Play your first song this month.
Step-by-step lessons for absolute beginners, clear strumming and chord guides, honest gear advice and free tools — a tuner, metronome and chord library that work right in your browser.
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Guitar for Beginners
Choose your first guitar, tune it, learn your first chords and fix the classic beginner problems.
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Guitar Lessons by Level
Beginner, intermediate and advanced lessons, plus music theory without the headache.
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Strumming, Fingerpicking & Rhythm
The strumming and fingerpicking patterns behind thousands of songs — and how to keep time.
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Easy Guitar Songs & Chord Progressions
Easy songs by number of chords, campfire classics, songs without barre chords and genre picks.
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Guitar Gear & Buying Guides
Beginner guitars by budget, brand comparisons, what to check before you buy, and accessories.
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Guitar Care, Setup & Maintenance
Change strings, adjust action and truss rod, clean and store your guitar, fix small problems.
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Free Online Guitar Tools
Online tuner, metronome, chord library, fretboard trainer and chord transposer with capo finder.
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Motivation, Practice & Community
How not to quit, practice routines that work, learner milestones, challenges and Q&A.
Explore →Free guitar tools
Online guitar tuner
Free online guitar tuner using your microphone: tune acoustic, electric or classical guitar to standard tuning E A D G B E in your browser, no app needed. Includes reference tones and drop D.
Open tool →Online metronome
Free online metronome for guitar practice: 30–250 BPM, tap tempo, time signatures, accented first beat and eighth-note, triplet and sixteenth-note subdivisions.
Open tool →Chord library
Interactive guitar chord library with diagrams and audio: major, minor, 7th, minor 7th, major 7th, sus2 and sus4 chords in all 12 keys, in open and barre positions.
Open tool →Fretboard trainer
Free fretboard note trainer game: a note is highlighted on the guitar neck and you name it. Choose strings and fret range, track your streak and accuracy.
Open tool →Transposer & capo finder
Free chord transposer: paste any chord progression and shift it up or down by semitones, then let the capo finder show which capo position lets you play it with easy open chords.
Open tool →Popular with beginners
Your First 7 Guitar Chords: Am, Em, C, G, D, E and A
Learn the seven essential beginner guitar chords — Am, Em, C, G, D, E and A — with diagrams, finger positions, the best order to learn them and practice exercises.
Read more →12 Essential Guitar Strumming Patterns (Chart With Diagrams)
The 12 most useful guitar strumming patterns for beginners and beyond — from simple down-strums to the classic D-DU-UDU, reggae, waltz, 6/8, shuffle and funk — with visual diagrams and counts.
Read more →25 Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners (With the Chords You Need)
Twenty-five easy guitar songs for beginners, sorted from easiest to hardest, with the chords each one uses, strumming tips and what to learn next.
Read more →Best Beginner Guitars (2026): 15 Picks for Adults & Kids by Budget
The best guitars for beginners in 2026 — acoustic, classical and electric picks for adults and kids, from cheap starter guitars under $200 to the best value models, plus which guitar is easiest to learn on.
Read more →How to Change Guitar Strings: Acoustic, Electric and Classical
Step-by-step guide to changing strings on acoustic, electric and classical guitars — removing old strings, winding correctly, stretching new strings and avoiding common mistakes.
Read more →Beginner Guitar Problems and How to Fix Them
Sore fingertips, buzzing strings, muted chords, slow chord changes and hand pain — the most common beginner guitar problems and exactly how to fix each one.
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Acoustic, Classical or Electric? How to Choose Your First Guitar
Acoustic, classical or electric guitar for a beginner? Compare sound, comfort, cost and music style, plus nylon vs steel strings and what to avoid.
Read more →Intermediate Guitar Lessons: Barre Chords, Pentatonic Scale and First Solos
Take the next step: learn barre chords without pain, the minor pentatonic scale, faster chord changes, string bending, vibrato and how to build your first guitar solo.
Read more →Latest from the blog
Best Gifts for Guitarists 2026: 35 Ideas by Budget
The best gifts for guitar players in 2026: 35 ideas under $25, $75, $150 and beyond — for beginners and experienced guitarists — plus what NOT to buy and how to find out their strings and gear without asking.
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The 50 Greatest Guitarists of All Time — and the Guitars They Played
The 50 greatest guitarists of all time and the guitars they played: Hendrix's Strat, Page's Les Paul, Iommi's SG, Brian May's Red Special and more — with their signature sounds and the songs to start with.
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Electric Guitar Pickups Explained: Single-Coil vs Humbucker vs P-90
How electric guitar pickups work and how they sound: single-coils, humbuckers and P-90s compared, plus pickup positions, active vs passive, coil splitting and how to adjust pickup height.
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Acoustic Guitar Tonewoods Explained: Spruce, Cedar, Mahogany, Rosewood and Maple
How wood affects the sound of an acoustic guitar: spruce vs cedar vs mahogany tops, rosewood vs mahogany vs maple back and sides, solid vs laminate — and how much it really matters.
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The 30-Day Guitar Plan
Fifteen to twenty minutes a day. By day 30 you'll know eight open chords, two strumming patterns, a simple fingerpicking pattern and be able to play complete songs. Tick off each day — your progress is saved in your browser.
- Week 1: holding the guitar, tuning, your first three chords
- Week 2: strumming in time and clean chord changes
- Week 3: new chords, a picking pattern, your first full song
- Week 4: power chords, song practice and a final "performance"