For decades, the guitar has been one of the most popular instruments. It used to be that you had to go the music store, pick out a beginning guitar method book, and go home to learn chords, strumming patterns, and other basics. Lots of people still want to learn acoustic guitar, but now there are tons of resources available on the Internet that will help you learn to play acoustic guitar free; you don’t even have to buy a book!

First Things First

As with most new learning attempts, you’ve got to start at the beginning. A good place with the acoustic guitar is learning the basic setup: the parts of the guitar; how you’re supposed to hold it, how to strum or pick with your fingers; and other really foundational stuff. A good lesson will take you from the very beginning and teach you, step-by-step, how to start learning your way around acoustic guitars. Once you’ve got these first steps going pretty well, you’re ready to move on to some more advanced steps.

Basic chords

You’d be amazed to know how many different songs you can play if you know only three basic chords. Many good beginner courses in learning acoustic guitar will show you these chords. Some courses have both pictures of the guitarist’s hand in the correct position to make the chord, and also chord charts, which are diagrams that show you which strings to press with which fingers to make the chord. It sounds complicated, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be playing chords and learning acoustic guitar in no time.

Finger-strum or Pick?

Most beginning guitar lessons encourage you to learn acoustic guitar by strumming with a pick, rather than picking individual notes with your fingers. The fact is, trying to coordinate your fingers to make chords can be challenging enough, without adding the complication of having to worry about what all the fingers on your other hand are doing. But once you’ve got the hang of it, you’ll learn to switch back and forth between picking and finger-strumming, as the song or style demands.

Chords, Scales, and other Scary Music Theory Stuff

At first, you’ll probably want to focus on learning chords, since that’s the quickest route to being able to play along with some of your favorite songs. But before long, you can learn to play scales and other patterns. Online programs can help you learn acoustic guitar scales, arpeggios, and chord inversions.