes
- Picking Exercise and Advanced Picking•10 minutes
- Review Picking Techniques•10 minutes
- Finger Picking Exercise•10 minutes
- Finger Picking with Chords Exercise•10 minutes
- Strumming Technique Exercise•10 minutes
- Sign up for the full experience!•2 minutes
- Lesson Review and Progress Check-in•5 minutes
4 assignments•Total 48 minutes
- Fundamental Guitar Skills•25 minutes
- String Names and Numbers•8 minutes
- Chord Block Diagrams Review•10 minutes
- Finger Picking•5 minutes
2 discussion prompts•Total 10 minutes
- Why is Tuning Important?•5 minutes
- Comparing Major and Minor Chords•5 minutes
In this module, we will introduce some of the fundamental concepts of music theory. While you don’t need to be an expert in music theory to play guitar, these essential building blocks will allow you to learn the music you want to play at a faster rate, and music notation will no longer be shrouded in mystery or complexity. You will start with learning about the note wheel and how it is used in the guitar. Then you will identify notes on the fretboard, which will be helpful for picking out melodies. Finally, you will learn basic music notation and rhythms.
What's included
6 videos7 readings4 assignments1 discussion prompt
6 videos•Total 29 minutes
- 12 Frets and 12 Half Steps•5 minutes
- Most Important Things to Remember about Frets and Half Steps•3 minutes
- Notes on the Fretboard•6 minutes
- Reversing the Note Order on the Fretboard•2 minutes
- Rhythm Basics•5 minutes
- Music Notation and Tablature•7 minutes
7 readings•Total 51 minutes
- Additional Tuning Methods•5 minutes
- Reviewing the Half-Step Wheel•7 minutes
- Reference Images for Notes on the Fretboard•6 minutes
- Reviewing Rhythm Basics•5 minutes
- Review: Music Notation and Tablature•10 minutes
- Exercise: Playing Notes on the Fretboard•15 minutes
- Lesson Review and Progress Check-in•3 minutes
4 assignments•Total 65 minutes
- The 12 Half Steps and Basic Notation•30 minutes
- 12 Frets and 12 Half Steps•15 minutes
- Notes on the Fretboard•10 minutes
- Rhythm Basics•10 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 5 minutes
- Playing Notes•5 minutes
In this lesson, you will dig into scales. Don’t be intimidated. You may have heard of, or even practiced, scales. It might have been during piano lessons. Maybe it wasn’t very exciting for you. Hopefully, you’ll find that this time, the approach to scales is much easier and even fun.
What's included
8 videos8 readings3 assignments1 discussion prompt
8 videos•Total 46 minutes
- Position Playing•4 minutes
- The Chromatic Scale on a Single String•8 minutes
- The Chromatic Scale in First Position•8 minutes
- The Chromatic Scale in Other Positions•5 minutes
- Chromatic Scale with Movable Fingering•4 minutes
- Major Scales on One String•6 minutes
- Major Scales in Position•3 minutes
- More on Major Scales•7 minutes
8 readings•Total 60 minutes
- Review: Position Playing•5 minutes
- Exercise: The Chromatic Scale on a Single String•5 minutes
- Exercise: The Chromatic Scale in 1st and 5th Position•7 minutes
- Exercise: Chromatic Scale with Movable Fingering•5 minutes
- Review: Major Scales•10 minutes
- Exercises: Movable Major Scale Pattern•20 minutes
- Are you looking for more?•3 minutes
- Lesson Review and Progress Check-in•5 minutes
3 assignments•Total 40 minutes
- Scales: Construction and Fingering•30 minutes
- Position Playing•5 minutes
- The Chromatic Scale•5 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 5 minutes
- Playing Scales•5 minutes
In this lesson, you will use all of the skills you’ve gained from the previous lessons to build the foundation of harmony. You will play certain scale notes at the same time to create chords. You will look at why chords sound like they do, how to build them, how to easily play chords in open position, and how to play chords that you can move all around the neck.
What's included
8 videos8 readings3 assignments1 discussion prompt
8 videos•Total 40 minutes
- Major Triad Chords•5 minutes
- Open-Position Chords•5 minutes
- Minor Triad Chords•6 minutes
- Using the Capo•2 minutes
- Barre Chords•7 minutes
- Minor Barre Chords•4 minutes
- Power Chords•4 minutes
- Reading Chord Charts•6 minutes
8 readings•Total 70 minutes
- Playing Your First Song•7 minutes
- Building Major Triads•10 minutes
- Review: Chord Block Diagrams•10 minutes
- Practicing Major and Minor Chords•10 minutes
- Playing Barre Chords•15 minutes
- Practicing Power Chords•10 minutes
- Playing Chord Charts•5 minutes
- Lesson Review and Progress Check-in•3 minutes
3 assignments•Total 60 minutes
- Chords: Triads, Barre, and Power•25 minutes
- Inversions •30 minutes
- Major and Minor Chords•5 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 5 minutes
- Playing Chords•5 minutes
Now that you have the “science” of the guitar in your fingers, you will learn a couple of songs. You will do this by using melody (from the scales) and harmony (from the chords) we have learned. You will also learn an essential scale for playing melodies and soloing.
What's included
8 videos7 readings2 assignments1 discussion prompt
8 videos•Total 35 minutes
- What is the Pentatonic Scale?•5 minutes
- Additional Pentatonic Scales and TAB Notation•4 minutes
- JP Lullaby•6 minutes
- JP Lullaby: Chords•3 minutes
- Pentatonic Song: Blue Guitar Blues•6 minutes
- Blue Guitar Blues: Melody•4 minutes
- Soloing with the Pentatonic Scale•5 minutes
- Summary•1 minute
7 readings•Total 79 minutes
- Essential Electric Guitar Effects•3 minutes
- Review: Pentatonic Scales•25 minutes
- Playing JP Lullaby•15 minutes
- Recording the "Blue Guitar Blues"•20 minutes
- Soloing on "Blue Guitar Blues"•10 minutes
- Review for the Final Assessment•3 minutes
- Are you looking for more?•3 minutes
2 assignments•Total 40 minutes
- Final Assignment•30 minutes
- Pentatonic Scale Fingerings and Fretboard Maps•10 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 10 minutes
- Share Your Songs with Your Peers•10 minutes
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Reviewed on Aug 23, 2020
As a musician I've been playing guitar for some time but it's always good to go back to basics and this course was amazing for refreshing some info and learning new things.I loved it.
Reviewed on May 30, 2020
It is very explicative and involving. Access to a community with other guitar learners helps you to overcome the difficulties. I would like to have closer contact with the professor.
Reviewed on Aug 8, 2017
Amazing course for a beginner and someone who want to pick it up after a long break. I would suggest this for people who has sufficient experience with the instrument. The tutor is really amazing.
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