Brand new to guitar and music . Im learnin the acoustic and was wonderin which chords and in what order to learn them? I've always had a passion for the sound of acoustics but never made an atempt to learn it. Now i'm 29 and both kids are in school and im gonna drive myself to get good at somethin i love (acoustic guitars and music). i know personal lessons would be best but i dont have the time or money for them, so im teachin myself from the net and my cousin is decent with his acoustic and said he'd help me out.
Start with the open position "cowboy" chords - C, G, A, D and E, and also the minor chords Am, Dm and Em.
You'll need some "7s" too - A7, D7, E7, and G7. Might as well have the Am7, Dm7 and Em7 at the same time because they're easily obtained from the minor chords.
So, that's the first 15 to be going on with. "maj7" chords should be next - most of them are fairly basic shapes too.
Movable E-shapes chords (including F) and A-shape (including Bb and B) can come later.
I teach a lot of young students; the Registry of Guitar Tutors "Initial" stage exam requires them to know C, G, Am and Em.
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Thanks for the info. I'm working on my C and G at the moment so when i get comfortable with those i'm gonna throw in another one.
Learning chords is fun but you will need some songs to use them. Perhaps this can help.
When I got back to guitars, I made a list with all my favorite songs that I wanted to play. I searched the chords that are used in each song (there are many internet sites with that kind of info, here, at the forums, and also in the main site you will find a good list with nice versions).
I sorted the list on the number chords and also the chords themselves: I mean, first I put songs with three and four chords, then five, and so on, and the songs with, for example, G-D-C chords, then G-D-C-Am, etc. in such a way that I learned/practiced a new chord with each new song.
(Really you can play every song with the same set of chords but that will come later. By now just follow the chords suggested in each song.)
Practice slowly.
Good luck!
As mentioned, the basic open position chords will get you a ton of milage. C-G-D-Em-A-Am-E. Learn those, mix up the order and you have a galillion songs at your finger tips. There are a lot of great acoustic guitar DVD course out there as well that can help you with the chords, strumming etc if you cant afford lessons. "Acoustic Guitar in 7 Days" from GuitarZoom.com is a great one
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a, am, c, d, dm, e, em, g. then learn the 4 note f chord, then come back and ask about barre chords or scales.
Thanks for all the insight, I've been practicing all the open chords and a song with G,C, and Am in it for now. I have the open chord shapes memorized it's just a matter of going slow and being accurate in my opinion. it's hard to just practice chords when you don't have something to accomplish, like a song.
You need someplace to go with these chords. Just strumming chords will not suffice in learning to use them in songs. Go to ultimate guitar tabs and search a song via chords and click it. Shows you several different versions to use and will show the lyrics and the chords and where to use them. You have to get the strumming pattern by test and trial. One easy one I think is Simple Man by Skynard. Theres tons of easy chord songs but thats one off the top of my head
Good luck!
