Summary: Electric Beginners Only!

In this episode Andy and Thomas take you back to the very basics that you need to learn as a beginner electric guitar player. They even take things one step further and put themselves in the position of a beginner student by playing left handed!

Chords: Where to start!

To start with, just as with acoustic guitar, you must learn the basic guitar chords. Below are the recommended chord shapes that we should learn, and if you want to see these in a bit more detail, check out the last episode: Episode 6 - Beginners Guitar Special. On top of these basic open chord shapes, you may want to have a go at powerchords, which are so much fun to play. You can find a full powerchord course here: Learn To Play Powerchords.

Rhythm: Where to start?

For rhythm it is important to start with basic strumming patterns. The simple idea of taking a bar (4 beats) and dividing it into 8 notes is the best place to start. For us here at YGA, we teach a very basic strumming pattern that gets you off to the perfect start! Below is that basic pattern we would start with, but if you are looking to really learn it properly, check out this course: Beginners Guitar Course

We would suggest going down the route of playing with a pick and with strumming patterns before considering fingerstyle guitar. Why? Simply because it really helps develop your understanding of rhythm before getting overly complicated with a variety of finger patterns!

Lead: Spider Exercise

To get your left and right hand matched up and in sync, you can try this really cool spider exercise. The tab is below, but I would recommend checking out this video to see how to practice the exercise properly: Spider Exercise Lesson. Click the link below to see and interactive version of this exercise.

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You can also have a bit of fun learning the pentatonic scale! The shape is below, but check out this lesson for a full walkthrough and more details: A Minor Pentatonic Scale