First of all the most important thing to start with is your posture. Sit down on a chair with a straight back. Your knees make an edge of 90 degrees. Your left knee is supporting the guitar. Your left foot is on a footbench. With this posture your arms are getting more relaxed. Like this it is easier for the left hand fingers to press the strings. Relaxation is the keyword here.Check your upperarm, ellbow and fingers if they are in a relaxed position. This is very crucial for all your excercises. Also use this posture with a electric guitar in the beginning. It might seem a little bit odd to do this with a electric guitar but keep in mind that especially in the beginning you have to focus on relaxing on as many parts of your body. Breath through your belly and avoid tension. For the classical posture you put your thumb on the E string. The index finger on the G string, the middle finger on the B string and the ring finger on the E string. Normally the hand is straight above the soundhole. The picture here shows the right hand in the flamenco position.

How to:

Tune the electrical guitar                            Tune the acoustic guitar

Position of the plectrum

For the electrical guitar posture you use the plectrum between thumb and indexfinger. The right hand stays relaxed above the strings.

How to read a Chord diagram :

Below you find a chord diagram. All the strings are mentioned E, A, D, G, B, E . The Bass strings are E, A, D. The horizontal lines are the frets from the 1st untill the 5th position.

Buying a Guitar

Take your time to choose a guitar. First try to find out what kind of style you would like to play. For example if you like country music it is best to buy a western guitar. For blues you can buy a electrical guitar like Fender or Gibson. If you decide to buy a guitar don´t be too modest with the price. Ofcourse you can decide not to spent too much money for a guitar. The problem is that cheap models have an action (distance of the strings to the neck) which is too high. Like this your fingers have to press with more effort on the strings which in the beginning you really should avoid. Also the sound of these instruments can be very poor. Try to find a musicstore where they can give you good advice so that you can have a proper start.

Good luck with you practise!