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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Acoustic → Learning to read chords
Does anyone know how to teach a beginner at the acoustic guitar to read chords? I want to play the intro to "here without you" by 3 doors down for my husband. I'm having trouble though figuring out when to strum & when to just play the note. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!
Erin
I've also tried that tune it's seems a bit difficult too. I know there are a couple of good tabs on it here on chordie if you search for it though, but me at least find the fingerpicking in that song quite difficult, but it isnt that difficult though and with some practise I'm sure you can figure out the tabs. Good luck, and i know it would be best to figure out by the ear or something but that takes much extra time surely if you just wanna play it right away..
Does anyone know how to teach a beginner at the acoustic guitar to read chords? I want to play the intro to "here without you" by 3 doors down for my husband. I'm having trouble though figuring out when to strum & when to just play the note. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!
Erin
Hi Coltonem and welcome to chordie.
to read chords you look at the diagram and put your fingers where it shows you.
As for knowing when to strum up and down etc, if you listen to the song a thousand times until the tune in implanted in your brain, it will make it much easier to know the song and the rythum of it.
Other than that you would have to study music and get the sheet music for the song, and even then it is still better to know the song you are going to cover to make it easier to learn.
Or you could know the chords to use, the rythum and do your own version. Covering a song does not mean you have to do it exactly the same way as the original.
Ken
Great advice Ken ... also Erin if you do a YouTube search I'm sure you'll find someone doing a cover of the song on acoustic ... and you can watch to see how they do it ... alot of times if I'm trying to figure out a song I'll pull up the tab here and then do a YouTube search to see if it applies
I agree. It is good to hear how the song is played. Then you will have an understanding of how the song played out. Or if you want to keep it more personal and have your own spin on the song I would not recommend you not listening to the song. This will prevent you from playing it your way. So either way it's up to you. 3CF
All good advice. It's also good to know that some songs are "tabbed" as well which can be confusing. If you're new to guitar, I would gravitate towards the songs labeled with "chords" and just strum away instead of trying to pick your way through a tab.
I have "Here without you" in my song book as well. I added it because I like the song and I've been trying to add songs with barre chords to force myself to practice them. There's a few thousand threads on barre chords advice so I won't get into that here. It's awesome that you're trying to learn songs with more than just the CAGE chords.
Good luck to you and I hope that you impress your husband! 
hey everyone! thanks for the tips. I really appreciate them. I'll have enough time to impress him. I have 6 months until he returns home, so I think that's plenty of time if I practice every day! thanks again guys. have a good week!
hey everyone! thanks for the tips. I really appreciate them. I'll have enough time to impress him. I have 6 months until he returns home, so I think that's plenty of time if I practice every day! thanks again guys. have a good week!
I'll bet he'll be happy to see you no matter how you strum the chords. Good luck.
Erin,
Check for a pattern in the song. Alot of songs have a pattern [verse, chorus, instrumental,
bridge, etc.] Once you learn the pattern, the pattern is often repeated.
If there is any difference it will most likely be very slight. That being said, [there are the
exceptions]. Probably not the case with Three Doors Down though!
If all that you have is chords shown above the lyrics, you might want to search the internet
for a chord chart. I recommend you download to your computer so you'll have to it if you need
to look up any chord you might be having trouble with. Good luck with this song!
getfiddle
hey everyone! thanks for the tips. I really appreciate them. I'll have enough time to impress him. I have 6 months until he returns home, so I think that's plenty of time if I practice every day! thanks again guys. have a good week!
Sounds like someone is in the military 
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Acoustic → Learning to read chords
