Just Starting Out

Welcome to Chordie!!!!

Congratulations on entering the world of guitar playing. It will give you satisfaction like nothing else.

That's good that your fingers are getting calluses, thats what keeps them from hurting too much.

As for easy songs, try the beginners books here.

Easiest one I know is Free Fallin by Tom Petty.

D G G D A  -one downstroke for each chord. Capo on the 2nd fret. It's really easy.

Another is Mad World by Tears for Fears.

Em G D A  -strum DDUUD for each chord. thats the verse.

Chorus is Em A same strum.

We might be getting a sticky posted to aid newbs like us with good resources.

Southpaw41l where's our sticky??????????????

Anyway, good luck.

Keep Rockin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Pcoulter31 and welcome to Chordie!

Hey Zguitar!

Em chord very easy - all strings open except A/5th string 2nd fret and D/4th string 2nd fret. Strum everything!

If you are playing a G chord you leave the finger that's pressing on the 5th string at the 2nd fret where it is and bring a finger underneath that one to press the 4th string at 2nd fret. Practice that change.

When you play a C chord there is one finger ready in place to play the Em. Practice all these changes to the Em

Practice. Practice some more. Practice even more and gradually you WILL get gooder (Splan da Kenny ).

Don't shy from the things that are hard. The hard bits aren't preventing you from learning/holding your flow, NOT learning them will prevent your learning/flow -

But then Elvis confessed in later years to only knowing 3 chords!

Chons da in whichever route you take and good on yer for finding Chordie and posting! Look forward to more!

A tip that may help you on chord progressions . A lot of songs that follow a pattern  A D E  are called a 1 4 5 progression meaning the A chord is the 1 chord or tonic, usually the key of the song, the D chord is 4 and E is 5 . I am betting the songs you mention that have an E thrown in are a one  four, one  four and one  five progression  that means the first two verses are  A & D and A & D and third verse would be A  E  and back to A . It helps me in remembering the song what progression they are in. Hope this makes some sense. I think your progression would be a one four, one four, one five and back to one progression

since our new sticky is not available yet, here are my go to resources.

On youtube,

yourguitarsage
justinsandercoe
gally042
siggi mertens
handsomealvin

all these guys are great teachers.

www.guitar.gg is another cool site. I did his free lesson thing and will eventually pay for his lessons. He teaches the way I need to be taught.

Keep Rockin!!!!

It don't get any simplier than this.

Easy strum patern - down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up - repeat.
As you strum count to yourself (one on down - and on up).
Like this - 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & repeat.

Pick and 3 chord progression in a simple key such as G, A or D.
Chords would be:
G - C - D (or D7)
A - D - E  (or E7)
D - G - A (or A7)

Strum the chords in a pattern (per chord) as follows - 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &.
G....G....G....G....C...C...G...G...D7....D7....G....G.

Do this slow for now in all keys - Key of G - Key of A - Key of D. Speed will come later.

Once you have this pattern down, along with the counting, you will be able to play hundreds of songs.

THIS IS A 12 BAR BLUES PATTERN - VERY SIMPLE - AND EVERYONE WILL RECONIZE IT!

The key of E is probally the most common but I left it out due to it having a B chord (or B7) which is a dificult chord for a beginner.   

Nela

Great that you have the chord shapes down.

Yes, it's normal for your fingers to hurt.

As far as getting between the chords, think about how you will move your fingers on specific changes.  Pick a song you want to play (even if just down strum in time with the beat) and then practice those chord changes.  For instance, if you pick Paradise by John Prine, which is G -C - G - D over and over (I think, going from memory here), then you would practice G to C over and over until you can do it in time with the beat.  Then you would practice C to G over and over until you can do it in time with the beat.  Then you would practice G to D, and D to G.  When I say "in time with the beat", what I really mean to say is such that you can play the song smoothly without having to pause for the chord change.  It will take time and many, many, many repititions of doing the chord changes.  And once you've got it down, you'll forget it in a week and have to practice it again.  Eventually, though, it will be second nature and you won't even have to think about it.  You'll be able to do it at will in any song.  Cool when that time comes.  How long?  Differs for everyone.  The thing is to keep moving in the right direction. 

- Zurf