First Songs on Guitar
Pick up the guitar and start playing recognizable music right away. Learn essential chord shapes, rhythmic strumming, smooth transitions, and fingerstyle basics without confusing jargon.
Like Duolingo, but for First Songs on Guitar. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
25 levels across 3 sections, about 50 minutes end to end, roughly 10 days at five minutes a day. It moves through First Sounds and Smooth Changes; The Songmaker's Toolkit; and Expression, Touch, and Fingerstyle. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in First Songs on Guitar
- The guitar's weight should be anchored between your thigh and your torso
- Your fretting hand needs to move freely along the neck rather than support the weight of the instrument
- Letting your body carry the guitar stops you from gripping the neck like a baseball bat
- Placing your fingertip just behind the metal fret wire gives clean contact with minimal finger force
- Pressing in the middle between two frets or directly on top of the wire causes buzzing or deadened sound
- Buzzing is usually cured by moving closer to the fret wire, not by squeezing with brute force
- Resting your thumb behind the middle of the neck creates natural leverage for your fingers
- Clamping your whole palm against the neck restricts finger reach and accidentally mutes adjacent strings
- Arching your fingers requires open space between the base of your fingers and the bottom of the fretboard
- Standard guitar tuning runs low E, A, D, G, B, high E
- Tuning starts from the thickest string (lowest pitch) down to the thinnest string (highest pitch)
- Recognizing this order lets you tune string by string and spot notes that are flat or sharp
- A relaxed wrist flick lets the pick glide lightly across strings without catching or digging in
- Stiffening your forearm or digging deep with the pick creates a harsh scraping noise
- Holding the pick with a flexible grip allows it to brush past the strings and let them ring together
- E minor and Asus2 require only two fretting 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 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.
When you sit down to play, what should support the weight of the guitar?
Get it right to open this lesson and 24 more in the app.
Where First Songs on Guitar takes you
- 1
First Sounds and Smooth Changes
- Holding, Tuning, and Your First Clean Note
- The Two-Chord Groove
- Seamless Transitions Between Chords
- 2
The Songmaker's Toolkit
- The Four Chords Behind Countless Hits
- Rhythmic Strumming and Dynamics
- Reading Tablature and Song Sheets
- 3
Expression, Touch, and Fingerstyle
- Mastering Tougher Shapes and Hand Comfort
- Fingerpicking Basics and Arpeggios
3 sections · 8 units · 25 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
First Songs on Guitar is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. 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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Start First Songs on Guitar today.
Download Tomo, search First Songs on Guitar, and play your first lesson in under a minute.