How to Play Guitar for Beginners

Series Summary

Piano and guitar are two of the most popular instruments not just in the country, but in the entire world. They are two of the most revered instruments as well since they have been around for so long and been played by so many people. While Classical music brought the piano to the forefront of humanity, rock and roll has made the guitar an iconic figure in everyone’s mind from childbirth. Although they are very different in playability, style and sound they hold fundamentally similar characteristics. Both being string instruments there is a soothing characteristic to them both that can’t be explained. They can, of course, be played loud and aggressively and this is one of the reasons they are so popular. They are versatile instruments that can be played according to the musician’s mood.

This video clip series is a great one that will give you some great tips on how to play piano and guitar. Our expert, John Aguilar, shows you basic but vital information on how to get started playing these two versatile and popular instruments. He shows you how to play in different keys on the guitar and even some rhythms on the piano such as the boogie and the waltz. You’ll be jamming with the best of them before you know it!

Video Transcript

"Hi, John Aguilar and this is a first music lesson. We're gonna make music for the first time with just two chords that require only two fingers. Remember on the piano, our fingers were one, two, three, four, five. On the guitar, it's one, two, three, four and the thumb sits behind the guitar neck. This is the guitar neck, these are the frets. These are the strings. Named E, A D, G B, E. We're gonna take our second finger and place it on the third fret of the low E string. Our third finger we're gonna place on the third fret of the high E string. They're both in the same fret, you see. And we're gonna use a pick, and strum very simply. There it is the G chord. You can get different effects when you strum. Keep it simple for now and that's a G chord, so we're already making music! Now we're gonna use those same two fingers to play an E minor chord. We're gonna place the second finger on the second fret of the A string, this is the second fret, remember, one - two. We're gonna place the third finger on the second fret of the D string. And there you have an E minor chord. Gently strum. Simple strums. Now let’s go back to G. Back to E minor, simple strums. Back to G. And we're already making music. This is one of the first things I teach in a beginning guitar lesson. And there you have it making music with just two chords that require only two fingers."