Welcome, Beginning Guitar Player!
Hi, I’m Allen Mathews.
Hello Guitarist,
If you’re looking for beginner guitar lessons, you’re in the right place. (If you’re not a beginner, perhaps you’re an intermediate guitarist or an advanced guitarist.)
This is a big website with hundreds of tutorials and resources. But not all are appropriate or useful for you now. So below, I’ll point you in the right direction.
First, your main challenges as a beginner are these:
- Training your fingers to work on the guitar
- Learning the common terms and general mechanics of the guitar
- Figuring out what to do each day (specifically)
ClassicalGuitarShed.com can help you with each of these. Here are some options to get you started. You can return to this page anytime and work through the list.
Where to Start
First Things First:
Check out our Free Beginner Course.
This will get you started immediately with useful exercises, chords, beautiful sound, and even playing from musical notation. It is specially created for beginners like you.
Train Your Fingers:
- First Scale Exercise for Beginning Guitarists
- The Magic of Chords (and Why They Are So Useful)
- Anywhere No-Guitar Exercises for Travel, Strength, and Stretch
Set Up Shop – Learn the Lingo and Prep for Action
- How to Tune Your Guitar
- About the Guitar: String Names, Finger Names, and More
- How to Hold the Guitar
Practice Strategy and Planning:
- 11 Lessons for Beginners
- Beginner Progress: What to Look for in Early Guitar Success
- How Long Does it Take to Learn Guitar?
If you see any tempting links in the above articles, click them and go down the rabbit hole.
From here, your next mission is to learn to read music and start playing pieces. Fun!
Other destinations you may enjoy:
- The Free Sheet Music Library – over 1300 pieces of music to download and play. Most have both notation and TABs.
- Visit the full Site Index – Hundreds of lessons, categorized for easy browsing.
- Check out The Woodshed® Classical Guitar Program – Our comprehensive classical guitar course. (It is appropriate for you at your level.)
Please feel free to reach out anytime if you need anything.
All the best in your music,
Allen Mathews
Hi, I’m Allen Mathews.
I started as a folk guitarist, then fell in love with classical guitar in my 20’s. Despite a lot of practice and schooling, I still couldn’t get my music to flow well. I struggled with excess tension. My music sounded forced. And my hands and body were often sore. I got frustrated, and couldn’t see the way forward. Then, over the next decade, I studied with two other stellar teachers – one focused on the technical movements, and one on the musical (he was a concert pianist). In time, I came to discover a new set of formulas and movements. These brought new life and vitality to my practice. Now I help guitarists find more comfort and flow in their music, so they play more beautifully.
Click here for a sample formula.
Allen, your website and teaching methods are excellent. You have an easy going yet encouraging way of inspiring people to learn and practice their art. And you are always accessible to your students to personally answer questions. I appreciate ... that personal touch. The course on reading rhythm and playing higher up the neck I found particularly helpful. God bless you and many thanks.
~ Joe Bazan
-Joe Bazan
Allen I have looked for the right online teacher for classical guitar for 8 months. Spent some money in the process. Never got anywhere. Then I found your site. Excellent! I now believe I will reach my goals in playing some beautiful music in the future.
Thank you,
Chuck
-
“Success lies in relentless execution of the basics.”
Join the program that takes you from the beginning fundamentals to advanced mastery, so you…
Click the button to take a step towards an
organized, effective guitar practice. >>>