- Chords are Key for Guitar – one-time seminar
- Chords are Key for Guitar by Ear – one-time seminar
- Chords are Key Online Lessons – refine your skills at home
Chords are Key for Guitar
Have you ever wanted to learn the guitar but simply find it difficult to find the time? In just a few hours you can learn enough about playing the guitar to give you years of musical enjoyment – and you won’t have to take private lessons to do it. This crash course will teach you basic chords and get you playing along with your favorite songs right away. Bring your acoustic guitar. Class limited to 15 students. For ages 13+.
Topics include:
- How chords work in a song
- How to form the three main types of chords
- How to tune your guitar
- Basic strumming patterns
- How to buy a good guitar (things to avoid)
- How to play along with simple tunes
Class Options
— Live: In-person —
Our in-person classes sometimes split the fee into 2 parts: a registration fee collected by the college and a materials fee collected by the instructor in class.
— Online Video —
The fee for all of our online video classes includes our online book and beginning video instruction.
Frequently Asked Questions
Chords are Key for Guitar by Ear
People are absolutely astounded at the musicians they know who can play guitar totally “by ear”, in other words, they don’t need to refer to anything written down. It seems like they can simply sit down and play anything by magic. It’s not magic. If you can hear and remember music and you know just a little bit about how music is put together you can learn to do this too and we can teach it to you in this one session. We can also teach you how to transpose music and even how to get music off of recordings. Prior experience with chords is recommended.
Topics include:
- How to find the starting note
- How to determine when chords change
- How to predict the chord progression
- How the melody helps you find the correct chords
- How to learn songs from recordings
- How to transpose
- How to use the Circle of Fifths
- How to recognize the most common chord patterns
Class Options
— Live: In-person —
There is a registration fee collected by the sponsor (college or recreation program) ahead of time. This fee varies from location to location. For the exact fee contact the class sponsor listed on the “enroll in a class” page on this website. Often this class is offered on a Saturday afternoon back to back with the Chords are Key for Guitar class. A discount is usually offered to students who attend both classes on the same day. This discount is usually around $10.
Frequently Asked Questions
Chords are Key Intermediate Guitar Lessons
(on our roadmap for the future)