First Notes and Songs on Guitar
Pick up the guitar and start making real music from day one. Learn clean fretting, essential open chords, steady strumming rhythm, and how to play your very first complete song.
Like Duolingo, but for First Notes and Songs on Guitar. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
17 levels across 3 sections, about 34 minutes end to end, roughly 7 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Getting Clean Sounds and First Chords; Strumming Rhythm and Your First Song; and Single Notes, Riffs, and Everyday Technique. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in First Notes and Songs on Guitar
- Placing your fingertip just behind the metal fret wire gives a clean, buzz-free note with the least effort
- Pressing in the middle or back of the fret space requires much more finger strength and often buzzes
- Resting your finger directly on top of the metal fret wire deadens the note instead of letting it ring
- Resting the heel or side of your picking hand lightly against the guitar bridge or body gives a fixed reference point
- Floating your hand in the air leaves your fingers drifting, making it hard to pick the intended string by feel alone
- Curling your fingers at the knuckles keeps your fleshy pads from leaning against neighboring strings
- Playing directly on your fingertips leaves adjacent open strings clear to vibrate freely
- A flat finger pad collapses across the fretboard and unintentionally mutes adjacent strings
- An open string vibrates along its full length, producing the lowest pitch available on that string
- Pressing frets further up the neck shortens the vibrating portion of the string, raising the pitch
- Higher fret numbers on a guitar string always sound higher in pitch than lower fret numbers on the same string
- E minor only requires two fingers fretting the 5th and 4th strings on the second fret
- The remaining four strings (low E, G, B, and high E) ring open, creating a resonant six-string sound
- Open strings vibrate freely from nut to bridge without needing fingertip pressure
- C major and A minor share finger placements, such as the index finger on the second string
- Keeping a shared finger pressed down acts as an anchor and pivot for the other fingers
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives First Notes and Songs on Guitar the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
Where should you place your fingertip to get a clean note without straining your hand?
Get it right to open this lesson and 16 more in the app.
Where First Notes and Songs on Guitar takes you
- 1
Getting Clean Sounds and First Chords
- Fretting and Plucking Your First Notes
- Fretting and Switching Your First Chords
- 2
Strumming Rhythm and Your First Song
- Strumming Mechanics and Rhythm
- Assembling Your First Complete Song
- 3
Single Notes, Riffs, and Everyday Technique
- Reading Tablature and Playing Riffs
- Tuning, Fretboard Logic, and Practice Habits
3 sections · 6 units · 17 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
First Notes and Songs on Guitar is taught in the Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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First Songs on Guitar
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Strum Your First Song
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Start First Notes and Songs on Guitar today.
Download Tomo, search First Notes and Songs on Guitar, and play your first lesson in under a minute.