Welcome to my new beginners course. The old one has been used by tens of thousands of people over the last few years and was very well received, but I have seen room for improvement, and so I have taken on board many of the comments and questions from the previous course, and included them into this new "super" beginners course . ;)

This course starts at the very beginning, and offers you advise about the very first steps, like buying a guitar and what to expect along the way. I know this method works because I have developed it over many years with hundreds of beginners students, and I think now I have a really solid course for a beginner guitarist. There are, of course, many ways to learn the guitar. I'd like to think that my method is the most effective method and fun availble anywhere, but everyone is a little different and you have to use what works for you!

The JUSTIN Method (Just Use Sound To Improve Now)
So what makes this one special? the J.U.S.T.I.N. method! What? Yeah - I managed to use my name to make a silly acronym to define my own method (my middle name is megalomaniac!). My method is based on the thing that I believe will make you a much better player than any other method I have ever seen taught. It is based on the skill of transcribing. Something that is missing from most methods, but is the way that all the great guitarists of previous generations got so good, and why so many guitarists these days are a bit rubbish.

The JUSTIN training exercises are audio, not video - remember music is about listening, and not about seeing. I am giving you some samples as part of the course, but I am writing a bigger and more comprehensive version that will be available later in the year (have to get my album finished first).

How To Use This Course
Of course you can adapt it to fit your prior knowledge and personal situation and just pick out lessons as you want them, but I would suggest reading the whole method even if you think you know something already. Make sure you leave no gaps in your knowledge by just watching or reading through all the lessons... you may find a few little nuggets of knowledge that help put it all together for you.

Learning songs is an important part of this method
My best advice is to go through this beginners course and learn as many of these songs as you can. Also work on the JUSTIN method to help train your ears. Then at the end of this course you should start transcribing as much material as you can. You can always buy books with many songs in it, or use the internet to get free tabs. But be warned, many web tabs are completely wrong!

There are many guitar methods on the web, some made there by students or beginner players and sometimes I have seen very bad advice offered for beginners on the web. So if not here, make sure you study with a reputable site.

Music Theory
Though learning music theory is not an essential part of learning the guitar, many people enjoy understanding what they are doing. My eBook, Practical Music Theory will be very interesting for those people and will help you understand what you are doing and give you many exercises to help you memorise the information. The theory goes way beyond the concepts taught in the beginners course. PMT is not included in the DVD set, it must be purchased separately.

Got Questions????
If you have any questions I will be happy to answer them in the forum, please leave the questions there - there are links at the bottom of each lesson page to a specific topic just for that lesson! So please try and leave your lessons in the right topic so they will get answered.

The old beginners course...
I have left the old beginners course live for those that were some of the way through and want to complete it - it is very similar and will be no problem to just jump into this new course, but you might want to watch this new course right from the beginning to make the most of the new teaching techniques and new exercises that I will show you. The old beginners course has many pages translated into other languages, I will be translating this course too, but it takes time... Here is the old beginners course if you need it.

Good luck my cyber students ;) hope you really enjoy it!

Justin

The 4 DVD set of this Justin's Beginner Guitar Method (BCv2) is available now.
Buying the DVD will give you access to all the web pages too, no waiting for next release date!

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THIS SITE RUNS ON PRODUCT SALES AND DONATIONS.
If you like what I do then PLEASE CONSIDER BUYING THE DVD SET or making a donation.

Without sufficient sales of the DVD's, the planned Intermediate Method will have to be DVD only!

Getting Started...

Before we get started in learning chords and stuff, I want to get you off to the best possible start. This section will really help you get the most of this course so check it out!

All Stage 0 translated into: Serbian, Romanian, German, Spanish, French,

BC-101 • Common beginners questions answered
BC-102 • What guitar should you buy?
BC-103 • What guitar accessories do you need?
BC-104 • Guitar Anatomy
BC-105 • Make the most of your practice time
BC-106 • Body Posture and Finger Placement
BC-107 • Picks, how to choose one and hold it
BC-108 • How To Read TAB and Chord Boxes
BC-109 • Get your guitar in tune


Stage 1

In this first stage we are going to check out three basic chords and how to change between them. We look at the very basics of rhythm and some easy songs that you can play with just these three chords!

All Stage 1 translated into: Serbian, Romanian, French, Spanish

BC-111 • The D Chord
BC-112 • The A Chord
BC-113 • The E Chord
BC-114 • Anchor Fingers for A, D and E
BC-115 • 1 Minute Changes
BC-116 • 4:4 all down rhythm
BC-117 • Easy Songs for Stage 1 (Songs are NOT included on the DVD's)
BC-118 • JUSTIN training exercises
BC-119 • Stage 1 Practice Schedule


Stage 2

Now we are going to introduce some easy minor chords. We'll be changing between them and listening to the difference between Major and Minor. We'll also develop the changes between the new chords and the ones learnt last lesson. We also have to get our foot working and understand why that is important to become friends with a metronome.

All Stage 2 translated into: Serbian, Romanian, French,

BC-121 • The Amin Chord
BC-122 • The Emin Chord
BC-123 • The Dmin Chord
BC-124 • 1 minute Changes
BC-125 • Introducing the metronome
BC-126 • Foot tapping
BC-127 • Easy Songs For Stage 2 (Songs are NOT included on the DVD's)
BC-128 • JUSTIN training exercises
BC-129 • Stage 2 Practice Schedule


Stage 3

Now we have to get your hand stretching out a bit for a couple of trickier chords. We also introduce the idea of strumming patterns and how to read a basic music rhythms.

All Stage 3 translated into: Romanian, French

BC-131 • The G Chord
BC-132 • The C Chord
BC-133 • Names Of Open Strings
BC-134 • 1 minute Changes
BC-135 • Basic Finger Workout
BC-136 • Rhythm Guitar Basics 1
BC-137 • Easy Songs For Stage 3 (Songs are NOT included on the DVD's)
BC-138 • JUSTIN training exercises
BC-139 • Stage 3 Practice Schedule

Stage 4

Now we are going to introduce some new interesting (but not harder) chords. We also introduce the "partial barre" to toughen up the side of your fist finger a bit and talk about counting rhythm, all important stuff.

All Stage 4 translated into: Romanian, French

BC-141 • G7, C7, B7 Chords
BC-142 • The F Maj7 Chord
BC-143 • The A Chord again...
BC-144 • 1 minute Changes
BC-145 • Forcing The Changes
BC-146 • Rhythm Guitar Basics 2
BC-147 • Easy Songs For Stage 4 (Songs are NOT included on the DVD's)
BC-148 • JUSTIN training exercises
BC-149 • Stage 4 Practice Schedule

Stage 5

We have finish off learning our open 7th chords, check out a new way to help get your chord changes even faster and also have a look at shuffle rhythms. You will be able to play blues in three different keys by the end of this stage :) cool...and we get a little look at some basic music knowledge.

All Stage 5 translated into: Romanian, French

BC-151 • A7, D7, E7 Chords
BC-152 • The Note Circle
BC-153 • Air Changes
BC-154 • 1 minute Changes
BC-155 • Triplet Rhythms
BC-156 • Rhythm Guitar Basics 3
BC-157 • Easy Songs For Stage 5 (Songs are NOT included on the DVD's)
BC-158 • JUSTIN training exercises
BC-159 • Stage 5 Practice Schedule

Stage 6

OK. This is a big stage. Lots of important stuff. You are ready for it... now it's time to tackle the big nasty F Chord. Get ready for a bit of pain and frustration, everyone has to go through this rite of passage. And that is not all. We also have to learn to miss some strums! harder than it sounds... but lots of fun and will sound awesome once you gte it!

All Stage 6 translated into:

BC-161 • The Dreaded F Chord
BC-162 • 1 minute Changes
BC-163 • Using a Capo
BC-164 • "Action" and basic guitar set up guide
BC-165 • Rhythm Guitar Basics 4
BC-166 • Picking Individual Strings
BC-167 • Easy Songs For Stage 6 (Songs are NOT included on the DVD's)
BC-168 • JUSTIN training exercises
BC-169 • Stage 6 Practice Schedule

Stage 7

Now we have the very basics under your fingers, we can start to look at some more interesting stuff - notes on the neck, some cool chords to spice up your playing and a scale! wey hey...

All Stage 7 translated into:

BC-171 • Notes In The Open Position
BC-172 • Power Chords 1
BC-173 • A Sus2/4 and D Sus2/4 Chords, Esus4
BC-174 • 1 minute changes
BC-175 • Rhythm Guitar Basics 5
BC-176 • Minor Pentatonic Scale
BC-177 • Easy Songs For Stage 7 (Songs are NOT included on the DVD's)
BC-178 • JUSTIN training exercises
BC-179 • Stage 7 Practice Schedule

Stage 8

Now we are ready for some really cool fun stuff... A look at some other common ways of playing the G Chord, a 12 Bar Blues and an exercise to help you get your picking skills a bit sharper.

All Stage 8 translated into:

BC-181 • G Chord Variations
BC-182 • 1 minute Changes
BC-183 • 12 Bar Blues Style
BC-184 • Basic Fingerstyle Exercise
BC-185 • Minor Pentatonic Picking Exercise
BC-186 • Power Chords 2
BC-187 • Easy Songs For Stage 8 (Songs are NOT included on the DVD's)
BC-188 • JUSTIN training exercises
BC-189 • Stage 8 Practice Schedule

Stage 9

Now we are nearly at the end of our beginners course. Few more things to learn and then it's consolidation time! There is a whole lot of different material here - so take your time, just try and digest one little bit at a time and you'll get there!

All Stage 9 translated into:

BC-191 • Easy Slash Chords
BC-192 • Power Chord Shifts and Palm Mutes
BC-193 • Applied Fingerstyle Patterns
BC-194 • 12 Bar Blues Variations
BC-195 • Minor Pentatonic Pattern
BC-196 • Basic Blues Improvisation
BC-197 • Easy Songs For Stage 9 (Songs are NOT included on the DVD's)
BC-198 • JUSTIN training exercises
BC-199 • Consolidation Test and Practice Schedule

Where to now????

Now it's time to go off and explore other areas depending on what you like and want to do. Here are some suggestions:

Want more information on strumming and playing rhythms?
If you want to explore you strumming more then you might like to check out my DVD - PR-007 • Really Useful Strumming Techniques - which covers the techniques covered here in more depth and a whole lot more patterns. Great for any of you that are struggling with your rhythm playing, it is one of my best products and really helps, it goes very slowly and will help make sure your rhythm is playing.

Want to play lead guitar?
If you are interested in playing lead guitar then you are ready for either my Blues Lead Guitar Course, which you can study on this site, or buy it on DVD. The PR-033 • Blues Lead Guitar Box Set is great because it comes with backing tracks for you to use your new lead skills. A lot of people have learned to play blues lead using this method and it works!

You might also like to try my DVD PR-005 • Master The Major Scale which covers all 5 positions of the Major Scale, and most importantly, how to use them! You will learn how to play all over the guitar neck in easy stages.

Like playing on your own?
If you like playing on your own then you should check out my Solo Blues Guitar series of DVDs. There is a free example which is pretty easy and by the time you finish the Beginners Course you should be able to play it pretty easily. The free one is found at PR-001 • Solo Blues Guitar - Volume 1 and the further volumes get slowly harder and harder... and you can learn to mix them all together and improvise in that style. It's lots of fun and there are many videos on YouTube of people playing the songs from it!

Or just hang out on the site...
Or you could just browse around the site and pick random things to learn, there are lots of lessons that are not so structured and you can just pick and choose some things that grab your interest - certainly no harm in that!

I am working on a well structured intermediate course (in a similar style to this course) which will be out sometime in the next year I hope. How soon I get it done depends on how much you good people can donate or buy the DVD, money allows me the time to make more stuff for you all...

Hope you enjoyed it and take care, J