Finally you have decided, you have a guitar, with strings and even a pick, you have everything to take your first steps with the guitar and emulate your favorite guitarists, it's time to learn to play but with so much information available, Youtube, books, etc., you ask yourself, where do I start ?!
Start with the basics, with the essentials to play from now with a list of the first 7 things you have to learn with the guitar if you start from scratch. If you get it you will never give up, you will continue learning and above all you will have a great time, here we go!
Tuning the guitar
The first thing you should do before playing anything is to tune the guitar. All guitars are tuned a bit with humidity, heat, take it from one place to another, ... tune it is a moment, it costs nothing and you can do well with a physical tuner or your mobile phone with a free app ( they are becoming more and more precise). Standard tuning from the 6th string (the thickest) to the 1st string below (the thinnest) E, A, D, G, B, e.
Change the ropes
If you have a guitar at home without changing the strings for a long time, change the strings! We do not want you to catch an illness with the filth of those strings, your fingers will appreciate it and the guitar will sound much better. Do not worry if nothing else change them is out of tune at once, it's normal. Refine, play, refine, play ... in the end you will reach a stable point.
Basic chords
Learn to play the 7 basic universal chords to play millions of songs, really, you just need to know these chords to play your favorite songs. Once you know how to place these chords you will not have any problem with the sharp or flat chords (you just have to move the chord figure one next or previous fret) and for the nut problem, take it easy, practice.
Rhythm and strum
You already know the chords, good! Now we have to give rhythm to those chords. This is one of the most expensive points but do not get overwhelmed, it takes time, the internet tutorials with strum direction arrows help a lot. At the beginning it simplifies the strumming a lot, as if you only strum down (down arrow), it is better that you change the chord, and later on you will be able to complete the corresponding strumming.
The most important discovery: it turns out that you always match the strum down with the beat, and it does not matter the complexity of strumming.
Read Tabs
Finger on the 2nd fret of the 5th string, finger on the 2nd fret of the 4th string and finger on the 1st fret of the 3rd string and you already have an MI chord. This is the tablature, to make it very easy, for beginners, for most people who can not read music theory, a great invention. Then we have elements and details of techniques such as bending, linked, vibrato, ... etc. that with a little practice you will not have to study it because when you see the same thing repeated in so many songs you will have it memorized without realizing it.
Play songs
If you choose songs that you like from the beginning you will get as you go sounding the closest you feel a sense of pride and satisfaction never seen and that will make you hook the instrument more, to keep learning and keep moving, there is no better So stay motivated with your favorite songs.
Fifth chords
An element that unconsciously did not leave the guitar after 2 days for the nut and continued to progress while I was learning songs were the fifth chords also called power chords. The fifth chords are a very simplified version of the basic chords, you cheat because you do not play the whole chord and being very easy to play allows you to keep moving forward and not get frustrated. As almost everything I played was rock and the great guitar riffs are full of chords of fifths it came perfect.
I hope these tips will help you to play guitar from scratch, there will always be tutorials on YouTube that help us perfect the techniques.
Good luck friends.