This section is designed for those of you who are new to the guitar world. The process of understanding and applying the techniques involved is layered with rewards, and this is where it all starts.

Here’s a summary of the articles:

Buying Your First Guitar:  It’s a big decision and you should educate yourself about what to do, what to look for, and how to go about finding the right sound if you’ve never played a note in your life.

How Good Are You?:  Find out where you stand in your skills as a guitarist.  This is a run-down of the stages of guitar mastery, from newbie to expert.

Good Vibrations: Tuning Your Guitar:  Before you play anything, you need to know how to get your guitar in tune.  Before you burn your chord book, you’ll save yourself a lot of frustration by getting in tune before playing.  Learn how to tune your guitar comparati vely or shop around for an electronic tuner.

A Lesson In Guitar Tablature: So you’ve found yourself the guitar tab for your favorite song, but how are you supposed to read it?  Find out how.

Understanding Chord Charts:  You’re ready to play some chords but you can’t make rhyme or reason out of those lines, dots, and numbers?  What’s the deal with this stuff?

Basic Chords:  Here are the fundamental chords any guitarist should know.  Once you learn these, you can play along 90% of the songs out there.  Before you get started laying your fingers to the fretboard, you should read the Learning Chords: Slow and Painful article, which discusses how to handle discomfort and pain, and how to tell the difference between the two.  The chords are divided into the following categories:

Strumming: As you learn the chords, you need to know how to handle your strumming.  This article introduces the downstroke technique.  It’s pretty monotonous stuff, but it’s an important step in laying down the foundation for good technique.

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