So I've been trying to play songs, and I don't know.. maybe I'm jsut givingup too easy.. but I can't get my fingersin the right spots fast enough... any help.. ?

Start out slow, never start playing a song full speed. Play it slowly, but smoothly, then slowly build up speed. You might want to start out on a easier song at first too, if you try to play a song that's too hard, it'll discourage you and turn you off from guitar.

Practice practice practice. Good luck.

I can play a few theme songs, like Scooby Doo, some jurrasic park; however I only am srtumming one string at a time for all of those.. the only song I can playy with actual chords is "Free Falling"

Well, you're doing a lot better than I am. :) I'm having trouble too, but I guess it just takes time and plenty of practice to see progress.

you should start off learning a new song by playing it slowly, you should maybe try learning some white stripes or something - their stuff is really easy, seven nation army is a good one to try,

i agree. start it out slow. if you get it down first and then work on the correct speed youll find it will work out much better.

It is hard, there's no denying that, especially at the beginning. That is why so many people end up giving up taking it seriously in their first year. If it were easy then everyone would be doing it! But like anything that you want to get really good at, you really have to commit. You cant half-arse it and expect to be pro.

Lots of practice is really the key. You're definitely not getting worse as long as you're practicing.

learn tabs

and take things slow. i still suck, but i only been playing for 4 months. you get the hang of it.

The first 6 months of playing guitar is horrible. You feel like you cant and won't be able to play jack ****. You just gotta practice, take it slow, and work hard.

Like sk8boarder said, don't try and play songs full speed when your learning them. Also, you won't be able to learn most songs in a few minutes. When i was first learning guitar, i found myself giving up on a song if I couldn't get the hang of a riff in a few tries. You gotta take things slow, and it gets broing sometimes, but it's fun when you can do it right. :)

learn tabs

and take things slow. i still suck, but i only been playing for 4 months. you get the hang of it.
Tabs=fail.

Try to play what you hear, it will be much better than coming to the point of relying on tabs for everything. Plus they won't help you switch chords faster.

But, practice will help ;)

Start out with some basic chords (G,C,A, etc,) and practice alternating between them, starting out slowly, but build up your speed as you feel more comfortable at the speed you're already at. Play around with fingerings, too until you feel comfortable with the particular chord you're playing. Eventually you'll be able to switch between almost any chord at any speed.

Good luck with it. :)

Hey, don't give up just yet. I have been playing guitar for 4 years now, and I am sooo glad I stuck out the first couple months of newb-pwnage. Like FMG said, play some songs that use some simple chords, like the song "Runaround" by Blues Traveler. It is just G, C, Am, D and it repeats. When I was in 5th grade just learning how to play, my lesson group teacher would have us play stuff that was outside of our usual genre of music (at that age I wasn't so sure what "my genre" was). It helped us to be more versatile guitar players. We played quite a bit of simple folk songs, and some jazz/blues kind of stuff to work on our improvising. Like was said earlier, play some White Stripes. The first song I played in a guitar recital when I was 10 was "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground". In fact, seeing Jack White playing Seven Nation Army on the Grammys made me want to start playing in the first place.

I quit lessons after about a year just because it got to kind of the same thing every week, show him what we learned, have a music theory lesson, and then have him help us on our problem spots in our songs and then practice at home. It was good and all, but kind of a hassle to go and pay for lessons with school going on. I kept teaching myself, and learning to figure stuff out by ear. Once you learn some basic chords, look up some songs online or buy a Tab or "Fake book" from a music store of your favorite artist. They usually have the Standard music notation along with the tab beneath so if you want to work on notereading, just look at the standard stuff. But once you are comfortable with your playing (start taking stuff slow, if you try to learn it fast you get in bad habits), it is sooo easy to figure out songs.

I feel like my guitar is just another one of my bodily organs. I just play whatever I want. I have come to the point where I can think of something, or hear a song, and get most of it figured out within a few minutes. That is why its worth playing and sticking through it. You have no clue how good it feels to be playing along with a song and then suddenly think of some amazing solo and just start improving while you are playing. It feels awesome. Believe me, you will get there. Just keep on rocking and you will get it soon!

Tabs=fail.

Try to play what you hear, it will be much better than coming to the point of relying on tabs for everything. Plus they won't help you switch chords faster.

But, practice will help ;)

Start out with some basic chords (G,C,A, etc,) and practice alternating between them, starting out slowly, but build up your speed as you feel more comfortable at the speed you're already at. Play around with fingerings, too until you feel comfortable with the particular chord you're playing. Eventually you'll be able to switch between almost any chord at any speed.

Good luck with it. :)
I'm pretty sure it's impossible to play by ear when your a beginner. Until you've gotten the sound of different notes/chords burned into your brain, you can't really play by ear. I've been playing for a little over a year now, and I'm still having lots of trouble with doing things by ear.

It's easy for you to play by ear because you've been playing for a long time.

I can play a few theme songs, like Scooby Doo, some jurrasic park; however I only am srtumming one string at a time for all of those.. the only song I can playy with actual chords is "Free Falling"

Learn Torture Killer by Six Feet Under, slow, simple, but great to play

I'm pretty sure it's impossible to play by ear when your a beginner. Until you've gotten the sound of different notes/chords burned into your brain, you can't really play by ear. I've been playing for a little over a year now, and I'm still having lots of trouble with doing things by ear.

It's easy for you to play by ear because you've been playing for a long time.

No dude, haha. I was saying that regarding AceOfJack's post.

How much do lessons cost?

Tabs=fail.

Try to play what you hear, it will be much better than coming to the point of relying on tabs for everything. Plus they won't help you switch chords faster.

But, practice will help ;)

Start out with some basic chords (G,C,A, etc,) and practice alternating between them, starting out slowly, but build up your speed as you feel more comfortable at the speed you're already at. Play around with fingerings, too until you feel comfortable with the particular chord you're playing. Eventually you'll be able to switch between almost any chord at any speed.

Good luck with it. :)

nah, well for me i am still beginner as well. tabs are like a gold mine because note readin seems way difficult. i still know lots of basic chords but when i wanna learn some popular song i look up dem tabs :)

Just practice the chords (a lot). I suppose that's everything you have to do (sounds easy, but it takes a lot of time though). And after you've done it for a while, your fingers will automatically do the chords, almost without thinking about it.

Good luck with it! :)

Edit:
Neil Young - Heart of Gold was actually one of the first ones I learned fully.
Try it (if you like it, of course) ;)

And.. I advice you to try this learners-guide:

Click me (http://www.guitarnoise.com/easy.php)

Start with the easy ones.. Go further as you feel like.

Practice basic scales like pentatonics. Get a few open chords down like C, G, D etc... Concentrate on switching between them faster and faster but don't rush yourself. This will also help you build up calisis on your fingers.

As far as tabs go i learnt of them mostly and am completely self taught. Learn some fairly simple riffs at first. Classic rock is a good source of these.

Another important skill to get down is alternate picking (when you pick with both sides of your pick a.k.a up and down strokes). Do it on open strings at first and then combine it with scales. It makes your playing sound a lot smoother and it flows better. It can also improve your speed.

Don't bother practicing tapping. Its so easy to pick up when you get better its not worth worrying about it until then.

I won't bother telling you songs to learn as i don't know what you like.

As everyone has already mentioned: Just play it slowly at first.
It's better to take 3 minutes to switch chords, but still play it right, than it is to try to switch chords to quickly and end up messing up.

Your brain needs to learn these finger placements before you will be able to switch in and out of them.

I'd recommend some early Green Day songs (International Superhits might be a good place to start), as they are very easy to play, and give you a nice sense of accomplishment.

Other than that, just be patient.

:)

Don't just dive right in and start playing songs. if you do, you'll develop bad habits and you're going to find yourself backtracking later on.

metronome is your friend.
if the timing of the song is simple try to play right on the beats and keep it really slow.
most likely you know what notes to play, so the only reason it's not music is that you arent playing in time (letting each note ring for it's needed value) this means your fingers must get their in time
try to play the blues brothers theme. For every note needed, play on the metroknome click. eventually get faster but never let it sound sloopy or rushed.

from one noob guitarist to another i would say just mess around with your guitar. Try to get a feel for it which frets played in order make good sounds and which dont. I would say look up a some basic scales. they are difficult at first but once you get them you can make up basic riffs and rhythms. Probably the most important just try to enjoy what your doing. i've tried to learn songs that are way to hard and i get really frustrated. don't think about it like your learning just think about it like your playing and its easier to pick up on things. good luck bro

Tabs=fail.

I HIGHLY disagree.

I've been playing guitar for roughly 6-7 years, self taught. When I first started, chords were near impossible for me, I always took forever to put my fingers in the right positions to make it sound clear. I taught myself how to play by picking songs I wanted to learn, finding the tab, and playing it.

After years of teaching myself how to play with tabs, I can currently play many advanced songs, such as:

Embryonic Journey
OM2kAgLvhQM

Never Going Back Again
http://girljukebox.typepad.com/sugartown/files/never_going_back_again.mp3

Classical Gas:
http://users.bandzoogle.com/dirtysurprise/files/ClassicalGas.mp3

And others as well. Once you get better, you'll be able to teach yourself songs in no time. I just taught myself Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley to trio it with friends:

http://internet.is/kjartansson/hallelujah.mp3

Took me a few hours to learn.

Honestly, never give up on something you want to do. I never thought I'd be able to play this stuff, but I just kept at it. Just like skateboarding!

Go to www.ultimate-guitar.com and look up tabs to basically any song you would want to learn... I can almost guarantee that site will have it.

I think everything was pretty much said.



When you first learn a song, play it slow, and take as much time as you can to switch chords or just notes. It takes time to get used to a new song, unless its power chords all the time that your used to. Just keep practising the song, playing slow and moving your fingers. Like Berishman said, its better to take time when changing notes/chords then it is to play fast, switch fast and sound horrible. God I hate that.


Anyway, good luck and you will get the hang of it. Guitar is loads of fun when you jam with people, so once you get a song down, call up some friends who play, or maybe not play drums/bass/sing etc. It's like skating, more fun with other people, I find.

Also, try to learn whole songs, one by one, instead of learning intros and cool riffs from songs, like I did. It helps alot, and when someone asks, "can you play blah blah", you say yeah, get started, and don't know the chorus.. well, that sucks.

This might help Billyboy..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwj0gLriTnk