Hello..newbie from Wisconsin

Hi Kelly,

It's NOT you! The guitar can be very difficult at first. If it wasn't? Then everyone could do it. You're at a crucial point in your playing. It will take approximatley 3 months of practicing at least 15 min/day to form muscle memory in your hands. The tips of your fingers will start to harden fairly fast if you play this often? At this point you will pick new chords up very quickly.

While you're learning, any guitar will work. It's only as you progress that you should look into a better quality guitar. However, for learning.... Nylon string guitars are the easiest. Here you can find help on choosing a guitar if you wish?

I suggest learning these guitar chords: C, A, G, E, D, Em & Am in the open position. Learning these chords and using a capo you will be able to play almost any song. Hope this helps? :D

Thanks for the reply
Do you mean learning those chords in that order? Or doesnt it matter..how long should i be spending on practicing a certain chord before moving onto the next?

Yes. Learning the chords in this order will help develop the muscles in your hand. This is one of the aspects of the "CAGED" technique. Since you're asking your hands to move in ways they've never had to before.... It's like learning to write all over again.

Practice switching between these open chords just using down strokes with your rhythm hand for now. You'll find as you progress that it gets easier and easier. Most of my students who have been able to switch between these chords do not quit playing the guitar. It paves the way to really start enjoying playing. Ya know, instead of being frustrated! :?

alright
C is easy for me, but A is extremely difficult. How in the world do you fit all 3 fingers in a row like that and get it to sound good?

Hi Kelly

You're going to find a lot of different ways to learn guitar and everyone will swear by one method or another. Trouble is that none of us has your hands, fingers or guitar. So what works for one, may not be the best way for you. Also, when we're starting out and learning chords it's easy to forgot the important fact that we're going to be moving from one chord to another (few songs have only one chord, after all! :wink: ).

There's a good discussion on a number of ways to play the A chord in this lesson here on Guitar Noise:

https://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/absolute-beginner-part-1/

A lot of the classical teachers from the 1800's taught the A as a partial barre, using one finger (usually the index) to hold the notes at the second fret of the D and G string and another (usually the middle or ring) to get the note at the second fret of the B.

Hopefully you'll find this more helpful than confusing. It's a bit different than many teachers use because it starts with chords that span only one or two frets before moving on to C and F, but you should find it a breeze.

Welcome to Guitar Noise, by the way. As you've found, it's a friendly place where you should feel free to ask questions to your heart's content. And be sure to check out the many lessons as well as the advice here on the forum pages.

Looking forward to seeing you around on the forums.

Peace

thank you for that link, i will definitely be checking it out as well as other stuff here. I really enjoy this site alot..

I purchased something tonight called Rock Tips because my fingers HURT! Hope I am not wasting money but anything to help me play longer with less pain is worth the investment IMHO.

I am however confused in the order of what chords to learn first..the article linked has a different approach than the CAGED approach. Can anyone help with this?

The "A" chord can be difficult & I agree with David Hodge. There are many ways to learn & Guitar Noise has excellent beginner lessons. Here's some diagrams on different ways to play the A chord. Chord chart #9 is what David is talking about.

You can learn chords in almost any order you want to. Teachers, books, and other tuition methods all have their preferred ways, usually based on their own experiences. John's got a great site ( http://www.guitarzonline.com/ ) as you've seen and his way is good. The way described in the Guitar Noise lesson is simply different. It's not something that can be rated, really. Older books, such as those by the great classical guitar teacher Frederick Noad, taught the C, F and G chords first because there are a ton of songs that use just those three chords. But the F in particular can be a hard chord for most beginners to even begin to attempt during their first month of playing.

Don't worry about what order to learn the chords in. Pick a chord and learn it. Then pick another and learn that. And then, most important of all, work on changing from one chord to another and back again. That's what most of what's involved in playing guitar will initially consist of.

Some chord changes are a lot easier to do than others, so if you want some easy ones to start with, try starting with Am and then switching to E and back again. The chord has the same shape, it's just played on different strings. That should give you some confidence in being able to make changes. Since you know C, then changing from C to Am and back again would also be a good starting place.

The order chosen for the Absolute Beginners Chord lesson was picked to make learning chords from what most guitarists think of as the easier open position chords (Em, E and Am) and then moving gradually to somewhat harder ones (A and D) and then to ones that involve bigger stretches or covering across more strings (C and G).

But every guitarist finds different chords difficult. You say C is easy but a lot of beginners find it incredibly hard at first, mostly because it stretches across three frets. Other people find D very hard, not so much to finger but to play cleanly. It involves getting the fingers lined up well to make all the strings sound clear. Some find A difficult. For others it's G. But the bottom line is that you're going to want to learn them all, so just have at it. The order in which you learn them will ultimately be the last thing you even remember in about three months time!

Hope this helps.

Peace

I have long fingers so it makes it easier i suppose for me to reach the strings on some chords. I am having a great time learning and reading stuff here. I am really happy i found this site. Thank you so much for responding to me right away! I suppose i should move these questions to beginner Q&A section here.

Well said David!

Kelly,

As David said. In the beginning the most important thing is to learn any of these chords in any order. The CAGED technique has many uses as you progress in your playing. It's really about chord finger shapes and not music keys. Really, if you play the CAGED chords in this order it really doesn't sound that good. It's only used for muscle memory and later on in your learning with Barre Chords. To practice the chords in the order that will sound good to the ear as you play? You'll want to play a key chord progression in this order: G, C, D, Em & Am. This is in the key of G and will sound pleasing as you practice. I used G since these chords are fairly easy. :D
I purchased something tonight called Rock Tips because my fingers HURT! Hope I am not wasting money but anything to help me play longer with less pain is worth the investment IMHO.

I really don't know about this? However, you will find that your fingers tips will harden really quickly. Seriously, like within a week if you practice often. Then, it won't hurt anymore. :mrgreen:

Im just stuck on what to learn..i think i will just go by the article here that David posted in the beginner lesson and start with that as those do seem to be a bit easier to learn and then as i progress go on to the other harder ones. Its hard to know what is right to learn and what not to right off as there is such a massive amount of information, i give my brain an overload and it wears me out fast LOL. Not sure if that makes sense, but when i get all absorbed in studying different lessons and different ways to do the same thing, it becomes overwhelming in a sense. I need to find one for right now and stick with it.

I really don't know about this? However, you will find that your fingers tips will harden really quickly. Seriously, like within a week if you practice often. Then, it won't hurt anymore. :mrgreen:

I noticed already that my fingertips are hardening. I have heard horror stories about blisters and then the skin peeling and getting caught in the strings, so i thought i would try the rock tips. Maybe i wont need it, but i will have it if i do. Wont hurt to try it anyhow.

Yeah, I'd go with David's for now. Many people on this forum have taken his lessons. So, if you need help with any of it they'll be a lot of people to help you since they've taken the exact lessons. Let me know if you need anything else. I love to help! :mrgreen:

I have heard horror stories about blisters and then the skin peeling and getting caught in the strings...

Nothing like that in my experience, Kelly. Just a whole lot of short term pain as the calluses firmed up. After that you'll be good to go. :)

Welcome to GN!
:)