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Guitar for Bill

You already know music. Now we just teach your hands where it lives on a guitar.

Use the arrows at the bottom (or the ← → keys) to move between pages.

The plan

The order we'll go in

VisitWhat we cover
1Holding the guitar · the six strings · reading a chord picture · first chord: E minor
2C and G · simple down-strums · switching between chords
3D · the strum pattern · first song: Amazing Grace
4Numbers (1-4-5) · the capo · When the Saints Go Marching In
No rush. If a visit only gets through half of this, that's a good visit.
What carries over

Your clarinet years count

You already have:

  • Rhythm and counting
  • Keys and scales
  • An ear for in-tune and out-of-tune
  • Knowing what practice feels like

What's new:

  • Playing several notes at once (chords)
  • Two hands doing two different jobs
  • Fingertips pressing on strings
Guitar is not a transposing instrument the way a B♭ clarinet is. A G on guitar sounds like a G on the piano.
Visit 1

Getting comfortable

  • Sit in a chair without arms. Guitar on your right leg, body of the guitar against your belly.
  • Left hand holds the neck. Thumb behind the neck, not wrapped over the top.
  • Right hand strums over the round hole.
  • Hold the pick loosely between thumb and the side of your first finger. A thin pick is easier to start with.
Sore fingertips are normal for the first couple of weeks. Short sessions are better than long ones. If a hand or wrist hurts (not just tender), stop for the day.
Visit 1

The six strings

From the thickest string (closest to your chin) to the thinnest (closest to the floor):

E6th · low
A5th
D4th
G3rd
B2nd
E1st · high

Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie

Strings are numbered 6 → 1, thick to thin. Each metal bar on the neck is a fret. One fret = one half step, same as one key on a piano.

Visit 1 · Interactive

Hear the six strings

Tap a string to hear what it should sound like. Tune your guitar to match (a free tuner app helps).

Low to high: E A D G B E. Tap and hold the idea: each string is a different pitch, and the thick ones are low.

Visit 1

Reading a chord picture

  • It's the guitar standing up, facing you.
  • Lines going down are the strings. Thick E on the left.
  • The thick bar on top is the end of the neck.
  • Dots = where to press. The number is which finger.
  • O = play it open. X = don't play it.

Fingers: 1 = pointer, 2 = middle, 3 = ring, 4 = pinky.

Visit 1 · First chord

E minor — two fingers

  1. Middle and ring fingers, side by side, on the 2nd fret.
  2. Press just behind the metal fret, not on top of it.
  3. Strum all six strings, slowly, top to bottom.
  4. Then pick each string one at a time. Any that buzz or go dead? Press a little harder or curl the finger.
Goal for today: four slow strums of E minor that ring clearly. That's it.
Visit 2

C and G

  • C: skip the thick E string (X). Start your strum on the A string.
  • G: all six strings. Your hand spreads wider on this one.
Visit 2

Down strums & counting

You know this part better than most beginners. Count out loud and strum down on every beat:

1   2   3   4

Four strums on G, four on C, four on G, four on Em. Keep going around.

Keep the beat going even if the chord isn't ready. Strum open strings while your fingers catch up. Same idea as playing in a band: never stop the time.
Visit 2

Switching chords

  1. Look at the next shape first, then move all fingers together, not one at a time.
  2. Find a shared finger. G → Em → C: notice which fingers barely move.
  3. One-minute drill: set a timer for one minute. Switch back and forth between two chords. Count how many clean switches. Write the number down. It goes up every day.

Today's pairs: G ↔ C  ·  Em ↔ C

Visit 2 · Interactive

One-minute switch drill

60

Visit 3

D — the last of the four

  • Only strum the four thin strings. Start on the open D string.
  • Fingers make a little triangle.

With G, C, D and Em you can play thousands of songs.

Visit 3

A strum pattern

Down on the beat, up on the "and." Arrows show which way the hand moves:

1   2 &   3 &   4 &
↓   ↓ ↑   · ↑   ↓ ↑

On beat 3 the hand still moves down, it just misses the strings. Keep the arm swinging like a pendulum.

For a waltz (3/4) like Amazing Grace, just strum ↓ ↓ ↓, or one big strum on "1" and two lighter ones.
Visit 3 · Interactive

Strum trainer

↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓↑ ·↑ ↓↑ Waltz ↓ ↓ ↓
70 BPM
Chord: G Click on
Start at 60 BPM. Don't speed up until four bars in a row come out clean. The chord name changes every bar when you tap “Chord”.
Visit 3 · First song

Amazing Grace — in G, 3/4

Visit 4

Chords by number

You know scale degrees from music theory. Guitarists use them to talk about chords:

Key of G1 = G4 = C5 = D6 = Em
Key of C1 = C4 = F5 = G6 = Am
Key of D1 = D4 = G5 = A6 = Bm

1 · 4 · 5 is the backbone of hymns, folk, country and old rock and roll. Amazing Grace is basically 1-4-1-5.

Visit 4

The capo — change key, keep your shapes

  • A capo clamps across all the strings, like a finger that never gets tired.
  • Each fret raises everything one half step.
  • Play your same G-shapes with the capo on fret 2 and it sounds in A. Fret 3 sounds in B♭.
So if a singer needs a song higher, you don't learn new chords. You move the capo.
Visit 4 · Second song

When the Saints Go Marching In — in G, 4/4

Only 1, 4 and 5 (G, C, D). Try it with the ↓ ↓↑ ↑↓↑ strum, then try it with a capo on 2.

Anytime · Interactive

Name that chord

Between visits

Ten minutes a day

2 minTune up, then play each chord you know, one string at a time. Fix any buzz.
3 minOne-minute switches. Write down the counts.
5 minPlay the song. Slowly. Keep the beat no matter what.
A free tuner app on your phone works fine. Search “guitar tuner” in the app store.

Every day for ten minutes beats an hour on Saturday.

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Next up, when you're ready

A minor · fingerpicking · more hymns and old favorites · playing along with someone singing.

Your chord cheat sheet is on the next page.

Cheat sheet

Every chord in these lessons