Guitar For Beginners

If you are new to the Guitar then bookmark this page now. We update this page regularly with more information about everything from learning how to play a guitar, to the very basics of tuning, chords, tabs, and much more.

Congratulations on choosing to learn how to play a guitar - it is a wonderful instrument and one of the few that you can play whole songs and sing along with at the same time - or your friends can sing along with you. As well as that it's pretty much the best instrument you can carry around with you, take it to your friends place or the campfire. This makes the guitar a much more social instrument than something like piano or trumpet (and way cooler too!)

The information here is broken down into several categories - just scroll down to the part you are looking for.

Beginner Guitar Series

This is a special series of articles written totally for beginners - our experts are adding to this collection of guitar wisdom every week:

• Guitar Stings - Their Names and Notes - introduces you to each of the strings on your guitar, and all the notes on the fretboard.
• How to String an Acoustic Guitar - shows you step by step what you need to do to change your guitar strings - also useful for electric guitars.
• How to Clean your Fretboard - simple instructions on why you need to clean the frets and how to do it.
• How to Sing and Play Guitar at the Same Time - It can be a bit tricky at first, but these tips and this video will help you improve.

Choosing a Beginner Acoustic Guitar

• Our recommended best acoustic guitar for beginners is the Epiphone DR-100 - the combination of low price, play-ability, and durability can't be beaten in our opinion.
• Click here for all our steel string acoustic guitar recommendations.
• Although it's not seen as being cool - I recommend beginners start with a nylon string acoustic. There are several reasons for this including the fact that the strings are easier on your fingers when you first start (although they will get sore at first), and you will better learn to understand vibrato which is much easier to do on nylon strings. I suggest you begin with one of (these are affiliate links - but you can find them at most local guitar shops):
• Fender ESC80 3/4 Size
• Yamaha CGS103A 3/4 Size
• Hohner HC06 Full Size
• Fender ESC-105 Full Size
• Yamaha C40 Full Size

Washburn, Yamaha, and Fender all have some low-cost Acoustic Guitar options here.

Choosing a Beginner Electric Guitar

These are what in our experience are the best electric guitars to start out with - again these are affiliate links - most local guitar shops in your area will have one of these:

• Fender Squire
• Epiphone LP Special II
• Yamaha Pacifica

The Best Electric Guitars Under $500 is our recommended list of guitars starting from just $120 which you can buy online.

Choosing a Capo

We have provided our recommendations to help you get the best guitar capo for your situation.

Choosing a Tuner for Acoustic Guitar

Our recommendations to help you get the best acoustic guitar tuner to suit your needs.

Guitar Lessons

Here are some great places to find guitar lessons

• GuitarSite.com Lessons
• News on Guitar Lessons, Tips, and Advice - includes announcements about the latest professional Videos and DVDs
• YouTube lessons.

Guitar Tablature (TAB)

Resources for everything you need to know about the special type of sheet music (notation) used for guitar - it's much easier to understand than regular sheet music and it contains more information about what notes and chords to play:

• A Guide to TAB notation
• Tablature - a huge directory of websites about TABs
• Tablature software - download programs and apps to read, write, and find TABs

Tuning a Guitar

Resources for everything you need to know about the tuning your guitar including standard tuning, alternate tuning, and software to tune your guitar:

• Tuning your Guitar - includes information about standard tuning and alternate tuning methods such as 'Drop D'
• Guitar Tuning Software - go directly to tuners for Windows - Mac - iPad & iPhone - Android - Linux - or check out our feature on Android Guitar Apps