HomeworkFor your friends

A 30-day challenge

Guitar

Thirty days from wherever you are to actually playing something.

Built around the two things that actually stop people: not knowing what to practise today, and having nobody notice when you do.

Every day is one short drill and one short clip. The drills come from a bank a guitar teacher wrote — nothing here was invented on the fly.

Exercises
57
Total time
6h
Difficulty
1–5

What you'll be able to do

  • Play one song all the way through
  • Change chords without stopping to think
  • Be able to join in when someone else is playing
  • Finally have it stick after starting a few times

Wherever you're starting from

  • I've never held a guitar
  • I know a few chords but can't switch smoothly
  • I can play simple songs slowly
  • I can play along with records, but I've plateaued

What you need

  • An acoustic guitar
  • An electric guitar
  • An amp I can actually use
  • A capo
  • A tuner (or a tuner app)
  • A metronome (or a metronome app)

A few of the days

  • Build an E minor chord, one finger at a time
  • Two minutes: E minor, five clean builds
  • Fret one note cleanly — no buzz
  • Two minutes: one fretted note, clean
  • Sit with the guitar and find a comfortable hold

The rest are dealt to you after the quiz, sized to the time you actually have.

Nobody starts on camera

Hands onlyYour voiceOn camera

Getting started

Seven days free. One short exercise a day and a short clip to prove you did it, built around your time, your gear and how you feel about a camera.

Homework is an iPhone app. Install it and this challenge is in the list.