Beginner Lesson Plan

Hey everyone! Welcome to InfiniteGuitar.com. This tutorial will be the first of many in an in-depth introduction to the guitar. Whether your forte is blues, rock, metal or pop, we'll examine every element of the instrument from the ground up so that we have a solid foundation to build from. So to begin, let's take care of s...Read More

Every guitarist needs to know the anatomy of the guitar so they can properly reference the various parts. Be sure to study the video and image below to memorize everything. Also, it's worth noting that some guitar parts have more than one associated name. For example, some people might call guitar tuners 'Tuning Pegs', 'Tu...Read More

Every guitarist needs to know the notes and numbers of the guitar strings. If you're a beginning guitarist, this is one of the very first things you'll want to tackle. As I mention in the video, we instructors always refer to the strings by their notes or numbers, so in order to fully understand what we're talking about, yo...Read More

Maintaining good posture while playing guitar is vital. Not only does it help your guitar playing be more effective, but it also helps keep you healthy. Here are a few tips you should keep in mind... 1. When sitting down, be sure not to lean your left arm/elbow on your thigh while you play. Doing this not only makes your ...Read More

As you can imagine, tuning is extremely important with the guitar and any other instrument. Every guitarist needs to know how to do it, and how to do it effectively and quickly. There are different ways you can tune your guitar, using many references. You can use an electric tuner, a piano, or other instruments. Most impor...Read More

Other than our fingers, picks are the main tool that guitarists use to play the guitar strings. There are a lot of different kinds of picks, and you should experiment with different picks to find out what kind is best for you. Be sure to watch the video closely and observe the proper way to hold a pick. Make sure that the ...Read More

In addition to this lesson, be sure to check out an article I wrote on Guitarist Tendonitis. Stretching and warming up is critical for any guitarist. Playing guitar can be very strenuous on your fingers, wrists, and forearms, so you need to make sure you take precautions to avoid injury. And of course, stretching is one of...Read More

Hey guys! As mentioned, this tutorial is a bit different than what you may expect to see from me! Please, please, please! Take the time to go through this series of videos, and strongly consider some of the cautions that I raise. Items Discussed in this Tutorial: Physical Warm-Up Basic Stretching Techniques Guitar-Rela...Read More

Every guitarist needs to know how to read tablature (a.k.a. 'tab'). Tablature is the most widely used method of reading music for guitar, and is often much easier for people to read than standard notation. So in this lesson, we're going to learn the basic fundamentals of how tablature works. (Also note that in all the exerc...Read More

In this lesson, we're going to explore the basic fundamentals of standard picking. As I mention in the video, standard picking is the most basic form of guitar picking. So if you're just starting out on the guitar, you're in the right place, because this should be the first type of picking that you learn. Standard picking ...Read More

Let's take a look at alternate picking. Alternate picking is definitely one of the most popular forms of guitar picking. The reason it's so popular is because it's extremely practical to use in many musical situations. Alternate picking involves our picking hand making consistent down, up, down, up, down, up motions. So as...Read More

Hey guys! In this lesson I really wanted to focus on the mechanics of alternate picking; how I've personally come to develop my own technique, and what you guys can do to further yours.To start; right hand technique. I see so many players out there playing with slight imperfections that often inhibit their over-all techniqu...Read More

The main obective for this lesson is to teach a workout plan, similar to that which a bodybuilder would use for a weight lifting day at the gym. Basically, we will be working on 5 exercises, 3 of which are essential for right-hand chops. Our objective here is clear: to increase speed, dexterity, and overall control. Tips a...Read More

Welcome everyone! This tutorial is designed to lay out the very basics of guitar strumming. If you're just starting out on guitar, then these lessons are for you! First, be sure to review the important posture points that I bring up in the video. Keep those points in mind, and make sure that you're completely relaxed. If y...Read More

Next-Level StrummingIntroduction This months lesson will focus solely on strumming. For those of you who have surpassed the beginning stages of basic quarter and 8th beat strumming phrases, this lesson is focusing on breaking through to the next level. We're going to touch on 4 different styles of strumming, geographically...Read More

The first legato technique we're going to look at are hammer ons. The name 'hammer ons' is somewhat self-explanatory. This technique is going to involve our fingers hammering on the fretboard in order to produce notes. In order to play a hammer on, what will usually happen is you'll pick a note, then after that, a finger ...Read More

Now, let's focus on pull offs. With pull offs, our fingers are going to pull off the strings to produce notes. In order to play a pull off, you'll first pick a note that one of your fret-hand fingers is holding down. Then once that note is played, that same finger will pull off the string to then sound whatever note it is ...Read More

Lastly, let's have a look at slides. Slides are pretty much the epitome of legato. The reason for that is slides are the absolute smoothest possible transition you can have from one note to another. In order to play a slide, pick any note, then while that note is sustaining, drag your finger up or down the string to a diff...Read More

This tutorial is for you acoustic strummers who are looking to expand on some lead abilities for the purpose of complimenting your progressions. I frequently am asked to address this topic so I figured I'd scratch the surface of implementing 'fills' between chords by analyzing a few (very basic) major scale positions. For ...Read More

Attention recruit! Welcome to the Bending Boot Camp, where I will break you down, and build you up with the necessary skills to make a bending SEAL out of you! Jokes aside, this tutorial is aimed not throwing bending licks left and right at you, you will find plenty of those here at IG, in my tutorials, and others. rather,...Read More

Welcome to an Introduction to Fingerstyle! Fingerstyle is a technique that is beneficial to us in many ways. With this technique we are able to achieve a much more pianistic way of playing; that is, the ability to play seperate lines all at once. I think it was the French composer Claude Debussy that said 'the guitar is an...Read More

Welcome to the Finger Tapping Tutorial! This is a fairly large tutorial that spans from beginning to advanced levels. So no matter what skill level you're at, I'd encourage you to go through the whole thing from start to finish. There's something for everyone here. With that said, let's rock! Well, what is finger tapping? ...Read More

Hey there and welcome to this tutorial on String Bending technique! I personally feel that this particular technique is often neglected by guitarists even though it is something which can help your musicianship immeasurably. Approached in the right way, it can transform the way you approach phrasing and really help to impr...Read More

Hi everybody and welcome to this tutorial on vibrato. This tutorial is the next step on from the previous string bending tutorial. I like to think of vibrato technique as essentially a different form of string bending in that they are both a manipulation of pitch for expressive means. Vibrato tends to be a repeated oscill...Read More

Welcome to this tutorial on Vibrato! In this video I've put emphasis on the 'show & tell' principle rather than tons of text for you to read, and enforced my video examples with the graphs below. So I won't be ranting too much in the text in this tutorial, but rather encourage you to watch it through. However, some wo...Read More

Hi and welcome to this new tutorial on the subject of Legato. I'm going to break this subject up into two tutorials which will start with the basic essentials of this technique and progress to the more advanced material in the follow up. Please remember that this is the way I approach this subject so as always, take what w...Read More

Welcome to this introduction to slide guitar playing! First of all, this will not be a song tutorial, where you learn to play riffs or solos. Rather, this is a technical overview and reference guide to help you make the most of your slide playing, regardless of musical style. We will discuss both theoretical points as well...Read More

Palm muting is a common device used in all styles of music. Those chugging distorted metal riffs that I'm sure you have all heard at one stage, sound the way they do partly because of the palm muting technique. In funk bands you will often hear one of the guitar players playing catchy little riffs with a choppy percussive ...Read More

Chords! A chord is a series of notes played together. There are hundreds even thousands of chords available to play on the guitar. Once you begin to understand the essentials of building chords, and understanding what defines them. You will be surprised at how quickly all the rest start making sense to you. This tutorial...Read More

Hey all and thanks for joining me! In this tutorial we will be taking a look at how to play some simple chord progressions with two example progressions to get our teeth into. To begin with I guess we need to know exactly what chord progressions are. A chord progression can be explained as a succession of chords played on...Read More

Building Major Chords is quite simple, and with this video I hope to show just that. We begin by picking the chord we want to build. In this case it will be a CMaj chord. Play the Major scale which begins on the same root note as the Chord your after. This would be the C Major scale for a CMaj chord. Scale C D E F G A B ...Read More

So now that we have built a Major triad and Major7th chord. Lets make a minor chord! The process of building minor chords is exactly the same, bar one thing. If the chord is a 'minor triad' (meaning it has 3 notes) we must make sure that the 3rd is minor. If the Chord is going to be a 'minor 7th' we will have to give it a...Read More

Welcome Aboard! Right now we will take a look at 'Power Chords' At the beginning of this video you will see a short demonstration of Power Chords in action. More often than not you will hear these chords used in Metal/Rock and Pop music. They are simple and effective and definitely something worth learning. The construc...Read More

Barre chords, what exactly are they? Barre chords are chords which enable us to take all of the open chords that we have learned, open chords being the basic chords which incorporate the use of open strings, and play them in different areas of the fingerboard. This technique involves using the first finger of the left hand...Read More

Hey guitar enthusiasts! In this tutorial, we're tackling bar chords. We'll examine the best approach to forming a clean-sounding bar chord, and the steps for constructing a ton of cool chords (covering all major, minor, 7, minor 7 and major 7 chords). So to begin, what is a bar chord? A bar chord, in essence, is a chord w...Read More

Hello Guitar players. I hope you're ready to learn! During this tutorial we will be taking a close look at a number of intervals available to us within the Major scale. We will also be using each of these intervals to create unique voicings of both the Major and Suspended quality. In the diagram below you will see each of...Read More

Hi everyone! Welcome to this tutorial on the minor blues. The minor blues is much like our beloved standard blues in many ways. It contains 3 primary chords, is generally 12 bars long and doesn't follow our standard ideas of music theory - in other words it's more of a feeling or sound than a theoretical musical idea. Unl...Read More

Hi there everyone and welcome to this tutorial on Shell Voicings. Shell voicings are chords which contain the minimum number of voices or notes required to outline a particular harmonic sound. In other words, if I wanted to play a Cmaj7 chord for example, a shell voicing would contain the minimum number of notes required t...Read More

Welcome to the Pentatonic Scale Tutorial! The pentatonic scale is an extremely important scale and should be learned and respected by every guitarist. The pentatonic is a foundational scale, as many other scales are drawn and created from it. The term 'pentatonic' has two parts to it. The 'pent' means 'five'. And the 'ton...Read More

In this tutorial, we're going to practice some patterns that utilize all 4 of the fret-hand fingers. Just as with any other instrument, playing guitar requires solid coordination. If you think about it, if you had absolutely perfect coordination, you could play pretty much anything you wanted on the guitar. However, the rea...Read More

Welcome to this tutorial on Flexibility Training guys! As our hands are our tools of the trade as guitar players, keeping them in shape, keeping them strong and flexible should be a priority for us. This tutorial is geared towards that end, and will introduce you to some examples of flexibility, strength and coordination e...Read More

The hardest thing for a guitar player to do is to read standard notation. For a lot of guitar players, this is something they would rather not do because it's 'too hard.' But if you wish to grow from just a guitar player into a musician, music reading is essential! If you decide to become a studio musician or go onto a m...Read More

Hey Guys!  This tutorial is an introduction to sight reading. It assumes that you are already familiar with standard notation on the treble clef. If you aren't ready to dive into it yet, be sure to check out the audio lessons under Robert Mussatti  which address reading notation for guitar.   Being abl...Read More

4/4? 7/8? 3/4? 6/8? 19/16? 9/8? What do all these numbers mean!? Ever wonder what those fraction looking things are at the beginning of every piece of music? And what do those numbers mean anyway? What are they for? Well, have no fear my guitar-playing friend. Time signatures aren't as complicated as they might seem. Ev...Read More

Hello and welcome! In this tutorial we're going to take a very in-depth look at time signatures. This is a rather large tutorial, but don't let that overwhelm you. I'd encourage you to go through it slowly so you can digest all the information. First off, if you have no idea what time signatures are or how they work, pleas...Read More

Welcome new guitarists! In this tutorial, I want to focus on getting your first blues progression under your fingers. We'll start by examining three chords (E5, A5 and B5). '5' chords are commonly referred to among guitarists as power chords. These chords are extremely predominant in rock/blues, and the best part? They're a...Read More

Hey everyone! In this tutorial we'll be learning a piece called 'Trial and Error'. It has a mix of some old school progressive rock elements as well as some modern rock elements. I labeled this as a 'Beginner' tutorial. However, if you're just starting out on guitar this might be a little tough. But either way, this is a ...Read More

Hey IG! This is the first installment of a three-part series on the good ol’ Blues. We’re going to take three steps, so each of the three tutorials will deal with a different type of blues, increasing in difficulty. This very tutorial is created to help guitarists out that want to get into some basic, tasteful ...Read More

Hey and welcome to my Mixing Time Signatures tutorial! Checkout the video of the example riff and before we head over to the breakdown section, see if you can try and figure out what the time signature is and where it changes. Don't peek at the score below either. ;) OK, See you in the breakdown video.Read More

Hey people! In this lesson I'd like to discuss basic 12 bar blues improvisation. Although this element of music is taught all over the world and has been for quite some time, I feel that a lot of players can overlook the solid foundation that blues can give you, particularly in terms of improvisation. The solo example tha...Read More

Hi everyone! Welcome to this tutorial on the minor blues. The minor blues is much like our beloved standard blues in many ways. It contains 3 primary chords, is generally 12 bars long and doesn't follow our standard ideas of music theory - in other words it's more of a feeling or sound than a theoretical musical idea. Unl...Read More

Hey guys! This tutorial will focus on a beginner 'Funky Blues' riff, and will also include a modified example, as well as a short lead run! As mentioned in the above video, some techniques that may stand out are: Staccato:   Characterized by performance in which the notes are abruptly disconnected. Inflection:...Read More

In this lesson we will look at one rhythmic pattern that can be used when accompanying in 6/8. Our chord progression is based on the tune 'All Blues' by Miles Davis. Note that in the video I am playing extensions on the D7 and Eb7 chords. For the time being, just play it the way it is written in the tab. Have fun!Read More

Welcome guitar slingers, to this behemoth of a tutorial on guitar set-up! Proper guitar set-up is something that everybody know is needed, but few know how to do. It’s sort of like the mechanics of a car. We all know how to drive one, but if it need adjustments or repair, very few of us knows what to do, and conseque...Read More

Welcome everyone! In this tutorial, we're going to take a look at a software program called Anvil Studio. This software is an excellent tool for musicians who wish to compose and more. And best of all, it's free! Visit the following link to download your copy: www.AnvilStudio.com This tutorial is designed t...Read More

Hi guys! Welcome to this tutorial - a lesson all about developing your internal metronome and time feel. Time in music is without a doubt the most important aspect of your playing. This has been demonstrated most graphically in my mind by guitarist Scott Henderson. He presents the idea that a tune can be understood and rec...Read More

Creating a song is the most fulfilling experience that a musician can ever have. Whether it be a soft ballad, an epic instrumental, or a heavy metal headbanger, a song is a work of art with which the writer can take much pride. A song encompasses the writer’s vision of a message that is longing to be told, and longing...Read More

Hi guys, This tutorial focuses on some basic principles for miking a guitar amp, in both a live, and a studio situation. In each of the following videos, I'll include sound samples, to give you a proper understanding of the basic variations which can be achieved by changing the position of a microphone. I also provide tips...Read More