Welcome to Beginner Electric Guitar

This website is a resource for anyone trying to learn the guitar.

For a beginner picking up the guitar can be daunting. This site aims to build up your confidence with the basics so that you know you will be able to pick up a guitar when you want and play enough to get by and even impress your friends.

Here's a list of useful links information to help you get started:

The guitar is actually a very easy instrument to pick up and begin playing. And the beauty of beginning with the guitar is that you will soon be able to play complete songs. Other instruments are far less rewarding and take a lot longer to master the basics.


There are a number of new concepts which we will introduce to a number of very new concepts straight away, the learning curve can be perceived as quite steep. This includes learning how to read music and tablatures, learning to strum, learning chords, finger picking, mastering chord changes, remembering your songs and so on. But don’t panic!

The easiest way to start learning is to picking a very simple rock song which uses a couple of "the basic" chords and just doing a very, very basic strumming pattern. Simply strumming down for 4 counts is perfect as a beginner. The important factor is that you practice getting your fingers in the chord positions and the chord changes. Don’t worry if the chords sound a little buzzy and not all the strings are vibrating for your first times, as long as your fingers are in the right position, then you are doing great! You won’t have the finger strength and the coordination to play the chords smoothly right away.

As you continue to practice you'll notice that you're getting better many things. Your strumming, your finger strength, your changing speed and your ability to remember the chords will all naturally improve. By only focusing on making chord changes you are learning one of the more difficult components and all the others will naturally catch up.

Fantastic songs for beginner electric guitarists are:

Still Having Fun by Eagle Eye Cherry (Fantastic first song, it uses very common chords which you will be using forever and the changes are easy for beginners on the guitar)

Save Tonight by Eagle Eye Cherry (A lovely song and quite easy to play. The F chord can be quite challenging but give it your best shot)

Rocking in the Free World by Neil Young (This one will help you make some slightly trickier changes. Em -> D will make you more all of your fingers at once!)

These songs above contain the basic chords and the changes between them. You will find the chords in these songs reused through pretty much every song. The basic chords are C, Am, A, E, Em, D, G and maybe F (F is a little trickier). It’s ridiculous just how many songs you will be able to play with these chords alone! And after practicing for just a few weeks you should be able to steadily make those changes.

And hey, once you've got the skills in place why not head to one of the Best small bars in Sydney to show off your new skills