Music

How to learn guitar from scratch

Most adults can play their first songs with guitar accompaniment after two or three months of daily practice for twenty to thirty minutes. The main difficulty is not the chords but changing between them without stopping — most of the plan goes to that. Below is a week-by-week order, signs that a stage is done and common beginner mistakes.

Updated 2026-10-02

In this article

Which guitar, and what else you need
Weeks 1–3: first chords and a clean sound
Weeks 4–6: chord changes with a metronome
Months 2–3: songs, fingerpicking and getting ready for barre chords
How to tell a stage is done
Common mistakes

Which guitar, and what else you need#

Any acoustic or classical guitar in working order will do to start. A classical guitar with nylon strings is gentler on the fingers; a steel-string acoustic is louder and brighter, but your fingertips hurt more on it in the first weeks. More important than the model is the action — the height of the strings above the fretboard. If the strings are high, they are hard to press down, and a beginner decides the problem is them. A guitar shop can adjust this for little money.

Besides the guitar you need a tuner (a free phone app is fine), a metronome (also an app) and a medium pick if your guitar has steel strings. Tune before every session: an out-of-tune instrument spoils your ear faster than you think. Standard tuning, from the thick sixth string to the thin first, is E, A, D, G, B, E.

Weeks 1–3: first chords and a clean sound#

Start with two or three simple chords — for example Em, Am and D, or Em, C and G. Press with your fingertips, close to the fret wire but not on top of it. The clean-sound check is simple: hold the chord and play each string separately. If one sounds muffled or buzzes, find the finger touching it and adjust.

Sore fingertips in the first two or three weeks are normal: the skin toughens up. Practise for shorter periods but every day — twenty minutes daily beats two hours on Saturday. Pain in your wrist or forearm is a different matter: it is a sign of excess tension, and you should not play through it.

Weeks 4–6: chord changes with a metronome#

Changing chords is what separates "I know the chords" from "I can play the song". The one-minute changes exercise: take two chords and switch your fingers back and forth between them for a minute, counting how many changes you made. Write the number in a practice journal — within a week it will grow noticeably. Then do the same to a metronome: four beats per chord at 60 beats per minute, then two beats, then a faster tempo.

At the same time, learn a simple strumming pattern — down, down, up, up, down, up — and keep it steady even if your fretting hand cannot keep up. Your strumming hand should never stop: better to mute the strings for a moment than to break the rhythm.

Months 2–3: songs, fingerpicking and getting ready for barre chords#

Choose three or four songs that use chords you already know and get each of them to the end without stopping. Add fingerpicking — the fingers of your picking hand play individual strings in turn. This is also the time to start on the F chord and barre chords: almost every beginner struggles with them at first, and that is normal. Practise the barre for a minute in every session rather than turning it into a whole session.

Meanwhile, learn the basics of theory: which notes make up major and minor chords and why neighbouring frets are a semitone apart. It speeds up learning new songs. More in ear training and music theory.

How to tell a stage is done#

Every chord you have learned sounds clean: all strings ring, nothing buzzes.
A change between two familiar chords fits into one beat at 70–80 bpm.
A song goes from start to finish without your strumming hand stopping.
A phone recording shows an even rhythm — a recording is more honest than your ears while you play.

Common mistakes#

Learning dozens of chords without being able to change between three. Playing faster than you can play cleanly. Watching only song tutorials and skipping chord change exercises. Squeezing the strings as hard as you can: the minimum pressure that gives a clean sound is enough. And not recording yourself — playing sounds different from the outside than it seems while you play.

Step-by-step plan

Week 1 — the guitar is readyCheck the string height, install a tuner and metronome, tune to E A D G B E.
Weeks 1–3 — three clean chordsEm, Am, D or Em, C, G; every string of the chord rings without buzzing.
Weeks 4–6 — changes to a metronomeOne-minute changes, then two chords at two beats each at 60–80 bpm; a simple strum.
Month 2 — three whole songsSongs on familiar chords without the strumming hand stopping; start fingerpicking.
Month 3 — barre and theoryThe F chord for a minute a day; how major and minor chords are built.

Start learning this in your own space

The plan goes into your repository: tick off stages, keep notes — the change history shows how far you have come.

Start the plan

Check yourself

1.By how many semitones does a string's pitch rise when you move to the next fret?

2.Which note does the open sixth string play in standard tuning?

3.How many semitones are in a major third — the interval between the root and the third of a major chord?

Sources

JustinGuitarA free step-by-step beginner course: chords, changes, rhythm
free
musictheory.netFree theory lessons and trainers for notes and intervals
free

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