First Acoustic Guitar Lesson for the Absolute Beginner

Get a Tuned Guitar

To start the first lesson you will need to have a guitar at hand.
Borrow one if you haven't got one yet. The first acoustic guitar
doesn't have to be the most suitable or the perfect guitar for you.
Like learning to swim, one just can't learn to swim by watching
someone else swim, right? So you can't think that you are having
a lesson without working on a guitar.

I assume that the guitar you have at hand is already tuned by
someone who is more experienced than you. If the guitar is not
tuned, it will be hard for you to get the right sounds out of it.

If you don't have someone to tune it for you right now, you can
download and use a free guitar tuner app on your mobile phone
to help you tune it. An example of such an app is called
GuitarTuna.

Understand Guitar Parts

This diagram below will help you find where the parts of the guitar I'm

referring to later on. As you may be interested in the electric guitar too,

you will find that the electric guitar has a few more parts than the

acoustic one.

As you can see, the anatomy of a guitar composes of the head, the

neck and the body. The head or head stock is where you tune the

guitar. The neck is where you hold the guitar in your left hand if you

are right-handed and vise versa if you are left-handed. It is also

where you press your fingers on the fretboard/fingerboard to create

notes and chords.

The body is where you strum or pick the strings with your right hand

if you are right handed and vise versa if you are left-handed.

Start with Strumming

Strumming is when you play more than one note. Let your fingers play

a few notes together and bring out a group of sounds.

As the strings can be hard on your fingers, as a beginner it is better

to use a guitar pick, preferably a flimsy one, that is, a light and thin

pick, or even an ultralight one. A flimsy pick is much more flexible and

forgiving than a thick pick.

Just go ahead and see what strings make what sounds. You can
pluck each note down. That is also a good exercise for your pick.
When you are using your pick, think of it as using a tiny paintbrush
with the sharp end of the pick on the strings.

Now you aim to play a little chord. And then you are going to strum it.

If you are a right-handed player, you will have your left hand and your

left fingers on the fretboard. When you go down the neck of the guitar

are the metal bars called frets. The frets are the spaces you count

down. Use the very tip of your index finger and the very tip of your

middle finger to strum. Yes, it hurts. So you may want to get some

light guitar picks to make learning easier.

What you do is, you press the strings to create notes and chords.

Along the fretboard are raised metal frets, or fret wires. You press

the string or more than one string down just behind the fret wire to

create a particular sound.

Check your fret board to see if there are inlay markers as there

often are. They are, either dots or more obvious markings positioned

at regular fret intervals.

You can count the frets. You can think of a fret as rectangular space

in between the metal brackets. So you can count with your fingers

the first fret, then the one below is the second fret and so one.

Without a guitar pick, your fingertips will hurt or even bleed but you

have to build up a little calluses because as you are doing so

playing gets easier and your fingers get stronger.

Start With an Easy Chord

Here is an easy to follow Youtube video of an easy and pleasurable

chord to learn. It is important to believe in yourself that you can overcome the first hump of not knowing what to do with the guitar.

Keep Practicing

This goes without saying really. Set aside regular guitar time to
practice. Be patient and believe in yourself! I hope this short video
can help you with your guitar lesson.