Guitar class #1 by GuitarGuru-AndyPaul

                        Guitar class #1               brought to you by GuitarGuru AndyPaul 

Get to know your instrument:

Whatever guitar you play; electric, acoustic, bass, etc.., it's made of these 3 main parts:
Body, Neck, and Head (see the diagram above).

Waist in the body (on the bottom) is designed to keep your guitar on your knee. It doesn't matter which knee, right or left, although Classical guitarists prefer keeping the guitar on their left knee, while contemporary guitarists (rock, pop) keep it on their right knee, or use strap to play standing up. (see pics below):

                        Classical guitar sitting position: 

                     Rock or POP music guitar positioning while sitting:

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Make sure you work on your left-hand positioning and right-hand positioning separately in the beginning!

left hand Position and posture:

Place each finger on each fret of your guitar covering first 4 frets on any string, as shown on the pic below (fingers are parallel to each other, hence the name parallel position):

*Make sure each finger is as close to the corresponding metal fret but not on top of the metal fret wire*

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Exercise 1 -- lift fingers and replace them on the string below or above, see if you get proper position for all fingers at the same time.

 Exercise 2 -- lift index finger and hammer the string number 6 with it on the 1st fret (land your index finger as close as possible to the fret wire #1, repeat 10 times. Do the same with your middle finger on fret #2, then ring finger on fret #3, and then pinky on fret #4. 10 times each finger per exercise. 

Exercise 3 -- after you hammer the string down with your finger, try to pull off the finger and pluck the string at the same time to make it sound without plucking string with your right-hand finger. The exercise is called hammer-on and pull off (in both cases you must get sound off of your string preferably use string number 6. 

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Right-hand position:

Do not use pinky, and place fingers as shown on the pic below:

Exercise #1 -- squeeze strings by pushing with your thumb down and other 3 fingers up, create even tension and pluck strings at the same time. 

Exercise #2 -- Pluck strings one by one, go string number 6, then 3, then 2, and then 1 (repeat 10 times)

Exercise #3 -- Pluck strings one by one, go string number 1, then 2, then 3, and then 6 (repeat 10 times)

Exercise #4 -- combine movements, going string number 6, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, and then back to string number 6 and repeat for about one minute non-stop. You will get a finger picking pattern that resembles the into for the song called "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica. 

Interesting facts about guitar and famous guitarists: If you remove first 2 strings from your 6-striing guitar you'll get an exact tune and set up for bass-guitar. it's just bass-guitar strings are thicker and sound 2 octaves lower than guitar strings, but tune wise 4 strings on bass-guitar replica strings 6, 5, 4, and 3 on a regular 6-string guitar, so you can learn bass-guitar riffs on a regular acoustic guitar, just do not use string 1 and 2.