Getting startet on Acoustic?

[Dominik Gräber]

I admit it. Though I’m wokring at multiple things, I still did not manage to really start with music theory, as I planned it. But what I’d like to do is picking up my acoustic guitar again.
Now I’ve been playing for three (or even four? I’m not sure) years and can play solos like Waking The Demon but still struggle switching any chords. I know there are plenty videos to theory on the school and I watched the beginner videos, but where do I start? How do I start my way from knowing no chord names to improvising over chords and strumming and fingerpicking them?

 

[idssdi]

Firstly knowing chord names is just a matter of when you learn a song be very conscious about what you’re playing and not just play it and think ooh hey I play these couple notes together and it sounds cool. For example when you play like Seize the day the opening chord is dm I think(not sure it has been a while since i looked at it) so when you are practicing that song try to think like ooh F,A and D together makes Dm. And same with all the other chords. Another way is to instead of learning tabs try to use chord diagrams. For me actually knowing chord names took a while too but especially when you are jamming with people it is very beneficial.
As for improvising over chords. I just try to find a scale which at least has most of the notes from the chords in the chord progression in it and try to create some melodies within that scale.
Fingerpicking and strumming chord progressions always seems kind of a muscle memory thing to me.
Hope this helps!

 

[Dominik Gräber]

That is already quite a lot, thanks! But, to start off, would you say it is necessary to learn chord names, shapes and scales? See I am starting at zero. I have stuff I can play because I learned how to position my fingers on the fretboard, but could not differ between any scale or tell what chord gets played in the beginning of seize the day.
So should I start strumming over like three chords and memorize them? Is there a chord progression and a scale that fits together I should start to memorize so I have something to begin with?

 

[idssdi]

Yes especially if you want to explain others what you are playing. To a guitar player you can say the positions but that doesnt really work when you want to explain what you are doing to a pianist. So i definetely would advice learning them it makes communicatig a lot easier

 

[Filip Tomiša]

What made me learn chords was actually taking guitar lessons. Our guitar teacher taught us a lot of chords and made us play bunch of songs where you just switch bewteen chords and that really helped me learn and memorise them. I’m glad he made us do it cause I doubt I would do it on my own cause I like playing fast riffs and all that but speed isn’t everything. Learning them on your own can be pretty hard but not impossible, having someone to show you really helps. What you can do it find some easy songs with like 4 chords that you like listening to and just play them, don’t play solos on those songs, just focus on chords and eventually you’ll start memorising them and switching between them will be easier.

 

[Dominik Gräber]

Thanks @filip , I learned When We Stand Together by Nickelback, which is great to get used to switching chords, but it is not much. Any easy song recommendations?

 

[idssdi]

A7x related probably So far away. Wet sand by RHCP is great too(has an awesome solo as well) Under bridge also(also helps with embelishments), Hey Joe, Tribute or kickapoo by tenacious D as well(in fact most of the tenacious D stuff) I put A spell on you, To be With You all could work at least for basic chords if you want like weird jazz stuff you get into a whole other ballpark

 

[Bianca Long]

I started playing Rocksmith and it shows you the chords and the name and since I spend a lot of time looking at my fingers (WTF are you doing pinky!?) I have to memorize the chords names. I hope that makes some sort of sense

 

[Filip Tomiša]

@dominik Anything from RHCP is good
@Bianca Yeah I have been playing rocksmith 2014 for 4 years now and it helped me A LOT! It basically made me to keep playing guitar.

 

[Jen Hapke]

I think it is very useful to learn the chordnames. Here are some awesome lessons for doing so. I really love the sus2 and sus4 chords and the change from major to sus2 and this works with every chord.
To give you a little motivation for learning it I share an awesome experience I had while shopping my electric guitar at thomann.
I sat inside an amp cabin and some over guy who helped a friend to buy his first guitar was there too. At some point he asked me to play something in Cmaj key. I did so and he started soloing over it. I was so glad that I knew the fitting chords because I started learning the circle of fiths.
It is useful to learn the chords and theory because it will help you to understand what you are doing. And it will help you to create your own things.
Here I give you a list of songs that are easy to learn.
Black stone cherry- Peace is free (its in D standard but it works in E standard too)
3 doors down- be like that
Ac/dc- shook me all night long
Amy mcdonald- this is the live (kind of fast stumming but not complicated at all)
creedence clearwater revival- bad moon rising
bon jovi- wanted dead of alive ( the intro is not that hard to pick)
eddie vedder- society (easy if you get the chord changes down. It is exactly what you are searching for)
foo fighters- times like these ( the changing D is tricky rhythm wise)
fuel- bad day
halestorm- here’s to us
three days grace- time that remains
guns n roses- patience
collective soul- shine
nickelback- if today was your last day
You did it exactly the over way around than I did. I started with chords and learning rhythm guitar songs and I can’t play solos by now. I guess I am playing guitar about as long as you are.
And it’s kind of weird to write all this in english to a fellow german

 

[Guest]

When approaching chords its always best to set a metronome to say 60-80bpm and strum the chord every 4 clicks, and then repeat. The next part of the practice routine is to learn another chord and apply the same idea. So the exercise would be |Am 2 3 4 |Am 2 3 4 | and so on. What you could do after is alternate between the 2 chords. So you end up with |Am 2 3 4 |CMajor 2 3 4 | and repeat. There’s nothing really fancy or interesting in terms of rhythmic interest but the idea is to ensure a smooth transition between the chords – and doing this at a slower speed allows time to develop chord changes. You can also add strums to make it difficult over time.
In regards to chord names, it’s really just practice and familiarity over time. Start with a couple of chords and when you play them on the guitar, speak aloud the chord you are playing or maybe write them down. Chords can be very theory based but in the beginning stages doesn’t need to be.
Improvising over chord changes gets a bit complicated as theory is needed to ensure you are playing the right note over the right moment. I understand PG explains this very well in his videos. Progressing from just knowing chord names, you could then begin to understand what make a chord a chord. But maybe for the moment work towards learning names of the chords, develop timing and tempo and learn a few songs!

 

[Dominik Gräber]

Thank you all very much for the tips and recommendations! I guess I will check out some of your recommended songs and learn some and with it the chord names, so it does not get too “boring”. I will also definetly begin to watch the school lessons again and play around with the stuff mentioned there, hope that will get me startet