Hey guys, I’m sorry if this post comes across as super dumb but I was just wanting to ask for some advice about learning electric guitar.
Over a decade ago I inherited a guitar from a friend who took his life, I tried learning it at first but ended up getting distracted by life and dropped it. Recently though I saw it sitting and collecting dust and decided that, even if it was a cheap electric guitar, I didn’t want it to spend its life like that.
So yesterday I got some new strings, a new (and better) amplifier than the $20 one I bought secondhand over a decade ago, and a couple books about guitars, one of them being a book with nothing but like 300+ different chords, I also fixed the intonation on the bridge.
So here’s my questions:
I’m looking to try and play punk rock music (All American Rejects, My Chemical Romance, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, stuff with that kind of sound). What chords should I focus on learning that would be good for that kind of genre?
And I’m guessing the chords are can be played by strumming all of the strings together at once or you can play the notes individually, one after the other?
Sorry again if this post is really dumb, I really want to try and make sure I don’t drop this guitar again, I’d like to properly honor my friend’s memory and give this guitar the attention it deserves.
Omg thank you for this, this was very helpful. Swing Swing was one of the songs I was hoping to learn as it’s my favorite song from AAR, but I’ll keep it on the back burner for now.
Like you said, it really does feel like a lot to take in. There’s just so many chords, I don’t know how I’ll be able to memorize all of them and know to utilize them properly. That, and trying to get my fingers to properly bend has been rather painful and difficult; I’m sure the damage my hands have sustained from my career as a technician isn’t helping much, either.
Thank you again, everyone here has been so helpful. I wish I started this when I was younger and first got this guitar, but I guess there’s no time like the present.
You don’t need to worry about memorizing chords. That will happen pretty much automatically. Start off with the ones the parent post mentioned and play some songs you enjoy. Focus on technique - getting each string to ring out cleanly, changing between chord shapes smoothly, staying relaxed. Play things slowly and have them nailed before you speed it up.
Once you’ve done that, you will have that first set of chords engeained already without even trying. Then add a few more and learn some more songs.
At a certain point (usually when you start moving further up the neck, learning lead lines, etc), you will also find that there are patterns to everything. You don’t actually need to memorize everything, because it’s all variations of shapes you already know.
At no point do you need to sit down with a book of chords and memorize it.
Lordy, you’ll never learn them all. I’d be surprised if I’ve learned 20, and I consider myself an intermediate player. But like I said, you can do a LOT with a little. And once you have the ground work, you get to decide where you want to go next with it. There’s so many different ways and styles to play. Just find stuff that’s fun and easy to start with. That’ll help keep you motivated.
Yeahhh I’m quickly finding that out. I think this chord book is also meant for acoustic guitars, as some of the chords they have listed show, for example, the sixth string being played but not the fifth, and then it’ll play strings 4 through one as well. So unless I was finger picking, I don’t see how I’d be able to skip that fifth string quickly enough to play the entirety of the chord.
I’ll definitely keep that in mind, though. So far I’m having trouble with some of the chords in getting all of the strings to play cleanly without buzzing. I don’t know if it’s a lack of proper calluses on my ring and pinky fingers, or if maybe I’m not squishing them tightly enough to be right up on the fret. I’m hoping soon I’ll get good enough at switching between chords that I can start learning some songs!