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HandoutHandout 1: What to Buy Before Week One
Handout 1: What to Buy Before Week One
You need a guitar, a few small things, and that's it. Don't let anybody upsell you past this list. Here's what actually matters and what's just nice to have.
Budget tier (get this, nothing wrong with it)
Guitar: $120–200, acoustic, steel string. Buy new from a real music store if you can, or check pawn shops and marketplace listings if someone who plays can go look at it with you. I'd rather you show up with a cheap guitar you're not scared to touch than a nice one you baby in the case. A $150 guitar that gets beat up and played every day beats a $600 guitar sitting in a closet.
Skip anything with a warped neck. Sight down the neck from the headstock like you're looking down a rifle barrel. If it curves or twists, walk away. This is the one thing that can't be fixed cheap.
Tuner: $10–15, clip-on. Clips right on the headstock. Non-negotiable, we tune first thing every class, every time. Our air here is dry and the temperature swings hard, up the canyon or just from house to car, and your strings will drift more than you'd expect. A cheap clip-on tuner solves this completely. Don't try to tune by ear yet, that's a later skill.
Picks: a few dollars, get a variety pack. You'll lose these. Buy ten, not three.
Extra set of strings: $6–10. You'll break one eventually, usually at the worst time. Have a spare set in the case.
A humidifier for the case or soundhole: $10–15. This one I'm serious about. Utah air will dry out a guitar's wood over a season or two and you'll get buzzing frets, a warped neck, sometimes a cracked top. I learned this the hard way with my dad's old dreadnought, it had sat in a closet for years and needed two weeks in a damp tub before it played right. Don't wait for your guitar to tell you it's thirsty. A cheap in-case humidifier is the whole fix.
Total budget tier: roughly $150–225.
Nice-to-have tier (not week one, maybe month three)
- A real gig bag or hard case — the cardboard box it comes in is fine for now.
- A capo ($8–12) — useful later, not for the first few weeks of chords.
- A footstool or guitar strap — comfort thing, not a learning thing.
- A proper hygrometer for your case — good if you want to actually track humidity instead of guessing. I use one. Super simple, tells you the number instead of you finding out the hard way.
- A metronome app — free ones work fine, don't pay for this.
Shopping notes
If you're new to this, bring someone who plays when you go look at a used guitar, or just buy new. A big box store or the music store off the highway will have $150ish beginner acoustics in stock, and staff there can do a quick setup if the action feels too high (strings too far from the fretboard, makes it hard on your fingers).
Don't buy a guitar off a blurry online listing sight unseen. My neighbor Brock did that once, more or less, and brought me a guitar strung upside down from following a bad video. We fixed it fine, but it's better to just start right.
Last thing: don't spend money trying to save a guitar that's already warped. I had to tell a friend from the ward exactly that with her thrift store guitar, straight, no sugar on it. Sometimes the kind thing is telling someone not to bother.
See you at class. Bring the guitar in tune-able condition and we'll do the rest.
HandoutHandout 2: Cheat Sheet — Core Techniques and Settings
Handout 2: Cheat Sheet — Core Techniques and Settings
Print this, put it somewhere near where you practice. Not in a drawer. Somewhere you'll actually see it.
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Tuning (standard, low to high)
E - A - D - G - B - E
Tune before every single practice session. No exceptions. Our elevation and dry air mean your guitar drifts, especially if it's been in the car or near a heat vent. I check mine even after a drive up the canyon. Use a clip-on tuner if you have one, or a phone app. Don't trust your ear yet, that comes later.
The Three Chords We Started With
G major — ring finger 3rd string, middle finger 5th string, pinky 6th string, all at the 3rd fret.
C major — ring finger 5th string 3rd fret, middle finger 4th string 2nd fret, index finger 2nd string 1st fret.
D major — index finger 3rd string, ring finger 2nd string, middle finger 1st string, all at the 2nd fret.
Press with your fingertips, not the pads. Thumb stays behind the neck, roughly opposite your middle finger. If a string buzzes, you're probably not pressing hard enough or you're too far from the fret.
Strumming Hand
Loose wrist. The motion comes from the wrist, not the elbow. If your whole arm is swinging, you're going to be exhausted in two minutes and it'll sound stiff. Down-up-down-up, even and boring is the goal at this stage. Fancy comes later, if you want it.
Changing Between Chords
This is the part everybody hates and it's the part that matters most. Move your slowest finger first, since that's your bottleneck anyway. Practice the change with no strumming at all, just landing the shape, before you add rhythm. I spent six weeks on F sounding like a dying appliance before it clicked. That's normal. Don't quit at week three.
Fretting Pressure
Enough to stop the buzz, not more. New players mash way harder than needed and their hand cramps by minute five. Less pressure, more accuracy in finger placement, fixes most buzzing problems. If it still buzzes, check you're pressing just behind the fret wire, not right on top of it.
Humidity
Keep your guitar in its case when you're not playing it, and if you can, toss in a basic guitar humidifier or even just be aware of how dry your house runs in winter. Utah's dry air is hard on wood. Necks warp, frets buzz, guitars crack. This isn't optional advice, it's the number one way people lose an instrument without ever knowing why.
Daily Practice (the actual assignment)
Ten minutes. Same time every day if you can manage it. Tune first, every time, no skipping this step even if you're in a hurry. Then:
- 2 minutes chord shapes, no strumming
- 5 minutes chord changes, slow, metronome or just counting in your head
- 3 minutes whatever song part we're working on that week
Ten minutes daily beats sixty minutes once a week. It's reps, not talent. I mean that plainly, it's the whole idea behind this class.
When Something's Wrong
If your guitar sounds off and tuning doesn't fix it, don't mess with the truss rod or start adjusting things yourself. Bring it in, or take a picture and text me. Some problems are a five-minute fix. Some mean the neck's warped and it's not worth saving. I'd rather tell you straight than have you sink money into something that's done.
WorksheetHandout 3: Chord Change Checklist
Handout 3: Chord Change Checklist
This one's for tracking your progress on the thing that actually matters: getting from one chord to the next without a train wreck in between. Fill this in over the next two weeks. Bring it back so I can see where you're stuck.
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Part 1: Tune First
Before you do anything below, tune the guitar. Every time. Doesn't matter if you tuned it yesterday, the dry air up here moves it. Check the box when it's done, not before.
- [ ] Tuned before this practice session
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Part 2: The Four Chords
Circle how it went. Be honest, nobody's grading this.
G major - [ ] Buzzes on at least one string - [ ] Rings clean - [ ] I can find it without looking
C major - [ ] Buzzes on at least one string - [ ] Rings clean - [ ] I can find it without looking
D major - [ ] Buzzes on at least one string - [ ] Rings clean - [ ] I can find it without looking
E minor - [ ] Buzzes on at least one string - [ ] Rings clean - [ ] I can find it without looking
If you've got buzzing on all four still, that's super normal at this stage. Don't panic and don't skip ahead. Clean chords now save you a headache later.
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Part 3: The Change
This is the actual skill. Anybody can eventually land a chord if they've got all day. The point is getting from one to the next without stopping.
Pick two chords from above. Practice switching between just those two, slow, for the full ten minutes. Write which pair you worked on:
Chord 1: _______________ Chord 2: _______________
Count how many clean switches you get in a row before a mess-up:
Day 1: _____ Day 4: _____ Day 2: _____ Day 5: _____ Day 3: _____ Day 6: _____
You're not trying to get to some big number. You're trying to see the number go up. That's the whole exercise.
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Part 4: The F Chord (optional, don't hate yourself)
I practiced this one for six weeks before it stopped sounding like a dying appliance. If you want to attempt it, go ahead. If you want to leave it until next month, that's also fine. Check whichever's true:
- [ ] I attempted F this week and it was rough (correct, expected)
- [ ] I am ignoring F on purpose and living my life
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Part 5: Ten Minutes a Day
Mark the days you actually practiced. Not the days you meant to. This isn't a shame chart, it's just data. If you missed four days, that tells us something. If you hit six, that tells us something else.
M ___ T ___ W ___ Th ___ F ___ Sa ___ Su ___
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One note on hands
If your fingertips are sore, that's normal and it's the goal, not a problem. Calluses take a couple weeks to build. If they're bleeding or cracked, back off for a day. I've pushed mine too far before and regretted it. There's a difference between "toughening up" and "hurting yourself," and only you know which one you're doing.
Bring this sheet next week. We'll look at where the buzzes are and fix one thing each, not everything at once.
HandoutHandout 4: Troubleshooting Guide — Common Beginner Problems
Handout 4: Troubleshooting Guide — Common Beginner Problems
Every one of these shows up in class, week after week. None of it means you're bad at this. It means you're a beginner, which is a temporary condition. Here's the fix for each.
1. My chords sound buzzy or muted Usually your finger is too close to the fret, or you're not pressing hard enough, or one finger is flopped over and touching a string it shouldn't. Check your thumb too. It should sit behind the neck, not wrapped over the top like you're gripping a bat.
2. F chord sounds like a dying appliance Yep. Everybody's does. I practiced F for six weeks before it stopped sounding like that. It's not you, it's the chord. Keep going.
3. My fingers hurt Good. That means you're building calluses, and calluses are the whole game here, more than talent ever will be. Ten minutes a day is enough. Don't do two-hour sessions trying to rush it, you'll just get blisters instead of calluses and then you won't want to touch the thing for a week.
4. I can't switch chords fast enough for a song Slow down the strumming until you can switch clean, even if that means one chord change every four seconds. Speed comes after accuracy. This is the boring part I keep telling you not to skip.
5. My guitar won't stay in tune Normal here. Our air is dry and the temperature swings hard, garage to house, car up the canyon, whatever. Wood moves. Tune before every practice session, no exceptions. If it's going flat within an hour of tuning, every day, that's a different problem, bring it in.
6. There's a weird buzz that isn't a fingering mistake Could be the truss rod, could be the action, could be your guitar's just thirsty. Dry air warps and cracks instruments and most people never connect the dots. Get a cheap humidifier for the case. If the buzz is still there after that, it might be a setup issue, not a you issue.
7. I restrung it and now it sounds wrong or won't tune up Strings on backwards, or wound wrong at the peg. This is genuinely common, I had a neighbor bring his over with the strings literally upside down. We fix this hands-on in class for a reason, videos don't cut it. Bring it in, we'll sort it in ten minutes.
8. My rhythm falls apart the second I look at my fretting hand Everybody's does at first. The fix is boring: count out loud while you strum, even just "1 2 3 4." Your brain can only fully focus on one new thing at a time. Splitting attention between hands is a skill you build, not something you're supposed to already have.
9. I learned a song off a video and now something feels off Videos skip steps and mumble the boring parts, and the boring parts are usually the important ones. If a chord shape feels wrong, don't just push through it, come ask. Better to fix it now than build six weeks of habit on a bad shape.
10. I missed practice for a week and feel behind You're not behind, you paused. Pick the same ten-minutes-a-day system back up and don't try to cram to catch up. I check in on this every week and nobody's getting shamed for a rough week. Life happens.
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If none of this covers your problem: bring the guitar to class. I'd rather look at it in person than guess from a description. And if it turns out the guitar itself is the problem, not you, I'll tell you straight. Sometimes a cheap thrift-store guitar just isn't worth saving, and it's better to know that early than fight it for a year.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —okay but did it fix itself or did you fix it?
CHANCE: I fixed it. There's no such thing as a guitar fixing itself. That's kind of the whole point of tonight, actually.
JESS: See, that's a good transition, we should keep that. Okay. Hi, everybody, welcome to the podcast for Beginner Guitar for Adults, I'm Jess, I run the podcast side of things for Community Learning, and this is Chance, who's teaching the class.
CHANCE: Hey.
JESS: That's it? "Hey"?
CHANCE: I said hey.
JESS: Okay. So episode one, this comes out before the first class meets, right, so people know what they're walking into.
CHANCE: Yeah. Bring a guitar. If you don't have one yet, don't panic, we'll talk about that. If you've got something in a closet that was your uncle's or whatever, bring that too, we can look at it.
JESS: You said something before we started recording about a book.
CHANCE: Oh, yeah. So when I started, I bought one of those beginner method books, the kind that promises you'll be playing songs by the end of it. I blew through the whole thing in like ten days. Felt great. Felt like a genius.
JESS: And then?
CHANCE: And then I hit a wall for months. Because the book skipped all the boring stuff, the stuff that actually holds everything up. Clean chord changes, timing, all that. It got me to "sounds like a song" fast, but it never got me to "sounds good," because it never made me do the boring part long enough.
JESS: So that's kind of your whole philosophy.
CHANCE: That's the whole philosophy, yeah. I don't trust anything that promises fast. Fast means it's hiding the mechanics from you, and if you don't understand the mechanics you can't fix anything when it breaks. A guitar's a solvable problem. Six strings, some math, some muscle memory. Show up every day and it works. That's it. That's the whole class, basically.
JESS: Okay, give the people a tip. Something they can use even if they never sign up.
CHANCE: Sure. Tune your guitar before you touch it. Every single time. Doesn't matter if you tuned it yesterday.
JESS: Even the ones sitting in a case?
CHANCE: Especially the ones sitting in a case. Up here, with the dry air and the elevation and how much the temperature swings, guitars drift out of tune constantly. I've retuned mine in the car on the way up the canyon because the temperature change knocked it flat by the time I got there. If you play out of tune and it sounds bad, you're gonna think you're bad, and you're not, the guitar's just out of tune. So many beginners quit over that and don't even know it's what happened.
JESS: That's kind of a big deal, actually.
CHANCE: It's the first ten minutes of every single class I teach. Nobody gets to play a note until we're in tune. People used to grumble about it, nobody grumbles anymore, they get it now.
JESS: Any tuner works, or—
CHANCE: Any tuner works. Phone app, clip-on, whatever's cheap. Doesn't need to be fancy. I'd rather you spend money on a decent guitar than a fancy tuner.
JESS: Speaking of decent guitars, people are gonna show up night one with nothing, or with something sketchy.
CHANCE: That's fine, that's normal. Here's my actual opinion, and people push back on this sometimes. Buy cheap. A hundred, hundred fifty bucks, something that plays okay. Don't buy something nice yet. If it's nice you'll be scared to touch it, and a guitar you're scared to touch stays in the case.
JESS: You'd rather someone beat up a cheap guitar.
CHANCE: Beat it up. Drop it on the carpet, whatever, it's fine, it's a hundred and fifty dollars. You upgrade later once you actually know what you like.
JESS: Okay, so what's session two, what should people expect coming in?
CHANCE: First real chords. We're doing E minor and G, which is a boring pair to some guitar teachers, but they're forgiving on the hand and they sound like something right away, which matters more than people think for keeping you motivated. And I'll bring a spare tuner or two for anybody who forgot theirs, but bring your own if you can.
JESS: And bring the guitar.
CHANCE: Always bring the guitar. Every class, guitar in your lap the whole time. I talk for like two minutes and then it's hands on the strings. That's how this works.
JESS: Love it. Okay, that's episode one. See everybody Tuesday.
CHANCE: See you Tuesday. Tune it before you leave the house.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —and I still think that's the moment you knew you weren't giving the guitar back.
CHANCE: Pretty much, yeah. Once you restring something yourself, you feel like you own it different. Even if you did it wrong the first time.
JESS: Okay, for people just joining us, this is episode two, we're talking week two of Beginner Guitar for Adults. Last time we did tuning, basic setup. Chance, where'd the room land this week?
CHANCE: Chords. First real chords, E minor and A minor. Which sounds small but it's not, that's two fingers, and most people can get a clean sound out of both in the first ten minutes.
JESS: Ten minutes, really?
CHANCE: Some people. Some people take longer and that's fine, I'm not timing anybody. But E minor's about as forgiving as a chord gets. It's a good first win.
JESS: So this is the part where I ask you for the tip somebody at home can steal, no class required.
CHANCE: Sure. Here's one. If you're just starting out, press the string, then check where your thumb is on the back of the neck. People jam their thumb straight up over the top like they're gripping a bat. The fix is get your thumb roughly behind your middle finger, pointing up, not wrapped over. Frees up your fingers to actually curl and press down instead of laying flat and muting everything next to them.
JESS: That's such a specific thing to notice.
CHANCE: It's the number one thing I fix in that room. Every week. Somebody's thumb is the problem and they think it's their fingers.
JESS: Okay, I want the story you told me before we started recording. About your neighbor.
CHANCE: Brock. Yeah. So Brock's my neighbor, and he bought a used guitar off somebody, strings were shot, so he watched some video online, blurry, probably ten years old, and restrung it himself.
JESS: Bold.
CHANCE: Brought it over to show me, real proud of himself. And I pick it up and something's wrong, I can't place it right away, and then I see it. He'd put the strings on upside down. Like, ball end through the wrong side, wound the wrong direction around the peg, the whole thing backwards.
JESS: How does that even happen.
CHANCE: The video didn't show the part that matters, I guess, or he missed it. Anyway we sat in my driveway and fixed it, took maybe twenty minutes once we knew what we were looking at. But I remember standing there thinking, this is exactly why nobody should learn restringing off a video. You need somebody next to you saying no, other way, look here.
JESS: Is that why it's its own lesson now.
CHANCE: That's exactly why. We do it hands-on, everybody restrings a set themselves in class, I stand there and watch. Nobody's guitar leaves my sight upside down.
JESS: I love that this is a driveway origin story for a whole unit of the class.
CHANCE: Most of what I teach came from fixing something dumb somebody did in front of me. Including myself.
JESS: Okay so, quick housekeeping. Next week?
CHANCE: Next week we add a third chord, C major, and we start switching between all three. That's where it gets a little uglier before it gets better. Changing chords cleanly is its own skill, separate from just holding one down.
JESS: Ugly meaning.
CHANCE: Meaning it'll sound clunky. There's a gap while your hand moves. That's normal, that's not you doing it wrong, that's just where everybody is at that stage. I'll spend most of the class on that gap, actually, how to shrink it down.
JESS: And the homework between now and then.
CHANCE: Same as always. Ten minutes a day, tune first, every time, don't skip it because it feels like a formality. This dry air up here, your guitar's moved by morning even if you didn't touch it. Get in tune, then just switch between E minor and A minor slow, count it out, don't rush the ugly part.
JESS: Ten minutes doesn't feel like enough to matter.
CHANCE: It adds up. It's the same as anything, input, then result. Nobody wants to hear that but it's true.
JESS: That's Chance Sorensen, everybody, week two in the books. We'll catch you after next session.
CHANCE: And bring a pencil if you don't have a tuner clip yet, we'll figure something out.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —and that's the part I never understood, why it drifts that much overnight.
CHANCE: It's the dry air. And the elevation. We're what, forty-five hundred feet up here, and the temperature swings from your garage to your kitchen table are bigger than people think. Wood moves. Strings move with it.
JESS: So when you tell people tune first, every single time, that's not just a habit thing.
CHANCE: No. It's the whole reason week three doesn't sound like garbage. If your guitar's flat and you don't know it, you'll think you're playing wrong. You're not. The guitar's wrong. Fix the guitar first.
JESS: Okay, for people listening who aren't in the class yet, what's the actual tip. Something they could do tonight.
CHANCE: Get a clip-on tuner, they're like twelve bucks. Clip it to the headstock, pluck a string, watch the little light. Red or off-center means fix it, green means leave it alone. Takes ninety seconds. Do it before you play, not after you notice something sounds off.
JESS: That's it?
CHANCE: That's it. Super simple. People overthink tuning because they think it requires an ear. It doesn't, the tuner has the ear. You just need the patience to check it every time instead of assuming last week's tuning held.
JESS: Which it won't.
CHANCE: Which it won't. Not here.
JESS: Okay, I want to hear the driveway story. You mentioned it last week and then we ran out of time.
CHANCE: Oh, Brock. My neighbor. He'd bought a used guitar off somebody, needed new strings, watched some blurry video online at like eleven at night and restrung the whole thing himself.
JESS: Proud of himself.
CHANCE: Very proud. Comes over the next morning wanting to show me. And I pick it up and something's off, I can't place it for a second, and then I see it. He'd put the strings on upside down. Like, reversed which peg went where, so the tension was fighting itself the whole way up the neck.
JESS: How do you even do that.
CHANCE: Blurry video at eleven at night, that's how. Anyway we just sat in the driveway and pulled them all back off and did it again slow, and it took maybe twenty minutes once somebody's actually looking at your hands instead of a screen. And that's the day I decided restringing was going to be a real lesson in this class. Hands on. Nobody learns it off a video, not really. You need somebody standing there going, no, not that peg.
JESS: Is that coming up soon?
CHANCE: Next session, actually. Everybody brings their guitar, we take a string off on purpose and put a new one on, right there. I bring extra strings for anybody who breaks one mid-lesson, which happens, that's fine, that's part of it.
JESS: Some people are going to be nervous about that. Taking their guitar apart, even just one string.
CHANCE: They should be a little nervous, that's normal. But it's not a delicate instrument in the way people think. I'd rather you get comfortable doing basic maintenance than be scared of your own guitar. A guitar you're scared to touch stays in its case. I've said that before and I'll keep saying it.
JESS: You will. You say it every session, I've noticed.
CHANCE: Because it's true every session.
JESS: Fair. Anything people should have ready before next time?
CHANCE: Just the guitar, and if you've got a cheap set of strings sitting around, bring those too, otherwise I've got extras. And keep doing the ten minutes a day. I know we're only three weeks in and some of you are at the F chord wall right now, where it just sounds bad no matter what you do.
JESS: You've mentioned that wall.
CHANCE: I lived at that wall for six weeks once. Sounded like a dying appliance the whole time. My wife finally asked if the guitar was broken. It wasn't. It was me. So if you're there right now, you're not behind, that's just where the wall is for everybody.
JESS: That's oddly comforting.
CHANCE: It's supposed to be. Okay. Tuner, ten minutes, bring your strings next week.
JESS: That's the episode. See everybody Thursday.
FlashcardsPrintable flashcards — Beginner Guitar for Adults
Print it, fold it, stick it on the fridge.
Beginner Guitar for Adults — Flashcard Set
Cut-out note: Print this double-sided if your printer does that, then cut along the lines. Punch a hole in the corner and put them on a ring — that's what I do with my seed-starting notes, and it works just as well here. Shuffle them once you've been through the deck a couple times. Order stops mattering after week two.
FRONT BACK How this class runs Ten minutes of review, new thing, then we play something all the way through. No performances, no grades. Show up, do the thing, go home. The parts of the guitar Headstock (tuning), neck (fretting hand lives here), body (where the sound happens), bridge (anchors the strings). Know the names so I can tell you where to put your fingers without pointing at things for ten minutes. Tuning by ear Match a string to a known reference — another string, a tuning fork, whatever's steady. Good to know because someday your tuner's battery is dead and the guitar still needs to be in tune. Clip-on tuner Clips to the headstock, reads the vibration, tells you sharp or flat. Use it every single time you pick up the guitar. There's no dignity in tuning by ear if the song comes out wrong. Why your guitar drifts here Utah's dry air pulls moisture out of the wood, the neck moves a little, tension on the strings changes. It's not you doing something wrong. It's the climate doing what dry climates do. How to hold the guitar Waist on your leg, neck angled up slightly, guitar resting against your body — not clamped, not slouched. If your shoulder's tired after five minutes, something's wrong with the hold, not your strength. Fretting hand basics Press just behind the fret wire, not on top of it. Right behind it takes less pressure and the note rings clean instead of buzzing. One clean string at a time Aim your pick or thumb at a single string and let the others alone. Sounds obvious until you're two chords in and hitting the low E on a chord that doesn't want it. Sore fingertips Normal for the first two to three weeks. Calluses are your fingertips deciding this is a permanent arrangement. Ten minutes a day, most days, and it stops hurting on its own schedule — you can't rush it with more pain. Em (E minor) Two fingers, low strings, and it's the first chord that sounds like something instead of a mistake. This is where most people stop thinking "can I do this" and start thinking "okay." Am (A minor) One finger moves from Em and you've got a second chord. This is the whole trick of learning guitar — small moves that unlock a lot more chords than they look like they should. G major One of the two chords you'll play for the rest of your life. Takes a stretch. Don't force it — it gets easier as your hand learns the shape, not as you muscle through it. C major The other one. Combine with G and you can already fake your way through half the songs on the radio. D major Three fingers in a little triangle on the top three strings. First chord where reading the diagram actually matters, because it's easy to place a finger one string off and not notice why it sounds wrong. Reading a chord diagram Vertical lines are strings, horizontal lines are frets, dots are where your fingers go. Left is the low, thick string. It's a map — read it the same way every time and it stops looking like a puzzle. Checking your chords for buzz If a string rattles, it's almost always one of three things: too far from the fret, not enough pressure, or a neighboring finger flopped over and touched a string it shouldn't. Check those three before you assume you're bad at this. The one-finger anchor trick Find a finger that stays in roughly the same spot between two chords — Em to G, say — and let it lead. Move that one first, the rest follow. Cuts your change time down without any extra speed drills. Slow chord changes Change chords at a tempo where you don't buzz anything. That's the actual speed you should be practicing at, even if it feels embarrassingly slow. Speed shows up on its own once the shape is automatic. Counting beats Count out loud — "1, 2, 3, 4" — while you strum, so the chord change happens on beat 1 and not whenever your hand gets there. Time is the skill that makes everything else sound like music instead of noise. When it sounds like a dying appliance That's just what four uncoordinated body parts sound like in week one. Everybody's guitar sounds like a garbage disposal before it sounds like a song. Keep going. Down strums Strike down across the strings on the beat, steady, same motion every time. Get this boring and reliable before you add anything fancy — it's the floor everything else stands on. Adding upstrums Once down strums are steady, add an upstroke between beats without losing the beat itself. If the whole thing falls apart, drop back to just downstrums until it's solid again — no shame in that. Strum patterns Two or three patterns cover most songs you'll want to play. Learn those cold instead of chasing a new pattern for every new song — it's the same trick as learning G and C and reusing them everywhere. Humidifying your guitar A small soundhole humidifier keeps the wood from drying out and drifting out of tune, especially November through March here. Cheap insurance against a much more expensive repair. Restringing We do this hands-on in class, string by string, not from a video where the hands move too fast to follow. You'll restring your own guitar at least twenty times if you keep playing — better to actually know it. The ten-minutes-a-day system Ten focused minutes daily beats one long session on a Sunday. Same as watering a garden bed — small, regular input, and the result takes care of itself. Missing a day is fine. Missing a month is the thing to avoid. ---
One aside: If you only take one card from this whole deck, take the one on checking for buzz. I still run through those same three things — too far, not enough pressure, stray finger — before I blame the guitar for anything. It's almost never the guitar.
Memory helpsMnemonics & memory helps
Print it, fold it, stick it on the fridge.
Mnemonics & Memory Helps ### Beginner Guitar for Adults — handout to keep in your case
I'm not a clever-sayings guy by nature, but I've noticed my brain won't hold onto six new things at once unless I hang a dumb little hook on each one. So here's my box of hooks. Steal them, mock them, whatever gets them to stick.
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1. The class itself: "Show up, tune up, ten minutes"
That's the whole class philosophy in five words. Show up (to class, and to your kitchen table), tune up (check the instrument before you blame yourself), ten minutes (the daily dose that actually works, covered later). If you forget everything else about how this class runs, that phrase still gets you 90% of the way there.
2. Parts of the guitar: "Head Thinks, Neck Walks, Body Talks"
- Head (the headstock) is where the thinking happens — tuning pegs, tension, pitch.
- Neck is what you walk your fretting hand up and down.
- Body is where the sound actually talks — the hollow box doing the work.
Three parts, three jobs. When something's wrong, ask which of the three is misbehaving before you go troubleshooting the whole guitar.
3. Tuning order: "Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Explosion Dammit"
Old one, not mine, but it works and I'm not proud enough to invent a worse one: E-A-D-G-B-E, low string to high. Say it out loud while you tune with the clip-on. Once you can sing your own strings back to yourself, you're most of the way to tuning by ear too.
4. Why it drifts here: "Wood breathes Utah air"
Our air is dry, dry air shrinks wood, shrinking wood changes tension, changing tension changes pitch. Four dominoes. If your guitar's out of tune every single morning, it's not a bad instrument — it's an honest one, telling you what the room's humidity did overnight. That's your cue to check the case humidifier, not your ear.
5. Holding the guitar: "Waist, not fight"
The guitar rests at your waist, and your job is to stop fighting it — no death-gripping the neck, no hunching over like it might run off. If your shoulders are up by your ears, you're fighting it. Drop them. Let the strap and your arm do the holding.
6. Fretting hand: "Behind the fret, not on it"
The single most repeated sentence in this class. Press behind the metal fret wire, never on top of it. I say it so often my kids repeat it back to me at dinner. If a note's buzzing or dead, this is the first thing to check — 80% of the time, that's the whole problem.
7. Picking hand: "One string, one job"
Before you worry about strumming patterns, the goal is one string, one job — pick it clean, let it ring, don't graze its neighbors. Think of it like weeding a garden row: you're not swiping at the whole bed, you're pulling one thing at a time.
8. Sore fingertips: "Calluses are receipts"
Every sore fingertip is proof of a rep you actually did. I tell people: calluses are receipts, not injuries. You don't stop because your fingers hurt a little — you just keep the sessions short and daily until the receipts pile up into thick skin. Ten minutes a day beats an hour once a week for this exact reason.
9. Em and Am: "Elbow in, Am's got one more"
- Em — two fingers, elbow tucked in loose, feels almost like resting your hand on the neck.
- Am — same shape family, but Am's "got one more" finger added.
Learn Em first because it's the friendliest shape in the whole system, then Am is just Em plus one small addition. Don't learn them as two unrelated chords — learn them as cousins.
10. G and C: "G reaches up, C reaches out"
- G stretches your fingers up the neck a bit, wide fingers.
- C reaches out toward the low strings but leaves the top string open.
These two get used in more songs than anything else you'll learn this whole class, so they're worth their own dumb sentence. If you only memorize two chord-shape reminders all semester, make it these.
11. D and the diagram: "D is a triangle, diagrams are maps, not mysteries"
D's finger shape genuinely looks like a small triangle on the top three strings — use that visual, it's not a stretch. And for reading any chord diagram: vertical lines are strings, horizontal lines are frets, dots are fingers. It's a map, not a code. Maps just tell you where to stand.
12. Checking for buzz: "Buzzing means someone's not behind the fret"
If a chord sounds off, don't assume the guitar's broken — assume one finger drifted off its post. Go finger by finger asking "are you behind the fret, are you pressing enough, are you touching a string you shouldn't be." Nine times out of ten you'll find the culprit in ten seconds.
13. Slow changes: "Anchor finger stays home"
When you're moving between chords, find the one finger that doesn't have to move (or barely moves) between the two shapes — that's your anchor. Leave it planted and let the others travel around it. It cuts the distance your hand has to cover almost in half.
14. The four-chord loop: "Every Good Chord Deserves practice" (Em-G-C-D)
Borrowed the shape of the old music-staff mnemonic and bent it to our purposes: Every Good Chord Deserves — practice, in this case, not an F. This is our house progression. If you only drill one loop this whole course, drill this one; it shows up (in some order) in more songs than I can count.
15. Counting beats: "Count out loud like you mean it"
Not clever, just true: if you're not counting out loud, you're not really counting. "1-2-3-4" said with your actual mouth, every measure, until the chord change lands on the "1" without you thinking about it. Silent counting is where good habits go to die.
16. The dying-appliance sound: "That's the washing machine stage"
Early on, chord changes sound like a dying appliance — thunks, buzzes, a half-second of silence while you scramble. I call this the washing machine stage on purpose, so you expect it and don't panic. Everyone in this class goes through it. It's not a sign you're bad at this, it's a sign you're in the middle of the process.
17. Down strums: "Down strums are the metronome, not the melody"
Your strumming hand's first job isn't to sound good — it's to keep time, the way a metronome does. Think of your arm as a machine that never stops moving, even during the chord change, even when it's temporarily quiet. Motion first, sound second.
18. Adding upstrums: "Up is the in-between, not the emphasis"
Downstrums land on the beat, upstrums live in the gaps between beats. Say it as: down is on, up is between. If your upstrums are as loud as your downstrums, you're probably rushing — ease off and let them be the quieter middle child.
19. Strum patterns: "Two or three patterns, infinite songs"
You don't need fifty patterns, you need two or three you can do without thinking, the way you don't need fifty variations on tying your shoes. Once a pattern is boring to you, it's ready to use in a real song — boring means automatic.
20. Playing the whole song: "Chords are the skeleton, strum is the walk"
Chords give the song its shape (skeleton), the strum pattern gives it its gait (how it walks). You've been building both pieces separately for weeks — this is just the day they finally meet and go for a walk together.
21. Humidifying in Utah County: "Sponge in a sock, once a week, don't forget"
The whole humidor routine in one line: damp sponge, sock or case humidifier, once a week through our dry months, don't skip it just because the guitar sounds fine today — dryness is cumulative, like drought stress on a plant. By the time you hear the damage it's already been happening a while.
22. Restringing: "Old off, wipe under, new on, stretch it out"
Four steps, four beats: old off (loosen and remove), wipe under (clean the fretboard while it's exposed — you'll never have easier access), new on (thread and wind), stretch it out (tug gently and retune a few times, since new strings drift for the first day or two).
23. The ten-minute system: "Same time, same chair, small enough to not skip"
Ten minutes only works if it's so small you can't talk yourself out of it. Same time of day, same chair, same guitar sitting out where you can see it — friction is the enemy, not motivation. Motivation runs out. A dumb, boring routine doesn't.
24. Where to go next: "Depth before width"
When the class ends, the temptation is to chase more chords, more songs, more everything. My advice, in one line: depth before width — get so comfortable with what you already have that it's boring, and only then go looking for new material. A shaky twenty chords is worse than five solid ones.
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Print this, fold it, keep it in the case pocket. When you forget something in three months, this is probably faster than texting me — though you can still text me.
Cheat sheetOne-page note card — Beginner Guitar for Adults
Print it, fold it, stick it on the fridge.
Beginner Guitar for Adults — Fridge Note Card
Chance Sorensen's class. Keep this near your case.
Topic What to Remember How class runs Same order every week: tune, review, new thing, slow practice, song. No surprises, that's on purpose. Guitar parts that matter Nut and bridge = where the string's vibrating length starts and stops. Frets = your math. Tuners = your patience. Tuning by ear Match each string to the one above it, 5th fret (except G to B, that's 4th fret). Do this before every practice, not just when it sounds bad. Clip-on tuner Green means close enough. Red-sharp, tune down. Red-flat, tune up. Don't chase it — small turns. Why it drifts (Utah air) Dry air shrinks the wood, wood lets go of string tension, string goes flat. Not your fault, not the guitar's fault. It's the desert. Holding it Guitar comes to you. Don't hunch forward to meet it. If your shoulder's tired, you're fighting the strap or the chair. Fretting hand Press behind the fret wire, not on top of it. Right behind. That's 80% of "why does this buzz." Picking hand One string, one strike, no scrape. Aim small. You're not swatting, you're plucking. Sore fingertips Yes, it hurts for about two weeks. That's the tips toughening up, not damage. Ten minutes a day beats one long session — let them recover. Em and Am Your way in. Two fingers, small shape, low pressure needed. Learn these cold before anything else. G and C The two chords you'll use for the rest of your life. Worth the extra practice now. D and diagrams Diagram = looking at the neck head-up, low string on the left. Take your time — this one takes people a minute. Checking your chords Pluck one string at a time. Buzz or mute = a finger's not pressing behind its fret, or it's leaning on the string next to it. Slow changes Use the one-finger anchor: keep one finger touching the same string/area between chords. It gives your hand a home base. The loop Em → G → C → D, over and over, slow, no music, just changes. This is the actual class. Everything else is decoration. Counting beats Say the numbers out loud while you strum. Changes happen ON a number, not between them. The dying-appliance sound Normal. Everyone's first month sounds like this. It means you're doing it, not doing it wrong. Down strums Steady, same speed, like a metronome you can't turn off. Time before tone. Adding upstrums Only after downstrums are boring to you. If the pattern falls apart, drop back to just downs — no shame in it. Go-to patterns D-DU-UDU covers most songs you'll want to play. Learn two or three, not twenty. Full song Chords + strum pattern + lyrics, all at once, is the hardest combining step in this whole class. Slow it down further than feels necessary. Humidifying (Utah County) Sound-hole humidifier, damp not wet, check it weekly in winter. Cheaper than a repair, way cheaper than a crack. Restringing Hands-on in class, no video. One string at a time, keep the others tuned for reference. Ten minutes a day Beats an hour on Saturday. The system works because it's small enough you'll actually do it. Where to go next Barre chords, fingerpicking, a capo — pick one at a time. Ignore anything promising you'll "shred" by spring. ---
You don't need to be talented at this. You need to show up for ten minutes and let the boring stuff get boring. That's the whole trick.
Around the web
Sites we keep coming back to. Some picked by your instructor, some shared in class.
- Guitar (Wikipedia) ↗
A good general overview of how the instrument works and its history, worth skimming early on.
- Guitar Chord (Wikipedia) ↗
Explains how chords are built on the fretboard, useful once you start moving past basic shapes.
- Fingerpicking (Wikipedia) ↗
A quick reference on fingerstyle technique for when we get past basic strumming.
- JustinGuitar ↗
One of the most trusted free guitar course sites out there, great for structured practice between classes.
- Fretjam ↗
Clear, no-nonsense lessons on chords and theory basics that pair well with what we cover in class.
- GuitarLessons.com ↗
A solid library of beginner-friendly video lessons if you want extra examples of technique.
- LedgerNote Guitar Blog ↗
Well-written articles on gear, technique, and practice tips that are easy to read as a beginner.
- Fender Articles ↗
Straightforward advice from a major instrument maker on care, gear choices, and getting started right.
Videos worth your time
Hand-picked by your instructor, with notes on what to watch for.
- Guitar Lesson 1 - Absolute Beginner? Start Here! [Free 10 Day Starter Course]Andy Guitar
Watch how Andy breaks the very first steps into small, encouraging chunks so adult beginners do not feel overwhelmed.
- The ONLY First Guitar Lesson You NEED To See - Beginner Guitar LessonLauren Bateman
Notice how Lauren emphasizes proper hand position and posture right from the start to build good habits early.
- This Should Be Everyone’s First Guitar LessonThe-Art-of-Guitar
Pay attention to the simple explanation of holding the guitar and reading chord diagrams before ever strumming a note.
Practice corner
6 quizzes and 2 games. Playable by anyone, no account needed.
Open the practice corner →