Basic Guitar Lesson

Free online guitar lessons! Learn to play guitar from the pros. Free Online Education has compiled the basics that you need to learn before you play guitar professionally or in a band. Start by reading our notes on guitar playing, open chords, major cords, and how to strum a guitar.

Notes on Guitar:

Open Chords:

The six vertical lines in the notation refers to the six strings on a guitar, low strings appearing on the left.
Basically this is how the strings would appear if you held a guitar neck vertically and looked at it.
The numbers refer to the fret on each string that you press to make the chord.
The "O" at the top of the diagram indicates that this string should be played as an open string
(i.e. pick the string without fretting a note on it).
The "X" at the top of the diagram indicate that that string should not be played.
The second row of each table denotes the fingering of corresponding chord.
The circled numbers represent each finger.
(1 = index, 2 = middle, 3 = ring, 4 = pinkie).

Major Chords:

Minor Chords:

Strumming Patterns for Guitar

Strumming Exercise:

Strumming Patterns:

Guitar Chord List