Learn Guitar Free
Free Chord Book's adaptive guitar course teaches chords, strumming, and beginner theory through bite-size daily sessions. No signup, no paywall — start with tuning and open chords (Em, D, Am, G, C), then build clean chord changes and a basic strum pattern.
Perfect if you searched for free guitar lessons, how to play guitar, or a beginner guitar course online. Each lesson links to real songs on Free Chord Book so you can practice with free chords and tabs immediately.
What you will learn
- Tune Your Guitar (Standard E A D G B E) — The fastest path to making a guitar sound like a guitar: standard tuning, octaves, and how to check by ear.
- How to Read Chord Diagrams — Six lines, six dots, a few X and O marks. Once you can read a chord diagram you can play any of the 670,000 songs in this site.
- The Em Chord — Your First Two-Finger Win — E minor uses two fingers and four open strings. It’s the easiest full chord on the guitar — and it appears in tens of thousands of songs.
- The D Major Chord — A bright, ringing chord that gives you instant access to a huge body of pop, folk and rock songs.
- The Am Chord — Same shape as E major, shifted up one string. Three fingers, melancholic, indispensable.
- Your First Chord Changes — Speed comes from minimum movement. We drill a one-minute changes routine that builds real-world strumming muscle memory.
- Your First Strum Pattern (D – D U – U D U) — The single most-used strum pattern in pop and folk. Get this in your right hand and 80% of beginner songs unlock at once.
- The G Major Chord — Three fingers stretched across the fretboard. G unlocks the most-used chord progression in pop music: G–D–Em–C.
- The Major Scale (Why C-G-Am-F Works) — A 5-minute primer on why the four most-used chords in pop music are the four most-used chords in pop music.
- The C Major Chord — C major is your gateway to the most popular keys in pop music. Three fingers, no barre, infinite payoff.
- The F Chord (Without the Barre) — F is famously hard — but the small "Fmaj7" cheat lets you play F-flavored songs months before you nail a full barre.
- Play "Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door" (Bob Dylan) — Four chords on a loop — G, D, Am, C — the most beginner-friendly classic-rock anthem in the canon.
- Play "A Horse with No Name" (America) — Two chords. The whole song. Yes, really. The fastest "I can play a song!" win on the guitar.
- Hear the Difference: Major vs. Minor — The single most useful ear-training skill for a beginner. Train it for 5 minutes a day for a week and you’ll never forget it.