Guitar exercises
Learn guitar and improve every day with free guitar exercises in tab, sorted by type (warm-up, scale, arpeggio, lick, chords), style (rock, blues, jazz, shred) and level, to practise with the built-in metronome.
Two free tools complete the exercises: the interactive fretboard, to display scales, chords, arpeggios and triads across the whole neck, and Perfect Pitch, an ear training game (notes, intervals, note reading in treble and alto clef). And to stay focused, the "Today's practice session" card suggests a daily session from your favourites (or at random).
How to use it: filter the exercises below with the Type and Style tiles (click to enable a filter, click the cross to remove it), sort them by popularity, date or difficulty, then click an exercise to open it and use it with the built-in metronome.
The 8 essential open chords for beginner guitarists (chord charts and changes)
With these 8 open chords (C, D, E, G, A, E minor, A minor and D minor), you can play hundreds of songs. Here is how to finger them, which order to learn them in and how to change chords without gaps. The 8 open chords An open chord uses open strings: no barre, it is where every guitarist starts. An "m" means minor (Am = A minor). How to read the charts: you are looking at the neck from the front, low E string on the left; the thick bar at the top is the nut. The numbers in the dots are your fretting-hand fingers: 1 = index, 2 = middle, 3 = ring. An empty circle above a string = play the open string, a cross = do not play that string. In orange: the root (the note that gives the chord its name); start your strum from it. Which order to learn them in? Em and Am: the easiest, with only two or three fingers. C and G: the two most used chords in popular music. D and Dm: only four strings played, be careful not to hit the two low strings. E and A: E is the same shape as Am, one string higher; A is played with three fingers squeezed on fret 2. Allow one pair of chords per week: in a month, you have all 8. Fingering a chord properly Fingertips, nicely curved, so you do not mute the next string. Right behind the fret (body side), not in the middle of the fret space: less pressure, less buzzing. Thumb behind the neck, roughly opposite your middle finger. Check string by string: pick each string separately; if one sounds wrong, fix that finger. Sore fingers? That is normal for the first two or three weeks. Play 10 to 15 minutes a day rather than one hour at once: calluses form quickly. Changing chords without gaps The real challenge is not making a chord, it is getting to the next one in time. Three tips: Pivot fingers: from C to Am, fingers 1 and 2 stay put, only finger 3 moves. From Em to E, just add finger 1. Always look for what stays in place. Put all fingers down at once, like a stamp, instead of one at a time. Never stop strumming: if the next chord is not ready, strum the open strings on the last beat. Your strumming hand keeps the time, your fretting hand follows. Exercise 1: the one-minute change 1 minute per pair, count your changes: Em <-> Am C <-> G D <-> G Am <-> C E <-> A D <-> A Am <-> E Dm <-> Am Goal: 30 clean changes per minute. Write down your score every day: it is very motivating to watch it go up. Exercise 2: strumming With a metronome at 60 bpm, start with 4 downstrokes per bar (level 1), then move on to the most used folk strumming pattern (level 2): Level 1: 1 2 3 4 Level 2: 1 2 and and 4 and D D D D D D U U D U D = downstroke, U = upstroke In level 2, your strumming hand keeps a constant pendulum motion (down-up on every beat) and only hits the strings on the strokes shown. Exercise 3: 5 chord progressions to play 1) G | Em | C | D | (the '50s progression) 2) Am | Dm | E | Am | (minor, Spanish flavour) 3) E | A | E | A | (rock / blues) 4) C | Am | Dm | G | (pop) 5) D | G | A | D | (folk) One bar = 4 beats. Once you are comfortable, put it all into a real song: Knockin' on Heaven's Door uses only G, D, Am and C. To see any chord across the whole neck, use the interactive fretboard (Chords mode).
Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan) on guitar: easy chords and strumming for beginners
Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan, 1973) is one of the songs beginners play the most: 4 easy chords (G, D, Am, C), a single progression for the whole song and a slow tempo. Here are the chords, the progression, the strumming pattern and a plan to play it in one week. Why it is the perfect beginner song 4 open chords, no barre: G, D, Am (A minor) and C. A single 4-bar progression that loops from start to finish: once you have learned it, you know the whole song. A slow tempo (about 69 bpm): you have time to change chords. It has been covered by Eric Clapton, Guns N' Roses and hundreds of others: everybody knows it, perfect for playing with friends. The chords The chord charts are below. If you do not know these chords yet, start with The 8 essential open chords. In the original version, Dylan plays Am7 instead of Am: it is even easier (you lift one finger), and both sound good. The chord progression The whole song (verses and chorus) loops on this progression: | G . D . | Am . . . | G . D . | C . . . | 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 G and D: 2 beats each. Am and C: a whole bar (4 beats). The song is in G, no capo. Loop the progression: 4 times for a verse, 4 times for the chorus. Strumming Level 1 (first weeks) - one downstroke per beat: | G G D D | Am Am Am Am | G G D D | C C C C | D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D Level 2 - the song's strumming pattern, over 2 beats: 1 and 2 and D D U ("boom, boom-ta") G (2 beats) = D . D U D (2 beats) = D . D U Am / C (4 beats) = D . D U D . D U D = downstroke, U = upstroke. In level 2, your strumming hand keeps a steady down-up pendulum and only brushes the strings on the strokes shown. Slightly accent the first stroke of each chord. The tricky changes (and how to nail them) G → D: the fastest one (2 beats). Keep your ring finger light and picture the triangle shape of D before leaving G. D → Am: your fingers stay on the high strings and move down one fret. On Am, strum from the A string. Am → G: the biggest move. Lift all your fingers together and drop the G in one go; if you are late, strum the open strings on the last beat of Am. D → C: think "stamp": all three fingers land together in the C shape. One-week practice plan Days 1-2: each chord on its own, string by string, until every note rings. Days 3-4: the changes G-D, D-Am, Am-G and D-C, one minute each, counting your changes. Day 5: the whole progression at level 1, metronome at 55 bpm. Days 6-7: the level 2 strumming, then gradually go up to 69 bpm and play along with the original recording. Want to go further? G, D, Am and C all belong to the G major scale: try small melodies over the progression with the exercise G major chart and exercises.
- 1Warm-up
- 2Scale or arpeggio
- 3Lick / riff / rhythm
Picked from your favourites when you have some, otherwise at random. The selected style is respected.