Your Acoustic Journey Starts Here

A structured approach for BEGINNER guitar players.

With a focus on Acoustic guitar rhythm and chord playing.

Included with membership

What you'll be learning

Welcome to this Acoustic Guitar Level 1 pathway! 🎉😃

In this pathway we are building up your acoustic skills from absolute scratch! A lot of the core skills for acoustic and electric, especially at the beginner level, are very similar, but we can start focussing on acoustic-specific techniques, rather than electric quite early on.

In this pathway our focus is on building up a brilliant set of open chords shapes, learning to strum properly (both in 8th and 16th notes) as well as starting to use those fingers instead of a pick (we start with the pick though, as it's a crucial skill).

Along the way we have a few great gym exercises, some theory to wrap your head around and plenty of awesome songs to test your new skills. So, when you're ready, grab your acoustic guitar and let's get started!
Dan Holton
Chief Coach
Premium Content
Acoustic Beginners
Level 1: Strumming your first chords.
Welcome to your new pathway! We kick off in the only place that makes sense to… The very start! In this course we learn a range of core open chords, we learn strumming and we apply all of that to a set of awesome songs! All you'll need to get started is your acoustic guitar, a pick & and a bit of time to put the practice in. Good luck!
20 lesson course
Unlockable with purchase or subscription.
Premium content
Guitar Gym
Improve your technique
At this point, let's just get that universal strumming pattern we learnt in the previous course into your daily warm ups. Use this guitar gym each time you pick up the guitar, before you start your proper lesson.
Free Content
Songs
Apply your new skills
I'm excited to say that we have a range of quality beginner friendly songs here that you can apply your new skills to. I would recommend working through as many as you can (you can do all 4 if you like, no problem!) as they each offer something a little different. Every time you learn a new strumming pattern, or new set of chord changes, you further solidify your new skills. Enjoy!
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Essential Theory
Learn The Essentials
Whilst you're still playing along to, and enjoying the songs, take a look at our Essential Theory course. Having an understanding of theory is going to be so beneficial to your development, especially as you move through the pathways going higher and higher in level. This is absolutely core theory that will grow with you as your guitar playing develops. Enjoy!
10 lesson course
Unlockable with purchase or subscription.
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Rhythm
Level 1: Dan takes you on a 5 lesson interactive rhythm journey.
At this point we are going to put your rhythm skills to the test. You will be quite familiar with 8th note patterns right now, but let's up our game and develop 16th note patterns as well. This is a big step forward, so enjoy the exercises!
6 lesson course
Unlockable with purchase or subscription.
Premium content
Guitar Gym
Improve your technique
Just before we move into the next course, let's put those rhythm exercises into our regular warm ups. Use these two gym sessions regularly, before you dive into your main practice, to help ensure you are mastering these two types of subdivision with your rhythm playing.
Premium Content
Acoustic Beginners
Level 2: Capos, picking & percussion
It's now time to upgrade your acoustic learning, by moving away from the basic chords and rhythms, and starting to develop playing without the pick as well. In this course I introduce you to suspended chords as well as travis picking, which will be a whole new challenge for you. Travis picking is a perfect gateway to fingerstyle playing, giving you an opportunity to put the pick down and get those fingers working! Enjoy!
21 lesson course
Unlockable with purchase or subscription.
Premium Content
Triad Construction
How to build chords
Now that you know a range of major, minor, suspended and even a few other open chords, let's just quickly tackle the theory behind these chords. This always helps with that wider understanding in music, and if you allow it, can be a really enjoyable part of the process.
5 lesson course
Unlockable with purchase or subscription.
Premium Content
Open Chords
Really appreciate the beauty of open chords
You've come a long way since the beginning of this pathway, and at this point it's worth consolidating and filling out the entire range of open chords we have available to us! This challenge will really push you to your open chord limit, and can be used as a reference course anytime you need to double check a chord! Enjoy!
5 lesson course
Unlockable with purchase or subscription.
Free Content
Songs
Apply your new skills
For our final stage of this pathway, we will be tackling a range of quality songs that all use open chords. This is your chance to really embed all the knowledge you have so far, including testing your skill when it comes to learning more and more rhythm patterns. I would recommend going through all 4 of these, and remember that with Hey Joe you are doing the beginner's version (for now at least)!
Complete pathway
to unlock
Congratulations for getting all the way through this epic pathway! You've done absolutely brilliantly, and should take a moment to recognise that! At this point you have two options for your next steps…

You can absolutely just move onto the next acoustic learning pathway, The Fantastic Fingerstyle Quest 👌 [Acoustic Pathway 2] , or if you have performed a 180° flip and decided electric is a better fit for you, move over to the Your Electric Journey Starts Here 🎉 [Electric Pathway 1] or The Great Barre Chord Quest 🤘 [Electric Pathway 2] if you can meet all the milestones outlined at the start of that pathway.

What is important is that you take a range of your favourite songs from the pathway, and practice them regularly, to ensure that those rhythm and chord skills are continuously improving along the way. When they become too easy, let them go! There will be plenty more taking there place along the way. See you in the next pathway!
Dan Holton
Chief Coach

Complete pathway
to unlock

Congratulations for getting all the way through this epic pathway! You've done absolutely brilliantly, and should take a moment to recognise that! At this point you have two options for your next steps…

You can absolutely just move onto the next acoustic learning pathway, The Fantastic Fingerstyle Quest 👌 [Acoustic Pathway 2] , or if you have performed a 180° flip and decided electric is a better fit for you, move over to the Your Electric Journey Starts Here 🎉 [Electric Pathway 1] or The Great Barre Chord Quest 🤘 [Electric Pathway 2] if you can meet all the milestones outlined at the start of that pathway.

What is important is that you take a range of your favourite songs from the pathway, and practice them regularly, to ensure that those rhythm and chord skills are continuously improving along the way. When they become too easy, let them go! There will be plenty more taking there place along the way. See you in the next pathway!

Dan Holton

Chief Coach

Your Acoustic Journey Starts Here

Acoustic Beginners

Guitar Gym

Songs

Essential Theory

Rhythm

Guitar Gym

Acoustic Beginners

Triad Construction

Open Chords

Songs

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