Guitar Notes For Beginners - Chords and Rhythm

I am very new to guitar and I have very limited musical background. I am looking for some experienced opinions about where my area of focus should be. I am learning chords and starting to get into some very basic songs and melodies. My question is this. Should I keep moving ahead and learning new things even if I haven't completely mastered previous lessons? Or am I better served to sit and hammer one chord change 2 000 times before I move on to something else?

Should I worry about mastering all of the finest details of every point I am taught when I am taught it, or play as best as I can, keep moving forward and work on everything as I move along?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Originally Posted by: evan.froeseI am very new to guitar and I have very limited musical background. I am looking for some experienced opinions about where my area of focus should be. I am learning chords and starting to get into some very basic songs and melodies. My question is this. Should I keep moving ahead and learning new things even if I haven't completely mastered previous lessons? Or am I better served to sit and hammer one chord change 2 000 times before I move on to something else?

Should I worry about mastering all of the finest details of every point I am taught when I am taught it, or play as best as I can, keep moving forward and work on everything as I move along?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

First, I know that "teaching theology" varies in this area, so I'll give my opinion, but others feel free to chime in.

Personally, I've always advocated really learning a topic and gaining a comprehensive familiarity with it before moving forward.

Not to say you have to "master" something like basic open chords but, you should know them really well before moving on.

The reason I say this is that some of those more mundane beginner topics tend to get glossed over and people end up playing guitar for a few years without developing any polish with their playing. They can do a lot but it's all just kind of sloppy.

So I wouldn't say you have to hammer out a chord change thousands of times before moving on (maybe hundreds?), but I would say to take your time and er on the side of caution before move into a more difficult topic.

Any other thoughts on this one?

Duly noted. Thank you for the feedback. That should give me something to go on.

If anybody has another viewpoint or agrees with the GT Staff I would love to hear it!

I look at it like this.
If you cannot play the chords and switch between them it does not matter what else you work on because a song does not flow if the player has to stop strumming long enough to switch to the next chord. No one else wants to listen to a player who has to stop every time they start getting into the rhythm to change chords.

Take your time to hit them correctly every time no matter how slow you have to play to do it. I did not make this up, but perfect practice makes for perfect playing. Rushing to learn and playing sloppy lets your body (muscle memory) learn it sloppy so it will reproduce it sloppy latter.

There is a reason music teacher’s in general keep the progress slow. It takes a long time for the body to learn all this. So what if your brain can send make an F chord to your hand if the receiving muscles do not know how to use the information?

This site has everything to offer that it takes to lean to play. It will allow you to move forward way faster than you should if you let yourself. Don’t do that. Just because a person can use a measuring tape and cut wood to put together a dog house with a hammer and nails, it does not mean that person is ready to go build a house.

Hey, I teach a lot of beginners, and everybody starts the same way. Learning big open chord shapes, songs, or scales/reading music/theory stuff. Both of those ways are really hard to start playing guitar.

I found a better way...

I wrote a cool book with specially designed songs that are very short and very cool, basically just excerpts from the real deal. I'll walk you through the first few pages:

1. Love Somebody (maroon 5) - 1 finger song on 1 string. cool tune, easy to understand how tab works

2. Hypnotize (system of a down) - STRING SKIPPING song, works on developing your picking accuracy and moving 1 finger along the first string every couple times.

3. The Simpsons - using 3 fingers and 3 strings, making sure that you can use your fingers independently

4. Star Wars - 4 fingers and 4 strings, a little bit harder, but still extremely easy

5. Whats My Age Again (blink 182) - another string skipping pattern with 1 finger

6. 3-string open chords - you can play most of these with 1 or 2 fingers.

These songs are super easy and even an 8 year old girl can play them quite perfectly on the first try. You can too. :)

So check out my book if you want to see these songs!
[PM me if you want a link - you can view the first 10 pages for FREE]



Notice how I focus a lot on PICKING and FINGER INDEPENDENCE on the first few songs, and then start with SMALL CHORD SHAPES.

The SMALL CHORD SHAPES are very important. Most people start with super hard chords like the big G and C chords, and when that doesn't work they get frustrated and give up.

This page kind of demonstrates what im talking about:
http://www.music-for-music-teachers.com/images/480xNxguitar-chords-little.gif.pagespeed.ic.4-DlS3UGNq.png

Some of the chords can be played with just 1 finger. Learn those chords. They sound exactly the same as the full shape and are way easier to start with.



As far as mastery goes, you should score yourself on 1-10 on each lesson. As long as you can score like a 7 or so, you should be fine to move on. That's like a C+ B-

The thing about music is that as you learn more things, the previous materials become easier to play.

Like if you are working on a 1-string song.. you don't really have to spend hours trying to get it right because the NEXT song is a 2-string song...

...and guess what, you're ALSO working on 1-string as you're doing the 2-string song. so why should you focus on mastering the first one?

Thank you everybody for the feedback. I'm getting a definite "slow and steady" vibe. I will be sure and cool my jets and spend some extra time on the ABC's.

When I was young, it took a long time to develop calluses so my fingers didn't hurt, and at the same time I was learning open chords. Having gone though the fundamentals course and fundamentals 2, Lisa is a good instructor. Having said that, I can say this is my experience. Guitar Tricks has a lot of songs that are really good for beginners to work on. Take your time and learn through lisa most of the open chords, for example C, D, G A, E, F, A minor, E minor and D Minor. If you simply have these 9 and can play and switch between them quickly, you can start making it fun, by playing some of the beginner songs that are here on Guitar Tricks. Focus on mastering the open chords, go through fundamentals one lesson at a time, but once you know a few chords, go ahead and try a few songs. Make it a lot more fun to see your own progress when you can play a song. Here's an example of OLD School rock and roll. The song Gloria is a simple three chord tune that uses E D and A. Good Luck. Keep at it, it takes practice!

Thanks for the input Johny. I am working through the fundamentals course right now. I'm a few weeks in and my fingers are noticeably more resilient to the strings already. I'm actually quite pleased with how my fingers have toughened up.

Sounds like you are determined. That's great. It takes at least 1 thousand repetitions to start developing a neuro-pathway. So practicing chords over and over is a good method. Get them perfect. It will pay off in the future. We all have/had to do it. You will get it. It just takes time and determination. And, you seem to have that with what you posted.

Thanks for the encouragement ScottKing. No problem with determination, patience on the other hand... Yeah yeah, patience patience, when does that come already? XD

Evan, that's only up to you. If you start to get frustrated, back off a bit, and practice a few simple songs to make it fun. Then jump back into areas that are hard. I will say this, there will be a point, when suddenly a chord change just happens and your hand goes right to it. That's a GREAT feeling when the body tells the fingers I know where to go now.

Pretty sure you've already received the best advice you're going to get here! Perhaps the best thing I can say is to focus on something until you get pretty comfortable with it. The key to becoming a true master on guitar is to be able to then integrate what you already know with something you are just learning. For example, you can work on alternate picking and do about 1000-2000 reps of a a couple different exercises for a week, then the following week you work on hammer ons and pull off exercises, but then learn how to mix those exercises with your alternate picking exercises.

I know in the title you posted that you're working on chords and rhythm, but this example can relate to what you're doing as well. hope this makes sense!

Something I would like to add when you start getting more into songs; when you are first learning a song, you can either play through it perfect but slow, or play a piece of it up to speed and perfect. If you try to start by playing through the whole thing both up to speed and perfect, practice won’t be too productive. If you focus on the parts of the song that aren’t working yet, or focus on playing through the song in perfect rhythm with the right notes, your muscles will truly learn and you will be able to master the song.

I hope this helps! Best of luck; it’s nice to see someone with ambition who is so determined 

It's great to see the collaboration in this post! Great tips guys!

Thank you everybody for the input. I am now just over three months in and somewhere around the two month mark something just "clicked" and I've been making what I consider pretty good progress. I've got probably 150 - 160 practice hours down and I'm just starting to feel like I'm getting a feel for the instrument.

My wife took up learning piano the same day I signed all my free time over to learning guitar. We can play a couple of songs together already (albeit not well) which is a great motivator to keep progressing.

Evan that is awesome you and your wife play together! What songs can you guys play?

We're primarily learning to play in church, so what we are playing together is Christian music. The two we have down pretty well are:

---Forever Reign-One Sonic Society

---The Same Power-Jeremy Camp

In the works we have:

---How He Loves-David Crowder

---Hands to the Heavens-Kari Jobe

Besides that, I'm working on a couple songs on my own:

---Burnin' It Down-Jason Aldean

---Bottoms Up-Brantley Gilbert

---How Forever Feels-Kenny Chesney

Looking at that list of songs I'm thinking maybe I need to put "seeing the sun" and "getting out" a little higher on my priority list!

Originally Posted by: evan.froeseWe're primarily learning to play in church, so what we are playing together is Christian music. The two we have down pretty well are:

---Forever Reign-One Sonic Society

---The Same Power-Jeremy Camp

In the works we have:

---How He Loves-David Crowder

---Hands to the Heavens-Kari Jobe

Besides that, I'm working on a couple songs on my own:

---Burnin' It Down-Jason Aldean

---Bottoms Up-Brantley Gilbert

---How Forever Feels-Kenny Chesney

Looking at that list of songs I'm thinking maybe I need to put "seeing the sun" and "getting out" a little higher on my priority list!

All great songs! I hope you will keep us posted on your progress :)

Really cool!

My wife has started to learn banjo just so that she can accompany some of my guitar stuff.....I can tell you that playig songs together is very rewarding!

Good luck!

Nathan

I find playing with somebody else, even if they are roughly at the same skill level, really highlights every little slip up that you both make. It's much less forgiving than playing along with a recording. To say nothing of having someone watching you play.