Before you begin
Equipment
- Guitar. A steel-string acoustic with light-gauge strings, or a nylon-string classical guitar, which is gentler on fingertips and arthritic hands. A professional setup (lowering the strings) at a local shop matters more than the price of the guitar.
- Clip-on tuner. A free phone tuning app also works.
- Capo. Get a spring-clamp model.
- Pick. Thin or medium. Thumb strumming is fine too.
Posture
Sit in a chair without arms, with the guitar's waist resting on your right thigh and the neck tilted slightly upward. Your thumb can rest on the back of the neck or hook lightly over the top, as in the C chord photo. Either works for open chords. Press with the very tips of your fingers, just behind the metal fret, and keep your knuckles arched so each finger touches only its own string.
Reading a chord shape
Shapes in this course are written low string to high string, for example C = x32010:
- a number is the fret to press
0means play the string openxmeans don't strum that string
Finger numbers: 1 = index, 2 = middle, 3 = ring, 4 = little finger.
Reading a chord sheet
The chord name sits above the syllable where the chord changes. Keep strumming that chord until the next name appears.
Left-handed learners
Bring it up at the first Zoom session, before buying a guitar.