A complete guide for beginner guitar players to learn how to play guitar while having TONS of fun.
The Ultimate Guide to Learning the Guitar will give you video lessons for beginning guitar players as well as experienced guitar players to learn how to play guitar.
Don’t get bogged down by boring “guitar learning systems” or “A to Z Beginner Guitar Courses”. Instead, have fun immediately by learning these 5 guitar skills that your friends and family will easily recognize!
Don’t wait to master the guitar until you have fun. Instead, have fun immediately and get hooked on guitar.
But first, let me tell you a little story.
It starts with a vision or a dream. Maybe even a memory.
You’re surrounded by people. It’s your high school buddies — maybe it’s your children or grandchildren.
You’re holding a guitar, and it’s the most beautiful guitar you’ve seen — because it’s yours and you know how to play it.
Every song you sing, every chord you play, brings joy to you and those around you as they join you. Some sing harmony, others have guitars, too.
Dig deeper, and soon that vision becomes a memory.
You see your parents, singing lullabies to you on a soft summer night. It reminds you of the purity of that music, that wholesome purity that comes from an acoustic guitar.
Some of us hang onto these dreams or visions. We store them safely in our subconscious.
Things come up over the years, and the dream waxes and wanes. Jobs. Marriage. Children. Your life becomes filled with other priorities.
But in the quiet moments, you wander around the memories, visions, and dreams of the music you want to play.
It’s that music that is made whole by your hands, that music that unites people in song, dance, and feeling.
It is your destiny to make those musical desires a reality.
Why Do YOU Want to Learn to Play Guitar?
Just like superheroes, everyone has their own origin story.
Some folks, like myself, had a compulsive need to play the guitar. When I wasn’t, it felt like I was missing something in my life.
There’s also a special group of guitarists who play because they want to give back to humanity.
For others, playing the guitar started with learning the guitar. It was a simple way to have some fun…and then, they fell in LOVE with it.
Everyone has their own story as to why they want to play guitar. Here’s what’s important:
Find out why you want to play the guitar.
I’ve taught thousands of students throughout my life. I’ve met some incredible guitarists and acoustic guitar icons like Tommy Emmanuel, Taylor Guitars CEO Bob Taylor, Chris Martin from Martin Guitars, and Paul Reed Smith.
What I’ve learned is that focusing on the why — rather than the how — will yield the greatest satisfaction in your acoustic guitar journey.
While I can’t help you figure out the why, I’m here to help you learn to play guitar.
I created this awesome guide to help beginning guitar players learn the guitar…but I also found that experienced players can benefit from this guide, too.
I also created an awesome program called 30 Days to Play. I’ll talk about it more later, but I want you to take the time to understand a couple more things before I tell you about it.
What Are the Benefits of Playing Guitar?
If you’ve discovered your “why,” I’m sure you already know the benefits of learning to play guitar. But just in case, here’s some more:
- Have fun with a new hobby.
- Take time out of a busy schedule to practice a new craft.
- Join a community of musicians and artists.
- Make your dreams of playing guitar a reality.
How to Learn the Guitar the Right Way
As you might know, there are hundreds of ways to learn the guitar.
There’s DVDs, private lessons, group lessons, books, magazines, and a TON of online guitar lessons.
I’m sure you have tried one, if not all, of these options. There are upsides and downsides to each one.
I have helped over 18,837 acoustic guitar enthusiasts learn to play guitar online. Each one of those guitarists has their own origin story and their own motives.
But what do they all have in common?
It still exists today, and our members are happier than ever.
Tony’s Acoustic Challenge guides players through the acoustic journey, offering lessons, advice, and support the entire way.
If you’re looking for some guidance on how to have fun while learning the guitar, be sure to check out Tony’s Acoustic Challenge today.
Whether you’re brand new to guitar or you’re coming back after a long break, this guide will help you start playing the guitar right away.
With video lessons and tons of exercises to practice, my Ultimate Guide to Learning Guitar will guide you through the necessary steps to start making your guitar dreams a reality.
About The Ultimate Guide to Learning Guitar
Being able to play the guitar isn’t a gift you’re born with, nor is it something that only “creative” people can do. Playing the guitar is for everyone, which is part of why I made this guide.
If you have a desire to play the guitar — if you have dreams of playing the guitar — this guide will teach you the fundamental basics of playing the guitar.
The Ultimate Guide to Learning Guitar doesn’t give you silver-bullet solutions for the guitar. Instead, this guide offers step-by-step instructions.
From holding the guitar properly, to playing your first blues solo, I cover basic guitar skills that will start you out on the right foot.
The foundational skills you learn from this guide will help you continue your guitar journey. Whether you want to play for your kids, at an open mic night, or start playing guitar with your friends.
What You’ll Learn
We’ll cover specific topics and exercises in each chapter. Every chapter is designed to give you a solid foundation in a specific concept.
Each lesson is accompanied by a video lesson. I’ll explain to you why this concept is important for learning how to play guitar. I’ll include a couple of exercises to help you solidify your knowledge as well.
I’ve organized this guide in a logical progression to help you learn effectively while having fun.
However…
If you feel comfortable with a certain topic, feel free to skip it or revisit it later. This guide won’t disappear, so feel free to bookmark it, share it, and return to it when you need to.
Be sure to take your time as you go through each lesson.
Remember: learning the guitar isn’t a race.
Spending a day on just one part of a chapter is perfectly acceptable. I highly recommend that you pause and make sure you understand a concept.
In addition, you can spend as much time as you need to practice guitar exercises such as picking exercises and chord progressions.
Once you’ve gone through some of the chapters and concepts, you’ll be surprised at the progress you’ve made. Don’t be afraid to keep playing if you’re enjoying yourself.
Remember: it’s about having fun and making your guitar dreams a reality.
Are you ready to start having fun and learning the guitar?
Wait!!!
Before I let you go through The Ultimate Guide to Learning Guitar, do you remember hearing about 30 Days to Play earlier in this guide?
I just wanted to let you know this: it’s the better version of this guide.
“But Tony…how could it be better than The Ultimate Guide to Guitar?”
It’s a simple answer:
30 Days to Play is the curated and feature-filled version of this guide.
Here’s what 30 Days to Play includes.
- Everything in this guide.
- Downloadable tablature and music notation.
- Backing tracks to help you learn faster and easier.
- Interactive and fun user interface that encourages consistent practice.
- Active and supportive community forums that will help you every step of the way.
Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right?
30 Days to Play isn’t about mastering the guitar; it’s about having fun while learning. I’ll guide you in building practice habits and making actionable progress.
I’ll let you sit on that for now. The most important thing is that you have fun learning the guitar.
If you’re struggling at any point to make progress, don’t be shy. Click here to learn more about the bigger, better version of The Ultimate Guide to Learning Guitar.
Click on a chapter to start learning how to play guitar!
This chapter covers essential concepts all guitar players should know. This is the starting point for anyone who is new to guitar.
The skills taught in this chapter will give you the tools to understand the rest of The Ultimate Guide to Learning Guitar.
I’ll cover the following skills:
- How to tune a guitar
- 4 essential guitar technique check-ins
- How to read tablature
- How to read chord diagrams
Each one of these lessons will give you a rock-solid foundation in moving forward. Be sure you understand the concepts in this chapter before moving onto other chapters!
Myth: You have to wait to play the fun stuff until you learn all the basics.
Fact: You CAN play the fun stuff immediately!
You might think you’re not ready, but I’m positive you can start playing the blues. This will give you your first song you can play on the guitar!
I’ll walk you through how to play the blues on guitar. In addition, I’ll touch on key technique and finger strength exercises that will help you play better.
This chapter will cover:
- How to play blues guitar
- How to play the blues shuffle, an essential blues rhythm pattern
- Guitar bass lines for the blues
- How to play guitar boogie and the boogie shuffle
By the end of this chapter, you’ll be able to play with a blues backing track and even others!
Don’t worry about learning hundreds of chords. Instead, I’m going to show you the three essential guitar chords for beginners: the G chord, C chord, and D chord.
In addition to learning the chords, I’ll teach you how to make smooth chord transitions with a variety of exercises.
Also, I’ll show you how to create power chords on the guitar.
Once you have these concepts under your belt, you’ll be able to play a ton of songs and have fun jamming out!
Until now, we’ve been focusing on your fretting hand — the hand that puts the fingers on the fretboard. This chapter is all about showing you a variety of different strumming patterns with your strumming hand.
It’s important to understand guitar strumming patterns. Without your strumming patterns, it can be difficult to develop consistent rhythm and timing in your playing.
This chapter will cover the following concepts:
While these strumming patterns are geared towards country, folk, and bluegrass playing, they are used universally in music.
I want you to take a deep breath and repeat after me: beginners can solo, too!
I’ll guide you through learning how to solo on the guitar. And trust me, it’s not as scary as you think.
I’ll show you how to play pentatonic scales on guitar, which will allow you to solo over the blues that you learned in chapter two.
In addition, I’ll go over different techniques for soloing like using dynamics. All of these techniques and topics covered in this chapter will help you start soloing and have even more fun on the guitar.
Those are the 5 chapters that I’ll cover. Each one is designed to get you to start having fun on the guitar.
Watch this FREE guitar class for three secrets to learn guitar faster in just 10 minutes a day.