what group or song do you recomend

one more question for you all. Ive just gotten to the point where i feel comftorable with a few chords i know. primarly g,d,c,f,a,am,em,e,and power chords. Nothing glamarous i havent moved around the fretboard in any other position these are all the text book chords(first 4 frets)except power chords. My question is what group or songs do you recomnd that i start off with to gain some rhythm. Im not the best of guitar player nor the fastest of learners.


A couple of comments just for the hell of it. Just started barrel chords and man are they rough. last comment, what is it about the guitar the more i learn the worse i get.

thanks...

Right get this idea of getting worse out of your head... There's a really simple way to disprove it, go and pick up a left handed guitar (I'm asuming that you'r not left handed, if you are then pick up a righty guitar), and try to play what you can at the minute, You'll see that you've come a long way, it's just that frustration can get to ya...
As for stuff to play... what kind of stuff do you listen to?...
For simple stuff I'd say Dylan, Nirvana, Pearl Jam etc... but there are some really cool simple riffs you can learn from some guitar books, which are specified for such a job... I'll give an example of a cool riff that's easy to play, have a listen to "shady Lane" by pavement... That main riff is very easy and good fun...
My best advice really, is just keep an ear out, if you like something chase it up. Find out what it is, and try to get the tab for it...
Good Luck :)

Well, if your just starting out, it is almost an unwritten rule that every guitarist learns the opening riff to Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water. All power chords -- lots of fun (Mind you, very few actually go on to learn the rest of the song!) America's "Horse With No Name" is a real easy song to start out with that will help you get the feel of playing rhythm. If my memory serves me correctly, the song only has about two chords, one of them is Em and the other is this D-based chord:

E___0______________________________
B___0______________________________
G___2______________________________
D___0______________________________
A___0______________________________
E___2______________________________

That may not be it exactly, but that will get you in the ball park. Also, the band, Green Day, uses chords that you know how to play in almost all of their songs. Go to almost any online guitar tab site for their music.

Try pretty much any song by CCR (Creedance Clearwater Revival). They mostly are just three or four chords so they'd be easy to learn, and would be gerat to help with your rhythm skills. (a few examples: Proud Mary, and Bad Moon on the Rise)

Try learning some simple blues chords...it's really easy and it's the first thing I learned. E,A,B...and back to E. It's not hard...even just strumming the notes one at a time...you'll get the hang of it...don't worry. And the more you learn the better you get...even if it doesn't seem like it...you will see. Keep smiling! :)

What he is saying is to try using the I-IV-V chord progression. Although this uses a lil bit of theory here, it'll help in figuring out this basic progression.
First you need to know about the major scale which is w - w - h - w - w - w - h (the w =whole step or two frets, and the h - half step or one fret).

W W H W W W H
Cmaj = C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C

e |---------10----12--13---|
b |---------10----12--13---|
g |------9--10----12-------|
d |------9--10----12-------|
a |---8-----10----12-------|
e |---8-----10----12-------|

There's the tab and the notes in the Cmaj scale. Next look at each note..

C D E F G A B C
I ii iii IV V vi vii viii

okay i put hte capital letters to show here the 1, 4 and 5 chords are.. those are the ones that are mainly used in those bluesy type progressions that are good to start out on. the Vth chord (g in this case) is also generally made into a G7 which resolves back to the root (C).

okay now if you want to try to figure out what to do for the key of A here's the steps to go about it..
1). W - W - H - W - W - W - H
A B C# D E F# G# A
I IV V
2) you see that A is (I), D is (IV), and E is (V) so you make it an A - D - E7 progression.. That make any sense to you all?

Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Especially Nirvana. They mostly use chords in the base of E (barre chords) that's your 1st finger barring and the rest forming a basic E position. A very easy (and good) song is Pearl Jam's cover of Last Kiss here: http://www.rockmagic.net/guitar-tabs/pearl-jam/last_kiss.crd

Hi, a couple of good "basic" songs are Knockin' on Heavens Door which is G-D-A minor then G-D-C (repeated with variations) and The Passenger (roughly) A minor-F-C-G difficult timing it though, also Hey Joe which is C_G_D_A_E.

Have fun with them and mess them around a bit- we dont all need to sound the same.


cheers.
James.

sweet home alabama is a fun one to start with. it is simpley a D-C-G sequence but u can start by struming them and then progress onto arpeggios (chords played one note at a time) as u gain more confidence. hey joe is also a stonker to learn early as it is simple, easy and powerfull. try swithing from root chords to power chords througout the song for a realy brill sound

I don't know where you're from but I suggest turning to traditional music.

Most of traditional music are pretty simple and they are great in camp fire jams. It's nice to know how to play some Deep purple or CCR to jam with friends but if people (or family) know you play guitar they will ask you to play something at one time or another.

Try to play smoke on the water to your grandma ;)

My suggestion is to learn 4-5 folk song that you can play anytime. That way, if people ask you to play, you'll have a couple of easy song that everybody knows and can sing along with you.

Heres something that might help you, since you seem to be suffering from the 'I'm getting worse not better syndrome'. Something I started doing when I went through the "man I sound crap" phase was to tape record what I was playing on a cheap recorder. When you play back what your playing it helps to get a feel how well you are playing and can also help highlight any areas that need improving (strings your catching/notes not playing clearly etc). Also theres nothing like the buzz when you hear yourself playing on tape and it sounds semi-decent :) Great boost for the ego!

Neal