Getting Started with Bluegrass Guitar
Tuning, holding a pick, and strumming
These online beginner guitar lessons will help you get started with the basics from holding your guitar to strumming. You'll follow a step-by-step process on how to learn the guitar in the form of mini-lessons. Each mini-lesson includes a video and guitar tab for you to play with. Go ahead, jump in and have fun!
- 8 Video Lessons
-
1
FreeHow to Tune Your Guitar
Learn how to tune your guitar using an electronic tuner.
First, let's go over the tuning of the guitar. Although guitarists use many different tunings when playing, the most popular one and the one primarily used for bluegrass music is standard guitar tu...
-
2
FreeHow to Read Guitar Tab
Lines and numbers. What do they represent?
Tab is one of the most popular learning tools available. Tunefox features tabs for all of it's songs, licks, and lessons so to prepare you for the rest of the site, let's talk about how to read tab.
-
3
FreeRight Arm and Hand Position
The Ideal Position for Strumming and Flatpicking
This may be completely obvious but you'll want to position your guitar so it's on the same side as your strumming hand (watch the video lesson for a visual). Your right arm should go over the guita...
-
4
FreeHow to Hold a Flatpick
The Guitarist's Tool for Volume and Clarity
There are several different types of flatpicks to choose from. It doesn't matter what you settle on at this point but as you progress, your taste in tone and feel will change and you'll want to fin...
-
5
FreeBluegrass Strumming 101
Downstrokes: The Foundation for Strumming Chords
To play a downstroke strum on your guitar, raise your hand so it's just above the 6th string on your instrument and drop your hand down through all of the strings. Gravity's pull on the weight of y...
-
6
FreeBluegrass Strumming 102
Adding a Bass Note
In this lesson you'll learn the second step to playing rhythm guitar - adding a bass note before your strum.
-
7
FreeBluegrass Strumming 103
The Upstroke
To play an upstroke, start your hand below the first string right beneath the sound hole. Quickly brush the pick up through the all of the strings. The main difference from the downstroke is that y...
-
8
FreeBONUS: Bluegrass Strumming 104
The Bum-Ditty Pattern
The bum-ditty pattern combines your bass note, downstroke and upstroke to create the quintessential guitar rhythm pattern.