Taking basic acoustic guitar lessons is normally the most popular courses that people want to take due to the fact that many beginners usually start out on the acoustic guitar. It can be debated that the electric guitar is easier to play than the acoustic guitar because it is easier to make chords with the electric than the acoustic.
Even as a skilled musician I do agree with that debate somewhat because the strings on the acoustic guitar are raised a little higher than the electric guitar. With some practice you will be able to play both types of guitars without it even being noticeable. Practice makes perfect!
While we are talking about acoustic guitar lessons here I do want to explain the role the acoustic guitar plays verses the electric guitar. The acoustic is designed for rhythm playing as well as bluegrass music; although you can play rhythm on the electric guitar the acoustic is known for most rhythm players.
The electric guitar is designed for lead guitar licks and also for using effect pedals such as distortion, compression, and others. They do make acoustic – electric guitars but the sound is different, all it does is amplify the acoustic sound greater and the effects pedals do not sound as great on the acoustic.
This is something to keep in mind while comparing the two guitars.
Since this is a beginner guitar website I will cover mainly the easy to learn open guitar chords which can be done on both acoustic and electric guitars. Anytime you see a picture of the guitar chords, feel free to right click on the picture to save it and print it out for practicing later on.
Speaking of guitar chords here are some basic guitar chords that you can save and they will be great to practice your acoustic guitar lessons with. Take it slow and practice one chord at a time until you feel comfortable with them. There is no need to rush even though every beginner wants to play right now.
Notice in the picture that the F and B chords are made by using bar chords, or as some may spell it, barred chords. Each chord has lines that you will see and those lines represent the strings of the guitar, and the round circles with the numbers in it represent the finger number that you place on each string. You will also notice that the frets are the little blocks you see in the picture and that is the fret you press the strings on.
To better help you understand how to make a barred chord we will take the F chord for our example. You will notice that the index finger or in this case the 1st finger presses down on all of the strings that the circle is on, while the other fingers goes on the fret and strings as they are numbered. This is pretty easy to do and even better with practice.
One thing that I highly recommend is once you get a chord down pat then move to another chord and then once you are comfortable with at least two chords, practice strumming each chord and changing chords. This will help you work on your speed as well as timing.
Once you have mastered the basic acoustic guitar lessons then you can browse other parts of this site and learn some advanced chords and scales. For now these basic tips will get you started. Look for my easy to play songs links that will help you learn to play some songs that will have the chord change above the lyrics.
Beginner Classical Guitar Lessons really compliments our acoustic guitar lessons, this is a must see site that will teach you finger style guitar picking that can be used for many styles of playing. Every guitar player will need to learn finger picking and this site will teach you that and more.
You may just find that you want to learn classical guitar lessons as well as simple acoustic guitar lessons - and even when you play any type of guitar you will always want to learn how to finger pick for many solos and introduction. Be sure to check out all of their classical guitar lessons while you are there.