About This Class

In this class, Mike Boyd walks you through the basics of learning to play the guitar. Starting simply with the anatomy of the guitar and leading all the way up to playing your first two songs. This course is designed for absolute beginners with no prior knowledge of the guitar and for people wanting to brush up on the fundamentals.

Included are all the printable resources mentioned: chord diagrams, strumming patterns and sheet music, as well as slowed down versions of songs (with and without a metronome) to play along with.

Although it may seem complex, playing the guitar can actually be quite simple once you get the hang of it and your fingers get used to the pain. There is no one-size-fits-all way to learn guitar, and there's plenty more you can dive into after this class, but this course will get you playing songs as quickly as possible, if you stick with it.

In this class, you'll learn:

The Basic Anatomy: What and where everything is, how to hold the guitar and pick and why its important to keep your fingernails trimmed, but only on one hand!

Tuning Your Guitar: How to tune your guitar using a free app so that you can hear the progress of your learning in tune!

Chord Diagrams: A clear explanation of what all the symbols on a chord diagram mean. Its not hard once you wrap your head around it and our easy to read print offs should help you get there in no time.

Chords A, D, E: Learning your first 3 chords! A closer look at the chord diagram for each of them, how to fret correctly and what strings to strum. We will also go through how to self-diagnose any issues you may be having and give you a little exercise to get you changing chords, which is good practice for when you start playing songs!

Bars and Strumming: A little bit of music theory so you can read and strum correctly, this is such a valuable lesson as it’s sometimes the strumming that makes a great guitarist.

Song 1 – Wild Thing: Your first Song! This is where it gets really exciting. Putting all your practice to the test, changing chords, strumming and counting bars and beats, but don’t worry I will walk you through it step by step.

Chord’s G and C: Some extra chords to open up the range of music you can play. Similar to above, we will have a closer look at the chord diagram for G and C, how to fret, what strings to strum, self-diagnosing any issues and exercises to get you changing chords.

Song 2 – Sweet Home Alabama: Your Second Song! You feel a little more confident by this point and are ready to go in to learning your second song!

Tips and Tricks: A round up of all my tips and tricks to get you learning to play the guitar as quickly as possible!