English

Guitar

Learn guitar

9 steps from tuning to the first song, each with a page that computes rather than claims: shapes, notes on the neck, songs, metronome. Free, no account.

This is not a video course but the order in which the reference pages and tools on this site make sense when you start from zero. Every step has a page; skip what you already know.

The path

  1. 1TuneBefore every session. The tuner shows which string you are on — E A D G B E.
  2. 2The notes on the neckOpen strings, the fifth fret, the twelfth — four rules, then every note is findable.
  3. 3The first chordsEight open shapes, chosen by effort and use. One after the other, clean first, fast later.
  4. 4Changing in timeTwo shapes, a metronome at 60: change on every one. Faster only when no string buzzes.
  5. 5The first songSongs with two or three open chords, capo position computed — with notation, words and sound.
  6. 6Reading tablatureSix lines, six strings, the number is the fret. That is how most guitar music online is written.
  7. 7Chord progressionsThe four chords a thousand songs are built from — and why they are the same in every key.
  8. 8Barre chordsWhy F is hard, and which shapes make it easier until the finger has the strength.
  9. 9Reading musicAnyone who wants to play more than chords will read music at some point. The start in six steps.

And then

After that a teacher helps more than any page — for posture, the hand, the sound. What is here takes the theory off their plate, not the lesson.

Anotona does this for you

Photograph a page of sheet music or play the melody — Anotona finds the key, engraves the notes and transposes them into any other. Free.

See Anotona

Every note on this page is computed, not typed in — following the rule that also makes F# major spell its seventh degree E#, not F.