Must See First Acoustic Guitar Lesson for Beginners

This first acoustic guitar lesson has some of the essential things you need to know when you're just getting started with playing the guitar. We're going to be going over some very important finger exercises. Most of my students, they tell me, lauren, I feel like my fingers have a mind of their own. Is there something I can do to work on this? There absolutely is. I'm going to show you that in this video. But not only that, I'm going to show you some simple guitar chords that you can learn today to. To start playing songs that you know and love.

Now, what I'm going to show you today is some of the things I used to teach students in their first lesson when I would teach private one on one instructions with students. Now I'm going to assume that your guitar is already in tune. Okay. If you don't know how to tune your guitar yet, you can pause this video. Go watch that video right up there on how to tune your guitar and, and then come right back because we're going to start off with some important finger dexterity exercises. But before we jump into that, I want to show you an important thing that I think most guitar teachers ignore for students, and that is, where are these strings? Okay, so we're trying to. In guitar, we're trying to coordinate these two hands to do very different things, and nobody seems to work on that with a beginner. So what I want you to focus on is just one hand at a time. And so, and then we're going to put them together for this finger dexterity exercise. Okay? We're going to take our picking hand. All right? So whether you're right handed or left handed, it doesn't matter. Your picking hand. I'm going to say picking hand and I'm going to say fretting hand. Okay? So take your pick, and I want you to put it on this top string, the fat string of the guitar. And all I want you to do is do two down strums. I want you to go down, down, okay? And you might have to watch the strings of the guitar. That's okay. I want you to move down to the next string. That's our A string. I want you to do that twice. Down, down. Okay, now come fourth string, our D string. Down, down. Come now to the G string. Down, down. Then to the B string. Down, down. Then to the E string. Now, once you get to the bottom, we're going to come back up. So B, G, D, A, E. So all you're doing in the beginning, you're probably going to have to watch your guitar. And I know a lot of you, you're going to do this with your guitar. You're going to angle it. Try as best you can to keep the guitar straight up and down. And try and look at the strings. Look over the guitar, okay? As best you can. Let's try it again. We're going to start from the top string, and I'm just going to say E, E, A, A, D, D. Okay? Go nice and slow. And all I want you to do is start learning the spacing between these strings. Ready? From the top. So we've got E, E, A.

B, B, E, E. Back up, B, B, G, G, D, D, A, A, E, E. Okay. It's a nice slow. And for some of you, that might have been difficult. And that's okay. You're just gonna work on. This is just a starting point, okay? We gotta start somewhere. And the goal is that every week we get a little bit better. Let's do it one more time. I'm gonna do it without saying the notes. We're gonna start at the top string. I'll count you, and I'm gonna say 1, 2, 1, 2. So. And then on the third time, we'll get started. Ready? 1, 2, 1, 2, and.

There you go. And if you go back, I don't know if some of you guys caught that. I had a little hiccup on that B string. Now, I've been playing guitar for over 20 years, and I leave this stuff in there because I want you guys to know even I make mistakes. Even on some of the simple stuff, I make mistakes. So if you're making mistakes, don't feel bad. I'm not perfect, okay? I'm not a perfect person, and you shouldn't be either, okay? You want to get better. Practice makes progress, okay? Practice doesn't make perfect, it makes progress. So. So that when you make a mistake, you know, they happen much less frequently than when you are an absolute beginner. Great. So now we focused on our picking hand, and that's an exercise you can do up and down. The next thing we're going to do is we're going to do a little bit of a spider exercise. We're going to work on mostly on these first three fingers, because when you're learning chords in the beginning, the beginner chords, the real beginner chords, typically don't use the pinky, all right? And it's really hard to. To move one finger, never mind four of them, okay? And you're going to see that when we learn the chords in A little bit that I'm going to show you. It's much easier when you keep things simple in the beginning. You can always make things harder. I tell students, like, I can always make things super hard for you. But in the beginning, let's keep it simple, and let's build upon what we're doing to grow to the next level. So I want you to take a look at my guitar, okay? This is called our fretboard, okay? And you can see there's these blocks. These blocks are called frets, okay? They're called frets, and they are numbered starting at 1 and 12 and beyond. Okay? Now, unfortunately, I'm very sorry. This particular guitar I've chosen does not have any dots on the front. But if you look at the top of your guitar, you'll see dots. Almost all of them have dots on the top. Mine has dots at the third fret, the fifth fret, the seventh fret, the ninth fret, and then a double dot at the 12th fret. So you can use these dots at the top so to help you find where you are. Because, again, to repeat myself, most people, we don't play the guitar like this, so I'm not going to be able to see the dots on my fretboard anyway. So I'm going to use the dots on the top of the fretboard to help me navigate where I am. So this exercise, we're going to focus on the middle of the guitar, because you'll notice the frets down here are much wider than the frets up here. So if I start you all the way down here, for some people, that's too much of a stretch, especially my older students who have arthritis. Now, for you guys who don't know who I am, my name is Lauren Bateman, and I specialize in teaching absolute beginners, especially older adults over the age of 50. You guys are my favorite students to teach, and my system is really developed to help you guys learn to play guitar step by step. Because, let's face it, as we get older, again, our fingers don't move as well as they did when we are 20. So we have to take a few extra steps. And if you take a typical beginner course, you know, they. They skip a lot of steps that are really helpful for older learners in the beginning. And this is one of those steps is really focusing on simple things that help improve finger dexterity. So this is a spider exercise. We're going to start at the fifth fret, all right? So find your fifth fret. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and our first finger is going to own the fifth fret. Our second finger is going to own the sixth fret, and our third finger is going to own the seventh fret. Okay, we're going to play these in a very particular pattern that I'm going to show you right now. So we're starting on this top string, this E string, the fattest string of the guitar. And we're just going to start with just our first two fingers. Like I said, it's hard to move one finger, never mind three or four of them, at the same time. And that's what we got to do with chords. We have to move fingers at the same time. So we want to build up to that. So we're going to start on the fifth fret. Okay. With our first finger. And we're going to play those two down picks just like we did in the exercise before. So it's going to be down, down with fingers 1, 2. Okay, now you're gonna move down to the next string. Oh, it's that exercise. That's why we do that. Okay, you do that first because you want to learn where the strings are before you even bring this fretting hand into play. We're gonna do one, two. Again, two down picks. Okay? Come down to the D string, two down picks. Now we're on the G string. E string, E string. Okay, now the only difference here we got to the bo. When we come back up, we're going to lift up the second finger this time and just play the high E string on that fifth fret. We're kind of doing a turnaround because now we're going to work our way back up the guitar. Okay, so just that bottom string, it's going to be 1, 2, 1. Okay? So let's do that again from the top.

Okay, now we're coming backwards up the string. So our second fret. Sorry, our second finger is going to play first. So now it's going to be 6, 5 fingers, 2, 1 going backwards, but still two down picks with your picking hand. Okay, so we got B string.

Now we got G string, D string, A string.

E string. Okay. Okay, so now we've come back to the beginning, and we're gonna go with fingers two and three on frets six and seven. And we're gonna be doing the same pattern. Two down picks again with the picking hand. It's gonna sound like this. Ready? Two, three, two, three. Two, three, two, three, two, three. And we have the turnaround again on this high E string. Gonna be finger two, three, two, okay, and then we're backwards. Three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two. Now. Now we've ended that. We've come to the third fret. We're gonna start the whole thing over again, except this time we're gonna do three fingers. Okay? So we're gonna go 1, 2, 3. So you're gonna have to do three down picks with your picking hand. Ready? Here we go. Starting from the first finger. And then I'm gonna go through and play this all the way through so you guys can practice with it. Okay, so first finger, 1, 2, 3. On frets 5, 6, 7. And you can lift up your fingers. If you keep the fingers down, it creates more of a stretch. So if you're feeling like this is stretching your hand too much, just lift up those fingers. Okay? And as you develop more flexibility and dexterity, you might be able to keep the fingers down. But don't worry about that right now. We're just trying to get the fingers moving. Okay? It doesn't have to be perfect. Here we go. One, two, three.

Okay, and again on the high E string, we're going to do this turnaround. And don't worry, I'm going to do a full playthrough shortly for you guys. Of all three of them together. We're going to be doing 1, 2, 3, 2, 1. So we're playing five down picks on that bottom E string. So it's going to be fingers 1, 2, 3, 2, 1. And then we're going to come backwards. 3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1. 3, 2, 1. 3rd, 2, 1, 3, two, one. Alright, so let me do a little play through this way. You guys can practice with this. We're going to do fingers 1, 2, 2, 3. Then 1, 2, 3, all the way through, top to bottom. Ready? Here we go. 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2.

Turn around.

Two, one.

Fingers 2, 3, 2, 3.

Turn around. 3, 2, 3, 2.

Now 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3.

Turn around. 1, 2, 3, 2, 1. 3, 2, 1.

Now, if you want a PDF printout of this exercise, I'll put a link in the description below where you guys can go. Just have to fill out your name and email and I'll email you a copy of this exercise. So those exercises are kind of like your warmup. That's what you should start your warmup and your practice with. Just spend a couple minutes on each. And for some of you, you probably, especially that third finger, it probably felt a little bit tricky and tough. It's a very tough, tough finger. We really need to focus in on that one. And you might feel like your. Your fingers are almost doing this on the fretboard. They're flying off. Remember to breathe. All right? When you're doing this, most people go.

They get to the bottom, and they go. And then, then, then they work their way up, back up. So don't forget to breathe. That's why we're going slow.

Because if you breathe, you will stay more relaxed and your fingers will stay more relaxed, too. If you stop breathing, your fingers will tense up and it will make it harder, Harder. But if you're an absolute beginner, don't worry. These things are absolutely normal. If you're. If your notes are kind of sounding like this, that's normal. Okay? The goal is every week, it's just a little bit better, a little bit easier, maybe a little bit faster and a little bit cleaner. Okay? Just keep practicing it, and I promise you, you will get better. So I'm going to show you the first two chords that I teach students in my lesson because it helps us play a fun song. And we're going to start off with an E minor chord. And I'm going to show you there's a couple different ways you can play it, but I'm going to show you it my way because I use it in a very particular way to teach you other chords. I use it as a pivot point. And we're going to learn an E minor chord. Okay. It's a very nice chord because it's only two fingers and it uses all six strings. Okay. It's a very dark, deep sounding chord. So we're going to be playing in the second fret. We're going to be doing the first finger and the second finger. The first finger is going to come up two frets, and we're going to count down one string from the top, our fifth string. And then our second finger is going to go right underneath it on that fourth string. So both fingers are in the second fret. Now, some of you, I always get students who are like, but I have really big fingers, and I can't do that. The other option, some of you have fingers that are big enough that you might be able to just play it with your first finger or your second finger, whichever is more comfortable. I highly recommend, if you can do both fingers, that you do that. Okay. And, you know, hopefully there's not too much music. If you hear like this going on, could mean that your fingers are kind of angling down on the strings. It also could mean you're doing that with the guitar again, okay? Straighten out that guitar because we want this angle of the knuckles. The knuckles have to bend into the strings. And if there's not enough bend in the knuckles, it will start touching other strings and you'll get that muting sound again, absolutely normal. That's why we're doing this exercise. We have to build strength, flexibility, and dexterity, even if you're younger, all right? But especially if you're older, if you're over the age of 50. I have a lot of students who are in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, okay? The majority of my students that take my course right now, my seven level guitar system, are probably in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, all right? So trust me, I know the problems you're having if you're an older learner. So keep it simple. Work on the dexterity. So this is chord number one, E minor. Let's find it again, okay? It's all about finding the chord. First. Count up two frets. First finger, put it on the top string, bring it down one string, Put the second finger right below it, and then strum all six strings. This is your E minor chord. Now, the second chord, I'm going to teach you. It's not really an important chord. It's really only to learn this one song. But the second chord that's kind of important is we're going to move up the first finger to the top string, okay? From an E minor chord, and the second finger is going to come down one to the G string. And you would strum all six strings, okay? It's called D69 chord. Don't worry, it's not that important. It's just for this one song that I'm going to show you, and I'll show you one more chord. I'll give you two songs that you can play with just three chords. It's awesome. Okay, let's work. Getting back into the E minor. Half the battle is getting the fingers moving. Okay, so move that first finger down a string. Single second finger up a string. We're back to E minor, okay? And again, let's move the finger up one string, second finger down. Let's just do that a couple times. Ready? E minor.

D 69.

E minor.

One more time. D 69.

Okay, so we've got two chords, E minor, D 69. Now these chords go together to play a song called Horse with no Name.

Now, if you notice what I'm doing, I'm going to teach you a strumming pattern here, okay? Very, very simple. Strumming pattern is going to be E minor, and we're going to strum down all strings four times, and it's going to be 1, 2, 3, 4. Then we're going to switch to the D69 chord. 1, 2, 3, 4. We're going to go back and forth. Now, if you're someone where your chord changes aren't fast enough, you might only be able to do three strums. And then you're going to have to. Instead of doing a fourth strum, you're going to have to change the next chord. So it might sound like this. But with guitar, the most important thing is to keep the timing. It's more important to have the timing than to have your guitar sound like this.

With these big pauses between the chord changes. I'd rather you go 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1. Can you see how I'm using that fourth strum to build the next chord? And as your fingers get faster, then you can do all four strums. Let's just try going back a few times. All right, we're going to go E minor, D, E minor, D, E minor. We'll do it four times in a row. That's not a four, that's a two larn Four times in a row.

To get you guys into this strumming pattern. And I'm going to show you one more chord that you can add into the mix here to play another great song. So let's see. Here we go. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, four. 1, 2, 3, Four. One. 1, 2, 3, FOUR. One, two. On your own.

One more time. Ready?

Well, I've been through a desert On a horseman no name and there it is. All right. Horse with no name. Great job. Great job. So keep practicing that so that you can learn those two chords. And then I do have a lesson on that song that you guys can go check out up there. But I want to show you one more chord. We're going to throw one more easy chord into the mix so that you can play another two chord song. So we already know our E minor chord, right? We've learned that one. So I'm going to show you a pivot point. All right. I love to teach pivot points because, again, I know I'm a broken horse I know I'm a horse with no name. But you have to make things simple. In the beginning, it's very, very hard to move multiple fingers. So I'm going to show you an easy C chord. And everyone yells at me. But Lauren, a C chord's three Fingers and it's like, well, there's actually many ways to play a C chord. And I'm going to show you a two fingered C chord. It doesn't sound as nice as the full C chord. But the biggest problem finger for a lot of people is this third finger. And until you develop enough dexterity and strength in this finger, this chord is going to be a pain in the butt. Alright? So. But I find most people can play the easy C chord no problem. Okay. And it's great because we have a pivot point from E minor. What do I mean by pivot point? Watch me play this chord. Here's E minor. Here's the easy C chord.

Do you notice how many fingers I'm moving? Just moving one finger. Okay. It's easier to move one finger than two fingers at the same time. Okay. It just is. Okay. Simple math. It is. So start with the easy C chord. You can always graduate to the full C chord. But I'm telling you, I promise you do this for a couple weeks. Get the fingers moving and then you can make things harder. Don't make things hard in the beginning. Make them simple. Simple helping you have fun. Faster. Okay? So let's just try that. So let's work between getting through this. E minor in C chord. So if you play your E minor with the first and second fingers like I recommended, then you'll keep your second finger down and you'll move your first finger to the first fret of the B string. Okay? That second string. Okay. To get back to E minor, you just move the first finger back in place. So you're just moving one finger back and forth to get in and out of this chord. Alright? Just try that with your first finger. E minor C. E minor C. E minor C. Much easier to move one finger than to move two or three fingers at the same time. And now when we strum this C chord, you want to try and only hit the bottom four strings. It's going to be a much brighter sounding chord. But it is a C chord. It is a C chord. It's just a different way to play a C chord. I call it the easy C chord. Okay, so we have an E minor chord and a C chord. E minor chord and a C chord. All right? Just like we did with Horse with no Name. I want you to do four strums per chord. All right? We're going to do E minor. 1, 2, 3, 4. Now C.

Back to E minor.

C. I'm going to pick up the tempo on you just a little bit. Okay, ready? Here we go. Two, three, four. And one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.

One more time.

So you're probably saying, okay, Lauren, what song can I play with just these two chords? Well, it's a great song by the Beatles called Eleanor Rigby.

I Look at all the Lonely People.

If you want this to be the year that you finally start having more fun with your guitar, then I highly recommend you check out my seven level guitar system. I'll put a link in the description below. I teach in a very step by step system. I've had a lot of students who've told me, Lauren, I've taken other courses and they went from zero to 60 way too fast. I really like the pace of your program, how it's step by step. And that's what I do. It's seven levels. So we have our intro items, all the background information you need to learn to play the guitar. Then you learn level one and you learn a set of materials and we focus on the fundamentals to having fun with the guitar, just like we did in this video. I teach you something, we apply it to something, and then when you go to level two, we build upon what you did in level one and then in level three, and then in level four, so forth and so on. So you know you're going to make progress week to week and month to month. And it comes with a nice workbook that has all the exercises, all the chord diagrams, all the different strumming patterns that you can print out and put in a binder at home. So if you're tired of learning on your own and you're looking for a step by step system for learning this instrument, go to the link in the description below and check out my seven level guitar system. I know you won't regret it and I hope to see you guys in a lesson video real soon.