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Tuning and basic technique form a kind of chicken-egg situation - you can't practice technique without being relatively in-tune, and you can't tune the guitar without any knowledge of how to get it to make sound. I'm covering basic technique first - this doesn't require the entire guitar to be in-tune, only that the strings have sufficient tension to sustain string resonance. If they currently don't, tighten them up using the tuners - just don't go so tight that they feel like they may snap.
===PreReqs===
* [[Guitar Parts and Function]]
* [[Holding the Guitar and Pick]]
== Picking ==
Start with picking. Your picking motion should come from either your '''wrist or elbow, ''not'' your finger/thumb joints'''. It is similar to waving hello to someone. You are "chopping", not "slapping" or "flapping". The relative distance from your hand to the guitar body should not change much during your picking motion. You want to "push through" the string, applying greater and greater pressure against the string until it slides off the tip of the pick. You do ''not'' want to apply some tension to the string then move the pick from the body, which I call "pecking". The motion you use to play a single string should also work for multiple strings by simply continuing it (if you are "pecking" it will require a pecking motion for each string).