How do you exactly start to learn songs?

I dont know how to start! Oh and i can play these chords:G, Em, E, A, Am, A7, C, D, and Dm. But i cant switch through each one. So i should start by practicing switching through each chord right?

Yes.

Also - have a look thru the Songs for Beginners section and focus on the first few simple ones to get you started.

You might also try something like "Brown Eyed Girl" or "Last Kiss" which use pretty simple strumming pattern and the G,D,C progression with an Em and D7 tossed in to make it interesting. Download the tab from Olga.net or somewhere and find the song and listen. Pretty easy to do and it'll get your fingers moving fairly well between chords.

What about nowhere man? How are you supposed to hold more than one string down?

Take a look at this lesson:
Chords 101. I think the photos and exercises will help you a lot. Start there and wait a bit before trying Nowhere Man. Get comfortable with some of these chord changing exercises.

hi mr beginner acoustic man

the advice you've been given is absolutely right. You can know 100 chords - but if you can't fit 'em together you aren't going to be playing songs. With the range of chords at your disposal you could play any number of songs if you can join them.

Big piece of advice. Get a metronome. Set it to about 60 beats per minute. Nice and steady. Now pick 3 chords. Lets say G D and Am. Right, first of all LISTEN to the metronome, click, click, click, click, in your head start counting where the clicks are ONE, two three four ONE two three four. Now form your G chord, and try and get a nice even strum going right on the clicks. Notice how much time there is between the clicks - loads!! Now when you are ready and have a nice steady strum going, concentrate on your fretting hand, try and "see" where it needs to go to get to your D chord. Right, get ready. No hurry at all. When you are ready, after the last count of 4 change to the D, nice and smooth, don't try and rush it. Keep practicing this until its second nature. Then repeat adding in an Am so you play G, D, Am, four beats each.

When you can do this over and over, you are a long way to becoming a guitarist!

The thing with this exercise, is you are teaching each hand independantly. This will dramatically reduce your learning time, I promise you. Its like people that struggle with strumming, they don't (often) just practice their right hand technique. Its just as important as fretting, beleive it or not.

Once you are bored with that, vary the strum. Try Down, Down, down/up/down/up on the count of...

One Down
Two Down
Three (and) down (up)
Four (and) down (up)

I can't recommend teaching your hands independantly more strongly, it really does help beginners.

Good luck, and check out the beginners lessons.

Matt

Hey there!

If you will, like the previous posters said, go to Easy Songs For Beginners right here on GuitarNoise and I suggest you start at the very beginning "Horse with No Name". It's an easy switch between two chords..... work on that until you can play it with the song. Then move on to the next one, which is "For What It's Worth".. also two chords but also an introduction to percussive strumming. If you take these songs in the order that David has presented them, master each one before moving on, you'll find, I believe, that each song gets progressively 'easier' because of what you have mastered on the previous songs. David definitely knows what he's doing - I'm living proof of that!! :-) He gives the most comprehensive lessons available on the internet. (Thank you, David!) If you get frustrated (or even bored, though I can't imagine that!) you can always go over to scales and practice those.... arpeggios are a good thing to practice both chords and picking (flat and/or finger).... learn more chords and chord progressions, then go back to the song. Perseverance is a necessity in learning the guitar! Good luck to you!

I dont know how to start! Oh and i can play these chords:G, Em, E, A, Am, A7, C, D, and Dm. But i cant switch through each one. So i should start by practicing switching through each chord right?

what songs are you wanting to learn? like your favorites.

yea jus favorites.