Holding the Guitar

Holding your guitar properly will enable you to get a clean sound on all of the strings. If you’re having trouble with this, you’re probably not holding the guitar perpendicular to the floor. In an effort to see the strings, beginners often hug the top of the guitar to their chest and push the bottom away from their body. This forces the arm and hand into a long and curved path to the fretboard. If you use the proper position, you will still be able to see your hand, though. It won’t take long to adjust to the view and you’ll be better off for it!

Once you’ve established a proper plane for your guitar, consider the angle of the guitar on that plane. In other words, is the neck pointing toward the ceiling and the body toward the floor, or the other way around? You want to avoid reaching for the fretboard. The closer to your body you hold the neck (and, consequently, your left arm and hand), the easier it will be to play well and the lower your risk of injury. It’s a good idea to check your posture and guitar angle with a mirror or video recording.

Healthy Body Use

As you work with your guitar, allow your body to feel expansive. Most of us contract and distort our bodies when we sit in concentration for long periods. We cave our bodies in around the body of the guitar and jut our necks forward to see guitar strings or sheet music. A little awareness can solve these problems.

Allow plenty of space in your body for blood and energy to flow. Monitor your way of sitting with your guitar to avoid compressing the vertebra in your spine. Consciously open your chest and lengthen your spine.

You may find it profitable to check out some of the material available on the Alexander Technique for musicians. For a brief, to the point education on risks and solutions, read The Musician’s Survival Manual by Richard Norris, which is helpful to players of any musical instrument. 

New guitar players usually have to use some effort to attain a clear sound. Unfortunately, this creates tension that can follow you throughout your life, resulting in slower playing, less fluidity, and body pains. You can avoid or resolve this problem with the exercise I present in my small, free course, Five 5-Minute Fixes for Guitar Players. 

Healthy body use and relaxation are guitar basics that you can’t afford to neglect! If you have small hands or a short upper body, read about the small guitar that I love to play on this page. And even if you don’t have small hands, you’ll want to be sure you have a playable guitar that’s the best size for you.

Hand Position

Your left hand, or fretting hand fingers should curve over the fretboard, so that they don’t kill the vibration of the string below the one being fretted. Unless your hands are very large, this will require you to drop your hand to the point that your left thumb contacts the back of the neck on or close to the apex of the curve. Drop your wrist enough to create space between the palm of your hand and the guitar neck. Don’t overdo this, though, to the point of jutting it out and causing strain. A good rule is to look for a straight, or only slightly curved line from elbow to knuckles. By avoiding a “tennis racquet grip,” you will not only get a cleaner sound, you’ll have a lot more reach. You will also suffer far less strain in your left hand.

The Quiet Hand

Once you have established a comfortable and correct position for your body and, take a moment to check for tension. Tune into your entire body, but especially your neck, arms, and hands. Take a deep breath, gently lift and open your chest and let your spine lengthen and widen. As you play, move your left hand as little as possible. Keep your thumb in the same place on the neck of the guitar for most of what you play in a given position and your fingers close to the fretboard. Let your left hand be soft and quiet. Remember, it is your right hand that sets the strings vibrating, not your death grip!

Learning Chords

Once you understand how to read chord diagrams, learning the basic chords may come easily enough. But if you’re a beginner guitarist, being able to play the most common chords may not be enough to help you learn to play your favorite songs well. Most people will struggle with pauses when switching from one to another. Even if you have a guitar teacher, you may not have been instructed well in how to change chords smoothly and without a pause.

The first thing to know is that if you’re having trouble changing chords, you need to know the chord shapes more deeply. The best way to do this is to study and rehearse them mentally. Practice drawing them on a chord diagram. When you can visualize the chord shapes clearly and can see your hand making the changes in your mind’s eye, you’ll be able to make the changes smoothly on your guitar. Once you really know the chords, you may still have unnecessary pauses when you change chords. By that I mean that if you would keep your right hand going (strumming a regular beat), you would find that your left hand is actually changing chords soon enough. Your right hand just doesn’t believe it!

The solution is to go very slowly and insist that your right hand keep an even, uninterrupted strum, even if you think your left hand is not in place. Really push through this. If you’re still not making it, establish a slower tempo and try again. Watch your left hand, think ahead, and mentally aim at the next chord. Although you may initially have to form the chord by placing one finger at a time on the fretboard, try to move beyond this as quickly as possible. As your hand strengthens and you become more certain of the chord shape, you will actually form the chord over the fretboard, so that all of your fingers will go down simultaneously.

Playing Single Notes

Guitar basics include more than chord playing. Even if you don’t plan on playing lead guitar, you’ll need to be able to play single notes correctly and easily. To do this, start by learning to keep your left hand, or fretting hand, close to the fretboard.

A good way to avoid “fly away” left hand and a choppy sound, is to practice leaving each finger down until you’ve played the next note. The following finger exercise will help you with this basic, important guitar playing skill.

Play the first fret of the first string (the high E string) with your first finger (index finger), followed by the second fret, second finger, third fret, third finger and fourth fret, fourth finger. As you play each note, keep the previous finger or fingers down. By the time you have the fourth finger down, all four of your left hand fingers will be pressing a fret. Repeat the top note (fourth finger) and come down one note at a time (4,3,2,1). Move to the second position (first finger on the second fret) and repeat the exercise. Continue to repeat the exercise, moving up one fret at a time and using your guitar pick with a down, up alternating motion and a regular beat. Go slowly enough to have a clean sound and guard against tension in your left hand. Repeat this on the second string and progress through the sixth strings. The important thing is to play with sustain anywhere on the fretboard.

When you have progressed in your playing to working with scale patterns, you can use the following more advanced exercise.

Play a scale pattern (using no open strings) without lifting any finger until you must use it for another note. This means you will sometimes have all four fingers down at a time, and will always have fingers down on different strings simultaneously. You will need to go slowly with this at first. You may be surprised at the amount of concentration and dexterity required. Before long, you’ll be able to play a two octave scale with perfect sustain and you will have greater finger independence.

The Written Language

Note reading is a valuable skill that can be learned any time. But you may decide not to learn standard notation on the guitar if you’re a beginner—or you may never decide to read music. This article will help you determine that. Be sure to read to the end to discover the aspects of the musical language that are essential guitar basics.

If you decide to skip note reading, be aware that cord charts alone won’t help you learn leads or riffs. At the least, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with guitar tabs. A guitar tab is a visual representation of the guitar strings with numbers placed on them. The numbers indicate the fret that should be played. You will single notes read from left to right. Numbers that are stacked on a vertical line represent chords and should be played simultaneously. Rhythm will not be notated, which makes it impossible to correctly play something you haven’t heard.

The Mind

Your mind is probably the most overlooked—but important— of the guitar basics. The way you think is your most valuable tool and ultimately determines your success as a guitar player.

Qualities like dedication and commitment, lack of self-judgment, a positive attitude and an open mind are essential to your progress and are key elements of your success. Visualization will assist you every time you learn a new skill, and mental rehearsal will deepen and solidify your knowledge. I talk more about enhancing and utilizing these abilities in You & Your Guitar. Check it out to find out not only how to master the basics, but also become a truly limitless guitarist!

If you’re just getting started on guitar and want to get a correct, complete foundation, you’ll love Getting Started. By following the instructions that accompany the nine songs, you will learn the parts of the guitar, proper left-hand and right-hand technique, the open strings of the guitar, how to read chord diagrams, essential symbols, and all of the first position major chords, minor chords, and dominant 7 chords. You’ll also get practice in the most common chord progressions, and you’ll learn several strumming and picking patterns and how to apply them to different time signatures. Tips on guitar care, tuning, changing strings, notes on the guitar, notes on the fretboard, and more. Equally valuable if you play electric guitar or acoustic guitar, with or without a guitar teacher. Let your first steps set you up for success! Audio and video included.

Considering guitar lessons? Read my guide to finding the best teacher.

Mastered the guitar basics and ready to move on? Here’s your ticket!

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