Desi Serna

Desi Serna has built a substantial online platform as an engaging and approachable guitar guru-a guitar player and teacher with more than 10,000 hours of experience providing private guitar lessons and classes. Serna is hailed as a "music-theory expert" by Rolling Stone magazine.

Articles & Books From Desi Serna

Guitar Theory For Dummies with Online Practice
Make your guitar sing with insight on music theory brings your instrument to life  There’s a universe of incredible music living in your guitar. You just need to discover how to let it out. In Guitar Theory For Dummies, expert guitarist and instructor Desi Serna walks you through the music theory concepts you need to understand to expand your musical horizons.
Guitar All-in-One For Dummies
A one-stop resource to the essentials of owning and playing the guitar If you’ve just bought a guitar, or you’ve had one for a while, you probably know it takes some time and effort to learn how to play the popular instrument. There’s so much to know about owning, maintaining, and playing a guitar. Where do you even begin?
Cheat Sheet / Updated 04-27-2022
Guitar theory is an area of study that explains how you can play, improvise, and compose popular music on the guitar fretboard — and why certain elements of music go together the way they do.Dive into guitar theory by exploring a fretboard diagram showing notes along the 6th and 5th strings; some major scale patterns; Roman numerals and the major/minor chord sequence; and mode names.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-10-2022
Learning to play the guitar is a lot fun. Use this cheat sheet to help you get started with your guitar finger placement and guitar chords. If you need help with finger placement on your guitar, use tablature (tab) and fingerboard diagrams.Practice playing the most common open-position chords on your guitar to get that “jangly” sound, and make sure you know the notes on the neck of your guitar to change starting notes in scales, chords, and arpeggios.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-15-2022
This Cheat Sheet has some handy tips that you can keep in your practice area for quick reference.Use these techniques to review your basic rhythms and warm up your hands at the beginning of a playing session. Before you begin, trim and file the nails on your fretting hand so that nothing comes between your fingertips and the strings.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
As you explore guitar theory, you'll learn that the major scale is a series of notes played in an ascending and descending fashion. Guitarists use the major scale to play melodies, riffs, solos, and bass lines. Additionally, it's used to play intervals, build chords, and chart progressions. The following samp
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
A scale is a series of notes played one at a time in an ascending or descending fashion. Guitarists use scales to play melodies, riffs, lead guitar solos, and bass lines. Different types of scales make different patterns on the fretboard that you have to learn and practice. In popular music, the two most commonly used types of scales are the pentatonic scale and the major scale.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
The open C chord is one of the most basic types of chords that guitarists play. You probably learned it early on when you first started with guitar. But did you know the C chord shape doesn’t have to be confined to the open position? You can move the shape up and play other major chords with it. You accomplish this move either by placing a capo (a device clamped on the fingerboard to raise the open strings) on your guitar or by rearranging your fingers and barring across the neck.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Knowing guitar theory is one thing — applying it is another. To become a strong guitar player, you have to practice and play. This article includes suggestions to help you implement an understanding of guitar theory in your playing. The following are some of the best ways to practice along with tricks to help you take advantage of every playing opportunity.
Video / Updated 11-09-2022
Open chords are chords that fall within the first four frets typically using open strings. They sound twangy because they include unfretted strings that are permitted to ring open. This chart represents 24 of the most useful open chords you use to play guitar: