So hear is a couple of tips to fix up your f chord. First thing to try is playing the F chord with the outside of your first finger on the E and B strings. You don’t have to go crazy, just turn your index finger slightly so the outside is holing down the two strings. The makes it easier to keep your second and third fingers curled and out of the way of other strings.

Another F chord practice technique is to build it slow. First, play the bar only. Just your first finger holding down the 2 strings. Pick each string individually. If they are both working, then move up to the second fret. Pick the strings. Move up to the third fret and so on. Only practice these two strings until you can go from the first fret to the ninth fret and back.  Add you second finger to the third string and pick the strings individually. If they are all ringing move up the frets until you get to the ninth fret and then move back. Once this is done you add your third finger to the fourth string and continue.

The second exercise can be time consuming. Don’t feel you have to have everything done the first day. The trick here is to make sure everything is perfect before adding a finger. Let me know if this F chord free online guitar lesson post was helpful

In this free online guitar lessons post, we aren’t going to talk about chords or scales or whatever. I want to talk about jamming with friends. My favorite memories from the last 21 years of guitar playing all involve my friends. From garage band practice, to memorable gigs and studio sessions, to hotels to endless drives between everything, my best friends were always there.  But one of my favorite memories was sitting down at my friend’s parents’ dining room table playing acoustic guitars. We used to do this quite often.  We still have jams but now it’s in a different setting.

These dining room jams is where I learned so much about just having fun and playing guitar. There was no traveling, sound checks, loading in PA’s, drunk dudes telling us they used to drive for Hendrix or any of that. (All of which were amazing fun though). It was just me and my buddy having a hang and playing guitar. We used to play Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Blues Jams or make up our own tunes.  It didn’t matter what we played it was just fun. 

Man, I could go on for hours but I won’t. (Your welcome). My point is, playing music is an amazing thing. None of us are ever as good as we want to be and we are always going to be trying to get better. That’s what we do. But sometimes we need to just kind of let go of that and just have fun playing with some friends.

So think about having the gang over for a jam. Summer is gone, I am not sure where you live but here in New England it is going to start getting cold pretty soon so outdoor jams are coming to an end. But if you still can, have a back porch jam with your buddies. If nothing else it will be nice to visit with some good friends again.

One of the most important free online guitar lessons you can find is what to practice. Many people will have different views on what do but they will all have some similarities.

The most important thing above all is just to be playing. Playing everyday is the key. You have probably heard before that it’s better to practice 1 hour a day for 7 days than it is to practice for 7 hours once a week. This is 100% true. Consistency is vital. I often tell my students that even if they have a million things to do during the day, to just spend at least five minutes before they go to sleep playing a finger exercise or something. The reason is you don’t want to start the habit of missing days of practice. Never give yourself permission to put off practicing a day.

 
Ok, so then what should you be practicing? First of all you should warm up. If you are using the Guitar Burning Speed program, go over the stretching exercises at the start of the program. Then do a very slow finger exercise.  Now continue on with the rest of the routine.

If you are a beginner spend 5 minutes learning the notes on the guitar. You should be able to tell what every note on the neck is after a while.

Moving on you should learn a new scale or even just a new key everyday. Remember to review the scales and keys from previous days. Now don’t say you are going to TRY to learn a new scale or key everyday. Say are ARE going to! This attitude helps to get much more done because we don’t allow ourselves a day where we don’t accomplish something. Also spend time improvising with these new scales. Build your library of backing track CD’s so you have a huge variety of tunes to improvise over.

Next you should be working on chords. Learn new chords, new voicings of old chords, and new songs using the chords you are working on. I am a big believer of learning through songs. It will be much more interesting for you to learn a new chord when you can apply it to a song right away.

Lastly you should have time devoted to just jamming and having fun. Play songs you like to play or learn a new one if you want. It doesn’t matter this is your free time.

You may need to adjust this free online guitar lessons to fit you situation but use it a basis for designing your practice program.

If you haven’t picked out a guitar yet you need to decide if you will start on acoustic or electric. Many times when I meet a new student they have been told that you need to start on acoustic. That’s BS. All the notes are the same and the chords and scales too. The main difference is acoustic is a little harder to play physically. Base your decision on the kind of music you want to play. If you are into Slipknot and Pantera you would probably want to start on an electric not acoustic. See the point?

When you do have your guitar and you start playing it’s usually best to find a good teacher. A good teacher for you may be a lousy teacher for someone else. Find someone who knows the kind of music you want to learn. Don’t just find anyone to be your main teacher. You should however learn from as many people as you can. Ask people at school or work to have a jam. Just go for it. Don’t wait until you feel “ready” to play with someone. That day may never come in your mind. You may always feel that you need to get just a little bit better before you jam with people.

If you decide to go it alone though, get some good learning materials. There are millions of books to choose from so I will try to help you out.

If you want to learn songs and stuff I really like the Signature Licks Series from Hall Leonard.

For technique and finger exercises, I like Guitar Burning Speed by Charlie Wallace and Left Hand Red from ckoMusic.

For a complete training package it isn’t going to get better than Jamorama. It’s got everything you need to get going and beyond. Either way you decide to go, remember to take your time and enjoy the process. Good luck with everything and I hope this free online guitar lesson post was helpful.