How to Play Beginner Electric Guitar

If you're switching from an acoustical guitar to an electric one, you'll find the level of difficulty to be much lower. The main difference is the strength that you need to press the frets. If you've never had guitar experience before, you still can learn to play beginner electric guitar, but it's a lot more difficult.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Guitar
• Electronic tuner
• Pick

Tune the Guitar

1. Hold the guitar with the thickest strings toward the top. Usually, that means that you hold the so you can wrap your right hand around and use it to press the notes.

2. Loosen all the strings with the tuning nuts at the side of the guitar's head to begin tuning. Use an electronic tuner to tune the first string, which is the thickest one, to low E. Once it's in tune, put your finger on the low E string at the fifth fret. Press and strum to get the A note. Tune the next string to this note by adjusting the nut until they sound the same.

3. Use the fifth fret on the A strings to get the tone for the following string, which is the D string. Continue in this manner with the G, B and upper register E strings, using the fifth fret on each string to tune the next string to the right note.

4. Play the melody of simple songs by using a pick, since you now know what each note is. Adjust the tone of each string as you pick by placing your finger on different frets. Listen to the different sounds and see if you can make a song.

Learn Three Chord Progressions

5. Find the first note of the scale, the fourth, and the fifth to learn the major chords to use in a three chord progression. In the C scale, the first note is C, the fourth is F and the fifth is G.

6. Form a C chord. Put your thumb behind the neck of the guitar. Place your first finger on the first fret of the second string from the bottom of the neck, which is the B string. Put your middle finger on the D string at the second fret and your ring finger on the A string at the third fret. Press and strum to play the chord.

7. Create an F chord. Press the first finger down so it covers both the high E string and the B string on the first fret. Put your middle finger on the G string on the second fret and your ring finger on the D string on the third fret. Press hard and strum.

8. Finish the three chord progression in C with a G chord. Place your first finger on the A string on the second fret, your second finger on the low E on the third fret, your ring finger on the B string on the third fret and your pinky on the high E string, also on the third fret. Press hard and strum.

9. Look at the chord symbols in books and you'll see many that use just these three chords if the key is C. Jumble the order of the chords and strum to come up with a lot of different combinations and a whole lot of songs.