Thanks NoneShallPass, just curious, but would you recommend any songs to learn? I feel the ones I would pick (stuff by Buddy Guy, Jimmy Hendrix, The Animals) would be too advanced for me to learn with just the basics.
Alot of your usual classic rock songs.
That's what I cut my teeth on at first.
It's all about familiarizing yourself with the fret board, getting used too what the notes sound like on each string(you can recreate every note on each string depending on the number of frets you have, there can be up to 5 different octaves that are all the same note just at a different pitch, they all have their own subtle tone depending on the strings you use too. Like an E2 on the E string won't sound the exact same as an E2 on the A string, because the string isn't as thick)
Anyway, getting too the songs. You're probably going to hate this, but the first song I ever learned was:
The Smoke on the Water riff, very simple, good for beginners.
Tbh, you should really first learn a handful of chords and a basic scale or two before you even try learning any songs. It'll give you a foundation and then, once you get familiar with these chords, you'll be able to use them in songs.
I'm guessing you don't know how to read guitar tablature yet, so I'm not sure how to show you how to play the chords I'd recommend. But with these particular chords you'll be able to play ALOT of acoustic and classic rock songs.
G Major
K, so each number represents a finger on your fretting hand(if you're a lefty that means your right hand, and vice versa if orthodox)
1 is your index finger, 2 is your middle finger, 3 is your ring finger and, 4 isn't present, but that would be your pinky. Start with this chord first by just using your index and middle finger as the third note might be a bit hard too do at first, but you'll get the hang of it. OH! and ofcourse, the rectangles of the diagram each represent a fret and the edges to the left and right of the rectangles represent a string. Like the top row of rectangles would be the very first fret, the note on the top string(we call it the low E, which will be explained later) on the very first fret is F but where you'll be placing your middle finger is called the G, which is the main note in the chord, hence why it's called a G chord. This note is played on the 3rd fret, so two frets(or a whole step) up from the first fret. What they don't show you is that when you strum the chord(which means to play all string in the chord simultaneously) is that the gaps in between the 1, 2 and 3 are all open notes, which are just strings played without using your fingers to fret them, so "open" in a sense that they aren't being held down by your fingers.
This should help explain, in case my wall of text is too much haha.
A Major
Like I explained previously each number represents a finger on the fretting hand, each rectangle represent a fret and the sides left to right represent a string. With this chord you can play it one of to ways, but for now, just stick with whats show here. With this chord all of your finger will be on the same fret, fretting adjacent(right next too eachother) strings. These strings are the D, G and B strings. You'll be completely ignoring the low E string(the top and thickest string) with this chord and the A and "high e"(the string on the very bottom on the guitar and the thinnest) will be played openly.
There's also the C Major
There's also D Major and minor, E Major and minor, and countless others. These and the ones I showed you are all open chords(they use open notes, which means any string plucked without the use of your fretting hand, as in you just use your picking hand to play the note, if that makes any sense).
There are also bar chords, power chords and various others that I'll have to show you another time.
For now, see if you can figure out what I've shown you, hope it helps.
I've never used Skype before, but if you can't find a teacher, I could see about setting up some Skype lessons where I can show you some more stuff and go more in depth.
