--- title: Guitar description: The guitar is a versatile fretted string instrument used in almost every musical genre. Learners will understand basic chords, strumming patterns, fingerpicking techniques, fretboard navigation, and music reading to perform both rhythm and lead guitar parts. category: music-audio subcategory: instrument-training difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/guitar --- # Guitar The guitar is a versatile fretted string instrument used in almost every musical genre. Learners will understand basic chords, strumming patterns, fingerpicking techniques, fretboard navigation, and music reading to perform both rhythm and lead guitar parts. ## Available Resources 3 Books • 2 Courses • 3 Websites ## Websites ### 1. GuitarLessons.com Free video lesson series from instructor Nate Savage, sequenced from tuning and open chords through strumming, scales, and full songs. Working through the beginner path gives you a repeatable practice routine and enough technique to play simple songs unaccompanied. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.guitarlessons.com/ **Tags:** guitar, beginner-guitar, chords, video-lessons, practice-routine ### 2. Ultimate Guitar Community-maintained archive of guitar tablature, chord charts, and bass and drum transcriptions for hundreds of thousands of songs, with user ratings marking accuracy. Useful once you can hold chords and want to learn specific repertoire by ear and eye. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/ **Tags:** guitar, tablature, chords, songs, reference ### 3. justinguitar.com JustinGuitar is a comprehensive online guitar-learning hub offering free video lessons for beginners and beyond. It covers chords, rhythm, technique, scales, and theory, with structured courses and a library of songs. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://justinguitar.com **Tags:** websites, arts-design, creative-arts ## Courses ### 1. Free Guitar Lessons Learn guitar for free with Marty Schwartz! This course offers easy lessons and tips to get you playing your favorite songs quickly. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.martymusic.com/ **Tags:** guitar, song-lessons, chords, video-lessons, acoustic-guitar ### 2. Guitar for Beginners Grasp the essentials needed to begin playing acoustic or electric guitar. You'll learn an easy approach to get you playing quickly, through a combination of exploring the instrument, performance technique, and basic music theory. For students who have long thought about picking up the acoustic or electric guitar, this course will provide an easy-access foundation that will get you playing. When first learning guitar, it is important to have the material presented in stages, in an enjoyable way that allows you to grasp the basics of the instrument and music. The course begins simply with the parts of the guitar, the names of the strings, tuning, and technique—whether finger-style or pick. It then explores the basics of music theory with such topics as scales, triads, power chords, and fingering and shapes. At the end of this course, students will understand the structure, parts, and accessories of the instrument, in addition to an understanding of its basic maintenance. Electric guitar players will learn the operation of their instrument along with basic options for amplification, effect pedals, and sounds. Students will also learn to develop correct technique and apply theory concepts to their playing. They will have the foundational knowledge necessary to pursue most intermediate guitar courses. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Duration:** 6-8 hours/week | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/guitar **Tags:** courses, music-performing-arts, instruments ## Podcasts ### 1. The Guitar Podcast **Author:** The Fretboard Journal The Fretboard Journal magazine's weekly podcast, where we interview legendary guitarists, luthiers, and much more. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.fretboardjournal.com/ **Tags:** guitar, luthiery, interviews, guitar-history, acoustic-guitar ### 2. Guitar Music Theory **Author:** Desi Serna Audio guitar lessons from Desi Serna, author of Fretboard Theory and Guitar Theory For Dummies, on how scales, chords, progressions and modes map onto the fretboard. Listeners learn to analyse familiar songs and apply theory to improvising and composing. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://guitarmusictheory.com **Tags:** guitar, music-theory, fretboard-theory, chord-progressions, improvisation, modes ## Books ### 1. Guitar Aerobics **Author:** Troy Nelson A one-year practice program by Troy Nelson giving a short exercise for each day, cycling through alternate picking, legato, string bending, arpeggios, and rhythm. Working the cycle builds mechanical control and a habit of daily focused technique work. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1423414357?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, music-performing-arts, instruments ### 2. Hal Leonard Guitar Method **Author:** Will Schmid, Greg Koch The standard graded method used in guitar classrooms, moving from single-note melodies and open chords into keys, position playing, and standard notation alongside tablature. Completing it leaves you able to read music rather than only follow tab. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/079351245X?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, music-performing-arts, instruments ### 3. The Guitar Handbook **Author:** Ralph Denyer Ralph Denyer's illustrated reference covering instrument anatomy, chord dictionaries, scales, amplification, and maintenance, plus interviews with well-known players. Kept beside the instrument, it answers most theory, gear, and setup questions without being a graded course. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/033032750X?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, music-performing-arts, instruments --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/guitar