Learn guitar in lessons

One lesson a week, each building on the last – from holding the instrument and your first chords to barre chords, blues and music theory. Every lesson has a piece to play along, homework for ten minutes a day and a sheet to print.

For teachers: the numbers never change. Just write the address on the board, for example openstring.de/gitarre/en/lesson/4/.

For teachers and parents ›

First steps

  1. Lesson 1 Hold, strum, first chord You hold the guitar comfortably, strike the strings and play your very first chord: Em.
  2. Lesson 2 Tuning and string names You tune your guitar with the tuner and know the names of all six strings.
  3. Lesson 3 Pressing a string properly You press a string so that it rings clearly – and use it to play the blues with the band.
  4. Lesson 4 E major You play E major and switch between Em and E – just one finger makes the difference.
  5. Lesson 5 A minor (Am) You play Am and switch between Em and Am in time.

Your first songs

  1. Lesson 6 A and E7: your first song You play A and E7 and accompany your first song with two chords.
  2. Lesson 7 Down-up You strum evenly down and up and use it to play songs with A and E7.
  3. Lesson 8 D and A7 You play D and A7 and accompany songs in D.
  4. Lesson 9 Three chords: A, D and E7 You accompany songs with three chords – A, D and E7.
  5. Lesson 10 The island strum You play the strum pattern down, down-up, up-down-up and use it to accompany songs.

New chords, new patterns

  1. Lesson 11 Em and D: a sea shanty You accompany a minor song with Em and D and feel how minor sounds.
  2. Lesson 12 G and D7 You play G and D7 and accompany songs in G.
  3. Lesson 13 C major You play C and accompany songs in G with G, C and D7.
  4. Lesson 14 Waltz in three You play in three-four time and accompany waltz songs in G.
  5. Lesson 15 Four chords: G, Em, C, D7 You play four chords in a loop – the basis of countless songs.
  6. Lesson 16 The capo You put on a capo and play familiar chords in a higher key.
  7. Lesson 17 Picking with thumb and fingers You pick chords with your thumb and three fingers and play a calm song in 6/8.

Understanding music

  1. Lesson 18 Hearing major and minor You hear the difference between major and minor and know which note makes it.
  2. Lesson 19 Time and note values You know how long whole, half, quarter and eighth notes are, and play a march in 2/4.
  3. Lesson 20 The 12-bar blues in E You know the blues pattern with E, A and B7 and play with the band.
  4. Lesson 21 Power chords You play E5, A5 and D5 with two fingers and rock out to the blues.

Going further

  1. Lesson 22 Scale and melody You play the C major scale, read tab and pick out a melody.
  2. Lesson 23 The small F and G7 You play the small F and G7 and accompany songs in C.
  3. Lesson 24 Barre chord 1: Bm You play your first full barre chord, Bm, and accompany a song in D.
  4. Lesson 25 Barre chord 2: F#m You play F#m as a barre across all six strings and accompany a song in A without a capo.
  5. Lesson 26 Transposing and I–IV–V You find the three main chords in G, D and A and play one song in three keys.
  6. Lesson 27 Your concert You put together a little programme and play it for others.