Whether you’re just starting out on guitar or you’re using this course to fill in gaps in your knowledge and playing, you’ll be on a lot more solid ground with your guitar when you’ve completed this course.

Like so much in guitar, you’ll want to revisit some of these lessons repeatedly. I’ll point out  the ones that everyone needs to review frequently, but you can determine which ones require more from you. Just don’t worry about how long it takes to get through these modules—this is not school, there’s no grade involved, and no one’s judging you, so take the lessons in order and take the amount of time you need to get these basics down. It will pay you back many times over in time lost in the future!

Although my beginning book, Getting Started, is not a requirement for this course, I will refer to often, as it provides a lot of advantages for Level I players. I put each song in the book in a different key, covering all of the most common major and minor keys in a logical order. Getting Started also teaches a variety of accompaniment patterns, both strumming and fingerstyle, and includes a chart of all of the chords you need to know (and none of the ones you don’t) in order to progress.

If you choose not to use Getting Started, please be thoughtful about using songs that meet, at the least, those criteria. Learning songs on YouTube is great and I definitely recommend it, but I’ve seen countless people get very stuck—sometimes for 30 years or more—because they’re not fluent in the basics I’ve included in that small book. Feel free to learn your favorite songs from YouTube, but if you want to set yourself up for success, do that during or after working with Getting Started.

If at any point in this level you’re concerned about the correctness of your playing but unable to schedule a private lesson, you can take advantage of my My Single Song Support, which is described at the bottom of this page. (Read more about it here.) You are also always welcome to email me!