Comprehensive Music Fundamentals

Learn the essential chords and notes in key guitar positions to kickstart your musical journey.

Interactive Learning Experience

Engage with hands-on exercises that reinforce your understanding and boost your guitar skills.

Expert Guidance for Beginners

Receive expert mentorship to overcome challenges and progress confidently in your musical endeavors.

7-Day Free Trial

Join Guitar Fundamentals free for the first 7 days. Learning to play guitar is not an easy thing to do. Start straight away. Establish a daily routine, and feel good about your playing. 

Meet Your Guitar Mentor

Hi there! I'm Philip Hartshorn, an experienced guitar player with a passion for teaching music. I understand the challenges beginners face when learning the guitar and am thrilled to guide you through this transformative journey. My goal is to help you become a proficient guitarist and share the joy of creating music. Let's embark on this exciting learning experience together!

We want to play the songs we love. That is why we want to play guitar. Why is it so hard?

Online, we can find the chords, lyrics, tab, and videos. Why is it not working for me?  I feel like giving up.  When I was 12 years old, I quit guitar lessons after only about six months in. Looking back, it was the biggest mistake of my professional life. My passion for playing guitar persisted, but I eventually stopped taking lessons because it felt overwhelming. I wasn’t practicing at home between sessions, so my progress stalled. There were times when my guitar stayed in its case, untouched until my next lesson. I needed help with my dream, but there wasn't any. From that time on, my skills did not develop. I still played, but with only the same set of skills. I used lyric sheets and tabs to try to play songs. They sounded OK but not great, never great.

Other people learning how to play could do it, why not me?

Over time, I noticed people learning other instruments were getting better and better. My playing was not. I was playing the same chords. My attempts at soloing were awful. That feeling of disappointment in music would not go away. I've seen plenty of people with similar stories to tell. The age of someone does not change the problem. In many respects, it can deepen the issue. No matter how old you are, it’s easy to get discouraged about your dream of playing guitar. That sense of disappointment can even spill over into other areas of life, making things feel more challenging. It’s not a pleasant experience. The phrase “once bitten, twice shy” really fits here—it takes real bravery to pick yourself up and give it another shot.

It wasn't until much later that I began to understand why

At about the age of 30, I finally moved on by beginning lessons again. It was then I realized why nothing was working. I had no idea what I was doing musically. No understanding of music at all. All I had learned was how to try to copy with a very unskilled ear. It's the knowledge of music, what it is and how it works, that is missing. When I realized that, my goal of playing began to happen. I began to view the songs I wanted to play as a student of the skill of music. My perspective changed. Lyric sheets and tabs were replaced by music scores.

Now its your turn

Are you a beginner guitar enthusiast eager to unleash your musical talent? Our course is tailored for aspiring musicians like you, offering a structured approach to mastering guitar basics. Dive into the world of music theory, chord progressions, and note playing on the guitar's first three strings. Let's embark on this musical journey together and transform your guitar skills! Join now and start strumming with confidence.

What you'll learn

Beginning to understand the skills of music

Interpreting songs like a musician would

Chord knowledge

The most important open chords in the most used keys for guitar

Note knowledge

Begin to read and play notes on the guitar, to play melody, in beat and with audio

Course Curriculum

12 Chapters · 52 Lessons

  1. 1

    Three-String Chords 1

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      1 Three String Chords C, G7, G, D7

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Three String Chords C, G7, G, D7

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Three String Chords C, G7, G, D7 In Beat

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Three String Chords C, G7, G, D7 In Beat

  2. 2

    Three String Chords 2

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Three-String Chords: Am, E7, A

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Three-String Chords: Am, E7, A

  3. 3

    Single Notes: Reading and Playing on the E and B String

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Notes on the E String - Reading E, F, and G

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Playing E, F, and G In Beat

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Playing E, F, and G in Beat

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Songs on the E String

    5. (Included in full purchase)

      Notes on the B String

    6. (Included in full purchase)

      Note Knowledge: E to B

  4. 4

    Three String Chords 3

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Three-String Chords A7, D, Dm

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Three-String Chords A7, D, Dm

  5. 5

    Single Notes: Reading and Playing Songs on the E and B Strings

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Songs on the E and B Strings - Jingle Bells

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Songs on the E and B Strings - Shoo Fly

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Songs on the E and B Strings - Skippin' Around with Lou (Practice Tip)

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Songs on the E and B Strings - Ode to Joy

    5. (Included in full purchase)

      Songs on the E and B Strings - Ode to Joy (With Beat and Audio)

    6. (Included in full purchase)

      Songs on the E and B Strings

  6. 6

    Three String Chords 4

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Three-String Chords: Em, B7, F

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Three-String Chords: Em, B7, F

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Three-String Chords: Em, B7, F (Part 2)

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Three-String Chords: Em, B7, F (Part 2)

    5. (Included in full purchase)

      Three-String Chords: Em, B7, F (Part 3)

    6. (Included in full purchase)

      Three-String Chords: Em, B7, F (Part 3)

  7. 7

    Single Notes: Adding Notes on the G String

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Single Notes: Adding Notes on the G String - Three String Boogie

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Single Notes: Three String Boogie to Line 3

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Single Notes: Three String Boogie to Line 4 to the End

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Single Notes: Three String Boogie With Beat and Audio

    5. (Included in full purchase)

      Single Notes: Three String Blues

    6. (Included in full purchase)

      Single Notes: Andante 3 4 - Part 1

    7. (Included in full purchase)

      Single Notes: Andante 3 4 - Part 2

    8. (Included in full purchase)

      Single Notes: Andante 3 4 - With Beat and Audio

    9. (Included in full purchase)

      Single Notes: Andante 4 4

    10. (Included in full purchase)

      Single Notes: Andante 4 4 - Notes and Chords With Beat and Audio

  8. 8

    Mastering Basic Chords: The Most Important Chords In Key of D

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Key of D Chords: Experimenting with Clean Strings

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Key of D Chords: Changing Between D - A7

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Key of D Chords

  9. 9

    Mastering Basic Chords: The Most Important Chords In Key of G

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Key of G Chords - Lines 1 and 2

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Key of G Chords - Lines 3 and 4

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Key of G Chords

  10. 10

    Mastering Basic Chords: The Most Important Chords In Key of C

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Key of C Chords - Line 1

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Key of C Chords - Lines 2 - 5

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Key of C Chords

  11. 11

    Mastering Basic Chords: The Most Important Chords In Key of A

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Key of A Chords - Line 1

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Key of A Chords - Lines 2 and 3

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Key of A Chords - Audio

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Key of A Chords

    5. (Included in full purchase)

      Key of A Audio Link

    6. (Included in full purchase)

      a Chords Bandzoogle

  12. 12

    Mastering Basic Chords: The Most Important Chords In Key of E

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Key of E chords

Student Testimonials

Discover how our course has transformed the guitar skills and musical understanding of our students.

”
I highly recommend Phil as music teacher. He is patient, knowledgeable and an excellent teacher. I started lessons with him a year ago as an absolute beginner, knowing nothing except that I wanted to learn guitar, and now I can play multiple chords and songs.
Jude Aitken

Dunedin, NZ

”
I was looking for guitar teachers online. I decided to try Phil because his office was convenient and I wanted to learn how to read music. I've now been learning for just over two years. Beforehand I used to learn songs through Youtube and tabs. It was annoying because I wasn't progressing and everything was hard. Because of Phil I'm tons better. I'm in a Jazz band and rock band now. I've progressed a lot. I have gone from knowing two chords, to playing lead guitar, reading music and creating my own songs. It's super fun and you can really see yourself improving. I'm becoming a musician. If you want to improve and learn to play in bands and not be stuck in a loophole of riffs and tabs I'd recommend Phil.
James More

Dunedin, NZ

”
Phil is an excellent guitar teacher; I tried for years to teach myself using YouTube tutorials and tabs and never got past learning to play a single song - badly. With Phil's help, I've learned the proper foundations to be a proper guitarist: reading guitar sheet music, chords and chord progressions, scales, licks, strum patterns and more, in only 1 year of lessons! I would highly recommend Phil to anyone looking to make significant progress in guitar
David van der Hulst

Dunedin, NZ

”
He explains things in a way that’s easy to understand and is a great teacher. Before I had lessons with Phil I did not know how to even fret a note, He helped me understand the guitar. I would definitely recommend.
Aidan Mullenger

Dunedin, NZ

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