Free Guitar Lessons

In this lesson we will cover a Clapton style blues lick in the key of A.  The excerpt is from the first solo of  a live version of Crossroads. The lick combines several positions of the pentatonic scale and showcases his use of vibrato and quick hammer on and pull off techniques.

Youtube version of Crossroads – Eric Clapton Crossroads video

In this lesson we will be covering the basics such as parts of the guitar, tuning, how to hold it, fret notes, and strum.  We will also be learning our first chord! The G major chord

In this lesson we will examine some common blues intros using a new voicing for a dominant 7 chord. You can use these intros to spice up your 12 bar blues. On many classic blues recording there is a tasty intro that kicks the song off.  They can be based on the root chord of the song or even start on the V chord.  Sometimes blues intros take the place of the first 4 bars of the 12 bar form as you will see in our first example. There are many options and ways to showcase your own personal style in a blues intro.

In this lesson we will learn the first part of the classical guitar tune, Lagrima. It is one of the best known original tunes buy Spanish guitarist Francisco Terrega. The composition consists of 16 bars and follows an ABA pattern. The A section is written in E Major and the B section is written in E minor. Each section consists of 8 bars. In this lesson we will study the E Major section and also provide the Lagrima tab.

The G Run is a common riff used in bluegrass and created by Lester Flatt that signifies the end of a chord progression. It is often used as the basis to improvisation as well. It is a very recognizable riff in the bluegrass realm.

In this lesson we will start learning the Flamenco strumming technique called the Rasqueado. We will start with a very basic one finger rasqueado strum. The rasqueado strumming technique allows for the complex, subdivided rhythms that we find in Flamenco music.  The strum involves flicking your finger over the strings.  Using all for fingers of your strum hand you can create and play very interesting rhythm patterns

In this free guitar lesson we will be learning Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran. This popular tune is a great song for beginners. This lesson also includes a tab sheet that you can download to follow along with the video. Thinking Out Loud chords are A, D, Em, Bm, and G.  There are also A7 and D/F# used in the song. In the verse of the song Ed uses a quick hammer on lick over the A chord going into the D chord.  This short melodic lick leads us back the the beginning of the phrase.

Strumming and rhythm are some of the more difficult concepts to teach and learn. In this lesson we will discuss some tips for improving your rhythm and strumming technique. This technique can be applied to all guitar strumming patterns.

In this lesson we will be learning Neil Young’s Heart of Gold. This tune is fairly simple using just 4 open chords throughout. Heart of Gold chords are Em, G, C, and D.  He also uses a variation on Em called Em7 by adding the pinky to the 3rd fret of the B string.  There are basically 3 sections to the tune, an intro, verse, and chorus.

In this lesson we will learn some cool riffs to embellish the Major chord. This is in the style of Jimi Hendrix, SRV, and many bluesy players

You and Tequila is a relatively simple tune with mainly open chords based in the key of G. Tune down 1/2 step to be in tune with the original recording.  Kenny Chesney uses the chords G, Csus2, G/B, D, Bm, and A7 to build the chord progressions in the song.

In this lesson we will learn the classic Eric Clapton tune Wonderful Tonight. This tune has several guitar parts including a relatively simple lead line that is great for students just learning how to bend strings. The Wonderful Tonight chords are primarily G, C and D major. There are several different layered guitar parts in the recording that arpeggiate the chords.  One of the guitars use open chords and the other uses a form of barre chords.