If you have always wanted to learn how to play guitar, here is some great news...

The guitar is one of the easiest instruments to learn to play. Yep, many people have taught themselves to play guitar, and you can too!

To learn to play guitar, you will need to search online for the information you need. Most importantly, you should get a chart of guitar chords. You can find guitar chords free online, or in any old thrift shop guitar book.

Your next step is to figure out how to play guitar chords. As a beginner guitar player, you don't need to know a lot of different chords to learn guitar. So here's a free online guitar lesson that you can do right now...

How to Play Guitar - Learn The G Chord:

Step 1 - Look at your left hand and, ignoring your thumb, number your other fingers 1, 2, 3, and 4, starting with your index finger and ending with your pinkie.

Step 2 - In looking at a chord chart, you will see that your index finger (number 1) should be placed on the second fret on the fifth string.

Step 3 - Next, your middle finger (number 2) is to be placed on the third fret of the sixth string.

Step 4 - Place your ring finger (number 3) on the third fret of the first string. Note: The first string is the highest pitched.

Step 5 - Lastly, when all your fingers are correctly in place, strum the strings.

As a beginner learning guitar, you may notice that when you first learn how to play guitar chords, that some of the strings sound dead. This is caused by several things, most commonly because you may not be pressing hard enough.

Also, for proper chord playing, be sure that your fingers are placed squarely on each string. You should avoid touching the middle three strings with your fingers (they should be left open).

If you are touching the middle strings, you will deaden their sound. Another guitar playing tip is to be sure that you are pressing the strings between the little fret bars, and not right on top of them.

With continued practice, you will soon be fingering the G chord like a professional guitarist!

Once you've mastered the G chord, you'll be ready to learn more guitar chords. You will find that there are hundreds of guitar chords that you can learn to play.

But as you first learn guitar, you only need to know a few chords to play your first song. The G, C, D, and E minor chords are some of the most useful chords to know when learning how to play guitar.

I hope you have found this free guitar lesson teaching you how to play the G chord helpful. Good Luck!

I would like to get off of the subject of playing right handed guitar left handed for this article because I just read the book "Clapton The Autobiography" and want to comment because he is one of the most influential guitar players of our time. There is mention however of my type of guitar playing on pages 129 and 130 about Albert King and Jimi Hendrix. although he says that Jimi played a right handed guitar upside down he doesn't say that he also changed the strings around so that the high E would be in the same position as if he were playing a left handed guitar. Albert on the other hand played as I do, a right handed guitar without modifying the strings.

Of the many books written about and including Eric this one is his official autobiography written by the man himself and is worth reading on that basis alone. It is his life story from childhood to the present. He tells of his early days with the Yardbirds and how he didn't feel that he fit into the pop music scene because he thought of himself as a blues musician. He recorded "For Your Love" and left the group. He went on to play in bands like Cream, Blind Faith, Derek And The Dominos' and Delaney Bonnie And Friends all short lived. You get the sense that he never wanted to be a band leader which was thrust upon him at times but preferred to be a "Sideman", out of the spotlight.

The recurring theme of the book is of his drug addiction and alcoholism along with stories of infidelity. It is an inspiring story of how he battled these problems and eventually became clean and sober with the help of a twelve step program. I would think that this book would be a good read for anyone going through a twelve step program even if they are not a music fan. I was amazed at how he recalled names of people in his past, though he did say that he had kept diaries during his career so that may have helped.

He talks of his musical influences like Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson throughout the book. I personally identify more with Robert Johnson because his music was acoustic though not very easy on the ears to someone not inclined to delta blues. I can listen to it all day. I get the feeling that he wrote the book not only to officially tell his story but as part of his sobriety because the final chapters are dedicated to his work in building the Crossroads center in Antigua and his life as a family man. He tells of the tragic death of his four year old son Conor in 1991. If the old adage, "you gotta pay your dues to sing the blues" is true than Eric Clapton has paid many times over, but he remains a humble person.

We feel relatively comfortable now playing left handed and holding the guitar. We can make the major chords, A, B, C, D, E, F and G with the right hand. What about the left hand? How do I hold the pick? What type of strumming technique do I use? There is no particular technique and I have never seen any particular instructional guide for what is right and wrong for this unorthodox way of playing the guitar. I can only tell you what I do and how I developed the technique that I use.

"Flat Picking" is a term used to play mostly single notes combined with chords for a lead acoustic guitar part. If you want to hear examples of "Flat Picking" then listen to any song by Doc Watson. As far as picking the lead, there is no difference in the way you hold the pick and the way a right handed player holds the pick. Between the thumb and the index finger. Problems may arise when the palm of your left hand tend to muffle the strings. To avoid this, position your left hand with the wrist pointing away from the strings. In other words you may have to bend your wrist much like you do when you write left handed. You may come up with your own method but that is how I do it.

Another problem may be in the method that you learn the lead part. I have learned by three methods. Tabulator, being taught one on one by someone else, and figuring it out on my own. Tabulator is a good tool for learning scales and exercises. You just have to interpolate what you are reading because again it is written with the right handed player in mind. Left handed tabulator is available but not useful because you are not really playing left handed in the context that it is written. Believe me, it's not as hard as it sounds. The easiest way to learn a lead lick is to have someone teach you one on one sitting across from you.

"Finger Picking" is when you play multiple strings set to a rhythm that gives the melody a fullness much like a piano where you separate melody and bass notes. Classical guitar music would be a good example. I hold the pick between the thumb and index finger and pick out the bass notes simultaneously with my middle finger. This method works well for me since I have tried everything else to no avail. I even tried the three finger "Scruggs" banjo style but it just sounded like a banjo roll.

"Strumming" rhythm may be a challenge at first because you will have to concentrate on picking using an up stroke instead of a down stroke as a right handed player does. Just remember that when you play a strum you will normally start on the low E string and strum up to the high E.

In my early days of playing a right handed guitar left handed I was a sales rep for a local wholesale co. I drove around all day visiting customers and clients filling orders and selling new products. This was before cell phones. I had to stop several times a day to make business phone calls from a pay phone. Most of these calls required for me to write notes and to go through catalogs as I was talking on the phone. I hold my notebook in my left hand, and I write with my left hand. I also hold the phone up to my left ear. I keep my change in my left pants pocket.

So here's the scenario, I need to make a phone call so I pull over to a pay phone. I have to take my books with me so I get out of the car with the books in my left hand. I then need to find a quarter in my pocket to put into the phone so I have to either put the books down or hold them in my right hand to get to my pocket.

Okay I have the quarter in my hand. I pick up the receiver and put the money into the phone. I put the phone up to my left ear and get ready to dial. Wait a minute, I find out that I either must dial with my awkward right hand or hold the phone to my ear with my shoulder while I use my left hand to dial so I opt for the shoulder technique. Guess what? the cable between the phone and receiver is now in my face and I can't do anything but move the receiver to my right shoulder. The call is made, now I find out that I need to write something down and look up a price at the same time. By now I have the receiver back up to my left ear while holding it with my right hand crossed over. I have to put the pencil down while I flip through the pages of my book. Total chaos because I don't know how to use a right handed pay phone.

What does this story have to do with playing the guitar? Everything. I can handle a right handed pay phone now because after so much frustration, I developed a system to deal with it. No need to explain it now because pay phones are irrelevant these days and I want to stay on subject. When I first picked up a right handed guitar I had the same problem. Total chaos.

I was told that I needed a left handed guitar to learn but I couldn't afford one. They are usually a bit more expensive than a standard right handed guitar because the manufacturer must retool equipment to make them and the hand made ones require different tools and jigs to make the different components. Besides that there is not as much of a demand for left handed instruments so it is probably not economically feasible.

Here is my point. I use right handed tools all of the time from power saws to scissors and have found a way to adapt. Just because they were made in a standard way without the left handed person in mind doesn't mean that they can't be used safely by a left handed person. If you can afford left handed tools by all means buy them but don't complain about right handed products because that isn't exactly a top priority in peoples minds of injustices. They usually just tell you to quit whining. I don't whine because I defy them and use the products however they are made.

Being a Left Handed musician I have accepted the fact that musical instruments especially the guitar are designed for the right handed player. Everyday tools and conveniences are designed and built with no regard to lefty's such as power saws, water fountains pay phones and even firearms. The list goes on.When I was around the age of twelve my parents bought me a cheap guitar for Christmas which of course was a right handed guitar. Not wanting to learn to play right handed, I changed the strings around as most left handers do.

To no avail I found it hard to make certain chords and thus hindered my learning. I soon gave up the idea and the guitar went into the closet. Years later at around age twenty one I started fooling around with my brothers guitar. Since it didn't belong to me I couldn't change the strings so I started learning to make chords backwards and playing left handed. After I had learned to make a few basic chords and strum them clearly I was determined to go all the way regardless of my so called handicap. I bought my own right handed guitar and was soon learning to play it upside down. I was soon playing my favorite songs.

In the early days of learning, I had only strummed chords but that was enough to get by. By the time I could play all of the major, minor, sharps and seventh chords I was ready to learn to play some lead. A friend told me that a good place to learn guitar was at a bluegrass festival. I started attending festivals and learning the old songs. I first learned the song "Wild Wood Flower" by the Carter Family. It was a simple three chord song and not too difficult to play the lead melody. Soon after that came old standards like "Home Sweet Home" and "Cripple Creek" also three chord songs and easy to learn a lead melody. I became sort of an oddity as I played around the campsites at festivals and always heard comments like, "Did you know that you're playing that guitar upside down?" Well Duh!

It was funny to see people tilt their heads like a puzzled dog as I played. Other musicians would not look at me while they were playing because I would throw them off. They couldn't tell what I was doing. I got a kick out of that. I eventually taught myself to play "Flat pick" and "Finger Pick" style guitar. I also play acoustic slide guitar. In the past few years I started writing my own music and have recorded a CD titled "The Lighter Side Of Poverty". I wrote all of the songs, provide the vocals and play all of the right handed instruments on the CD. This is an on going blog to provide beginning and intermediate lefty musicians tips and techniques to make your learning experience a little easier in a right handed world.

In my last article we discussed how as a left handed person I came to play the guitar in an unorthodox manner by flipping over a right handed guitar and playing it backwards. This was done not to be different but out of necessity because I had to borrow someone else's guitar at the time so I couldn't restring it. Now I will discuss how to begin teaching yourself how to make chords regardless of conventional learning techniques.

Find a guitarist's chord manual or chord chart with diagrams. Even though you are playing upside down, the chord fingerings have to be correct, the only difference will be which finger you will use for each guitar fret. A typical chord diagram will show an illustration of six strings and numbered round dots representing where and which finger should be pressed to make a certain chord. Remember that these diagrams are for right handed players so that means that they are intended for the left hand. We will read these diagrams and interpret for the right hand. Look at any chord diagram. It will show six strings and about seven frets. You should already know the names of the strings, E A D G B E. There is a low E and a high E string.

As you hold the guitar, the high E string will be on top of the sound hole and the low E on the bottom. The high E string is located at the far right of the diagram, and the low E at the far left. The A string is next to the low E and so on. Pay no attention to the numbers on the round dots because they are irrelevant to the left handed player. A chord structure could use anywhere from one finger to four fingers. Start by learning one or two finger chords.

Start learning three finger chords as soon as possible because there are actually very few one or two finger chords and you may get bored. Practice an upstroke with your left hand holding a pick. Experiment with the different fingerings to decide which fingers feel best on which strings. Also practice changing from one chord to another to get the feel of it. I have actually taught right handed people to play the guitar and my number one rule is DO NOT over practice. It leads to frustration and boredom and that is what we want to avoid. Thirty minute sessions per day is plenty of time, but if you are eager and want to work longer feel free to, I only want you to avoid getting frustrated or bored.

Your fingertips will get sore but that will go away as you wear callouses on them. I hope that this helps you to get started playing right handed guitar left handed. The whole point is that there is no need to conform to a right handed world to learn to play music.

Are you a lefty? You want to play guitar but worried about whether there will be any problem for you to play well? There is nothing to worry. Some tips for left hand guitarists are provided below that will help you to compete equally with the right-handed guitarists.

There are some problems that almost every left-handed guitarist has to face. These tips for left hand guitarists will help you to get rid of these problems.

The first problem that happens with the lefties is they get confused about what guitar they should choose. There are two things that you can do. You can take a right hand guitar and just change the position of the strings. That means put the first string on the place of last string. After doing this, you can play. But this system can be a bit problematic. If this system suits you, then it is fine. Otherwise you can just buy a left hand guitar. But before choosing the guitar, do remember one thing. Settle down for playing the one, which you are comfortable with.

The next problem is sometimes the lefties find it difficult to understand the guitar lessons. Because majority of the guitarists are right handed. So the tutorials sometimes give emphasize to their way of playing. But do not get disheartened. It is not at all a big deal. The tips for left hand guitarists are with you always. Just reverse the whole lesson upside down and it will become completely your cup of tea.

The lefty guitarist sometimes faces the problem with the availability of their kind of guitars. Do not worry. If you go to a good shop, then you will find lots of lefty guitars. But remember, do not pick up and start playing a right hand guitar. Because it will prove that you are inexperienced and that there is a high chance that the shopkeeper will deliver you a defective one.

Do not feel ashamed of being a lefty guitarist. It is not a fault. Left hand guitarists are as good as the right-handers. Jimmy Hendrix, Curt Cobain, Paul Mc Cartney were all left hand guitarists. And the whole world is aware of their brilliance.

Before learning guitar, there are some more tips for left hand guitarists. Do not try to play a right hand guitar in a lefty way. There will be a lot of problem while playing. The main problem will occur with the chords. Some chords will be impossible to handle. And it will not be a proper learning.

Do not even think of switching over to right hand guitar, if you are lefty guitarists. It will not give you that joy, which you will experience while playing a left hand guitar. And at the end of the day it is pure fun that matters the most.

Remember that it is true that a band with a lefty guitarist is 3% more attractive than others. These days everything depends on looks and packaging. And a left-handed guitar player looks fabulous.

So, do not hesitate while playing a left hand guitar. I hope these tips for left hand guitarists will help you. It will be able to boost up your energy. Do not think a lot. Just go ahead and rock the show.