Find a beginner guitar tutor

Bring a song, a short riff or a style you would like to learn. A riff is a short musical pattern. Your choice helps a tutor connect the first technical tasks with something you want to hear. These starting points overlap; acoustic guitar, for example, can accompany singing or carry a melody on its own.

For this example, use a six-string guitar in standard tuning. From the thickest, lowest-pitched string to the thinnest, highest-pitched string, the open notes are E, A, D, G, B, E. An open string sounds without a finger pressing it down. E minor, usually written Em, uses two fretted strings and four open strings.

The following exercise shows how a small correction can change what you hear. It is an illustrative practice task, not a required lesson sequence.

Instrumental knowledge matters, but so does the ability to notice why a beginner is stuck and give an understandable next step. Use the introductory conversation to discuss the music you want to play and what you can already do. If you have tried lessons or online videos before, describe what helped and where you lost confidence.

Latimer’s service centres on online one-to-one tuition. Microsoft Teams is the default platform, and tutor and learner can agree another. Before the first lesson, test the guitar sound as well as speech: software designed for talking can suppress sustained musical sound.

Position the camera so both the fretting hand and the picking or strumming hand can be seen. Keep the device stable, with room to show the guitar neck. Have the guitar, agreed music or TAB and any tuning aid within reach. For an electric guitar, check that the tutor can hear the amplified sound; a headphone setup that only you can hear needs a different arrangement for the call.

Take turns for demonstrations and responses if the connection delay makes playing together difficult. Where accompaniment is useful, agree a recording that you can play locally. Test the equipment you already have with the tutor before buying extra microphones or other accessories.

You can learn for enjoyment without making an exam the target. If a graded route would help you structure practice, choose it with the tutor once your instrument and interests are clear. “Beginner” describes a starting point; it is not automatically Grade 1. Trinity offers a separate Initial stage before Grade 1 in its acoustic and classical guitar routes.

Trinity Acoustic Guitar includes fingerstyle and plectrum playing, with music in both standard notation and TAB. Its Classical Guitar syllabus requires nylon strings and does not permit a plectrum. Those are requirements of that named exam route, so check the instrument and current syllabus before choosing exam materials.

If you are considering ABRSM instead, our ABRSM Grade 1 tuition guide explains the wider route decision. Tell a prospective tutor that the instrument is guitar and confirm the relevant guitar syllabus; an exam-board name alone is not a lesson plan.