Chourd Changes

sonnya,Right now it may be best too be playing songs you know or have access to listen two so you can hear them,that way you will detect most chord changes.It is not easy in the beginning,so do not get frustrated. I do sometimes leave out a chord if the song still sounds good.

A little bit of basic theory would help enormously all songs have a beginning and an end what lies between is called a progression this simply put means a song starts here and go's through a set of chord changes and repeats if you can count to 4 and know your abc's you can play simple songs an example would be "Blues eyes crying in the rain" it would look like this on paper;

G                       D           G         
|////|////|////|////|////|////|////|////|:<<<these are repeat signs it means to repeat the same
in the twilite glow blue eyes  rain             4 bars for the next verse
I see you             cryin in the                  the //// marks are beats so count 4 beats to each bar
                                                             
                                                                    G
                                                                    |////|////|////|////| these are 4 bars in 4/4 time
                                                       count>> 1234
                                                                 sing>>> in the twilite glow I see you.  then change to the next chord for  D                 G
                               |////|////|////|////|////|:<<<<<and go back and repeat the same chords for the next verse
                               blue eyes       rain.......
                               cryin in the
this is a progresson what follows is an arrangement you have a bridge which is another set of chords and then it repeats again so print a copy of this song from Chordie and try see if you can count the beats before the next chord change,I chose this song because you said you like Willy.

Sonnya:  I feel your pain.  The short answer to your first question about sticking just to the 1-4-5 and leaving the others out is NO, it won't sound right.  But you already know that, which is why you're asking the question.

It is unlikely that Willie and some other skilled guitarists want a chord for every word.  It is MORE likely that they are singing melody notes over a single chord and only change chords over a specific number of BEATS in a song.

The solution:  Keep listening and practicing.  Follow the advice of the posters above.  It takes YEARS to become "good" at this.  If you really want it, it will come.  But you have to really want it.

I have been playing for over 50 years Professionally so before you pickup bad habits by trying to "figure it out" save yourself the agony its not important for you to learn how to read notes but a basic understanding of the fundamentals is invaluable go to a music store and ask for a book that will teach you how to read simple chord changes save yourself the frustration and time life is to short.

Mel bay books has several levels from basic beginner to advanced but first go to a music store and ask to speak with the guitar teacher and tell him you only want to understand SIMPLE chrord changes and progressions so you can play songs with around 3 to 4 changes(chords) this will cover just about any song you can handle then when you feel comfortable that you understand everything in the book you can always go higher but at least you will have fun and enjoy what your doing and thats what music is all about anyway good luck

Your welcome and happy pickin