bhealey
Verified buyer
06/13/25
Great for beginners
Clear and well paced course. Great for acoustic guitar beginners.
Jump Start Acoustic Guitar
A quick, easy, fun and interactive approach for learning how to play guitar
Get this course and 1,000+ more with All Access
Try 14 days free. Cancel any time.
About this course
Most beginners believe that they need to know how to read music, understand theory, struggle through boring exercises, and learn hundreds of chords to play acoustic guitar. NOT SO!
Guitar is the most popular instrument on the planet because it's the easiest instrument to learn how to play. Thousands of popular songs can be played with just a few chords and a couple of strumming patterns.
Learn those few chords and strumming patterns, along with the basics of holding and tuning a guitar and you too will be able to play hundreds of your favorite songs. And that's what Richard Gilewitz’s Jump Start Acoustic Guitar is all about–a quick, easy and fun approach for learning how to play acoustic guitar.
Jump Start Acoustic starts you off with a series of video guitar lessons showing you how to tune up, hold the guitar and position your hands. Next up, you'll start learning the most common chords used in popular music.
Strumming patterns come next along with a series of lessons showing you how to change chords easily and quickly while playing progressions and songs. You'll then pull it all together by working through a couple of classic songs. That's it!
Powered by TrueFire, you’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.
Now grab your guitar and dig in!
Guitar is the most popular instrument on the planet because it's the easiest instrument to learn how to play. Thousands of popular songs can be played with just a few chords and a couple of strumming patterns.
Learn those few chords and strumming patterns, along with the basics of holding and tuning a guitar and you too will be able to play hundreds of your favorite songs. And that's what Richard Gilewitz’s Jump Start Acoustic Guitar is all about–a quick, easy and fun approach for learning how to play acoustic guitar.
Jump Start Acoustic starts you off with a series of video guitar lessons showing you how to tune up, hold the guitar and position your hands. Next up, you'll start learning the most common chords used in popular music.
Strumming patterns come next along with a series of lessons showing you how to change chords easily and quickly while playing progressions and songs. You'll then pull it all together by working through a couple of classic songs. That's it!
Powered by TrueFire, you’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.
Now grab your guitar and dig in!
What you'll learn
- Execute basic downstroke strumming patterns
- Perform alternate (down-up) strumming patterns
- Create mixed strumming patterns combining downs and ups
- Apply counting methods (clapping/tapping) to translate rhythm to guitar
- Learning to transition smoothly between chords
Release date: 09/12/2011 • 1h 28m runtime
Sample lessons
How To Read a Chord Chart
Chord Chart Explanation
E Major Chord
How to play the E chord
G7 Chord
How to play the G7 chord
A minor Chord
How to play A Minor chord
What's included
39 lessons • 2 charts
Jump Start Acoustic Guitar
Prepare to learn some very basic and simple chords and play some simple strumming patterns. As you move from chord to chord you will begin to understand the foundation of many popular tunes.
Finger Naming Conventions
Learn the basic language and universal naming conventions for both the left and right hand fingers.
Proper Playing Position
Sitting positions to consider and arm angles when playing the guitar.
Left and Right Hand Position
Targeting the strings during strumming and relaxing the chording hand and knowing when to apply the bar chord with the thumb. Also, proper postures and breathing are important considerations.
The Antatomy of the Guitar
A brief discussion of the basic yet most important parts of the guitar are examined.
Tuning the Guitar
Demonstration of the art of tuning the guitar including delicate motions, string stretching tricks, and ear training
How To Read a Chord Chart
A brief discussion of the layout of the guitar fingerboard and how to apply your fingers when creating simple chords.
+ 32 more lessons
Reviews
4 results
Guylouel
Verified buyer
10/08/20
Excellent.
David is an excellent teacher. He explains well and speaks slowly.
farmerboy2
Verified buyer
09/18/19
Proper technique for chording
As a new player I wanted to have a foundation for proper fingering and strumming. This builds my technique and leads me towards some playing actual songs. I love the Truefire method of teaching.
lamedude
11/05/18
Filled in the gaps
I am just starting on guitar and learned a lot from one beginner guitar course. What I really failed to grasp was strumming and rhythm. This set of lessons filled in all the gaps of exactly what I was missing. It's something I will go back and play again and again to practice. Also, dude's got an awesome watch. Tries to hide it by wearing it on the inside, but I snaked a peek.
Stop searching. Start improving with All Access.
Try 14 days free. Cancel any time.
