Most songs are comprised of a series of versus, separated by 3 or more choruses.
Everything is centered around the concept of I, IV V. These roman numerals represent the 1st chord in a key, the 4th chord and the 5th.

For instance in the key of C the I, IV, V progression would be…

C, F, G.

If you play these chords you will notice that they “fit” together perfectly.
There are thousands of songs written with variations of these 3 chords.
If you are playing a song and wonder what the next chord is, t
here is a big chance that its either the I, the IV or the V of the key.
It makes playing your favorite guitar songs very easy when you know this formula. Just learn the key and stick to the I, IV or V.

For more great info about how to play easy guitar songs that people know and love, check out guitarcontrol.com.
There you can learn everything from basic to advanced level guitar techniques that will take your playing to a whole new level.

Most people think in terms of guitar chords and start their training from there.
But what most people don’t realize is that scales are the foundation for everything
nd extremely important to study and fully grasp. After all, everything from chords to guitar riffs are built around scales.

Whether you listen to rock, metal, country or any other kind of music, scales are at the heart of playing the guitar.

Basically a guitar scale is a series of 12 notes.
For now though we are only going to focus on the main 7 notes of the C scale, ignoring sharps and flats.

C D E F G A B

All chords in the key of C use these 7 notes.
A standard major chord has at least 3 notes of the key stacked on top of itself,
typically the 1st, the 3rd and the 5th. So a C chord uses the notes C, E and G.
Then usually the chord repeats these notes in different octaves to add color to the sound.

This is barely scratching the surface of understanding scales but with the
right training you can easily learn the theory behind scales and begin to
play your favorite kinds of music and fully understand the world behind your guitar.

Then you’re in the right place…

First of all: you need a great guitar guide. Someone who’s been there
and done that and that can show you the fastest way to play all of your favorite guitar songs.

Trying to figure out how to play guitar riffs on your own can be a long painful process.

Trying to rely on free guitar tabs that all over the internet
is like playing roulette in Vegas. You lose more often then you win.

I highly suggest you invest in powerful guitar lessons
from real guitar teachers that have put together awesome guitar courses.

Here’s my suggestions:

To learn how to play metal guitar riffs, metal guitar licks and more
(and learn the guitar techniques from legends like: James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine, Zack Wylde, Randy Rhoades, Slash and more) click here now…

To learn how to play amazing guitar solos and guitar licks from your favorite guitar hero —
legends like: Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and others, then click here now…

If you’re more a blues guitarist and you want to learn how to play like:
Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King and Robert Johnson — then click here now…

Music can be simple when you break things
down into its components, and one concept
that is really useful is just understanding
the basic chord progression underneath any
song or piece.

And by far the most popular chord progression
used in blues is known as the 12-bar blues progression.

It gets its name because , surprise surprise,
it has 12 bars, or 12 chords in it.

There are many variations to it, but one
of the most common is something like this:

A7 | D7 | A7 | A7

D7 | D7 | A7 | A7

E7 | D7 | A7 | E7

Basically you have 4 bars of the “ONE”
chord, 2 bars of the “FOUR” chord , and
then a turn around.

By the way, I go wayyy deeper into these
concepts in How to Play Smokin Blues

(www.howtoplayblues.com)

Once you know the basic progression,
then its time to spice it up.

One of the most common techniques
that you can use in a 12 bar blues jam
is to play shuffle patterns.

Many guitarists start off learning
a 12 bar blues shuffle where you are
riffing out on 2 stings.

I show this in my course (www.howtoplayblues.com)

and I also show tons of other ways to create
interesting 12 bar blues rhythm playing.

One way is riffs. 12 bar blues riffs can
consist of single note runs, chords,
arpeggios, or a combination of any of them.

Once you can play rhythm, you should also
learn to play a 12 bar blues solo. This
is easy because you can simply use
the minor pentatonic scale in the key
that you’re playing in.

Eric Clapton loves this technique and so
does just about every famous blues guitarist.
If you want 12 bar blues tablature, again…

I recommend you check out my course because
I include 245 tabbed examples.

In summary, the 12 bar blues is a critical
MUST KNOW progression that you can have
a lot of fun with.

Rock on, Claude

So let’s start with some beginner guitar chords.
The first chords you should learn how to play should be easy one to do such as:
E minor, E major, and A major. Even E minor 7 (although it sounds fancy) is super easy to play.

Then once you start building strength and control in your fingers,
and you know how to play these guitar chords: you can move on
to some slightly more challenging guitar chords like: C, G, D… and also: A minor, and D minor.

Then, you’re ready for guitar barre chords. F and F minor are great places to start.
So is B and B minor. Once you know those guitar chords, you can easily play almost
all the various guitar chords all over the fretboard.

First, you can use guitar chord charts, or guitar chord finders to help you get started.
Also, learning to read guitar chord tabs is strongly recommended.

Click here for the best beginner guitar course to get started and to learn all of the guitar chords you need

Also, if you’re looking to learn some amazing alternate tuning chords and how to play more advanced guitar chords click here

If you’re more interested in learning how to play finger picking, acoustic slide guitar and even James Taylor style riffs, click here

I freakin love this scale because first
of all, its only 5 notes… Secondly,
it sounds awesome, and third, its the
basis for all rock and blues guitar
soloing.

Penta is latin for five. So the minor
pentatonic scale contains five notes.

For example, the B minor Pentatonic
scale contains the notes B, D, E, F#, and
A.

That’s all.

You can play killer guitar solos using
just those 5 notes if you want.

Many of the greatest guitar gods like
Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix have
used the minor pentatonic scale to great effect.

It has a very bluesy sound to it. Minor pentatonic
blues sounds are very common not only in blues,
but also blues-rock, rock and roll, and other
styles like heavy metal.

If you’re interested in playing a minor pentatonic
solo, you first need to learn some minor pentatonic
licks.

One easy way to learn these, is to grab my course
called Killer Lead Guitar, Made Simple, where
I show 50, really cool minor pentatonic licks.

And by the way, you can get this course as part
of the Ultimate learning package that qualifies
you for the free guitar.

Also, you can build and learn your own licks
by learning the minor pentatonic patterns.

There are 5 basic minor pentatonic patterns
for each key, and together they connect the
minor pentatonic scale all over the fretboard.

I go deeper into these concepts in Killer Guitar
Control Secrets, which is also part of the learning
package that comes with the free guitar.

If you want to play killer guitar solos, you need
these courses.

Even if you’re a bass player, learning the minor pentatonic
scale is critical. Minor pentatonic bass scales are
just the same on the guitar.

So learn the minor pentatonic scale and you will be well
on your way to rocking out!

Rock on,

Claude Johnson

Plus: you’ve got all kinds of wild techniques you can do like: acoustic guitar alternate tunings, acoustic slide guitar and so on.

However: let’s start with the basic beginner acoustic guitar lessons. First: you need to learn your barre chords on the acoustic. That’s one of the first steps after learning your beginner guitar chords like “G, D, C, E and A”.

Next: you need to learn how to become a great acoustic guitar strummer. Yes strumming is one of the big “make or break” factors that will either make you sound “tight” or sound “off”.

Here’s my top 5 favorite acoustic guitar lesson courses:

1. Soul Of Acoustic Guitar by Jimmy Dillon

2. Acoustic Mastery by Virtuwul

3. Ultimate Country Blues By Stefan Grossman

4. Fingerpicking Guitar Secrets by Stefan Grossman

5. Ultimate Beginner Guitar Course by Claude Johnson

The beginner guitar course that helped me the most was “Ultimate Beginner Guitar” by Claude Johnson

You can’t lookup a great song without finding guitar tabs these days. You will learn either by ear, or with tabs, or with music notation. Guitar tabs, or tablature, break it down to the dummy level so anyone, even your 90-year old grandmother could play the guitar if she wanted to. No, it’s not exactly that easy, haha. But this is how anyone can get started.

In case you don’t know what tabs are, here is a quick explanation from wikipedia:

“Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches.

Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the lute, vihuela, or guitar, as well as many free reed aerophones such as the harmonica. Tablature was common during the Renaissance and Baroque eras, and is commonly used in notating rock, pop, folk, ragtime, and blues music.”

Here is an quick lesson of a tabbed out chord. This is the tablature for a 9 chord:

Here is a tablature for the first part of “Stairway to Heaven” :

Here is how a tab works: the horizontal lines are the strings, smallest string at the top (high E), and the numbering corresponds to the fret. The fret is the how high on the neck to place your fingering.

It gets a little more advanced than this, and beginner guitar lessons help take you through it, plus the best lessons will have you playing your favorite songs in no time, such as available on www.ultimatebeginnerguitar.com/main.php . Remember that guitar playing is all about having fun! You gotta love it, playing and making music. Tablature lessons will show you how. Rock on!