Whenever I sit down with someone who wants to start learning guitar, the first question I like to ask (after a little chat of course) is “So why do you want to learn guitar?”. I might also ask “What sort of guitar player do you picture yourself as?” Now I know where they want to go as a guitarist, I can tailor a path for them to follow. However, regardless of the destination, if you’ve never played before… the information in our Beginner Guitar – Stage 1 course is where we would start.
THE number 1 place to start learning guitar…
If they’ve never played or are at the very early stages of guitar, I would start at the same place. The beginning. Yup… no secret crazy mystical information or magic words of wisdom. We all need to start learning guitar somewhere… and the beginning is a great place to do just that.
Here’s an outline of the path our Beginner Guitar – Stage 1 course follows, aimed at a complete beginner:
Week #1
We’re learning a new language. And this language has symbols and words that are completely new – some you’ve seen or heard of, but maybe don’t understand. So we need to start to learn the terminology and lingo, so we can get started playing the guitar. We need to know how to hold the guitar, pick, strum, read chords and chord charts. But more importantly, we need to start making some music
Week #2
You’ve started on the journey, you’re confidently strumming D,A and E like a boss. But you need some new challenges because you’re ready to take it up a level. So what else but more chords for you to master of course. Then… Introducing the ‘Rock Strum’ and some Backing Tracks. Now we feel like we’re in our first band and it’s only the second week!!
Week #3
This week we introduce you to TAB, picking and add a little riff for some extra spice. The best way to learn…is to do. You can sit and study stuff all day long, but when we do, we know. By following this step by step TAB lesson, you’ll know how to read TAB immediately… it’s so easy!! Now we can really start to have fun with the left hand. Our first finger exercise and melody (Riff).
Week #4
We learn another strumming pattern, but it’s a real doozy. So many of my students nail the ‘Rock Strum’ but really struggle to get the ‘Slow Rock Strum’ mastered as quickly. Take your time here and make sure to take it easy on yourself; it’s so rewarding once it’s part of your strumming arsenal. Luckily the rest of the week has some easy yet lovely chords (C, Cadd9 and Am) to soothe and calm you down when frustration creeps in.
Week #5
Too much info tends to make me a little crazy, even when it’s something as fun as learning the guitar. This week we give a little more information, but give you a lot of opportunity to strongly establish what we already know. We also improve areas that might’ve been tricky when we first learned them. Confidence is our greatest ally – fear is our enemy. We conquer fear by doing… we use the tool of programming or imprinting to give us confidence. We take a look back and see just how far we’ve come which fuels us to keep going. We always look at how far we have to go as guitarists, but forget to realize just how far we’ve come… and in such a short time.
Now we’re well on our way and establishing great habits that can be taken into the next step…
