Hey everyone,

I think this is an issue many beginners wonder about? I have completed fundamentals 1 for about 3 weeks ago. From the moment we were introduced to most of the open chords I have been trying to find songs online with chords and chord progressions I theoretically should be able to play.

By now my list is about 20 songs longs, ranging from REM (very hard) to Coldplay, The National, 4 Non Blondes, Mazzistar and many more. I have had a go at all of them. For some of them I cannot find the right strumming pattern and i just leave them alone. For about half of them though I sort of have the strumming pattern down and can play along with the song in the right rythm and speed. For about 3 or 4 of the songs I know the chords by heart, i.e. I don't have to read the tab sheet while playing. Playing along AND singing along is impossible. I get lost almost immediately. For ALL of the songs though there is still a fair amount of buzzing strings around - especially switching to D and C. So this is pretty much my level at the moment

I have decided to make Runaway Train by Soul Asylum (the easy lesson on this site) my "graduation" project, trying to hone it to perfection. It has a fair amount of C's and F's in it, but the strumming is easy throughout. But I'm not there yet.

I'm eager to move to Fund. 2 though, intrigued as I am by power chords, they dont seem so hard. When would it be time to move on? I'm sure this question has been asked before but does anyone want to share any thoughts on this subject?

Rgds, Gert.