Hi guys! My name's Andy & welcome to "An Absolute Beginner's 1st Guitar Lesson." Now, I've done of these before, but the idea of my 1st guitar lesson, "10 Songs with E & A," is that's the easiest thing that we can play on guitar & also play 10 songs with it. The idea with this guitar lesson is it's the absolute easiest thing that you can play on acoustic guitar to get your fingers used to this new thing that you're trying to get them to do. Maybe this is the absolute 1st time that you've ever held a guitar before. You're not happy with any of the things that you've learned already, or you don't think it sounds right. And all I can say to you is, "You are not alone!" When I first started playing guitar, my brother taught me a couple of chords. He was older than me & he played a little bit. And I didn't get any of it! I just thought guitar was the coolest thing in the world, but I thought, 'This is never going to be fore me.
It's just, it's just too difficult.' What I want you to do… I implore you, DON'T GIVE UP! Please try this, what I'm about to show you today, which is another 2 chords. They're the absolute 2 EASIEST chords that we can play on guitar. There's 2 songs that we can play with them, too… 2 parts of songs, anyway. But it at least gets you playing along to me. It gets you playing something that you're happy with, on your own.
Let's get you straight in for a close-up & have a look at these 2 chords. Just quickly, before we learn our 1st chord, we're going to make sure our guitar is in tune. So let's play string 6. And it should sound like this *sound* String 5 *sound* String 4 *sound* String 3 *sound* String 2 *sound* And finally, string 1 (the thinnest one) *sound* If your guitar doesn't sound like that, you're going to need to check out this tuning video (link shown).
Or get a guitar tuner, or get a friend to tune your guitar for you. Or you can use the "Guitar Tuna" app which is a free app, available on iphone. And it's really cool & free! So, this is our 1st chord, once your guitar is in tune. This is an E minor, probably, well it IS the absolute easiest chord to play on guitar, no doubt about it. We have our 1st finger at the 2nd fret of string 5.
This (points at string 6) is the thickest string. This (points at string 5) is string 5. We need to use these frets as coordinates. So this area here, this is Fret 1. This is Fret 2, string 5 of Fret 2, with your 1st finger. It absolutely HAS to be with your 1st finger. The 2nd finger then goes directly underneath it at string 4, also at the 2nd fret. So, your 1st finger might want to be around in the middle of the fret. around in the middle of the fret. And then the 2nd finger It goes as far towards this side of the fret as possible. If they're both over this side of the fret, those 2 strings just aren't going to be ringing out. And then we press down on those 2 strings, & leave a good amount of space around here. The idea is, you want to be able to get a pencil through this area this area here, ok. IF we're touching the bottom of the guitar like this, none of those strings are going to be ringing out at all.
And this is the main problem people leaving a space between their finges And they're not staying will have with the E and A videos, the E major & A major video. When we give it a strum, all 6 strings, there's our E minor chord. Because it is a minor chord, it does sound sad, but remember we're getting our fingers used to this new task that we're asking them to do.
If you check out my fingers, YES I have big lines in my fingers, too. It hurts a little bit to begin with, when they're quite soft & not used to it, but you'll build callouses within a few days, and certainly within 2 weeks, your fingers will be nice & hardened up & it will be absolutely fine. Our 2nd chord, we just move these first 2 fingers down 1 string. And then for now, so that we're strumming in time and changing chording time, you can strum all 6 strings and it will sound absolutely fine. The preference would be to strum from string 5 and not strum this thickest string, because, as in my previous video, my "Absolute Beginner's"
1st video, the A & the E video, This is our E string and this is our A string.
And this is why our 1st chord is called an E, and why the 2nd chord I've showed you just now is called an A. Because the lowest note we want heard is either the E string or the A string. Let's just go back to that first chord, your E major chord. Play along with me. Strum all 6 strings, & make sure it sounds like this. If it does, you're doing it right. If not, you're not quite on the tips of your fingers, Or your fingers might not be quite at the right fret. So they're both at 2nd fret… 1st fret here, 2nd fret on the tips of your fingers, leaving a good amount of space here And then they both move down to string 3 & 4. You can strum all 6 strings or if you want to try & improve slightly, then you can strum that 5th string.
But let's get you straight onto how to play these 2 chords in a chord sequence, and let's learn our 2 songs. So we've learned our chords. Now, we're just going to have a quick refresher about bars & beats, so that you can play this chord sequence on your own. Or you can play along to me. And it's going to sound great. So, the beat is a pulse going through the music that is always there in the background. And it's a regular pulse, which we put to a count of 1-2-3-4. And, that count of 4 is our beat. So maybe you've nodded your head to a song before or you've tapped your foot to a song. That is the beat. That's what we're playing to. And the beat has to be regular. Now we can play different rhythms or different strumming patterns over that beat, but the count of 1-2–3-4 always remains the same.
And they're always equi-distance to each other. They're always even. So, we're going to take our first chord, our E minor chord with your first 2 fingers, & we're going to strum all 6 strings And we're just going to strum it to a count of 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4. And we're going to keep that going just to get the idea that this strumming has to be regular. It has to be maintained at the same tempo, an even tempo. So, I will count you in You're going to play along to me, & we're going to play together, just this E minor chord, until I tell you to stop. On beat 1, keep strumming, and … 2-3-4 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2… keep that going… so we're strumming all 6 strings, & we're definitely making sure that we've got the thinnest couple of strings ringing out So that it sounds really good. And, let's pause there.
Now again, we can hear that it's a minor sound, so the second chord that we're going to go for are Asus2, again just with your first 2 fingers. On strings 4 and 3, at the 2nd fret. This one is going to sound a little happier, a little better and again we're just going to strum on every beat. So, let's give it a go. Along to me… on beat 1… 2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, all 6 strings… 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4, and.. stop there. Now, of course it's going to sound slightly better if we play this A chord without the 5th string. But it can be really difficult to miss out that 5th string in these early stages. And it's just not the priority at the moment. The priority is being able to change between these 2 chords & keep the strumming even. Now to do that, we're going to choose a bar of E minor and then play a bar of your Asus2. So, a bar of the first chord, 1 bar of the second, And we're going to keep strumming on every beat.
But we have to maintain this strumming and keep it even when you change chords. So, we're going to just have to slow everything down. Quite a bit, maybe. But this is the equivalent of zooming in on something , so we can really see what's going on, get the motions correct, & get you playing guitar in the right way. So, just as an example of what we're going to go for, it's going to be 1…2… 3, on your first chord, And then we change to Asus2 2…3…4, our second chord. But we have to keep everything even. And we're kind of looking for the kind of speed of a ticking clock. So every second that goes past, That's when you strum. If it could be a little bit faster, that's going to be great. But just to start with, just to get the analogy, a ticking clock is never going to change tempo. You're going to be totally even, and that's what we're going for to start off with. Okey, dokey? So, 1 bar of E minor, 1 bar of A minor, on every beat and let's give it a go now to a really, really slow count, about 1 per second.
>From the first chord and 2-3-4… 1-2-3-4 second chord A… 2-3-4, back to the first chord 1-2- 3-4, A 2-3-4, 1- 2-3 and change A 2-3 4, and back 2-3, final time 1-2 3-4 And end there. Hopefully that was something you could keep up with. If you couldn't, as I say, all is not lost. Do not worry about it. What you've gotta do is just strum on beat 1. So, it's the same task that we're asking our left hand to do, or your chord hand to do, but we're just strumming once. This just gives you that little bit more time to change. As an example, 1-2 3-4, A= 2- 3-4. Back to the first chord 2-3 4. Asus2 ..3-4. And when we're playing along with these songs in a second, that's what you can do. It's a much easier task. But as soon as you can, really try & get on to every beat, because we can basically play almost every song- book song ever, just by playing on the beat.
No matter what the strumming pattern is, you can always pull it back to just doing 1-2-3-4, every time. It's a great way to train yourself to follow chord sequences & to get a handle on how songs work. So, let's have a look at the actual songs themselves. Now, the 1st one is the verse of "Little by Little" by Oasis. It was a hit around 2002 or 2003, maybe. And, it's again 1 bar of your E minor, 1 bar of Asus2. *strums 1-2-3-4* *strums 1-2-3-4* *strums 1-2-3-4* And we loupe that & the verse goes, "We the people fight for our existence. We don't claim to be perfect but we're free…" Now, there's other sections to that song, and lots of other chords in it, but the verses…
This is something that you can just put on the record or find that video on youtube, and just play along to it, which is a really powerful skill, that when I've come across people that have been playing maybe, for a couple of years & have a good amount of technique, but they haven't played along to the record. They always feel like there's something missing. Those riffs never sound they way they want them to sound. Songs never sound finished. They haven't played a song all the way through maybe.
And this is the skill that they're lacking: playing along to the record. And playing along to other people. So, let's have a go at doing this. Basically, I'm the distraction. Do the same skill you were doing before, the same 2 chords, same rhythm, but I'm trying to distract you by singing over it & that's how we're going to be songs. It's the same job for you guys. Ready on your E minor chord… and 2 3-4, E minor 2-3, Asus2 1-2 3-4, keep that going… "We the people fight for our existence." Keep it going… E minor, "We want to be perfect but we're free"… 2-3… "We dream our dreams & know of no resistance" …
2-3-4… "Fading like the stars we wish to be," and then 3-4. Stop there. That is all of that song that we can do. This was the main idea behind the "2 chords in 10 Songs" idea, so that we could play along to a lot more songs. But as I said, this is the absolute easiest thing we can play on guitar. And we want to make sure we've got all 6 strings ringing out & you can change chords while keeping an even tempo with your right hand.
Now, let's take a look at our 2nd song which is, "Breath in the Air," by Pink Floyd. Again, it's the exact same chord sequence, so you're doing the exact same thing (no capo needed or anything like that). But this one is even slower, actually. And this is for the vast majority of the song, all the introduction, & most of the verses. There's just a little section kind of half-way through and toward the end, where it changes chord a little bit. So, to give you an example of what we're going for… 1-2- 3-4… change… 2… so again, same thing but a little slower… (sings) "Breathe… breathe in the air." So, let's keep that same thing going, and again, you're going to play along to me. I'm going to sing the lyrics to show you what it's going to be like when you play along to the actual song itself, which would be a really great thing to do.
As I said, it's the most beneficial skill you can learn, once you've got a couple of chords learned. Okey, dokey, let's go for it! I'll count you in from your E minor chord, in 2-3 4… 1-2- 3-4, and change… 1… so, this one's much slower… 3, E minor 1-2- 3-4… 1-2- 3… here we go… 1… (sings) "Breath, breathe in the air"… 2-3- 4… 1… (sings) "Don't be afraid to care"… 3-4… "Leave, but don't leave me." 3-4… "Look around, and choose your own ground"… 3… and pause there. So, all the instrumental section for the first couple of minutes of that song as well, you can strum along to. Try & find the beat with it. And, there are 2 songs for today. So as I said, from here, once your happy with the sound of this, go straight onto my 1st lesson of Level 1 of my Beginner's Course, which teaches you, E major & A major, which are 2 far happier chords.
And that's why we can play at least 10 songs with them. And I'm going to be doing more than those in the coming weeks. Then check out the rest of my Beginner's Course, which will teach you more chords from there. And we'll get you playing guitar in the absolute easiest way, if possible, using real songs. All of my lesson content is in the songs themselves.
We're doing some strumming lesson videos if you'd like some help on those. Please, subscribe if this lesson has helped you, if you like what I've done. Please, spread the word with all your friends and share it on social media. And hopefully, I'll see you again. Bye-bye for now! 🙂 Subtitles by the Amara.org community.