The guitar is, and has always been, a social instrument. In all its forms, it has always been a portable, multi-stringed instrument made for public hearing. Even today, there's nothing better than hanging out with some friends and being able to strum a few songs on the guitar. And if you've just bought your first guitar, then you're in luck: you can play literally thousands of popular songs by learning just a handful of chords. But playing the guitar is more than just struggling through a half-recognizable version of some song, it also requires good technique. In this section, you will learn the basics of how to hold the guitar, use a pick, and other important fundamental techniques.
Never forget that instruction books are not a replacement for playing with other guitarists, or learning from a teacher, who are excellent sources of information and inspiration. Unfortunately, we cannot provide commercial music material for display in this book, so all lessons will either have to be original creations, or must be donated by the author. There are a great number of copyright free songs on the German wikibook project, so please feel free to translate lessons on any of those.
Also, this section, as with most guitar manuals, is written with right handed players in mind. Left handed players are encouraged to warm up their creative powers, and imagine that this wikibook has actually been written with them in mind.